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Back in the Suds

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I’m going to be back in the suds, baby!  *grin*  I couldn’t resist.  I’ve been thinking a lot in the past couple of months how “I should go make a batch of soaps and then do the dusting afterward” and such, but a lot of my fragrances had gone out of date, so I couldn’t.  I kept saying to L that “maybe once we get Kiddo and if she wants to make stuff, I can get some supplies and resurrect the business”.  It shouldn’t take the adoption when there’s all ready some motivation and I have pages of ideas I’ve been writing down all of this time.  I’m going about it very differently this time.  I replaced the most popular scents, added a couple new ones and an educational set on helping to make your own blends to get more miles out of your milliliters, and some packaging materials.  If I actually get business, I’ll keep replacing and slowly expand back out.  I think I just gave way too many options the first time that it got overwhelming.  Regardless, it’s all going to be heading down a new path, just like me.  *smile*

 

I’m definitely in more of a theme frame of mind.  I really want to expand the Monster Line and am so excited about some of the new products to work on!  I don’t want to share too much in case something doesn’t work and I hope to generate a little interest/excitement.  I will let you in on what a few of my mental hamsters have been spinning around on…”Transylvania Tickle”, “–unknown– Morsels” (still fiddling with it), “Gargoyle Dust”, “Rotten Bakery”, “Dreadful Delights Pie”, “Bullfrog Slime” or “Zombie Boogers”, “Spray the Bitch Away” (excuse the curse word, but I think that’ll be the selling point *laugh*), “Zombie Stout” (that might be a bit beyond my ability, but I’m going to give it a lot of effort, especially since it actually smells like popping the top off a cold one on a hot day with bright, summery notes), and maybe a few other Zombie themed items.  It’d be pretty fun to get wild and see if I can get some yellow swirls into some black soap without them blending.  The line will be a mixture of adult and kid friendly items, so I’m thinking of making little starter combo packs with some “Monsters Away” spray and whichever green liquid hand wash I end up with (that’s the slime vs boogers debate *laugh*).  I want to do a few areas, like more feminine based humor such as the spray and a few crimson type items, plus I’ll probably add the Love Bites over in that section.  A fun Christmas gift would be a combo of the monster “sweets” soaps, zombie items, and vampire items.

 

I’m still debating some names for standard family friendly items and what I’ll use some of my top scents, like Fruity Patootie and Bubblegum, in other types of molds.  Although I’m not as excited about it, I’d really like to work on some male-friendly items that they would even consider buying for themselves, although I think I won’t hold my breath for that.  *grin*

 

I also need to come up with what would work well as slices from a loaf mold, with layers or embeds in it.  I’m not sure if I’m going Monster or standard.  I definitely think sticking to mostly Monster items or somehow making all of the products into the Monster theme would make me stand out.  I might have to make a fantasy line to it too, if I do that though, because I really want to use “Naughty Elf Oil” for a body/shaving oil with fun holiday notes.  *laugh*  I don’t know why, but I’m obsessed with that one.  Maybe because a favorite book series right now is about a Winter Elf.

 

Any which way, I appreciate any ideas and feedback, if you have any.  I also need to get my thesaurus out (hello Alexa) and come up with less discouraging names for things like biohazard, deadly, and such.  I’m also toying with the idea of sending some of the Monster products to the Irish YouTube show “Sharuf”, in honor of Rufus being a monster puppet, and the host usually is amazing about sharing the information about the person who sent items for them.  Ironically the viewers are mostly American, so it could get me some good national exposure.

 

So, cross your fingers please that I can get in there once the products arrive and get back to creating.  It’s part of my “bringing Wednesday back” challenge to myself (see the Wednesday post on July 15th, if you missed that).   I’m tired of the infection, and the antibiotic that is kicking as hard as the infection, and hope I’m getting close to being active, since I have been trying to do a little bit each day even if it’s just to change (Spoonies will totally understand how that is an accomplishment sometimes).  Although my life will be all about the beautiful blessing we adopt, once that ever happens, I really need to get back in touch with the rest of me first, and a clock might actually be ticking to get this done soon.  *big grin with crossed fingers*  Hopefully Zombie Boogers wouldn’t keep Kiddo from learning how to make product…that’s a chemistry tie in project, but I do worry that my morbid humor is going to keep people away (although few ever bought the regular stuff anyway, so I’m kind of focusing more on fun this time).

And now a little nerd humor to close this one… 🙂

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Day Two – The Monster Product Line

As you may remember from last year I made some Monster Duck soaps as well as some Zombie Bait brain soaps.  A bit gory to some, mostly just funny and interesting to most people, and really interesting to work on creating.  While I was quiet on here I thought a lot about those products and about how proud of them I am (yep, I’m mixing tenses, because I’m still incredibly proud of those little beauties and the fun photo shoots!).  I came up with several ideas of products to add in the same realm, so I decided to make an actual line for these kinds of products and allow my creativity to have full reign.  

 

A few ideas I had to throw out because they’re were too gross even for my macabre and sarcastic sense of humor, and then a few just weren’t logical enough for me to tolerate.  Which seems ironic to most people I tell that to, since it’s all about implausible things anyway.  I have no idea why, but some things have to be logical to me.  For example, I thought about making “Grandma’s Roadkill Pie” soap slices.  At first I thought of just embedding a bunch of different colored soap cubes and chunks of brain soaps, etc., but then I thought about how that would be more like a pot pie for the roadkill embeds to fit in, and all I could picture was how that first crack with your fork of the pot pie always makes the contents pour out almost like a stew inside of a crust.  That just did not work for me with having a pie slice mold and I became obsessed with how it wouldn’t be logical for the roadkill to stay in pie form.  *cracking up* As a result I went a little further down the rabbit hole and want to try formulating a “Dreadful Delights Cake” instead.  It can have things like goblin syrup, eye of bat, rotten pumpkin, and swamp scum in my small bundt cake molds.  Just like with a regular cake you have liquids and then your flour gives it a binding, cake-like texture.  I don’t have any good excuses for why that is so much more logical and reasonable to me, but my brain works in mysterious ways and that’s where it settled.  *grin*  

 

I also came up with some other concepts to play with and hopefully make some successful formulas for.  I’d like to do a Vampire-themed soap that’s black and red.  I haven’t decided if I want to swirl the colors in guest rounds or if I want to try a new technique I watched a tutorial about where you make a loaf of soap with straws making open holes through the soap that can then be filled by another color of soap and it makes a complete stripe of that color.  I could either make it look like bloody veins where a vampire’s fangs had fed, maybe even with those cheesy fake vampire teeth stuck into the soap.  Who knows where this concept will take me.  *laugh* I also want to actually make a product I thought of ages ago called Vampire Tears, which will be a red bubble wash.  I’m debating Vampire Ashes as a name for some bath salts, too, but my mind battles over which genre of vampire lore I’d go with – some depict the ashes as grey ash whereas some (albeit mostly B movies) show it as a reddish substance, which would definitely be more attractive than soaking in grey bath water.  *grin*  I have the same problem with the name/idea of “Gargoyle Dust” salts due to the whole dirty water look.  It might work for a new formulation of the mechanic soap that’s less abrasive.  Rotten Sweets will probably be mini bundt cakes in chocolate for the cake and either cherry or strawberry FO drizzled over as blood or some other gore.  I think I’ll let the drizzle be an unshaped pour, too, instead of having shaped pooling at the base like I did for the brains and ducks.  Partially because shaping hot soap really hurts and I try to limit how often I purposely do stupid things to myself.  *laugh*

A few other product names I am playing with and need to develop some product concepts for are “Deathly Morsels”, “Devilish Delights”, “Swamp Ooze” (or Scum) for a bubble wash probably, “Zombie Stout” (a colored bubble wash using the Ale FO and it even calls for using stale beer in it that theoretically has the liquor part burn off during the heating phase – that’ll be an interesting experiment I suspect!), and some version of a Zombie Repellent, although I need a different name for that, since I found an actual soap made by a crafter named that, so I need to play with the name because I’m not giving up on that one because I love the concept.  I’m also wondering if a “virus” or “zombie” combo would be of interest to customers.  I personally would be incredibly amused to get a basket with that type of theme, but, then again, I’m not the normal kind of girl, as we know.  *laugh* I’m also debating if Zombie Boogers bath salts or bubble wash is too gross or just gross enough that it would really appeal to kids, and in honor of the pride of Kansas, I want to make a product named “Melted Witch”.  *grin*  The great thing with the monster line is that I can have all of these wild things and use any scent that I fancy, instead of actually trying to make a logical connection, like if it’s red people expect a red fruit or a rose scent, etc.  Monsters are a free zone of creativity.  Mawahahaha

 

I’d love to hear any of your ideas or even creative criticisms if you have some. Do you have a name that you think would make a fun addition?  Have any ideas of tweaks on the names I’m toying with?  Or even what kind of product to match to some of these names maybe?  I think it would be a lot of fun to try to make some products inspired by readers, so please bring them on…*in a fake, deep, creepy voice* if you dare…

😉 

Inspiration

If you have looked at my recent Pinterest activity (if you didn’t know I was on there, then it’s easy to find me by searching for Georgia Cornelison for the pinner), then you know that I’ve been playing with ideas for some themed combos/baskets. One that I love thinking about is a monster themed basket. Most of the items can be standard products with little twists, much like the Redneck options, but with a decidedly more…morbid twist. *grin*

One such item that keeps rattling around in my mind is a bubble bath – er, blood bath. *laugh* I saw a pin for a container of red bubble bath that resembled a bag of blood/plasma. I can’t tell you how excited the Poe-loving side of me is over that idea. With this rattling around while I looked over the end of year sale my wholesaler had yesterday I ended up buying a set of zipper bags. They hold around 2 ounces and even stand on their own! How cool is that?! Anyway, most mention using it for samples of bath salts, which I will definitely be trying too, but I want to see if a little “blood bath” will work in the bag. Check this out:

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Although I’m trying to decide which zombie and Frankenstein items to narrow in on (so many ideas!!), I decided to also splurge and get the really nice mold for Popsicle soaps. Look at this little guy:

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It was a bit more than I usually want to spend on materials I can’t really justify as necessities, but it’s silicone and guaranteed to work for soaps. I loved the failed Popsicle soaps I made before the holidays and knew I really wanted some good Popsicle soaps all year around. I saw some really wicked (oh man, I almost went to the “wicked cool”, so you know I’m getting all wound up about this) Popsicle soaps that were in Halloween colors and they embedded toy spiders in the ends. Wow!! How awesome would a play on that look in that Monster combo?! I’ve thought of doing some Frank colored ones or some toxic yellow ones. *grin* There are SO many options!

As you can tell, I’m having a lot of fun looking at the brilliance and creativity of others, and in thinking of what possibilities would work for me. I am so excited. *smile* I’m still looking into trademark issues for other theme ideas, but I am pretty set on a few things. I want a zombie repellent soap, a blood bath, and a demented Popsicle soap, bare minimum. Isn’t it fun to think of all of the options?

Anyway, I don’t want to keep you reading if you’re still suffering the after effects of a late night. I hope you’re enjoying your New Year and have a wonderful rest of the week!

Can’t make up my mind

These pictures and conversation didn’t really go with yesterday’s work, so I’m doing a separate post. I admit that I’m feeling a bit meh about the monster wreath right now, so I decided to look at some other options. I kind of like the idea of using a piñata that can be used later at a party. Plus, piñatas are never considered scary, so I don’t have to worry about my own gory tendencies accidentally coming through. *grin*

So here are a few decently rated piñatas that could make cute “monsters” for the pictures for the Monsters Away Spray. Any votes??

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And then a refresher:

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My Monster

I’ve been working on figuring out a monster to use for the marketing picture for Monsters Away Spray. I have spoken to a few moms, a few kids, and last night I even ran a few ideas by an artist. Almost all of us agree that it should be colorful and kind of fun, so the picture isn’t scary to kids. (The boy that I asked said there needed to be robots, but I’m not about to go there…*imagining a bunch of smoke when liquid gets to the electronics or the cardboard getting icky if we made a fake robot*. Yeah, I’m dangerous enough just walking across a room. Let’s not add situational dangers. *cracking up*)

Anyway, I honestly don’t want to buy a stuffed animal or creature. Last night I eyed my troop of stuffed animals up in the canopy (hey, lots of sweet memories, so I couldn’t just toss them once I became an adult. Comes in handy when kids are over, too, and in a hanging canopy they’re out of the way. *smile*). I have a small dragon, a massive dog, and a nice sized bear that could all work with a little creativity. I could attach all manner of things! And then I decided to see what ideas Pinterest had for this project.

20130404-175009.jpg I’m seriously thinking of making a version of this guy. I wouldn’t have to deface a childhood memory or something that Larry won for me when we were dating (wow, was that really almost half of my life ago??). If I do this I will put wiggly eyes all over, but especially a set on the top, so if it’s “haunting” under the bed it’ll look like it’s still looking at the kid when they peek under there and spray it. Plus it’s sturdy and bright enough to just hang out in the closet for that version of the shot. It’ll be fun to bring it out to decorate with afterward, too.

I admit that it’s really hard to go soft on the scariness. I love blood and gore. (Weird thing is I get squeamish watching someone put contacts in though. Love to watch botfly extractions and look at medical journals full of wounds, but seeing someone in person put contacts in or even remove a splinter…I scream like the girl in The Ring is after me. Rofl.) It’s so hard to not think of dripping blood (I actually have a theatrical blood kit in my cabinet *trying to whistle innocently*), jagged fangs, crusty boils, and a body part snagged in the teeth. *happy sigh* So I get extra credit for trying to keep this on the adorable side. *grin*

A little background note – we’re coming up on our tenth anniversary and have discussed a party (although this was originally thought up for the fifth, then agreed to reconsider at ten). Although it’s in June we would have a total costume, blood, gore, and black lights kind of event. When we had been planning our wedding one idea we had considered was Frankenstein and The Bride Of, then our wedding party would be other monsters. At the time there were too many itty bitty kids and we were worried that we’d scare them, so it got set aside, and then Larry won the debate for a traditional wedding. When we thought of the anniversary party we found some Halloween and movie prop supply stores that have some awesome dismemberments, packaged body parts, and what not. The person being electrocuted is out of our budget though, sadly. *laugh* A severed hand holding the knife for the vegetable spread on the buffet, a coffin that people can get into and take pictures in, and even a box of miscellaneous costume pieces in the bathroom in case someone wants or needs to get more into the theme…

Now you get why “cute” is so hard for me. *grin* Any input on which kind of monster you think would look good for the marketing?

Monsters Away Labels

I can’t resist sharing a picture of the labels for the Monsters Away Spray. I decided to change the font to match the fun product and I think this is absolutely perfect. *happy dance*

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Monsters Away Spray (finally!)

I finally did it! *happy dance* I made a Monsters Away Spray that I actually like. *grin* It’s a combination of Lavender and Vanilla EO/FO blend (Sleep Time) with an equal amount of Deluxe Vanilla FO. The vanilla doesn’t overpower the lavender, but definitely helps to mellow it out, and it’s a rather comforting combo in my opinion. I read a long time ago that vanilla is the most comforting scent on Earth, so I knew that I wanted it in the spray. As much as I don’t care for lavender it is so successful at calming and relaxing (as an EO), that I just had to use it too. I thought about adding a little bit of another FO, a super soft floral or maybe a hint of Arabian Nights, but think that this is pretty close to scents that little kids are used to, so it might be more comforting without making it complex. I ended up using the maximum additive allowance because I want the kids to “smell it working” and know that they’re scaring off those monsters. 🙂

I admit that as usual I had a few uh oh moments while making this batch. I used my handy dandy blender and it incorporated the oils perfectly. However, I totally forgot how bad the spray base bubbles up. *cracking up* Thankfully I got a few pictures before the bubbles filled half of the bowl. Keep in mind that I was blending in my bath salts blending bowl, so this isn’t your standard kitchen bowl either. It’s huge. Lol. It took two hours for the bubbles to go down! Once the bubbles went down I ladled the spray into a measuring cup to fill each bottle. Let me again mention that I decided to use my bath salt blending bowl, which I sometimes have to use an ice pick in to break up clumps. Yep, I’m brain dead sometimes. All I thought was “here’s a big bowl that I can put chemicals in without any worries about contamination. Yay!”. *Facepalm* As I tipped the bowl to ladle the last out I noticed that the counter was wet. I got a bit over zealous breaking clumps at some point and poked completely through the bowl. Thankfully that was an easy mess to clean and the dog didn’t try to push me out of the way to lick it up like he tries with lotion, so on the doh factor this was pretty low. *grin*

Overall I’m really happy with this spray. I’ve made some literal stinkers before, so I was worried about this combo stinking too. If this is a good seller I think I’ll come up with an alternative scent option too, since some kids don’t like lavender. I love that this works to ease fears, helps parents and kids feel like they’re doing something instead of being helpful against those fears, and a bit of aromatherapy for natural aromatherapy benefits. I really hope that this is received well. I think out of all products I’ve made this is the one that really makes me feel good. 🙂

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