Tag Archives: Soaps

When I start to lose that glow over my products I turn to apps like craft gawker and crafty crafty.  Seeing such amazing, endless talent revitalizes me.  Not enough to get me over whatever I caught and do more than write notes or save inspirations (not even FB is getting attention from me).  I kind of look at this research like an inspiration wall that fashion designers use.  Today’s research also helped me finally find out how to do paint accents on my soaps, which I’ve been wanting to do for so long.  It is absolutely scary what some suggest, like using acrylic paints and what have you.  Thankfully I have lots of immobile time for doing extensive research and quadruple checking everything.  I also read a crafter’s review of how she does an ice cream cone soap, which I’ve been puzzling over since I spontaneously bought the mold.  (Pour the whole mold in the cone color, let set, and then cut off the top.  Prep the set soap to accept more soap, let new pour cool down to the point that it won’t melt the other, and let set.  It takes some finesse and experience, but what an easier way than trying to block portions with sculpted playdough!)  Now I can paint accents on my princess carriages and have a successful pour of my ice cream cones.  Yay!

Anyone that knows me knows how my mind works, so it won’t be surprising that I was simultaneously looking up display ideas for my next event.  There is a fantastic idea to stack milk crates with a board across their top to make three tiers on your table.  It dawned on me that since I’m fun sized, customers would probably not see me behind the double high stack.  Lol.  After further scoping of images from farmer markets and craft sales, then some brainstorming of cost-effective alternatives, a shoe cubby cabinet is now on the grocery list.  *smile*  I can set that at an end of a table with my cash box behind – no more stooping!  I’ll still be visible since it will only be a section blocked.  I will use the cubbies to lie down and group bottles of matching lotions.  No more overwhelming sea of bottles to lift to find the scent you want.  I can also stick the bath salts cello cones in a cubby (yeah, on that very long to do list). 

In the meantime I’m still debating my kid combo contents.  I easily made two $20 combos, but I think that’s probably way too much for a bath gift for a kid.  So I’m trying to decide what I think they will be most happy with. 

Anyway, that’s probably more cold medicine ramblings about research than was appropriate.  *grin* You might want to worry…I have lots more that I hope to look up, get inspired by, and rattle on about. *teasing smile*

I haven’t been overly productive the last few days, since I haven’t felt well, so I decided to really give a push last night to get a few things done.  When I got off of the computer I sanitized my workstation in the kitchen and then started to get things out to start working.  I really want to make a more masculine scented scrub option, so that was my main priority.

I went to get out some bath whip, which is a main component in the scrub, but couldn’t find a jar.  I finally found some in my emergency stash “hidey hole” and gave a sigh of relief.  Then I began to bite my lip when I realized that I don’t have enough of the usual extra clear soap base that the recipe calls for until my order is delivered, who knows when, until I found an alternative that I think might be kind of nice, since it’s a creamy variation.  Okay, second crisis averted.  Cool!  I got out the little holiday print plastic buckets that I wanted to put the finished product in, so they’re ready to just pop a gift tag on and put under the tree.  I sanitized them and let them sit to dry while I got ready to cut the soap for melting.  I had to roll my eyes when I went to turn my digital scale on and it said “lo”, and shut itself off.  Seriously?  So, I chilled myself out and went to my battery drawer to get another battery.  Of course the scale has one of those special CR disc batteries and I have two, but not of the number that the scale needs.  I mean, at this point it was just totally an “of course” thing.  *grin*  Okay…quick thinking prevailed and I grabbed my household scale.  Hmm….won’t read mere ounces (and I don’t have much more than the needed 10 ounces of the soap anyway), so I sigh and step onto the scale with the soap on a lid, knowing that I’ll have to suck it up and see my weight if I want to get the measurement of this blasted soap.  Once the weight is flashing I put the soap on the cutting board while still on the scale and look back down to see the difference.  Seriously?!  The scale was so mean that it didn’t bother to read a difference in the ounces of me versus the ounces of soap.  Just stayed the same weight.  *sigh*  Appliances can just be so cruel.  lol.  Fine!  I’ll just scrap making scrub for now until I get the new battery and will make some of the pumice soap that I need, since I sold out.  Um, genius?  Knock knock…still no way to measure the soap to make the bars.  *rolling eyes*  Okay, so now that my spectacularly stupid moment was over I go to put the scale away and the glass top comes off.  The glue had come loose and now my scale is a bit wobbly.  No biggy….super glue is awesome and a quick fix.  I put the stuff away and then go to the now dry buckets.  They’re totally ready, so I figure I’ll pop the lids on and they’ll be ready for when I actually can make some base.  Yeah, cue eye rolling now…the lids didn’t fit.  *cracking up*  It’s a miracle that I wasn’t hyperventilating at this point and I was texting with my friend at the time about all that was going on.  She advised that I just get out of the kitchen before it exploded, the way that things were going.  *grin*  The guilt though is soooo strong that I haven’t done much more than read and pack a few boxes, so I decided to box up the remaining dessert cake soaps.  Oh yeah, you see where this is headed, don’t you?  lol.  I had three of the perfect favor boxes left and had some of the fat square soap boxes that I had found in my hidey hole that might just work for the rest, since I’d like to ship a few more.  First one I managed to cause the flaps to come apart, because adhesive now hates me, too.  Double sided tape is my friend, though, and that puppy got wrangled.  Second one went perfectly, so I should have been on guard, right?  The third one I could see almost in slow motion…I pick it up, move my hand the three INCHES to the box and suddenly I see my hand becoming weak, the fingers stiffening and beginning to spread…splat.  Apparently the cherry soap “sauce” has hardened rather well with the extra cure time and there’s just a bit of a dent in the bath whip “ice cream” below, but the sauce remains perfect.  lol.  No biggy…my mom has always embraced the little mistakes in my art, whatever medium I currently am into, as part of the gift of uniqueness of that item.  That one is in Mom’s Christmas stocking.  *grin*  Anyway, I used my other hand and got the third box filled.  Beautiful.  I assemble the soap box to test it out and it looks just great, although it is cardboard instead of something pretty, but I don’t care at this point.  I carefully wrap another cake soap in tissue to help protect and cushion it in case the postal worker has to hit the breaks suddenly or someone decides to play shuffleboard with the gift box my goodies are going into (hey, I’ve heard the stories of what goes on behind the scenes and received some seriously smashed up boxes myself lol).  As I am putting the soap into the box I notice that there’s a little bit hitting on the edge of the box.  Hmm….maybe I need to sacrifice some of the tissue?  Of course not!  I mean, it was a day to live on in infamy, right, so shouldn’t we add one more to the list?  Yeah, the soap is less than a centimeter too big itself to fit into the box.  *cracking up*  I tore a sheet of wax paper and covered the remaining soaps with it, and just walked away.  lol.  However, I couldn’t just walk away with a scrap of dignity and call it a crappy night.  Nope.  Nada.  I slipped on the way out of the room, so I crashed into the living room in utter defeat.  *grin*  Needless to say I sat and finished reading my book for the rest of the night.

I’ll get a new battery tomorrow and contemplate trying again.   I can switch to using the empty whip containers that I stash for putting tester products into.  I figure that they might not be as cute as the buckets, but they twist on securely and I can trust them.  I might have someone else cut the soap though, because if the universe is still hating me, I will probably cut my finger off.  Maybe when I’m melting the base I’ll actually cause an explosion in the kitchen, though….okay, maybe I won’t make anything new for awhile.