Thought After Charity Event Sale

The charity sale turned out better than I thought, I sold about 16 of them, but what I really care is what the customers think, but I'm happy knowing that someone appreciate the value of the handmade soap and willing to try it out. Thanks to a nice coworker of mine, she gave me some of her left over decoration so my table look a lot more nicer now :)

In my first handmade soap sale, one big mistake I made was everyone who stops by my booth immediately bring the soap up to their nose and tried to smell it, but I wrapped all the soap, so I had to poke some holes in the bag to let customers smell.

I also learn a lot on what people's reaction to handmade soap:

1. For those who prefer using shower gel, their reason is because the soap dry their skin out. What I really want to say is, have they try "handmade" soap? shower gel is actually worse for you because of other chemical stuff they put in it to make your skin feel extra smooth and smell nice. Many case studies showed similar chemical (Paraben) they used in shower gel can be also found inside breast cancer patient. While this is an ongoing study and may not be true, why risk it? if you use shower gel, make sure to use water that is hot enough to clean off everything off your body.

2. Handmade soap is expensive and I heard you all, I was once thinking just the same when I started using one, I thought to myself, why so expensive? but after learning how to make one myself, I finally understand why, and totally willing to pay for the price, especially to those who make soap locally or as their hobby. Most important question you should ask yourself is, would you be willing to rub chemical or natural oil on your body?

3. Smell isn't strong enough? The one they sell at the store has strong and nice fragrance, notice I used the word fragrance? fragrance is like perfume, a form of chemical as well, it's like rubbing perfume all over your body, I only believe in using 100% essential oil, while it may not smell as strong, it preserve the soap naturally and more gentle to your skin.

I'd like to THANK YOU ALL who came by and support handmade soap, that really made my day and gave me encouragement to work harder on making more soap :), hope you all like it. Not only you spend a little extra to pamper your skin, better for the environment, part of the proceed also goes to helping hand. ^_^

Natural Color is the BEST!

I soaked the gromwell root my friend gave me into the olive oil for nearly a month now, and WOW, I've never seen such beautiful purple color in my life. Gromwell root is a type of herbal plant that's been used for skin treatment, such as eczema, promote coagulation, anti-baterial, anti-inflammatory. The purple pigmentation is so strong the whole time I thought I was making dark chocolate. I hope it won't turn my skin to purple when it's ready to use :) This time I also use Japanese green tea as soap base instead of water, green tea will add anti-oxidant property into the soap itself.

Name:

Gromwell Rosemary Shea Butter Soap

乳油木紫草根迷迭香手工皂

Ingredients:

Gromwell root soak in Extra Virgin Olive oil

Avocado oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Shea Butter

NaOH

Green Tea

Essential Oil:

100% Rosemary essential oil

＊For information on Gromwell root, please see below website

http://www.mdidea.com/products/proper/proper094.html

Company Charity Event Sales

I saw a flyer at my company advertising that next month, there will be a "handmade craft charity event sales", all company employees get to sell stuff that they made or wish to sell, 15% will be donated to the charity. I tried my luck and asked my company if selling handmade soap is acceptable and I got approved, for past 2 weeks I made additional 20 bars of soap to get ready for this, I'm super excited, this will be my first time selling my own soap to the customer face to face. I can't wait to tell people all the benefits about using handmade soap. This time I made my most popular grapeseed eucalyptus soap since I heard complimentary on that particular soap from two of my friends already(my favorite so far too), I also made another one where I mix coffee ground into the soap and add peppermint essential oil in to simulate "peppermint coffee".

Name:

Eucalyptus Grapeseed Mung-Bean Soap

藍膠尤佳利葡萄籽綠豆粉手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Grapeseed oil

Castor oil

NaOH

H2O

Essential Oil:

100% Eucalyptus essential oil

Other:

Mung-Bean Powder

Milk

Name:

Shea Butter Avocado Peppermint Coffee Soap

乳油木酪梨薄荷咖啡手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Avocado oil

Coconut oil

Shea butter

NaOH

Milk

Essential Oil:

100% Peppermint essential oil

Other:

Blue natural mineral clay

Coffee Ground

Preparing for the Winter

Yay, my foam insulation box has arrived....keeping the soap warm or in room temperature is very important after you finishing making the soap, so it will keep hardening itself. The drastic change in temperature will worsen the quality of the oil, or if the humidity is too high, it will change the texture of the soap. Of course, I don't just order the foam insulation box, it comes with my favorite Omaha steak(which I only get when I have a gift card from Discover :p) I was worried the box might not be big enough since I didn't order a lot, but wow, my soap mold fit in it perfectly even with my soap cutter sitting on top :) now I have a peace in mind for upcoming winter now.

Just Keep Trying....Just Keep Trying.....

I learned that the less amount of kinds of oil I use, the more the nutritious value becomes effective in soap using, therefore, I reduced down to only 5 oil this time. I tried the swirling technique again and I think I got it this time, but still not pretty enough >< Here's what I got:

Name:

Shea Butter Avocado Lemongrass Soap

乳油木酪梨香茅手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Avocado oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Shea butter

NaOH

H2O

Essential Oil:

100% Lemongrass essential oil

Other:

Red natural mineral clay

New Oils, New Adventure!

I'm going to keep trying the swirling technique till I get it right, this time I tried with two new oil, Avocado oil and sweet almond oil. I didn't know avocado oil is consider higher grade than olive oil, however it is a bit more pricy than olive oil, that is why using olive oil is more common in soap making while give good amount of nutrient that you need. There are two type of avocado oil, refined and unrefined, unrefined is cheaper but MORE nutritious, the natural green color will also give soap light green color. The one I got seem to be refined as my soap didn't turn out green like I wanted, and I really want to get unrefined avocado oil if I can because of it high nutritious value. I was able to mix the color in this time, but the swirl didn't turn out good because I swirl it too many time. My friend was able to show me a couple of video how to make the color propertly, I was grateful for my friend's constant support and encouragement.

Name:

Shea Butter Sweet Almond Rosemary Soap

乳油木酪梨甜杏仁迷迭香手工皂

Ingredients:

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Avocado oil

Palms oil

Coconut oil

Shea butter

Sweet almond oil

NaOH

H2O

Essential Oil:

100% Rosemary essential oil

Other:

Red natural mineral clay

Care Package

I received a care package today from my friend in Taiwan. The box is packed full of soap materials and ingredients that I can't easily get here in US, there are two natural mineral powder for coloring, two essential oils, a lot of design stickers, some flowers and herbal plant for soap making, it is so sweet of her. Inside the card she wrote: "Although these aren't very valuable as individual, but hopefully you can use your creativity and turn it into something even more valuable" I can't thank my friends enough for their constant support and encouragement, thank you!

She also bought bunch of soap stamps for me since there's a big sale going on, she paid everything up front, I really feel bad, I wish there's a good and efficient way of getting the money to her. (picture courtesy by 想想魚) however, I told her feel free to use my stamp before I go back to Taiwan and get it, I think it's a fair trade for now :)