Back To It!

Hi everyone! I know my blog has taken a back seat recently and I hope to update it more. November was just a crazy month for me. Fun, but crazy! I decided to take a break from selling in December but I will be back in January. It will most likely be mid-January as several of my soaps won't be ready until then. I am enjoying this time away from selling to get back into making product. In the last week I have made 2 huge batches, Rainbow and Crema y Cacao. Moving into the new year, I would like to make bigger batches so I don't have to remake soaps quite so often.

First up was my Rainbow soap. It is scented in a positively delightful pear scent. I just love the color and it makes my eyes happy.

The other large batch I made was Crema y Cacao. This is another favorite! It is an unscented soap with double the cocoa butter and extra cream. It is a very hard bar of soap and super luxurious. It is my preferred soap for the winter and anytime I just need a no-nonsense bar of soap. The cocoa butter scent does come through to the finished soap. It is fabulous! I will admit I had a different plan for the top, but I love it in all it's rustic beauty. It is such a classic bar of soap.

I have so many remakes to do and I'm excited about it! :-)

Holiday Soaps and Scented Wax Melts

It is just about time for the big Holiday release! I am so very excited to share these products with you. The store will open at 6pm central time on today, November 17th! The first 25 orders of $40 and up (not including shipping) will receive a fun gift bag! Included will be deluxe sizes of soap and scented wax melts in scents that I have never offered before!

The Holiday Soaps:

The Scented Wax Melts with a few non-Holiday options:

Thank you all for your support through this year. My focus for the last several months has been on the Fall and now Holiday release. I have enjoyed it greatly but I cannot wait to resume my normal schedule. Look for your favorites to return in early 2014!

Already???

If you're a soaper or other craft maker like me, you know that holiday preparations begin way early for us. It's hard to believe that we begin working on our holiday soaps and other products before it even turns Fall in most cases! As soon as I finished my Fall soaps, I moved right into the holiday ones. I am not one to muddle up the holiday seasons but sometimes we just have no choice. I will soon be listing my holiday soaps and waxes and so I thought it time to give the good ol' blog a festive look.

I am still working on my waxes so I don't have any pictures of those yet. Here are the holiday soaps I will be offering in the store this year:

Winter Kaleidoscope Soap -Evergreen resins, amid an infusion of sparkling tart fruit and subtle woodsy clove, add to the hearty middle notes of pine and fir needle. An extremely smooth yet lively conifer fragrance with tart nuances of citrus and sparkling fruit, spiked with a base of musk and green moss.

Holiday Candy - I've blended several different to come up with a mouth-watering scent blend of candied apple and candied sugar crystals, with rock candy and sweet vanilla cream. Oh boy, this one is a keeper!

Cranberry Ice - Juicy, red cranberries and sparkling Asian Yuzu combine with icy peppermint for this frosty holiday scent.

Merry & Bright - A bright and complex fragrance combination of base notes of bamboo and teakwood, with middle notes of tayberries, blackberries, mulberries, cloudberries, and peaches, with subtle hints of red clover and sweetgrass.

Holly Jolly - This will be my last year with this particular scent. The fragrance has been discontinued. :-( A beautiful, festive scent blending notes of clean, fresh winter air with earthy, leafy greens, ylang-ylang, and black tea, on a solid base of musk, sandalwood and fir.

Montana Memories - I love, love, LOVE this one! If you like Christmas Wreath from Yankee then you'll love this scent too! This gorgeous scent with notes of fir, pine needles and orange, reminds me of winters in Montana; sledding in the mountains and the pine trees topped with the fluffiest, sparkliest, white snow.

It doesn't seem like much is going on with me but I'm working steadily to prepare to list these soaps and the coming waxes sometime in November. Stay tuned for the date!

Came and Went!

Ok, well, I could have blogged at some point during the fall selling season. I wasn't selling at this time last year and so this has been a new experience for me. It was crazy hectic but I liked it too. It is so fun that so many people like my soap! Thank you to everyone that bought from my Fall line-up. There is just a smidgen left if you're wondering. ;-)

I made this collage of the products I was listing and I think it would be easiest to just post that instead of twenty-some photos. The soaps in this year's line-up were Maples Leaves, Autumn Berry, Toffee Apple, Berry Brew, Warm Apple Pie, Twigs & Berries, Sweet Pumpkin, Oak Barrel Apple Cider, and Country Cabin. I made some various scented waxes in Autumn Berry, Toffee Apple Pie, Candy Corn, etc..

While the chaos of packing so many orders was great, I am so happy to have my desk and room all cleaned up and ready to make my final holiday soaps. I'm a bit behind and I need to get the last two made. Stay tuned for a holiday soap post!

Shout Out

Hi everyone! I just wanted to say WELL DONE to all the soapmakers that accomplished the Holly Swirl in the recent Soap Challenge Club. There are so many blogs and so little time. :-) I would love to read and comment on them all but there are a lot! Anyway...good job! :-)

This is the one that started it all!

Moving Along With Fall Scents

Hi everyone! Fall production has started! I have made several so far and I'm about half done. I'm hoping to get the rest made within the next week or two. Here are the ones I have made so far! :-)

Montana Huckleberry - Huckleberries are very similar to a blueberries and this fragrance also has notes of grapes, raspberries, and peaches. It is a comforting scent for me as I grew up in Montana and huckleberries are big business in Montana. Comfort = Fall for me. I know not everyone will think of huckleberry as a fall scent but I definitely do. This is actually my second batch as the first batch I used full water and the fragrance actually reversed trace and so it's quite soft. It might be ready by Fall 2014. ;-)

Country Cabin - reminiscent of a cozy evening by the fire, crackling evergreen and pine, essence of cinnamon, clove, and patchouli, and the faint sweetness of dripping beeswax candles.

Toffee Apple - a decadent scent of tart granny smith apples, drenched in creamy caramel, and rolled in toffee bits. This soap has darkened up a bit since I took the picture but not a lot.

Maple Leaves - an earthy but gorgeous scent of dried leaves, maple wood, new dawn blossoms, laurel, sweet clove, balsam, patchouli, and sandalwood.

These three are new as of last night!

I made a couple non-Fall soaps as well.

Sweet Pea

The other is Old Spice Type but I don't have a picture of it yet. It is just a plain cream-colored bar. Nothing too fancy for the men. :-)

I'm hoping to make a couple more batches today if I get the chance. As always, you can find the making and cutting of most of these soaps on my YouTube Channel. Thank you for stopping by!

Scented Wax Melts

I am having so much fun making scented wax melts. I get asked so many times what they are exactly. They are for home fragrance and like a tart that you melt in a wax melter/wax warmer. I do not call mine tarts as I'm pretty sure Yankee Candle has that term copyrighted. Anyhoo...here are some that I have made and recently listed in my store.

Country Berry Pancakes

Blackberry Pie

Apple Mango Tango

Old Fashioned Iced Tea

Monkey Bread

Pink Sugar

I'm still testing out the packaging that I like and I'm really excited about what I'm doing this week. The really awesome part of making wax products is that now I can freely use the scents that I would normally avoid for soaping because they turn soap brown. It doesn't affect wax in the same way. It's so fun to design and create. The testing is super duper fun!

Holly

All Those Soaps - CUT!

I finally found some time yesterday to take some quick pictures. I've turned my focus for just a short bit to making wax products and have certainly enjoyed the designing and testing. But more on that another day!

Chocolate Oatmeal Cream Unscented Soap - made with a double dose of cocoa butter and cream, brown sugar, cocoa, and oatmeal.

Licorice Soap - a new one for my nearly natural line, made with anise essential oil and charcoal for a black swirl.

Apple Mango Tango Soap - (on left) - a delightful and fruity blend of apples, mango, and soft florals. Compare to Gain's Apple Mango Tango fabric softener scent.

Summer Love Soap - (on right) - gorgeous scent combining notes of raspberries, peaches, magnolias, and lilies.

Black Raspberry Vanilla Soap - a crazy popular scent of black raspberries, decadent cream, and soft vanilla.

Sunshine & Rainbows - a tart and juicy blend of peaches, pears, acai berries, grapefruit, lemons, and strawberries, with a touch of lily and rose.

(The coloring in this next picture does not do these two justice. I'm still trying to find the right camera, location, and timing. It's the one thing I can't quite figure out yet.)

Lilac Soap - I absolutely love lilacs and this adaption is the most authentic I have found. I love it!

Confetti Blossom - this floral scented soap is a combination of peonies, hydrangeas, hyacinths, tulips, violet, gardenia, jasmine, and a touch of lilac.It is amazingly soft and a customer favorite. I adore the look of the confetti in the white base.

Sierra Soap - this soap is a blend of several cologne scents with an extra splash of fir needle. I still can't believe I came up with a blend that smells just like Sierra by Stetson! The men love it, the women love their men to use this soap, and some women just want it all to themselves! :-)

Green Clover & Aloe Soap - a fresh spa-like scent combining notes of green clover and aloe. Nothing too complicated here, just super fresh and clean.

Patchouli Rain Soap - Fresh rain and earthy patchouli combine with notes of lily of the valley, fresh ozone, earthen moss, and sweet citrus to form a truly unique and unisex scent. Everyone loves this one! Don't let the patchouli scare you off! I made tall bars this time and love the results!

I somehow managed to forget to get a picture of the Banana Coconut Candy Soap. It is a solid yellow color topped with yellow glitter. :-)

I have been asked many times to show how I make my wax brittle so I uploaded a video yesterday. You can view it and many (ok, A LOT!) soapmaking videos on my YouTube channel.

Thank you for stopping by my blog and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Holly

Busy With Restocks

Happy Sunday!

This past week was quite fun with some major soapmaking. I know ten batches in a week isn't much for many soapmakers but I tend to only make 2-4 on any given week. I just haven't felt the need to push myself that hard at this point. However, I wanted to get several restocks done so that I could focus on making Fall and Holiday soaps. Normally I wouldn't feel quite so energetic, with daily responsibilities and all, but the kiddos were at Grandma and Grandpa's house all week. I had a lot of time at home by myself and also a break from fixing meals, cleaning up constantly, unplugging toilets (it's a reality you know), etc.. Don't get me wrong though, I think I worked harder this week than usual, but it was a different kind of work. The hubby and I were able to get some much needed projects done around the house.

I only soaped on two days but I made it worthwhile. The very first soap I made was Sunshine & Rainbows. It is a yellow soap with soap balls from the Rainbow batch embedded inside the soap and on the top. Oh the drama that ensued! I had some overly OCD people be quite upset with me for improper soap ball placement. HUH? Anyway...it made for a quite a giggle. I also remade Summer Love, Banana Coconut Candy, and Confetti Blossom.

The next day I was able to make soap was Friday. I made 6 batches! That may be a new record for me. I remade Patchouli Rain, Sierra, Green Clover & Aloe, Black Raspberry Vanilla, Lilac, and Licorice soaps. The Licorice one was a new one for me. It smells so good.

I have been so busy that I haven't even had time for pictures yet. I actually haven't even cut the last 6 batches. That is on the agenda for today.

First, I need to work on getting today's listings ready to go live. It looks like I won't be listing anything new until around 6-7pm central time.

Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you have a most wonderful week!

Popping In From Vacation

Hi all! I thought I would pop in from some vacation time to do a little blog update.

I've been enjoying playing around making scented wax melts. They are for use in wax melters and wax warmers for home fragrance.

I am in love with this one. It's Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Pie. I was getting so hungry when making this one. My husband said "If only it were real" with a sigh. :-)

The next two are the same though different shapes. The colored chunks are scented in Fruit Loops with white Cotton Candy over pour. Goodness...it's nothing short of amazing! :-)

This fun purple one has Cotton Candy chunks with a Black Raspberry Vanilla over pour and wax black raspberry embeds.

Towards the end of last week I made two new soaps and a remake.

This soap is Apple Mango Tango and is scented in a blend comparable Gain's fabric softener of the same name. Funny thing is, I picked the colors and made the soap before I ever saw the packaging for the fabric softener. I chose the same colors! HA! I did not realize how popular this scent is!

You know it had to happen. I was going to make a Cotton Candy scented soap eventually! I scented the base in Cotton Candy and you can see from the edges that the base is going to darken. The pink and blue topping is unscented and I just love how the colors turned out.

These tops make me happy!

These are some of the soaps that I still need to bevel. I am so far behind on doing that job that some are listing this Sunday! I'll have plenty of work to do when I am back from vacation.

Thank you for the orders while I am on vacation. I will work steadily to get them sent out beginning on Monday. I will be listing Champagne Summer and Smooches Sunday afternoon. I always try to open the store and post new listings between 12pm and 1pm central time in the good ol' USA.

Have a happy weekend!