In the Air!

I am flying right now - well by the time this is posted anyway. I promise you I did not turn on my phone, endangering all of the passengers on my flight, just to write a post. :)

I am on my way to Bellingham Washington Home of Brambleberry and Otion, to teach at this year's Soap Weekend Intensive! You can see what it is all about here. Last I looked there was a spot left, which is rare, so if any of my readers are in the area and come want to learn how to make a variety of bath and body products, you may still have a chance!

Me and students from the 2012 SWI!

I am teaching Sugar Scrubs this year. I am doing a clay based facial scrub, a salt glow and my famous sugar cubes! I am so excited! It is sure to be a blast. I will try and update as much as possible on my Facebook page and I am sure they will be posting over at the Soap Queen Blog!

A Soap A Day Project: Day 7

I am doubling up on soap posts today since the light went down yesterday and I couldn't get my pictures taken! I do all of my photos in natural light so if I don't do it early the light gets lost! This is a visual representation of the all day headache I had yesterday. :) WARNING: Don't stare too long! I definitely got out of my comfort zone with the bright neon colors but I like it!

 I love how the backing pink color creates a neon glow in the white soap dish!

NOTE: I am traveling until Monday but hope to still do my Soap A Day but I may have to post all of them when I get back. I will try and post quick pictures from my phone on my Facebook page!

A Soap A Day Project: Day 6

Monday was more inspiration from home decor!

Labels - one of my many tasks!

Running a small business means you have to basically do everything from designing and producing product to answering the phone and emails, taking orders, shipping, packaging, sales, marketing, and one of my favorites, label design!

I usually start with my logo and a rough color pallet. For the most part I like to keep it simple and let the products shine through, especially when I am doing a clear packaging so you can see the product without too much distraction. An exception are my bar soap labels which are a little fancier since I mostly use recycled paper boxes that hide the soap.

Here is the new square label for the Cardamom Vanilla Marshmallow Cream Soap! (And the old for comparison.) I added some more color to it as you can see - I am on a teal thing lately! All of the information is much larger and clearer. These didn't take too long since I had the old label to work from but my new lip balm labels for instance took 2+ hours to design! Usually the first label in a series of products takes the longest, then it is just a matter of changing color and tweaking text.

new

 

old

The ingredients and my company info will go on a smaller label on the backside. Soap labeling must have the company name, the word "soap", and the weight on the front. The company address can go on the back and I always include my ingredient list.

You may have purchased soap that did not have ingredients and this is perfectly legal but I like to include it so my customers know exactly what the are purchasing. The rule is only for soap -  I won't get into the details, but as soon as you say that your soap is good for anything other than cleaning, like that it is moisturizing for instance,  it is then considered a cosmetic and must be labeled differently. A lot of my soap falls under this category. The FDA defines soap as:

• the bulk of the nonvolatile matter in the product consists of an alkali salt of fatty acids and the product's detergent properties are due to the alkali-fatty acid compounds, and
• the product is labeled, sold, and represented solely as soap

Next is the Chocolate Marshmallow Cream Soap labels and then I can take pictures and get these listed! Look for them June 13th at naiadsoaparts.com!

The 2 hour lip balm label! I'm slow! :)

A Soap A Day Project: Day 5

I took Saturday off and found it hard to get the energy to take a picture of yesterdays soap! Mondays are always a bit of a drag for me! I was pressed for time after my helper left and production was complete, but I did get to visit one of the shops I had on my list and I left my business card and a price list. The clerk had no control over ordering and said she would send the info to the owner of the store but she was nice in the brief chat I had with her. I had to fight hard to make contact but I did it and feel a little bit better about going around to more shops! Here is the soap for Sunday. I was inspired by my shower curtain of all things! :)~

Big Cartel Meet Up San Diego

Hello all of you San Diego Friends! Do any of you have a shop on Big Cartel?

There is a meet up at Extraordinary Desserts this Thursday June 14th at 6pm. Ana of We Love Citrus coordinated the event and there will be Swag Bags that I put a little something in! Join other Big Cartel Shop owners for a night of Sweets and Networking!

Swag for the event

As always you can see what we are up to on Big cartel here: naiadsoaparts.bigcartel.com

A Soap A Day Project: Day 4

Today is all about facing some fears. My BIG plan for the day was to go around town visiting some boutiques to get a feel for what they are selling, what people are buying, and to target potential retailers. This soap I made yesterday was all about me (little blue dot) breaking out of the fears and distractions. I sit in a comfortable little place all cozy, filled with soap to make and scrubs to whip up but unless I want to become a soap hoarder, I have to break free and sell, sell, sell.

After a night of hanging out with friends I got up late, made a list of boutiques I want to visit and then, made a bird bath, read a little, watched some TV, and took a picture of this soap but did not go around town as I had planned.

I realized that I have a big fear of talking to people. My hubby and I had a really great talk about this today and I realized that I am so afraid that people won't like me that I either don't talk to them, or I am totally fake when I do. (Just a side note, my husband is the smartest person I know and he is a wonderful person to talk to for advice so I may give him cred a lot.) Ok, so I either don't talk, OR I try to make witty remarks to get a laugh, or I interrupt people to draw attention to myself, or I just talk about myself at length with no gaps. Again, that may not be the consensus that others get from me, but in my own head that is what I do. I have thought long and hard about where this behavior comes from but that is another story. So, you can imagine my mind set having to go into an already nervous situation like talking about my products or casually mentioning that I have some "product that I think would be a great fit for your store". I am a wreck! I don't think I am alone in this. I am sure most people would have fears about it.

I have regrouped and the plan is to attack it Monday when there will be better parking if I have to go back to get samples and promotional materials, and I will feel less intimidated in shops teaming with customers and employees who have more pressing things to attend to than someone trying to pimp a product.

My mantra for this task:
Just be yourself
You have awesome products
You are ok with rejection

If anyone has had and experience, good or bad, approaching retailers please share! I want to know how you did it and what fears, if any,  you may have had and how you overcame them!