I've Moved!

This is a bittersweet announcement. I'm excited, nervous and just a little wistful all at the same time. This is my very last post here on my Blogger bloggity-blog.

I've moved to a new website, and taken this little blog with it. The new site is gorgeous and fresh and clean. Something I've been working on for a long time, but as with any new technology stuff, nervous about the first beginnings as there are bound to be glitches or hiccups along the way. Nothing that can't be tweaked, tho. And it's going to be so much easier to both customers and me too to use going forward. Gotta keep it fresh and up-to-date!

With the new site, however is a new space for the blog to live. This one will remain here for as long as I'm still working the soap biz. Nothing is going away, and there is an awful lot here to still explore.

But if you're looking to see what's cooking - all the new blog posts will over here. Just CLICK THE LINK and head on over.

And if you want to start at the very beginning of my new journey, I've written a little something about  why I made the change, with a little backdrop about my blogging history. It's Not My First Rodeo!

Please join me at the new hangout! I so appreciate all of you who are following along for the ride.

Check me out at Chihuly Garden and Glass

Cool news today.  Some of my little flower pot and watering can gift sets are headed to the museum store at Chihuly Garden and Glass!

This is one of the grooviest places to see if you are new or visiting Seattle - it's over at Seattle Center near the Space Needle.  Gorgeous exhibits of Chihuly glass installations, both inside and especially outside in the garden area.

And if you already live here and haven't gotten over to see it yet - get your butt over there!

They'll be delivered Monday, so by next week there should be a purrrty little display of my items.  Sweet, eh?

The medal goes to. . .

We've been glued to our teevee sets over here, watching all the action at the Sochi Winter Olympics.  All the drama, all the heartache, all the glory.  Plus the skating costumes - did you see that pink panther cat suit?  Ooooh la lah!   You don't have to be a world-class athlete to know that winter weather can be a tough challenge for your skin.  Which inspired us to award medals to a few of the best products in our menu to keep your own winter skin nourished and healthy. To the podiums please. Raise the flags and start the anthems . . . Gold Medal, Slope Style:  Healing Salve

For anyone hitting the slopes, or just hitting the bus stop on the way to work, you know that exposure to winter's cruel elements wreaks havoc on your skin. When you've been beaten by the competition, the Healing Salve cures just about anything. It heals all the dry flakies, the ragged cuticles that catch in your mittens, the fingertip splits, the heel cracks, the rough elbows, the ruddy cheeks, even the chapped lips. Not only is it a super rich moisturizer for even the driest patches, it's chock-full of healing herbs which soothe inflammation; calm redness; battle the ickies (bacteria, infection and fungus); and generally smooth out the rough edges. Plus, it acts as a barrier to seal in your own natural skin oils and keep the cold weather moisture from creating even more damage. It's one tiny tin that packs a wallop, goes everywhere, and it's only $5 dollars.  You've paid a lot more for a lot less.

Silver Medal, Curling:   Vanilla Bean & Honey Dead Sea Bath Salts

There is no better pampering treat after a long, bitter day in the winter weather than curling up in a hot, steaming, aromatic bath.  This type curling is a whole lot warmer and nicer smelling than doing the splits while tossing rocks down a sheet of ice.  And when it's cold outside, you want warmth, you want comfort and maybe even yes, a little spice.  That's describes exactly the Vanilla Bean & Honey fragrance.  It's our top scent in the bath salts because it's not sweet or cloying, just luxurious, pleasurable and relaxing.

With the highest mineral content of all the salts in all the land (or sea), the Dead Sea salts have super powers that soften all your dry, flaky or rough bits, detox the stress from every pore, and relax tired and achy muscles.  A good long soak can work wonders for winter weary bodies, even if your finish line isn't the end of a biathlon but just a long work week.  

Bronze Medal, Speed Skating:  Body Brush

Whether it's ice dance, short track, or hockey, the ice needs to be as smooth as velvet.  The Zamboni man is the true hero of the winter Olympics. 

And when it comes to skin, most of us would rather feel like silk than elephant hide, am I right?  Here's where our own little Zamboni machine comes in.  If you want to feel soft and smooth, you need to exfoliate regularly.  That means sloughing off the dry, dead skin cells that cling to the surface of the baby-smooth newer skin layers underneath. The easiest and most effective way to look your freshest is to dry brush for a few quick minutes before showering.  If you have absolutely no idea what 'dry brushing' means, no worries, I've written a short guide on all the whats, whys and hows on the website here.

We've got two styles of body brushes and either of them are terrific exfoliators.  Of course you can use them inside the shower too. Just get scrubbing on a regular basis and watch your skin begin to bloom like flowers in spring.

Customer Service: It Takes The Gold!!

"After years of buying from your wonderful product line, I just made my first online order - I'd like to compliment you on your INCREDIBLE service!  I've never received an order so expeditiously and/or  securely packed!!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!  What a class act!" 

"I had previously ordered a few of your items and fell in love with them when they arrived today. Therefore, decided to get a few more for gifts for friends.  Your soaps and sprays are highly valued in my "neck of the woods."  I give them for birthday, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter gifts.  So appreciate you and your wonderful products!!!!!"

"I just had to sit down and send this email.  My daughter and I found your soaps at a Christmas bazaar.  I absolutely love them and decided to order them from you online.  I just received my second delivery, and I couldn't resist telling you how pleased I am.  Your customer service, specifically your delivery, is outstanding!  I do a fair amount of online shopping, and your company is the absolute best!"

"I just wanted to say that I've been ordering from you for YEARS and LOVE your stuff!"

"I just had to tell you how pleased and thrilled I was to receive my soaps from you yesterday.  I love that it was such a fast turn around from placing the order to receiving the soaps.  But the big deal is how much I love the soaps.  I intended them for Christmas gifts, but somehow I think I'm going to have to place another order because I want to keep them all for myself. I love the fragrances--especially the lavender pear.  I will be a repeat customer over and over again.  Great product, great service!"

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New! Soapscriptions!!

Soapworks Studio's Soap-of-the-Month Club is now a SoapScription!

No more panicky moments in the shower, wondering if you’ve got another bar for tomorrow.  With a “SoapScription” you’ll know that you’re always in the suds because you’ll be receiving regular shipments of soap bars so you never run out!

Club SoapScribers will join me on a journey through the seasons, sampling some of my year-round favorites and my seasonally inspired new scents. 

Your SoapScription will arrive in your mailbox at the start of each month with two full-size bars of handmade, artfully created Soapworks Studio soaps in a padded envelope, plus the latest seasonal newsletter detailing my inspirations and descriptions of the current crop of products.  You will also receive a 10% off coupon to order other products or more of something you have fallen deeply in love with.

Your very first delivery will include freebies -- a scrubby soap mitt and a natural wood soap dish as a gift to get you started on your sudsy adventure.

Junior – 3 months                                 $12.00 per month = $ 36.00
Half Naked – 6 months                         $ 11.50 per month = $ 69.00
The Full Monty – full year                      $ 11.00 per month = 132.00

All shipping and taxes are included in the subscription price. You can renew at any time to continue receiving your monthly fix, and you’ll be notified of your final shipment so that you can re-order at that time also.

If you have requests or an aversion to something, please email us and let us know so that we can make sure you get the best possible package.

This makes an awesome gift too! We would be delighted to send this each month directly to your gift recipient, and will include your personal message in a gift card with the goodies.  Type your note in the message box to the right, or call the office with all your information.

The holidays are right around the corner, so this might be the perfect no-fuss gift for all kinds of folks on your gift list.  Start off with the winter holiday seasonal soaps in December, and by February, the spring soaps will be ready to sample too!  There is no better gift than a special treat that gets used up and cherished instead of sitting on a shelf, especially if it lasts for months and months. 

Blooming Tulips - New Products

New product announcement - Blooming Tulips soap!


I created this soap just for the Tulip Festival that we celebrate here in the Skagit Valley during the month of April.  It was a HUGE hit at the street fair last weekend and I'll have it available on the website for just a bit longer while the festival continues and I still have a few bars left in stock.
So you think tulips don't have a fragrance?  Well, it's subtle, that's true.  But when you're out in the fields you can't help but sniff all the fresh green of the leaves mixed with the light foral scent of the petals.  This soap is absolutely true - a very "green" leafy scent, fresh and clean, with a very pretty floral note at the end.  It's totally delightful and has been a huge hit with tulip fans.


Pair it with our matching "Blooming Tulips" bath salt for the perfect spring gift!

A Beer for St Patty's Day

Sending you a bit of luck 'o the Irish to you on St Patrick's Day!

The custom of imbibing alcohol on St. Patrick's Day comes from an old Irish legend. As the story goes, St. Patrick was served a measure of whiskey that was considerably less than full. St. Patrick took this as an opportunity to teach a lesson of generosity to the innkeeper. He told the innkeeper that in his cellar resided a monstrous devil who fed on the dishonesty of the innkeeper. In order to banish the devil, the man must change his ways. When St. Patrick returned to the hostelry some time later, he found the owner generously filling the patrons' glasses to overflowing. He returned to the cellar with the innkeeper and found the devil emaciated from the landlord's generosity, and promptly banished the demon, proclaiming thereafter everyone should have a drop of the "hard stuff" on his feast day.

And, it's also an integral part of an old tradition called "drowning the shamrock."
On St. Patrick's Day, the shamrock that has been worn in the hat or lapel is removed and put into the last drink of the evening. A toast is proposed and then, when the toast has been honored, the shamrock is taken from the bottom of the glass and thrown over the left shoulder. Sláinte!

Guinness Beer Soap!!!

So this St Patrick's Day, while we might partake of dram or two, we've come up with cleaner way to celebrate the holiday - Guinness Beer Soap. I've made just one special batch of soap made with pure Guinness Beer, so when it's sold out, we'll be drowning the shamrock and shutting it down til next year.

This is a traditional unscented soap, but a bit of the hops and sweetness comes through, with just a mild scent of grain. It smells very lightly of the beer itself and is quite pleasant for menfolk, womenfolk, even wee folk.

The ingredients in beer make an excellent skin conditioning bar. The hops soothes irritation, the amino acids in the beer soften skin and the polyphenols are anti-bacterial too.

Safe for all ages! The soap-making process eliminates the alcohol content of the beer, so using this soap will not intoxicate you. It will not impair your ability to operate heavy machinery or motor vehicles. But as always, this soap product should not be consumed internally.

Price: $ 4.25 each or 4 bars for $16.00

Shake your shamrocks this St Paddy's Day! And start it off right with a quick suds-up in Guinness Beer soap.

Snow Day

Wow, for the folks in the Northeast it really IS a snow day. But it's a snow day here in the studio today too. It's a blizzard of bath salt making for next week's shows.

I had no idea that peppermint would be so intoxicating. There's only a little bit of it in the scent blend, but with all the mixing and stirring and whirling and filling, the studio is filled with peppermint fumes. Boy are my sinuses clear. My head feels almost mint-a-holic, even with the window open.

But all in all, I really like how the scent turned out. There's vanilla sugar, a pinch of spice, a little orange zest too. It's the perfect cool, fresh, tingly mix with yummy warm good stuff in it too. Exactly what a snow day is all about.

And the packaging is adorable too. I've wanted to use these small French square jars forever. With a little tiny square label and a bit of red-striped bakery twine - so cute. I hope it's going to be a big hit for stocking stuffers, little office gifts, or added to goodie baskets. I can't wait to see how they do next week. Which reminds me, I'll have to post my show schedule here tomorrow to that you all can find them out there in the craft show world.

These little Snow Day bath crystals will be announced Nov 1st and on the web site for purchase on Tuesday - this is just a sneak peek. Cuz I'm mintified.

Fresh This Week: Helping Hand soaps

Yanno how I had that brainstorm last year to add some little mini soaps to my product line, with half of the profits going to Kiva.org? I spent so much time trying to hatch up a good name. And eventually I decided on "Suds for a Brighter Day." I don't even remember how I arrived at that one. I just know that I wanted it to be cheerful and give some sort of hint that it was a "doing good works" kind of thing, without it being overly "charity"-like. If that makes any sense. Anyway, last week while I was just staring out the window in a stupor, a moment of total brain fog and I sort of got lost in what I was doing, a new name just popped up out of the blue and brought me right back to reality. The new name is "Helping Hand" soaps. It's so much more accurate. Perfect really.

The small sized soaps are truly hand soaps (or travel size) soaps. And they are designed to fundraise a little bit for one of my favorite organizations: Kiva.org , thus the helping hand part. The next little bit (in italics) is directly from the website and explains it all in more detail. I've kept the "Suds" listing on the site for now, but added the "Helping Hand Soaps" listing too, so that you can find one or the other easily. It's a perfect gift item. And I've sold bunches of them in the past couple of weeks, so I'm super excited to send them a really big number of loans at the end of the month.

The new soaps are more of the mini-soap bars (a la The Pacific Northwest Collection) that I added last fall. They are roughly half the size of my standard bars, 2x2 inches square, and weigh 2 ounces each. I am selling them in groups of four, packaged in a sweet, natural jute string bag, and the scents will change with each new batch.

The “Helping Hand” part is that half of all the proceeds for these new soaps will go directly to Kiva, the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world. Tiny little loans of $25 go towards goals of several hundred or a thousand dollars, whatever is needed for a small business owner in a developing nation to get the help they need to start their business, or to take the next step towards sustainability. It doesn’t take much to help somebody who is struggling to make their little business a livelihood for themselves and their families. I’m so grateful that for the last 13 years I’ve been able to make a living with my own micro business, and I want to share just a little bit of what I have to help others do the same. It’s my way of having Soapworks Studio give back, and having you all - my most fabulous customers- share in that process, while getting the most adorable little mini guest or travel soaps in return.

One more thing – the fragrances of these will be in a constant rotation. This first edition has a fruity floral combo. I’m constantly doing experiments with new scents for seasonal soaps, or testing out samples, so I seem to have an endless amount of scents to try. These will be my new playground for now. You’ll get to try different, fun, new stuff. And as the year continues, there will be new groupings of 4 soap scents to choose from, matched so that they go well together.


Alright then? It's the same great little sack of tiny soaps with a new name. When the summer newsletter comes out in May there will be new scents to choose from. And the Helping Hand name will be official on the website and in the brochure that I send out. Have a great weekend - don't get too crazy with Spring Fever in all that sunshine!

Fresh This Week: New Lip Balms

Such a hectic day. There hasn't been much time to get to the computer until this evening. But there is new stuff in the studio this week. It's a little sneak preview of some of the new Spring Seasonal stuff, just for those of you paying attention.

I have 3 new lip balm flavors which I'm announcing in a couple of weeks in the newsletter. I just finished them today, and they are different than the usual stuff, and pretty great. They are all natural-flavorings, so the lip balms are still 100% natural, with a natural sweetener and a ton of great, nourishing oils in them. No color, just clear and a tad bit glossy, but not gooey. It's the perfect mix of oils to wax so it's not too soft and not too hard, a nice balance. Some people have said it's the best lip balm ever. But you can decide for yourself.

Ok, drumroll please. The newest flavors are: Jasmine Tea, Sweet Dreams and Passionfruit. Jasmine Tea is a lovely blend of Jasmine Blossom and Green Tea leaves. It's subtle and natural, a light floral green tea scent and flavor, and perfect for tea lovers.

The Sweet Dreams is a complement to the aromatic spray of the same name that I have made for a million years. It's a blend of lavender and chamomile, sweetened with a bit of vanilla sugar. Flowery and similar to the Lavender lip balm I made a couple of years ago, this one is light and fresh, not overpowering, but delicious.

And the Passionfruit is a luscious tropical fruit flavor, similar to mango. The kissing season is coming up soon, after all, with Valentine's Day just around the corner. What better way to pamper your kisser and get it in the mood than to pucker up with Passionfruit lip balm?

Ingredients: Almond oil, coconut oil, beeswax, avocado oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, vitamin E, natural sweetener, natural flavoring oils
Nt. wt. 1/4 ounce.

Luscious Lip Balms HERE! I've just put them up on the web site so you can purchase them any time.

Fresh This Week: Erm . . .

Ok, so I've committed myself to posting a blog every Friday, announcing what's freshly made or new this week. It seemed like a great way to be more regular with the blog, more productive with my communication and a way to describe what's going on behind the scenes here at the studio/factory. All really good things.

One of the most important things I want to do with this regular "Fresh" feature is to link to the cool new stuff on the web site and hopefully increase traffic and sales. Of course. This is a business after all.

But this month it's really hard to do that. The "what's new" is still curing for a couple of weeks. I'm up to my eyeballs in making batches of soap to catch my inventory up to speed for the whole spring seasonal announcements in a few weeks. I'm making batches of the regular scents, batches of the spring scents, soap, soap, soap.

And I don't want to spoil the anticipation and excitement of what the spring stuff is too soon, so I'm keeping my lip zipped about that this week. In fact, I'm not even 100% sure what they are. I do a few experiment batches alongside the ones I think I'm going to do. Just in case something turns out super good, or super bad. It gives me wiggle room.

The other thing I've spent a ridiculous amount of time on this week, is sourcing new packaging. Sitting on my butt at the computer searching the internet for cute new bags and bows and boxes. Retail is all about packaging, so they say. And I strive to have new and unique looks to the gift stuff. I'm reworking the Pacific Northwest collection for this year, and the Suds for a Brighter Day sets that I had last year, where a portion of the sales went to Kiva. The balance is concept vs cost. I can't make it too expensive that it won't sell and I'm stuck with a big investment of pretty doo-dads that sit on the shelves. I placed a couple of small orders yesterday to try out some ideas. So that's not that fresh either . . . hmmm.

And finally, I've spent a few days shuffling around the show applications, pencilling in and scratching out things on the calendar. Trying to come up with new and better photos for jurying for the shows. Today the whole pile of them get mailed off. This particular task? So not fresh or exciting to announce. I won't know which shows I get into (or not) for weeks. So the show calendar on the web site is totally bare for 2010. I've got a few that I know for sure, a few that I'm pretty sure about, mostly later in the year. But nothing groovy and new to announce this week.

Other tasks going on this week: planning out an email promotions schedule for the year, supply orders, errands to pick up supplies and equipment, costing out shopping bags, catching up on filing and cleaning my desk, infusing the healing salve oil for production next week, drafting the spring mailing newsletter, buying stamps and getting envelopes ready for the mailing, sending out orders, trying to keep the cats from going insane with all this endless rain day after day.

So that's it. Nothing fresh, new, exciting or linkable for this week. But in the spirit of keeping up the commitment, I've duly noted what is happening here in the studio this week.

Fresh This Week: Clearance Sale

One of my big new ideas is to be a little more consistent with this blog. And to let you know more about what I'm making here in the studio on a weekly basis. To sort of let you into the process of how the products get made.

So I'm going to try to institute "Fresh This Week" journals each Friday, as a way of announcing what is new, and what I'm working on.

This week has been a frenzy of making more of my regular soap scents to build up my inventory. The last little Christmas rush put me out of stock of many of the most popular flavors of soap. And as I've said before, it takes several weeks for the little buggers to cure, so it's time-consuming and a lot of batches to get caught up again with the full menu of scents that I carry. Since that is so totally boring, it's not worth a big crowing about blog post.

The other thing that has to happen here in the first few days of January is the big inventory. For tax purposes, I am supposed to count every single item and supply in my entire stock and studio, put it down on paper and call it a "year-end inventory." What sucks about this particular task is that it needs to be tied to a monetary cost. Each product - a bar of soap or a jar of bath salts - has to be broken out to it's actual costs, from raw materials to the packaging and container bits. So I count how many jars of bath salts I have on hand, and cost out the salts, the fragrance, the jars plus lid, and the label, and come up with my actual cost of what that product costs to make. That's the "actual cost." And this needs to be listed next to every item. Plus every ingredient I have on hand too. Lots of searching for invoices from earlier in the year.

Ingredient costs vary a lot throughout the year, and from year to year. It's not that easy to just transfer the costs from one year to the next. Olive oil has gone way up, and back down. Sometimes a particular container radically changes price too - like the tins, due to cost increases to produce it. Anyway, it's a time-consuming effort and boring and blah, blah, blah. The only silver lining is that it keeps me on track with knowing if I'm out of whack with my prices, and what I need to cut back on. Plus it makes me look at what I have on hand that just needs to be cleared out of the studio to make room for new stuff. Odds and ends of items that need to go. Clearance sale!

That's the long, rambling, prelude to my announcement that I've got the Clearance Sale page back up with a few items that I'm putting up at a huge discount. There isn't a lot of stock of any of these items, so if you're interested, don't delay.

Here's your link to the sale page to BUY NOW! When it's gone, it's gone.