We hit 2000 Facebook fans! Come chuckle and win!

Yesterday the Soapylove fan page hit a great landmark - 2000 fans!!  We can't let a monument like this go unrewarded so I'm having a fun little giveaway.  Just head over to the contest post (you'll need to quickly "like" the Soapylove fan page first to enter) and comment with your favorite corny (rated G!) joke and you'll be entered into a random drawing for a Candy Carousel gift set (pictured above) which are not yet available on soapylove.com! 

The yuk-yuks are rolling in, so come on over and read a few then dig up your best!  I'm accepting entries through the end of the day tomorrow and will announce the winner on Wednesday.  Good luck!

Getting Back in Touch With My Products at Pine Tree Road

A couple of weeks ago, my brother's friend saw a Craigslist ad asking for soapmakers who wanted to consign at a shop in Ocean Beach (San Diego).  He thought of me and told me about it.  So I contacted the shop owner and it turned out to be Jackie, who I met in Denver at the HSMG Conference last spring.  She was looking for some new lines to try out in her shop - Pine Tree Road.

Normally I don't consign but since I have Cupcake Bath Bombs, Super Fizzie Mini Bath Bombs, and some great displays I wanted to try them out in her shop.  Jackie was so nice and said I could pick where I wanted them to be.  So naturally I asked for the window!  :)

Since I do all of my business online and at least 50% of my orders are international, I rarely get to see Soapylove in shops.  It was so much fun to set everything up exactly the way I wanted.  I even made up some new gift boxes which I'm just trying out there.

So, anyway, I was just really surprised by how much I miss being more in touch with my products.  I think I'll look into doing a summer festival or fair.  There's nothing more gratifying than hearing how adorable or yummy something you made is, right from your customers!  :)

Tutorial: Springtime Rainbow Soaps

Rainbows and hearts... I can't seem to get enough!  One of my favorite looks lately is graduated color.  Several years ago I taught at Otion's Soap Weekend Intensive and was thrilled to attend a class by Paula of PJ Soaps (she'll be teaching again this summer!).  She showed how to make her beautiful moon soap (click here for tutorial), where she tilts the mold to get a lovely fade between the moon and midnight sky. 

I have used this several times with a single tilted color, but realized if you use one on each side and then fill the center, that you can get a 3 color fade!  Here's how to do it:

Prop your mold up on one side or corner.  I used the Soapylove Striped Heart Mold.  Next, melt and color a small amount of clear soap using non-bleeding red mica (I used TKB's Pop Micas).  Spray your mold with alcohol, then pour a small amount of soap into one side, allowing it to only cover 1/3 of your mold surface. 

It's okay if your color doesn't line up perfectly with the stripes.  Allow to harden.  Now turn around your mold so the opposite side is propped up.  Melt and pour some blue soap into the opposite side, again only covering 1/3 of the mold face.  Allow to harden.

Move your mold to be flat on the table.  Color your third batch of soap yellow, spray mold with alcohol, and pour in soap so it fills the center area and covers a bit of each side color.  Allow to harden.  Spray with alcohol and top off with fragranced white soap.  Voila!

Here's a tip: color your soap with a light hand - if your colors are too dark then the background color won't show through.  When I do this project again, I'll use a little less blue so the green tone will be more noticeable.

Enjoy!
-Debbie

(Check out the Soapylove Book Shop where you can find my Soapylove book and the new The Art of Soap!)

A Little Bit of Spring Greenery - Chia Tea Cups!

As part of the kids' Christmas haul, they got Chia heads.  One batch of seeds made so many more than we could put on the Shrek and Donkey heads that I decided to use them for a little kitchen decoration.  Chia Tea Cups!  If you would like to have a little spring greenery to brighten up a room, too, here's how to do it:

First, ball up a paper towel and stuff it into a tea cup, about 1/2" below the rim.  Add water so the towel is super wet.  Soak the Chia seeds per the packet, and put them evenly over the paper towel surface.

Put the cups in a warm area of your house, make sure to keep the paper towel wet, and watch the magic happen!  My cups went from seed to tall sprouts in only 5 days.  Very gratifying, and so much easier than gardening!  :)

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Soapylove: A Hit With Tricky Kids and Tweens!

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This year my son started kindergarten, and his school has a small craft fair every December.  So I got a table and showcased my brand new Super Fizzie Mini Bath Bombs along with the Soapy Pops.  It was so awesome seeing the elementary school kids come in and buzz around my table, oohing and aahing over the scents, new characters on the boxes, and the matching pin-back buttons!

Their parents weren't far behind (the fair started right when school let out), and they were more than happy to pick up a few gift sets for their kids and kids' friends.  Being able to get something adorable, yummy smelling, handmade, and totally practical is a nice change from hunting for gifts at the mall.  

So the next time you need a birthday or holiday gift for a child between 3 and 13, keep Soapylove in mind!  The gift sets include a free matching pin-back button (which will find a new home on a backpack or purse), and you get a price break from buying the items individually. 

And for the month of January, get 20% off your purchase!  Just use the promo code: JANCLUB when checking out. It applies to books and eZines, too!  Click here to go to the Soapylove Shop.

Have a nice day!