Life Moves Fast....And Here I Go!

So if you've been following this blog, you have been with me through quite a bit.  A whirlwind of life changes and a couple of career changes.

I started this blog in August, 2007.  Woah.  Seven years ago.  So much has happened in the last seven years.  I knew nothing about making soap when I started this blog.  I only knew that I just loved handcrafted soap and I knew that it needed to be in the spotlight.  If you didn't read this blog then, you may be interested how it all began.  You can go back to the beginning.  My first post asked people if they made handcrafted soap and wanted me to review it, to send it to me.  That my interest was to spread the beauty across the internet through the photos I'd take and the reviews I'd write.

I had no horse in this race.  Starting this blog was a hobby I created for myself.  I couldn't find anything about handcrafted soap on the internet except on how to make it, not the plain beauty of it. Starting this blog opened a world for me.  Within a couple of months readers encouraged me to make soap myself and when I did and failed, people asked me what soap calculator I used.  "What calculator??"  I was completely clueless.  And so readers were so sweet and encouraged me further.  For me, I had never met a group of people so community-based, so encouraging.  I felt at home in my new soapy world.

Eventually I harnessed the soap beast and rode that sucker until I got it!  Then I added soap to my line of bath and body goodies.  This blog has been not only a hobby for me, but one of my inspirational pools, my community support system and my creative outlet.

So with some serious family situations and personal deflation over the last year, I pushed through major obstacles and started a new business with two partners, my family.  We started Mad Oils. I feel like this is where I belong.  I enjoy sourcing raw materials and finding things for people.  I enjoy behind the scenes work.   I think it suits me.  I still want to connect with the community, to help customers succeed.  I want my customers to succeed!  That is why we are getting the best possible products.  But I needed you all to know where my path is going and where this blog has taken me.

Thank you for the 7 years of listening to me ramble on about soap, life, me, this and that.  And as I've said a million times, I have never claimed to be a writer, so I know my posts aren't grammatically correct.  I write the way I think and it's who I am.

I'm not done.  I'm still here and I'm still going to write and post soap porn and all that.  And I WILL try to post more often.  But I have certainly gotten caught up in life.  But life just started getting better!  So perhaps you'll see more of me, even though I'm busier!!

Love you!  xox Joanna

Warning : I've Been Impersonated

I received an email from a soapmaker asking me how I liked her soaps. Her name or soap company name didn't sound familiar so I told her I didn't know what she was referring to.  She had sent a number of bars to a person claiming they were me:  Jo of The Soap Bar Blog (right here, folks).

I have been doing soap reviews for almost 7 years.  I do not solicit soapmakers.  Soap is either sent to me for free with the request for a review, or I purchase products I want to try.

If someone claims to be me and asks you to send them soap for review, please confirm it is me.  My full name is Joanna Schmidt and I live in Florida, USA.  My email jo(at)absolutesoap(dot)com and I do NOT live in Texas or anywhere else for that matter.

Send your soap to anyone you want for a review, but my suggestion to you: seek those people out yourself.  Do not take requests from bloggers or YouTubers. 

That there is a red flag, folks.

I am Jo of The Soap Bar Blog.

xxoo

Soap Conference '13 - HSCG- Part 1

I attended the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild's (HSCG) soap conference a couple of weeks ago and I am still feeling the love from the whole experience.  I am utterly shocked, dazed and content by my experience.  Many months ago, Leigh O'Donnell of HSCG, asked if I'd be interested in speaking at the 2013 conference.  ME?!?  I was scared, excited and honored all at the same time.  I've been wanting to go to their soap conferences for many years, but could not attend for different reasons.  Well, this time, I wasn't going to miss it!

So....she asked me what I like to make and I told her "Milk Soaps. I make it differently than how I was taught."  So I told her about my technique and she said it was perfect.  I said,"it's just an easy way to do it.  Like a cheat."  And she shuts me right up and says, "That is innovative!  Not cheating!!  If you teach someone how to do something an easier way, they will want to know it!" 

oh, ok.....So months went by...weeks...days.... until I finally packed up and got on the plane.

I arrived at the hotel, checked-in and found my room.  Ahhh, it was perfect, I fell onto the bed, stretched out and closed my eyes.  Finally.  I head downstairs and who do I find but the lovely Tricia Samundsen!  Then one by one, I meet the crew, coordinators, board members....A ton of people.  Instantly I felt at home.  This was where I belonged when I wasn't with my family.  I felt in in my bones.

Raleigh was my slice of heaven for the weekend.  All mine.  Bwua ha ha!

Dinners, drinks, seminars, breakfast meet-ups, parties and lots of laughs. Just a little background on me, if you don't already know, I am pretty much a homebody and don't go out that much, mostly because of the lack of people that reside here in South Florida, but I've never been a particularly social being.  The conference weekend yanked me out of my shell.  I met some sweet, loving, and interesting people all in one place.  I made friends so quickly.  A treat to say the least.

I spoke at the conference...two seminars in one day, each for about an hour and there were approximately 100 people in each seminar.  Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it, but the guest speaker was Ann Evanston, who gave a beautiful and inspiring motivational speech the morning of my seminars, that it completely took me to a different notch and I felt okay being ME in front of a crowd.  I channeled the authentic self that I am and relaxed enough to just be and share what I do instead of worrying so much about what others thought of me.  Big step for me, folks, big step.  

 

***

I know that many of you wanted to find out the method I spoke about, (which really isn't anything new) and I have just been too busy to post it.  Here is the basic jist of it.  Please do not make this unless you have a number of successful cold process batches under your belt.  And know that I can't be held responsible for what YOU make...this is just an explanation of how I  do it.  :)

Overview: We all know that soap is created by combining oils with lye.  But when you add milk to your soap, you’re also adding sugars and proteins to the equation and thus creating a new chemical composition: Milk Soap.  Although that can sound daunting, there is no reason to be nervous about trying milk soap for the first time, or taking another shot at it if you’ve sworn it off because of past disasters.  I’ve devised a way to make milk soaps that come out the same way every time.  For me.

Background: Because milks contain sugar, they will heat up your soap batter and can speed up trace which can leave little time to incorporate the ingredients and finish your soap.  The traditional way to prevent this from happening is to freeze your milk ahead of time and then add lye to the milk cubes very slowly while mixing into a slushy solution.  Many people successfully make milk soaps this way, but it has some issues for me and I hate issues.  My technique alleviates the following problems while producing a few bonus benefits.

Problems with the traditional way:

 “When I add the lye to the milk, it makes a horrible ammonia stench!”   

“My lye solution turned orange-y brown”.

 “Freezing milk requires hours of additional planning and wrecks my work schedule.  It also clutters up my freezer.”

 “I don’t like adding milks during the most caustic stage of saponification.” 

- - --  -Some people feel this can damage milks and degrade their benefits.

My solution resolves all of those problems.  You’ll avoid nasty smells and color changes, free up your schedule, and protect delicate ingredients.  All you need to do now is pick the milk for the soap you’ll be making.   

Milk Properties

For the conference's demonstration, I used two milks separately in two different batches:

Buttermilk   It is often used in making baby soap because of its gentle properties and is great for sensitive skin.  It contains alpha-hydroxy acid, which is used in facial preparations.  It isn’t clear if those acids survive saponification (but my technique should up the odds), but buttermilk creates a wonderful smoothness.

Coconut milk is preferred by vegans, and is technically plant milk.  Coconut milk’s main fatty acid, lauric acid, is known for its great skin nourishing benefits and to have both anti-carcinogenic and anti-viral properties.  It adds moisturizing and gentle cleansing qualities in addition to the fluffy lather it brings to your soap.  

SCENT CHANGES:          Milks impart little to no scent in your final soap.   

COLOR CHANGES:          Buttermilk creates a beige soap and coconut milk creates an off-white soap.

Simple Milk Soap Recipe

This is a basic cold process soap recipe which I prepared to demonstrate my technique of making milk soap without the hassle of frozen milk cubes, horrific ammonia stink and discolored lye mixture. 

Concentrated Lye Solution - Caution!  This amount of water is half the liquid typically used with this amount of lye.

-----

Lye Solution

Distilled Water                    210 grams

Lye                                      184 grams

*

Oils

Olive                                    516 grams

Palm Oil                               388 grams

Coconut Oil 76 °                  388 grams

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Milk - liquid form, room temp.

Coconut / Buttermilk           210 grams

Directions:

• Combine lye and distilled water, mix until incorporated.  Let cool to just above room temperature.
• Melt and combine all oils.  Let cool to just above room temperature.
• With your stick blender immersed into the oils and burped, slowly introduce your concentrated lye solution.  Continuously stir; blend in short bursts.  Because the lye solution is concentrated, the soap batter may not thicken consistently.  Don’t worry!  That’s normal.  Just keep stirring with occasional bursts of power until smoothly blended and you reach a light trace.
• Pour your room temperature (not frozen) milk in at a slow, steady speed while, continuing to stir and apply short bursts of power from your blender until fully incorporated.  Pour into your mold.   You’re done! 

Some other milks you can use (*indicates vegan milks):

Goat

Sheep

Cow (buttermilk, cream, half-n-half, sour cream, yogurt…etc)

Donkey

Yak

Camel

Human

Almond*

Coconut*

Soy*

Rice*                                                                    (*indicates vegan milks)

I think the seminars were fun and I was blessed with the most fabulous assistant, Tricia Samundsen (my Vanna White).  I received a lot of positive feedback from a bunch of attendees.  I hope I helped some people.  So here is to Leigh O'Donnell and innovation!

***

At the moment our company, Absolute Soap, isn't carrying straight milk soaps, but we have our Unscented Alabaster Handmade Soap (sea salt soap) that people love.  We are also a vegan soap company and will only be making coconut milk soaps in the future.  Later until Part 2!

Part 2: coming soon.....

I'm Soap Stamp Crazy

I have been wanting a stamp for my soaps since I started selling my own.  Back when I had my retail shop, I had one made for me.  It was metal.  In reality, the letters were too small and made it difficult to read in the soap.  So I've waited until now to get one, and I'm just not that pleased with my options.  I was going to buy from Anhoki's etsy shop, but she and her husband, John, decided not to make them anymore.  (waaaaahh)



I wrote a post way back when on personalized soap stamps, which you could read about if you wish.  I shared a number of artist's stamped soaps there which are definitely worth looking at.

Well, now, I am stumped.  I could order from Owosso or Soap Equipment, but I believe they are quite spendy .  I found Bebe's Collection, but they are in Taiwan and I wanted to have it SOON.  I really love their style, though, if I do a totally custom stamp, it won't matter what their style is because it will just be a quality issue.  Their stock stamps are really cute, though and very reasonable!  See?

Bebe's Collection

As I was searching yesterday, I found this:  Ballyhoo Bath has a DIY soap stamp tutorial, which I may try, but I don't have the steadiest hands.  Great tutorial.  Great pictures.  I think anyone who wants to try their hand at making their own should go to her blog to check out her step by step stamp-making technique.  Here are some pictures:

 

finished product of a DIY stamp.  Beautiful!! 

then the process..

As mentioned in her post, she also suggests going to Tortuga Soaps as well as Instructables for other tutorials so that you can make up your mind which way you want to go.  Every soaper/artist has their own idea of how they want to customize and what medium they want to work with.  I have admired Ballyhoo's soaps from afar since I found them on the internet a year or two ago (?...memory is going O.O)

Now, if I could find some time, I may try this, but in the meantime, I'd like to find a custom soap stamp maker that is in the US, so shipping wouldn't be outrageous.  Or take a million years to arrive.

I also found Soap Impressions.  They do alpha stamp sets and custom ones, so I shall peek into that, too.  The more I think about it, the more I HAVE to have one!

Here are some soaps I think are stunning with custom stamps and alpha stamps:

 Jenora Soaps

Inner Earth

Naiad Soap Arts

So there you have it.  My thoughts on the many ways to make a stamp and many places to get them.  What do you think?  Have you gotten one you love that I haven't mentioned?  

*

The 50 Best Tips for Small Businesses on Facebook

As a small business, you may have heard what a great tool social media, and Facebook in particular, is for a business like yours. Of course, you can't just plunge headfirst and expect incredible outcomes. Learn from these seasoned pros to find out how you can master your small business presence on Facebook.

General

Here you'll find great tips for all areas of Facebook.

1. Show personality: People want to interact with a real person, not a robot.
2. Commit to the idea: Know that connecting with customers can sometimes be hard work and take time, but it will pay off.
3. Manage your expectations: Set realistic goals for your social media work.
4. Be persistent: You won't see a great reward from Facebook right away, but by sticking with it, you'll be able to build an active customer base.
5. Import contacts: Import contacts from your email accounts to collect friends and fans.
6. Choose your target: Plan who you want to reach with your Facebook presence.
7. Create a vanity URL: Make your Facebook Page easy to find with a vanity URL.
8. Promote your Facebook identity off of Facebook: Put a "Like" button on Facebook, share it on your website, blog, and Twitter.
9. Get feedback: Ask fans for feedback on Facebook.
10. Give people a reason to engage with you: Post information that calls for interaction.
11. Make time: Set aside 30 minutes to an hour a day that you'll use to work on your business page.
12. Be careful not to violate Facebook terms: Learn about the Facebook platform and avoid violating terms by not running contests or tagging people without permission.
13. Don't get moody: Keep a cool head when posting and responding on Facebook.
14. Designate a social media updater: Find a specific person in your organization that will be responsible for updating Facebook.
15. Connect with existing customers: Instead of trying to use Facebook to find leads, build better relationships with your existing customers.
16. Don't just broadcast: Remember that you need to interact and follow up with fans who comment on your posts.
17. Don't sell: Be careful not to push sales on Facebook-use it as more of an interactive tool.
18. Don't overdo it: Don't spend hours upon hours a day maintaining and interacting on Facebook, just stop in once a day at most.

Pages

Use these tips to better develop your Page on Facebook.

19. Create a Page, not a profile: Separate your business page from your personal page and make a more interactive storefront with Pages.
20. Fully develop your page: Add images, your website, company info, and other items to make sure you've filled in all the blanks.
21. Post photos of customers and tag them: Make sure your business shows up on the pages of the best customers by sharing photos of them with personal tags.
22. Don't just post during business hours: Post to Facebook outside of business hours to get more feedback and impressions.
23. Do cross promotions: Ask clients to post tagged photos of themselves with your product and share them on your page.
24. Subscribe to other Pages first: Check out other pages to see how businesses add content and interact with fans.
25. Appeal to core clients: Identify the people that interact on your page the most, and work to share information and content with them directly.
26. Use participatory promotions: Target Facebook fans with participatory promotions.
27. Offer a forum: Turn your fan page into a place where customers can express themselves.
28. Share success stories: Ask your customers to discuss how you've helped them on your page.
29. Share exclusive content on Facebook: Give Facebook fans something they might not find on your blog or website.
30. End with questions: Generate engagement by ending your posts with questions.
31. Don't be boring: Mix up what you're sharing so it's not all status updates, or all photos, or all videos.
32. Build a Facebook landing page: Create your own mini website within Facebook by using FBML.
33. Send suggestions to friends: Facebook pages allow you to send suggestions to friends, so remind them periodically and when you connect with new friends.
34. Offer loyalty rewards: Reward customers for checking in, adding a "Like" to your page, or mentioning Facebook.
35. Add content before you broadcast: Before you add friends or advertise your page, be sure to add photos, videos, events, and other content to get new fans interested.

Apps

These apps and app ideas will help you make better use of Facebook's capabilities.

36. List events: With the Events app, you can invite clients and gather awareness for your event.
37. Integrate your Twitter feed: Install applications that will let you push your Twitter feed onto your Facebook Page.
38. Use Facebook Connect: Add social networking features to your website using Facebook Connect.
39. Add a store: Use Facebook's Marketplace capability to sell your product on Facebook.
40. Claim your business on Facebook: Make sure to claim (or create) a Place check in for your business.
41. Use the Questions feature: With Questions, you can engage your fans and get answers on your page.
42. Join Groups: Join network, industry, and alumni groups related to your business.
43. Encourage check-ins: Offer a special to customers who check in to your Place on Facebook, and you'll be in your fans' news feeds.
44. Syndicate your blog: Use apps that will allow you to auto-post to your Page any time you write on your blog.

Ads

With these tips, you can get the most out of Facebook's ad platform.

45. Tell people what's in it for them: Explain what you have to offer when people click your links.
46. Pay attention to targeting: Run campaigns with a very specific audience for a better price and relevance.
47. Check out the graphs: Facebook does a pretty good job of reporting impressions, so pay attention to how well your campaigns are doing.
48. Do lots of testing: Run tests and find out what really works for you with Facebook ads.
49. Time it carefully: Plan your campaign for a specific period of time, and one that you know will be well targeted.
50. Make your ads pop: Be irreverent and avoid traditional copy-speak to connect better.

This reprint is copied from bschool.com.

Thank you, Rose King.