In preparation to open my shop (in February or March) I'm making and testing products. My husband is going to help me build some molds to make for treasure candles. I'm pondering blends for bath salts, melts or bombs, and also thinking of different soap scents. I have molds and various types of melt and pour soaps (goat milk, honey, shea, cocoa butter, etc) and various add-ins.
The soaps I made today (above) are:
- Chai soap with chai tea, ground cinnamon, cardamom, ground clove, freshly grated nutmeg, clove essential oil in a honey base (and some with a mixture of honey and shea base)
- The speckled soaps are pomegranate and raspberry green tea with rose petals and rose essential oil
- The white blossom soaps are orange-almond essential oils with calendula petals
- The dark olive green blossoms are chocolate-mint-spirulina (cocoa powder, spirulina powder, peppermint essential oil, grapeseed oil)
- The pyramids (with the tops flattened, that is) are chocolate-almond-orange (almond and orange essential oils and cocoa powder) and the remaining bars in the same color are the same scent
More soaps I made include lemon, euclayptus, peppermint with chia seeds and spirulina, sandalwood essential oil and cinnamon (ground and a tiny bit of essential oil), and spirulina-peppermint with organic peppermint leaves and sea salt (heart-shaped). I also made a similar scent in a heart-shape without the peppermint leaves and added cocoa powder in a swirl. I'm also considering embedding little treasures and toys in some of the soaps. Gemstones for adults and small toys for the kids.
The treasure candles I make will be a lot less involved scent-wise. I plan to make the scents very simple and accessible: orange, vanilla, lavender. That kind of thing. I need to decide on some affordable treasures to use (small tumbled gemstones, charms, etc)...and I have to decide what else I want to carry in the shop. Thinking...thinking! I wish there wasn't such a start-up cost!!
Many of these creations are experimental and somewhat imperfect, but many of them came out very well! I am going to package them all up, separating the various scents, and then my next projects will be to figure out the candles and the packaging/logo, etc. I'm trying to be thorough!
Oh, and feel free to put in your vote for another 1-2 products you think would be fun to sell. Bath salts? Bombs? Melts? Lotion bars? Something unrelated? Salves? Deodorant? All of these would be natural and handmade, of course.
Much Love,
MM
OMG I WANT TO BUY IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI love, love home-made natural things, specially soaps and lotions! They are so much better than anything you get in the market!
I'm excited just by looking at the pictures and reading all the 'flavors'! I want to try each of them, lol! :D
Personally, I think lotions bars and salves are good ideas! And I really love oil perfumes - small roller ball bottles with a scented oil you use as perfume. They're great because just a bit of it makes you smell good for hours, and it's all natural without alcohol and things like that.
Another nice experiment if you ever feel like trying is a natural repellent - the kind you spray yourself to keep the mosquitoes away! My aunt is a biologist (and a bit of an old hippie) and she makes them, they are wonderful!
I have the list of ingredients, but no measurements, but I can try to get a better recipe for you if you are curious... it's mostly a mix of certain natural oils and water. And much better than those chemical stuff that are basically cancer in a bottle.
I'm very excited about your products! Heart is jumping because I love this kind of thing! :D
Haha! I LOVE your response. Thank you for your enthusiasm!
ReplyDeleteI know...isn't it great to have homemade things? I've loved making things since I was a kid. I would make concoctions out of all kinds of weird things. I doubt they were any good at that time but it was fun. I decided, 'what the heck? May as well try to sell some...' I reserved this Etsy shop back in 2011, and I thought about opening it a year or so before that. So it's been in the works for almost three years now but I haven't made anything for it until now. And I'm going to use the entire month of February and maybe some of March too getting ready. There's a mercury retrograde in February and March so that's perfect for going over projects and refining them.
Yeah, I agree on the salves and lotion bars. I may have to move to bug sprays and other things too! I've seen some recipes online and such. That is so cool about your aunt. She sounds neat-o!! I saw some recipes for dog soap bars (shampoo and naturally bug repellent for dogs) that would be neat as well. The main problem is I don't have a ton of money and I have to prioritize...so I'm starting with just a few products and forcing myself to stop there until I make some money. Hehee.
Thanks so much for your excitement and input. I definitely appreciate it. It helps me stay on track.
I will keep you posted.
XOXO
I am intrigued by the chai tea one as I drink chai tea (without milk or sugar.) They all look good. I can't get in and out of the bathtub at the minute so I like soaps rather than other bath stuff. I have no idea what bombs and melts are.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are opening your shop. I hope you might paint a few things to sell too.
Thank you, Judith!! I love chai as well. This one was made with rooibos chai as well as chai spices and oils (ground cinnamon, freshly grated nutmeg, cardamom, clove oil, rooibos leaves, etc).
DeleteBombs and melts are also for the bath. Bombs are fizzy (they contain baking soda and citric acid as well as oils and some kind of scent), bath melts are more purely moisturizing.
Thanks so much for the lovely comment.
XOXOX
Fab pictures. The colour palette for your products is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteThank you good sir! I love the natural tints of things. The spirulina plus cocoa powder made a really interesting dark olive color that I like. I also want to experiment with beet powder and other natural tints.
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