New "Old World" Logo

Once again, I am re-evaluating my packaging. Months ago, when trying to find art to go with my logo, I stumbled across an illustration by Jason Lenox, who had had the perfect drawing for my logo. Before hearing from him, I started working on a logo, sans art. In the meantime, Jason got in touch with me and graciously allowed me to use his perfect illustration.

The old logo, although bright and cheery, wasn't going with the old world, English, handcrafted, rustic look of my soap, craft fair display etc., so I decised to be more true to my aesthetics and do another redesign.

I am pleased with the results and thankful to Jason for the artwork!
 
http://www.jasonlenox.com/

Holiday Bazaar!

 I had a fantastic time at my first ever holiday bazaar! I spent many fun hours making and packaging the soaps, and then coming up with display ideas. I was pleased with the outcome and received many compliments about the packaging and display. I sure am tooting my won horn, but seriously, I agonized over every detail!

I was on the stage of a large gymnasium at the bazaar. I could have had a better spot, but it worked out great. I sold more than I would have thought and had so much fun selling the soaps that I had put my heart and soul into making. It was so good to get positive feedback and rewarding knowing that the soaps will be gifted.

I was lucky enough to be able to borrow display materials from my work (Williams Sonoma). That helped save a lot of money, but I now know that that system worked great for me, so I can duplicate it.

I was also able to learn the scents that people loved. I sold out of Lavender Green Tea, Minty Fresh (a combo of Spearmint and Grapefruit essential oils...this sold FAST!), Almond Cookie (A combo of almond and Bramble Berry's Sleigh Ride),  Good Day Sunshine (Bramble Berry's Energy), Sandalwood, Oatmeal, Milk and Honey, Sleigh Ride (Bramble Berry's Woodland Elves) and Lemongrass. It was fun to see what people were attracted too.

People were not very interested in my melon soap. It is very pretty, but the smell was not most people's thing. Ocean Mist also hung around.

I am now so excited to take my earnings and reinvest in my little business venture! Stay tuned!

Soap Packaging!

Here are all the bars I will be selling and the packaging. I just wish I had better penmanship!

Soap Making Withdrawls!

Lemongrass essential oil soap

Green tea and Lavender with goat's milk

Goat's milk. no dye, no scent and heavy olive oil...I call this Baby's Bar because it is so mild.

Melon scented

Heather and Hyacinth. This one reminds me of Monet's sunsets.

I was so busy during the months of September-October making soap for my Christmas Bazzar, which is on December 1st. For a while, I was almost making soap daily in order to get it ready in time to allow a 6 week curing. I haven't made soap in almost a month and am going through withdrawals! I have used just about every supply I have, so now I need to make some money at the bazaar to re-invest.

In the meantime, I have been packaging like crazy (photos to come). This step was very stressful to me, as I have invested my heart and soul into these soaps, and I don't want the packaging to take away from the product, but rather enhance it. I am pretty darn pleased with the final packaging and look forward to showing it off in thre next blog.

This is going to sound crazy, but I think I will really miss my soaps once they are sold. They have helped to scent the house. I have enjoyed making them, smelling them, packaging them etc. It is satisfying knowing how many people will enjoy them once they are out of my hands, but I think I will need to make more right after the show to start a new adventure in soap making.

I plan to make a beer soap. Joe thinks it will be a big hit with all his beer friends. That will be fun! I also plan to perfect a perfect pumpkin spice soap to try to entice local family owned pumpkin patches to carry it in their retail stores. There are many possibilities, but for now, I am having so much fun learning the craft and starting my small business. 

Soap Crazy!

Sandalwood with Goat's Milk

Spearmint Grapefruit! Smells like mint gum!

Coconut Lime Verbena

Vanilla Select

Mayan Gold Plumeria. Smells AMAZING!

I have been making soap like crazy for my Christmas craft show on December 1st. I have been keeping things tame and haven't been experimenting much. I am super excited and hope that I can sell most of my soaps so I can make more!!! I LOVE soap making and am focusing on solid recipes, good scents and well crafted bars. I love the artsy side of soap making, but I want to master making a good smelling, pretty bar before I go too crazy! I do have some more experimental bars that will be at the show as well. Loving this time of year! Now I only have a few days left to make soap and then I have to be patient and let them cure!

My Rose turns 2!

The "Rose" of Lion and Rose turned 2! My Somerset Rose has been such a joy to us! She loves smelling my soaps. Sometimes she gets a little yo involved. Yesterday, right after I finished the final details of my Christmas tree soap and was taking photos, she dropped a huge blob of play dough right in the mold. I was not happy, but it was my fault for letting her get that close since soap is so caustic initially. Luckily I snapped the photos before the accident, so I have record of what it did look like. I was able to make a pretty good recovery though, and will post more photos once the soap is cut.

A big shout out to Anne-Marie of Bramble Berry who actually made a comment on my blog! This absolutely made my day since I have bought almost every soap making supply from Bramble Berry, including all the fixed oils, fragrance oil and colorants used in the soap above!!! I love Bramble Berry!

Another shout out to the lady on Craig's List who tired making soap once after purchasing over $500 worth of equipment. Her loss is my gain because I got an amazing selection of new molds, books, oils, a scale, lye etc. for $100! I am over the moon about this purchase!!!

Business Card!

I made my first business card so that I have them to give away at the Christmas Bazaar. Oh yeah....I got a table at the Garden Home Rec. Center's Christmas Bazaar. Apparently, it is a difficult craft show to get into, so I am thrilled! I am just waiting for my soap supplies to arrive so I can make some awesome soaps to sell!

New Logo and Packaging

Here we go again! This should be a design site, not a soap site! So, the good news is that I got into the local Christmas Bazaar that I was hoping too. That makes this much more real and I need to make cost effective, yet attractive packaging. I have designed a cigar band that will go around the soap. The colors may change, but I like the basic design, so I think I will stick with this. I tried to have Christmasy colors, but like I said, these will probably change. All in all, I like it! Yeah! This should be a cheap and easy packaging solution.

Also, there is a new logo. All the fonts are the same, but I simplified the frame. I think this looks better.

Newest Logo

Here are a few prototypes for my newest logo. As a former graphic designer, I am a bit obsessed with this part. I want to give the logo a classic, timeless feeling. I tend to gravitate towards vintage inspired looks, and this style goes well with the name Lion and Rose, so I think this will be it! I plan to hand write the individual soap bar names to save on cost, plus, I think it adds to the hand crafted look of the soap.

Cloud Soap

Wow! This soap smells amazing! It's made with a fragrance oil called Fresh Snow, but I think it smells like fresh laundry....very clean.

When I started making this soap, I was trying to make a peak in the center to resemble a mountain. The idea was to make a snowy mountain since the scent is called Fresh Snow.  When my husband Joe saw the bars, he said they looked like clouds, which I thought was awesome, since they smell more like fresh air than fresh snow. Yeah for happy accidents!

With this technique, I use a line of cocoa powder to distinguish between the 2 layers. I learned about this technique from one of my favorite soap artists, Emily, from Shieh Design Studio. Please check out her sight...it is amazing!: http://soapandrestless.blogspot.com/

I am considering naming this one Ozone since it is described as an ozone type scent.

.When you have a lemon, make lemonade!

 After

Before

I was trying some advanced layering techniques with new colors and the results were icky. The soap was ashy looking and brittle and an all around mess...yuck! It just kept getting uglier and uglier! Every time I saw it curing, it made me sad and since I always want a new soap project, I decided to rebatch. This required me to shred the loser soap with a cheese grater, melt it down and re-pore it is a mold. I added milk, powder milk and a bag of spiced cinnamon tea for smell and texture. The scent sure has stuck, much to my husbands dismay. It is called Energy and is one of Bramble Berry's most popular scents, but he thinks it smells too much like Tang. I am happy with the results and think this will now be a usable batch of soap!!! Yeah for 2nd tries.

Recent Soap Bars

 Christmas Soap, scented with spicy, citrus notes.

 Christmas Soap, scented with spicy, citrus notes.

 Oatmeal, Milk and Honey

Tea Tree shampoo bar