Small Business Saturday 2014

For last year’s Small Business Saturday, I focused on local & family owned business, and this year I want to focus on small businesses owned by women, and some of their supplies that really stand out.

Nurture Soap Supplies not only has beautiful cold process soap stable micas, but the owner, Carrie, has also posted a handy mica color comparison chart (in CP soap) on her site.  She has some really lovely pink micas.  Pink Lemonade and Fandango Pink really stand out as unique from the other pink micas I have.

Magic Rainbow-use NSS’s Fandango Pink,and Vibrance Green and & Orange.

Patchouli-use NSS’s Pink Lemonade, Dazzling Blue, Sunshine Yellow, & Mantis Green.

Mad Oils has something I’ve never seen any where else-Lemon Extra Essential Oil.  When I placed my last order with them, I was curious if it would smell different from Lemon 5 Fold, and they were kind enough to send me a sample to try.  I love folded Lemon which smells like lemon candy, but Lemon Extra smells like fresh squeezed lemonade!  I’m currently testing it CP soap, and so far 3 weeks later, it is holding strong.  I also really love their Bazooka Jo pink mica.  It’s a lovely pastel pink that is almost iridescent in CP soap.

Pastel Citrus Rainbow-uses Mad Oil’s Bazooka Jo mica

Wholesale Cosmetic Pigments has the most beautiful white mica I’ve ever seen!  It doesn’t add any color, but it will make your other micas glitter like never before.  I’ve used their Glitter Pearl Mica in almost every Christmas soap I’ve made this year to add an “icy” effect to the colors.   I wish it showed up better in pictures, but trust me when I tell you I got a lot of “Oohs” & ‘Aahs” at the craft festival I did this Fall when customers saw how sparkly my soaps where this year.

Peppermint Stick-uses Wholesale Cosmetic Pigment’s Glitter Pearl

Last, but not least is TKB Trading.  I had given up on using Titanium Dioxide in soap since no mater what I did, I got little white speckles.  Then I came across their Lip Liquid-TD predispersed in castor oil, and now I have white soap with no speckles!  I love this TD in castor oil so much, that I went through a 4 oz bottle in less than a month, and I reordered their 16 oz bottle to make sure I didn’t run out anytime soon.  I also like to use their Black oxide predispersed in castor oil to darken black and gray micas.

Mojito-uses TBK Trading’s Lip Liquid-Pigment White

Remember to support your favorite small business, and thank you for supporting mine!

Drop Swirl Soap Challenge Club

I was looking for a new design technique for an all patchouli scented soap.  I wanted a design that would be reminiscent of hippy imagery or at least of hippy imagery that I had seen in reruns of old shows from that time period of Bewitched, The Partridge Family, The Brady Bunch, etc.  I came across Amy Warden’s Soap Challenge Club during my research, and I knew I found the perfect technique that would look groovy and far out!  Since this was a new technique for me, I decided it was best to practice by making a couple of batches of soap that did not include pachouli.  The patchouli I used is very special since I aged it for 5 years, and I did not want to waste it on a failed batch of soap.

Both of my “practice” batches are scented with citrus essential oils since they have never caused any acceleration in my soaps and would give me plenty of time to do the drop swirls.

The first one is a blend of orange and grapefruit with a touch of lime and litsea cubeba since I find both really help to “anchor” other citrus essential oils.  I think I poured the soap batter at too thin of a trace to be a good representation of what a drop swirl should look like, but I still really like this soap and think it’s really pretty.  It was my hubby’s favorite.

Next is my patchouli soap.  Although the soap thicken so fast I thought I was going to end with soap on a stick, I did manage to get it into the mold.  The soap did not look like the drop swirl I was going for, but I think it turned out really groovy.  I used colors that were very popular in the late 60’s and early 70’s-avocado green, dark yellow, cherry red, sky blue all to hopefully evoke a memory of all things hippy.  There was a really neat surprise inside two of the bars….can you see the partridge?

Here’s a close up.

Next was the other “practice” batch I did.  It was my favorite, and the one I am submitting for my entry for this month’s Soap Challenge Club.  It’s scented with an essential oil blend of bitter almond, lime, manuka, and a touch of ginger and vanilla.

I really enjoyed this Challenge and will hopefully do it again soon.  It was so neat to see what soapers from all over the world were making.

How buying Evelyn Rose Soaps helps support other small, local, and family owned business

Small Business Saturday got me thinking about how every purchase of Evelyn Rose Soaps helps to support other small, local, and family owned business, and I wanted to tell you how and spotlight a few of these companies.

All Evelyn Rose Printing (business cards, banner, T-shirts, labels, etc) is done by Crazy Native in Douglasville.  They are owned and operated by a great husband and wife team, and they do awesome work.   I just ordered new soap stamps last week, and once they come in, all of our future soap packaging will be 100% recyclable.   We are really excited to phase out the old labels and have these beautiful stamps for our back label (ie the ingredients in each bar) in addition to the front logo stamp and contact info stamp we already use.   Since our soaps are 100% natural and green, we really wanted our soap packaging to be the same.  Plus they just look so great!  Even if you are not in the Douglas or Paulding county GA area, you can still check out Crazy Native on-line.   They go to show you don’t have to use a large national printing company to have beautiful and professional printing done.  Support mom and pop companies!

A great local Atlanta soap supply company is Soapgoods.com.  I have seen this company grow from just a one man operation to several employees.  This was the very first company I ever bought soap supplies from, and a few years ago, after badgering the owner for months (I’m sure I wasn’t the only one), he allowed for local pickups…yah!   This works out great since their warehouse is just a few miles from my chiropractor’s office, and this means I don’t have to pay for shipping.  Then I can pass the savings on to my customers.  A win-win!

Next on my list is Lebermuth Company.   This is a family owned and operated essential and fragrance oil company that has been in business for over 100 years.  This is were I get all those great certified 100% natural fragrance oils, and I also use their essential oils too.  I just love them.  Not only do they have a extensive selection of natural products (I only use natural ingredients), but they also have a great customer service team.  Brynne Spiritoso is my favorite customer service rep there….I just love her, and she is great!  It’s also great that they have small samples you can purchase and try out in a small batch of soap since they sell all their oils by the pound.

Last, but not least, is Brambleberry.   They are another small company with great customer service, and not only do they have a huge selection of raw ingredients for soap makers, the company’s owner, Anne-Marie Faiola, runs a helpful blog with great ideas and solutions for troubleshooting soap issues.   It’s always great to get new ideas, and even if I don’t end up using what’s in her post, they still help to get the creative juices following, and help me to think about other designs I want to do with my soaps.  Their site also contains helpful (and free) soap and scent calculators that you have to pay for elsewhere.  This saves me money, and I can pass it along to my customers.   

I just can’t say enough about these four small companies, and I really love doing business with them.  Every time you purchase one of my products, you are indirectly supporting them too.

Below are some of my soaps I have created using products from the companies I bragged on above.

 

 

Don’t forget to check out my Etsy store to purchase your soaps today! 

Also, “like” my Facebook page (not just the posts, but “like” those too since it gives me feedback on what you want to see more of) to get an entry into our Facebook give away contest.  We are giving away a $20 box of our soaps once we get 200 “likes” for our page(not the post).  You can get up to 3 entries for “liking” our Facebook page, following this blog, and making a comment on this blog.  If you have already done this, don’t worry your are entered into our contest, but please send me an email (evelynroseproducts@gmail.com), with your contact info in case your win.  I want to make sure I can contact you if you do.  

Here’s the soap we are giving away for our Facebook contest.