Big congratulations to Elizabeth Hill from Handmade At Homestead for this wonderful TV spot. It ran throughout all of Louisiana this week. Check out Elizabeth’s site here and her blog here.
Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Filed Under: Business Musings
Big congratulations to Elizabeth Hill from Handmade At Homestead for this wonderful TV spot. It ran throughout all of Louisiana this week. Check out Elizabeth’s site here and her blog here.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Pomegranate & Black Currant fragrance is a deep fruity fragrance with just a tinch of tartness. With Pomegranate being the fruit du jour of 2008, it’s popping up in bath and body products more and more in 2009. This fragrance is tangy and sweet, all at the same time. Here are some blends to bring out either the tangy or sweetness in this fragrance. And if you have any other blends, I want to hear about them. The more ways we can find to make this fragrance unique and versatile through blending, the cheaper your products ultimately become.
1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Sugared Walnut
1 part Cinnamon Sugar
1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Smoky Patchouli
1 part Berrywine
1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part 10x Orange Essential Oil (or Energy fragrance)
1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Pepperberry
1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Peachy Keen
1 part Pomegranate & Black Currant
1 part Vanilla Select
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Lately, the entire team at Bramble Berry has been super busy trying to figure out where the hot trends for the upcoming seasons are. Right now, we’re planning for Fall of 2009 and Winter 2009/2010 but this post will discuss what’s right in front of us: Spring 2009. Since we usually only add six to eight fragrances per year, it’s important that we chose wisely and make sure we’re both on-trend and on-quality. One of the ways we try to do this is by melding the current global macro trends with color trends and design a perfume that will feel right for the season, the global economy and match the hot colors.
Courtney, one of our Customer Service Reps extraordinaire, sat down and interviewed me about fragrance trends to get more information on this aspect of our business.
Q: What do you mean by macro trends and how exactly do you find a macro trend?
A: A macro trend is a generalized term that refers to forces in the market that you cannot manipulate – a trend that you need to ride out. It takes things into consideration like demographics (populations, life spans, family groups), economics (work patterns, management and of course, the hot topic on everyone’s minds, the financial markets), environment (transportation channels, raw resources), government (world events, politics, regulation), society (lifestyle, leisure, culture) and technology (innovations). As a business, you want to be watching out for big trends to come through – like for example, the cupcake craze or global warming – and try to find places to capitalize on it. As a consumer, you may not realize why you all of a sudden have a craving for cupcakes or expensive cups of coffee but you do.
It’s the same way with scents. Certain scent will be super popular for a few years based on trends. For example, after 9/11, the nesting instinct was strong and very warm, comforting scents like Vanilla, Crème Brulee, and Sticky Toffee Pudding scents became very popular for a few years.
Q: Okay, so how do you find a macro trend?
A: You read, watch and listen. I personally subscribe to and yes, read 38 magazines a month – everything from Lucky magazine to Martha Stewart (of course!) to The Economist. I get about 10 business and financial magazines and the rest of lifestyle oriented like National Geographic or Fitness. I also try to read many of the top fiction and non-fiction books every year so I end up finishing anywhere from 1 to 3 books per week.
Once I see a certain trend that seems to be being felt on a global or US level, I’ll try to encapsulate that trend in a phrase or a feeling. So for example, on an easier one, things are very chaotic in the US right now with the elections just finishing, the economy and the uncertainty about strategy for a variety of US policies. On a global level, that’s being felt too as the world appears to be going into an economic slowdown.
Q: So, what do you do next?
A: Next, I start keeping my eyes peeled for what the home show is doing in terms of hot colors for appliances. 15 years ago, you never saw stainless steel for example, and now we’re seeing bright colors entering the kitchen on coffee makers, cookware and food processors.
Then, I pay attention to the car color launches. Those start coming out right around the NY Fashion week so it’s always interesting to watch the two move together.
And finally, the fashion, the fashion, the fashion! What’s not to love about looking at collections to try to see what colors are popping!
Q: Interesting. How do you turn that into a scent?
A: We are so lucky at Bramble Berry that we get to work with some of the top perfumers in the business, the people that are behind some of the major department and celebrity perfume launches every year. Once I have some ideas in my head about melding macro trends with color trends, it turns into a collaboration with the perfumer taking those esoteric ideas and feelings and turning them into a fragrance that personifies what I’d like to convey.
Q: How long does this take?
A: It varies by fragrance but it can be as quick as a month all the way up to about six months. An example is our Salty Mariner fragrance. That took almost six months in development from customer suggestion, formulation and testing. For every one of the 240 or so fragrances Bramble Berry carries, we have literally tested 100 fragrances for each and every one that we have for sale. Sometimes, a fragrance will go back to the perfumers for more reformulation and it never quite reaches its pinnacle so it won’t get added to our line.
Q: Okay, so now that we’ve covered that, tell me about what you’re seeing for Spring 2009 which is almost upon us.
A: Well, I’m seeing three really big trends coming up right around the corner:
Matching this up with colors, I’m seeing bright and cheerful colors like intense pink, bold turquoise and sunny yellow on some of accent colors for spring.
Patterns are also looking fairly ordered with straight lines and beautiful geometry. I’m especially noticing this in the home décor industries.
And the desire for a more simple, raw, sustainable lifestyle is typified by the hand died fabrics so more muted colors of linen, woven hemp and the like.
Individual notes that seem like they’re going to play a role in fragrance launches over the next few months and throughout the entire year are notes like:
Balance inspired ingredients
white tea, rice milk, olive flower, chamomile, hibiscus, rosemary, thyme, aloe
Natural botanicals & extracts
jojoba, angelica, peppermint, patchouli, geranium, vetiver, bergamot, sea kelp
Expect to see Bramble Berrytrying to come out with fragrances in the next year that work within the framework of these colors, notes and bigger macro trends. But the most important part is always the consumer. There’s no point in adding a fragrance that smells like “Sustainable Lifestyle” if our customers won’t like it so we’re always very mindful of the end user when we’re adding fragrances. You generally don’t see us adding twenty or thirty fragrances at a time just because they’re hot. A lot of thought, planning, and testing goes into any fragrance we add which is why we’ve continued to the bulk of our main fragrance line for over a decade.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
I just purchased the cutest, non-functional stationary! My staff is going to think I’m nuts because as far as I can tell, you can’t actually mail these cards in the mail. But, next time one of you gets a fun little prize box from me, you can get you’ll get one of these super cute, hand stitched cards from Bebe and Alice.
Also, this adorable postcard/card set from Saratams touched my heart because of adorable Kylie and Nicolas so I picked up a set of these little “Brothers” cards. As a bittersweet punctuation point, the purchased helped to benefit the Cora Paige Playground.
I’m excited to get these handmade cards in the mail because I am down to the last of my card drawerand have lots of thank you cards and greetings to write. For once, the cards aren’t letterpressed but they looked so fetching that I just didn’t care.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
Phew! It’s been a busy day with tax prep, warehouse space leases and lots of fun planning like the work you see below. We’ve figured out what’s going into our permanent line from the Limited Edition and that took a lot of numbers crunching.
All of these fragrance below are going permanent and making the leap from the Limited Editions to the Permanent Line.
Patchouli Dusk LE22
Cinnamon Sugar LE31
Fresh Zucchini Flower LE20
Orange Mocha LE30
Cream Cheese Frosting LE26
Sugar Plum Fairy LE07
Hello Sweet Thang!! LE24
Fresh Snow LE27
Kentish Rain LE17
Lychee Red Tea LE19
Smoky Patchouli LE23
Matcha Tea LE19
Moonlight Pomegranate LE21
To make room for these fragrances, we did have to discontinue just a few of our regular line – but not many! The discontinued fragrances are:
Ambergris, CybillaFO151
Sunset, Cybilla FO1974
Blue Bell IceCream, Cybilla FO187
Sensual, Cybilla FO167
Peach, Cybilla FO190
Romance, Cybilla FO196
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
All in all, the experience was a blast. I’m thankful for good friends, the opportunity to learn a new craft and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Superb graphic design. Fabulous texture. Decadent luxury. Cheeky message. The Obama Soaps delivered (literally and figuratively) and I love ’em! They came fully packaged in an adorable, happy and patriotic wrapper (think red, white and blue). The soaps pack a visually effective punch with great delivery on the product itself. The soaps smell strong and have excellent lather. Overall, I give this soap a 100% approval rating.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
We’re having fun coming up with a new line of colorants. The goal is non-bleeding, fun, and fruity looking colors that are affordable and easy (liquid!) to use. We started doing the bleed testing yesterday and so far the soaps are staying lovely and bleed-free. Phew!
Filed Under: Business Musings
Christy Rose: Right now, it is just me and my husband (when needed). We work well together. He is always there to label, package and help however I need him.
Anne-Marie: What are some of the things you outsource?
Christy Rose:Right now, nothing. We make everything down to the labels. It was important for me to have control over the look and feel of KBShimmer. So, for now, we do it all.
Anne-Marie: What’s your favorite ingredient to work with and why?
Christy Rose:Mica! Micas give my soaps such a shine and sparkle. The wide range of colors available, and the ability to mix easily, makes it a great choice to color my soaps.
Anne-Marie: How much practice do you think it took you to get the swirl that is so appealing in your soaps? Your multi-colored swirl is a serious piece of art.
Christy Rose: Thank you! I love color and I guess it shows in my work- LOL. When thinking about how I wanted my soaps to look, I knew that I loved the look of swirled soaps. There is something about delicate wisps of color throughout a bar that makes me happy. I tried layering using spoons to “swirl” the color. I tried pouring colors into my mold and mixing them. Neither attempt was what I was looking for. I then discovered “In-The-Pot Swirling”. I do this by pouring my colors into my pot with the base color soap before pouring the soap into my mold. This technique has helped me create the look I wanted. After dozens of batches, practicing with 1, 2 and 3 color swirls, I knew I could push myself and try for 6 colors. It was a nail bitter! I had to make sure that I used a fragrance that gave me time to work. I had to mix quickly to get everything thing into the mold, but I am very happy with the results.
Anne-Marie: Favorite Bramble Berry product?
Christy Rose: After your fragrance oils, hands down, LaBomb Colorants for my bomb bombs. They provide bold color, are easy to work with, and allow me to blend colors to my liking. I have tried other products, but now, will not make bath bombs without them!
Anne-Marie: Thanks for spending the time to fill us in on your fabulous and growing company. Your swirl soaps are out of this world and your Champagne Lip Balm is divine! Don’t forget to check out the KBShimmer Etsy store. This is Anne-Marie and KBShimmer signing off!
Filed Under: Business Musings
Anne-Marie: Is it a part time or full time job? How do you sell your products (example: farmer’s markets or Etsy)?
Christy Rose: Right now I do work full time in Real Estate, so bath and body is part time. I spend nights and weekends working on KBShimmer products. Right now, I sell on Etsy. I have done a few craft shows and have a booth in a local craft mall and product for sale at a local salon. I hope to grow my Etsy business and find more local venues to carry my products.
Anne-Marie: What’s your favorite thing about being self-employed?
Christy Rose: I love the flexibility of creating what I want, when I want. I can decide to spend the whole weekend working, or spend time with my family and work later. The internet has allowed small business owners, like myself, to not have to maintain a retail store- allowing us to be flexible with our time.
Anne-Marie: What was the most surprising thing (or the worst thing) about working for yourself?
Christy Rose: I guess the most surprising thing is how much pride I feel in my products. Every bar, every scrub, and every lip balm I create with my own hands and I want to present it to the public in the best way possible. Until you work for yourself, you may tend to forget that what you do matters. Others will use your product and you are not just a cog in the machine. That, in itself, is the best. When I am working on my formula, and I decide not to sell a batch because the colors are not right- I know that I am making the right choice. Quality matters to me and I hope it shows.
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
I was lucky to teach the Valentine’s Melt & Pour and Bath Fizzy class at Otion to a full house. There were many happy and excited women who all showed up to learn basic melt and pour with a Valentine’s theme. The next class at Otion is the Clamshell & Cameo Melt and Pour class on February 28 – suitable for beginners and advanced soapers alike. The photo above is the Rose Melt and Pour soap in progress.
We also made bath fizzies galore. There was lots of surprise and excitement over the low cost of producing a bath bomb (who can beat under $1 to make a smelly bath fizzy that performs the same or better than anything in stores?). All the attendees made perfect fizzies their first try and left with between 4 and 12 bath fizzies each.
The class made the Bath Fizzies with Rose Petals project (here). The Milky Way Heart Series really turned out great for the white nature of the fizzy. It looked very pure and clean. We finished off with the Martha Stewart Rubbing Stamping Soap project. Every single soap turned out beautifully. The class soapers left with a pile of soaps and fizzies.
As for me, I was completely blown away with the excitement and ethusiasm displayed by all the soapers. They energized me with their creativity and fervor for trying new things. I hope to see YOU at the next class.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Thank you everyone who sent cards and bath fizzies to Kyle Wylie and his big brother Nicolas in the last month (posts here, here and here). The cards and boxes brought him and his entire family hours of fun and joy. Kyle got so much mail that he even had some of his friends over one day to help him open his stacks of good wishes. It was a wonderful expression of everyone’s overwhelming generous spirits. Thank you for that.
Sadly, Kyle passed away on Saturday morning in the arms of his loving family. In the two years since he was diagnosed, Kyle has had many amazing experiences: Hawaii with his family, a cruise through the Caribbean with dear friends, Florida with his family, playing football with Jake Locker from the Huskies, honorary Sheriff for a day, a private ride in the Cat up at Mt. Baker and a fun trip to Arizona with loving friends. Throughout the entire two years, Kyle remained chipper, upbeat and unfailingly easy going. He was a favorite of his Doctors and Nurses at Children’s Hospital and provided levity and joy every time he visited.
Kyle will be missed dearly by all who knew and loved him. Please keep his family in your hearts, thoughts and prayers.