I couldn’t resist dressing up Lily as a mini cupid for Valentine’s Day. This little girl has a straight shot into my heart, and thank you for being in ours this Valentine’s Day. We are grateful to have such an amazing community of soapers to talk soap, life and business with.
Archives for February 2014
Amethyst Garden Soap Tutorial + a Soap Swap Reminder
We’re midway through our Winter 2014 Soap Swap, and dozens of Swap boxes are arriving daily. If you’ve signed up and haven’t sent your box yet, you have until Monday, March 17 to get it to the Bramble Berry warehouse. You can send Swap boxes to:
Bramble Berry Inc.
C/O Soap Swap
2138 Humboldt Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
Soap Swaps are a fantastic way to practice your soaping skills and get inspired by fellow soapers. If you haven’t signed up, you still have time! Simply email to sign up. Be sure to include your name, the fragrance you’d like to use and what type of soap you’re making. If your soap won’t be cured into time to send in, that’s okay too. Simply include a cure date so the recipient knows when they can use it.
We hold swaps three to four times per year, and the best way to find out about the next one is to keep a close eye on the Soap Queen blog. We tear into every box that arrives to the warehouse. These are just a smattering of some of the fantastic soaps that have arrived:
Follow us on Instagram for more Soap Swap photos
And there are countless boxes still to come! The first swappers who send in their boxes will receive a mini handcrafted soap featuring one of my favorite new fragrances. Below is the recipe for the Amethyst Garden Soap, which will be included in every box that arrives to the warehouse early.
This is such a large batch of soap (12 lbs.) that you might want to scale it down to fit in a smaller mold. It would work wonderfully in the 18 or 9 bar mold, for example. This recipe contains 30% Palm, Coconut and Canola oil and 10% Avocado oil.
All Olive Oils Are Not Created Equal
Many soapmaking oils can be found in grocery store aisles, and after awhile it begins to beg the question — can you really use store bought oils in your soaps? While this may seem like an easy, convenient and inexpensive option, we did a little research to find out. What we found was sadly not surprising.
Cold Process Planets in a Melt and Pour Galaxy
This is a guest post from Otion, our a retail store in downtown Bellingham, Wash. This tutorial is similar to our Intergalactic Planetary Melt and Pour, but with a twist; the planets are leftover shreds of cold process soap, making this project a great way to give new life to old soaps.
Bramble Business Series: Navigating Pinterest
Within the past few years, photo-sharing website Pinterest has emerged as a haven for DIY-enthusiasts. With so many beautiful images and fun tutorials, it’s easy to spend an entire afternoon browsing. It’s no wonder then that is has also emerged as a full-blown way to successfully market and sell homemade bath & body products. We’re continuing our Bramble Business Series today with an overview of Pinterest and how to use it to your advantage.
White Thyme Essential Oil + Massage Cream Tutorial
You may already be familiar with thyme for its culinary uses — this slow baked salmon with lemon & thyme recipe, for example? Yeah, it’s to die for! Beyond the kitchen though, thyme also has a long history as a purifying plant and medicinal herb. Believe it or not, thyme was used by the Egyptians for embalming, by the Greeks as incense and in Europe in the Middle Ages to ward off nightmares. You can read more about thyme on its Wikipedia page here.
In soapmaking, White Thyme Essential Oil is a soothing scent that works in soaps, lotions and creams.
Our White Thyme Essential Oil is first steam distilled from the flowers of the plant which creates a red thyme oil. The re-distillation produces the more gentle white thyme.
She Sits
Little Miss Lily has fully gained control of her trunk and can actually sit and play. It is amazing and delightful and so nice. Of course, we don’t leave her on hard surfaces because she is prone to falling over and bonking her forehead/chin/cheek.
Facebook Photo of the Week (February 1st ~ February 7th)
Welcome to Friday, everyone! Hopefully you’re staying warm despite the insanely cold weather that has swept through many parts of the U.S (the Pacific Northwest even woke up to snow on the ground this morning). Even with the weather outside, this soap is bright and cheery Dandelion Zebra Cold Process tutorial and sure to liven up your soap lab and who doesn’t love a pink cupcake (which feature a secret ingredient)? Thank you for the amazing comments on the new soapy tools post. A few lucky people will find a brand new Silicone Tool Set on their doorstep next week. Expect to see more Bramble Berry customized soaping tools in the future.
Show Your Love week is over and ended with with a pink salt foot scrub tutorial and a blow out 15% off fragrance oils sale. That sale may have ended, but good news: today is the last day to use the LOVE30 coupon, which is good for 30% off every item in the Mini Heart Bath Bomb kit.
With a certain heart-themed holiday ahead of us, it’s all about pink this week, and the Facebook Photo of the Week is no exception. Take a look:
Dandelion Zebra Swirl
For everyone in the throes of the winter cold snap, today’s cold process recipe offers a little taste of spring. I made this Dandelion Zebra Swirl for a Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge. The colors are reminiscent of warm days, green grass and freshly sprouted tulips. The key to this technique is having a recipe that moves slowly and stays at a thin trace to get a beautiful layered swirl in the middle.
Getting the Dish on The Daily Scrub
Welcome to Wednesday, everyone! We’re giving you the momentum to finish out the week strong with an interview with Rachel of The Daily Scrub. Rachel’s positivity and excitement about soaping (and life in general) is infectious, and her creations match that enthusiasm. Her handcrafted soaps tend to feature her signature colorful soapy curls. Rachel has been a member of our soapy community for sometime, and last May she even won our Facebook Photo of the Week contest. Read on to learn more about this inspirational soaper — and her cute Boston Terrier pup Charlie!
Show Your Love: The Sale You’ve Been Waiting For
Our ‘Show Your Love week’ is almost over. We’ve enjoyed designing special sales, deals and tutorials and we’re not done yet! If phone calls into the office this morning are any indication, this is the biggie that you’ve been waiting for.
From noon Pacific Standard Time today (February 4) until noon Pacific Standard Time tomorrow (February 5), all fragrance oils at Bramble Berry are 15% off. Enter the coupon code SHOLUV88 during checkout to automatically receive the discount. Fine print: this offer does not apply to essential oils, the SoapyLove collection or fragrance oil sample kits. Yes, you can combine this discount with other offers and coupons (including the LOVE30 discount!).
It’s our way of showing you the love!
Show Your Love: Chocolate Chip Beet Cupcakes
While I try to eat healthy the majority of the time, it’s important to treat yourself every now and then. But if you can treat yourself and squeeze in a vegetable at the same time, why not? These rich, chocolatey cupcakes contain a whole cup of roasted beets, adding a subtle earthiness to their flavor. The frosting also contains beets, resulting in a striking hot pink color. When I brought these to the Bramble Berry office, they were gobbled up in no time. Some could not taste the beets at all, and one team member said they were the best cupcakes he ever had…success!
Show Your Love: Pink Salt Foot Scrub
Now that the SuperBowl is over, our Seahawks soaps made (congratulations to the Seahawks on your win!), it’s time to turn back to our DIY obsessions. Consider this a deluxe Sunday Night Spotlight — today we’re not only introducing you to the wonders of Pink Sea Salt, we’ve got a bonus foot scrub tutorial as part of Show Your Love. Read on to learn more about this versatile salt and how to make a nourishing scrub for yourself.
Pink Sea Salt comes in four different sizes: Coarse, Medium, Small and Extra Small. The coarse salt is great as a garnish on cold process soap or melt and pour, while the smaller sizes can be used in scrubs. Bramble Berry’s Pink Sea Salt is mined from salt beds in the Himalayan Mountains, and it is believed to be the purest form of salt available. You can find variety of tutorials using this wonderful salt on the Soap Queen blog. Some of our favorites include:
From left, clockwise: Coarse, Medium, Small and Extra Small Pink Sea Salt.
Show Your Love: Creative Packaging
Aside from actually making the products, one of the best parts of crafting is creating fun packaging to enhance your soaps, bath bombs or scrubs. As part of Show Your Love, we’re giving you a few simple ways to jazz up the bail jars that make great containers for the Mini Heart Bath Bombs or the Pink Sea Salt Foot Scrub (tutorial coming soon on the blog!).