Welcome to the new Soap Queen Blog. We are thrilled to share a happy new layout and easy-to-search categories for your convenience.
Search Results for: favorite cold process recipes
Always Better With Age
Fall Mash-Up
Flexy Fast Fall PumpkinsPumpkin Puree Cold Process SoapPumpkin Shimmer Eyeshadow
Thanksgiving Turkey SoapButternut Squash Turnovers
Fig and Stilton Square Recipe
Almond Biscotti Fragrance Blends
I love Milk and Cookeez
A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled upon the cutest website called Milk and Cookeez. I was so enamored with the cuteness factor that I bought some goodies that (thankfully!) came in the mail shortly after my splurge for practically instant gratification. I was so enamored with my purchases that I contacted Tammy (the owner) and she graciously agreed to a Soap Queen Interview. Yesssss!
Anne-Marie: Is this a full time or part business (or just a fun hobby)?
Tammy: I would have to say, it’s a full time job with part time pay. Having 2 websites, a blog, and keeping up with social media definitely takes time. Then adding in production, designing, and product sourcing- it takes at least 40 hours a week. I love every minute of it though and wouldn’t change a thing.
Anne-Marie: I love your website! Do you have any other outlets?
Tammy: Right now we are mainly focused on the website. In a few weeks I will be doing my first ever Holiday Boutique. I am anxiously awaiting my first real step at working in a shop. I also sell my products wholesale across the USA. Right now I sell my cupcakez in a local cupcake shop, a few different products in a All Girl Spa in NJ, a Gift shop in Laguna Beach, CA, and a pet spa in WI (it’s a people line).
Anne-Marie: Your bath cupcakez, cookeez and soaps are so detailed! How do you have time for it all? What type of things do you outsource?
Tammy: Thank you for the compliment. I adore details. To me details make or break products, whether they are bath and body, home décor, or fashion. Details are necessary. I must say that as I have grown and become more comfortable with what I do and learned a lot more, I have really added to my products.
As far as outsourcing, I don’t. It’s a bit of a “Type A” thing. I like control. Right now I am working with a wonderful Cold Process Soap Artist, Kristy from Kristy’s Lovely Lathers. She has designed and made my newest line, Sweeteez. Sweeteez is Milk and Cookeez self proclaimed, Signature fragrance. I make the “coordinating products” while Kristy makes the most luscious and beautiful, Sweeteez, Cold Processed Goats Milk Soap.
Anne-Marie: I loved your tub taffy and cookeez! How long did it take you to perfect these recipes and the look you were going for? I used the tub taffy the other night and felt super moisturized when I got out of the tub.
Tammy: Thank you again. Cookeez took awhile. As I mentioned before, I’m not a baker, so I had a few “not so good” batches before I perfected the recipes for all of the cookeez. I love the tub taffy. While it is a very monotonous task to make it, I love what it does for skin. Olive butter is a fantastic butter and I don’t ever see myself changing this recipe. It works so well and is so good for dry skin.
The look that I like is a bit of vintage, with a fun, whimsical feeling. I like to think back to things that I liked as a kid and bring them out in my work. The cookeez are packaged just like a bag of cookeez. I even buy my bags from a local Cake and Candy shop. The tub taffy is reminiscent of a day at the boardwalk in Atlantic City. I have fond memories of watching the taffy puller make all of the luscious salt water taffy then making a small bag of my favorite kinds (my favorite being Neapolitan).
Anne-Marie: Tell us about your new Ice Cream and Clean Bath Shoppe!
Tammy: Ice Cream and Clean is a “Cool division of Milk and Cookeez”. All of the products that are sold at Ice Cream and Clean are of a “cool” nature. We sell our beloved Scoopz and have now added a Scoopz on a Cone option. You can choose from 3 different soap cone fragrances to enhance your tub soak. They are a true bath experience; you can get “Ice Cream and Clean”. We also carry a wide variety of Soapylove’s Soapy Pops and our own Soapopz, which are our take on Soap pops. Finally, we offer Icy Slushy Scrubs, a combination of organic cane sugar, Mango & Shea Butter, and Melt and Pour Soap. They are individual sized mini Ice cubes that clean, scrub, and moisturize all in one. Ice Cream and Clean follows the same ideals as Milk and Cookeez: Yummy fun for you and your tub.
Interview with Arcadia Aromatics
Bramble Berry: Your photography is clean, professional and very artistically staged. Do you have any sort of art background or photography training?
Lisa: Oh my no. I’m such an amateur. I just do a lot of reading & researching. I’ve learned many tips & tricks about using natural lighting vs. light boxes and it’s helped me to fine tune the color and contrasts of my photo’s. I prefer to shoot images of my products using the ‘hero’ shot (a shot which shows product alone) rather than a styled shot (which uses other appropriate elements along with the product). There’s a great tutorial and how-to article on “The Storque” on Etsy here.
Lisa: You’d be surprised at how far my soaps have come in the 5 years that I’ve been making soap. The very first year I soaped, my bars were so small and skinny, it was embarrassing really. Again, through tons of reading until my eyes were bloodshot, I educated myself about fatty acid profiles (with the help of some VERY talented & more experienced soapers) and properties of oils and butters so that I eventually was able to formulate an incredible recipe for my soaps that made it easier to sculpt the tops of the logs after the pour. I’ve tweaked those recipes to perfection over the years and I’m happy to say that my current 3 soap formulas have been perfected and haven’t been tweaked in a very long time. Depending on the FO or EO used, some batches are thinner than I’d like, so it takes a little bit of patience to wait until the soap batter is thick enough to allow me to sculpt the tops. My trick? Simple, I use an ordinary kitchen whisk. Make the whisk your friend and you’ll be able to get very high whips, peaks and textures. I also purchased a ‘tank’ soap cutter from For Crafts Sake, which was made to my specifications. This allowed me to make sure my bars were all uniformly cut to a very thick bar. Everyone comments on the size of my bars. They’re quite large and heavy in comparison to most handmade soap.
I love to get creative with the tops after I’ve sculpted them, by using raw materials and ingredients that I feel compliment the name or scent of that particular soap. For example, on the cinnamon frosting soap, I thought that putting some cinnamon chips on the top of the soap after I’ve textured it, would be a nice touch that would draw the eye directly to that soap. It worked. Everyone loves that look and I’ve had other soapers ask me if it would be alright to try to duplicate that look themselves. Sure, I say…. “go for it.” There really are no original ideas, only the realization and fulfillment of an idea. Besides, every soaper puts their own twist on things anyway. Have fun, I say. Experiment, play around. That’s what’s so exciting about this craft, whether it’s just a hobby or your primary business. There are so many ways to do the same thing.
Bramble Berry:Tell us a little bit about your solid shampoo! The bars look great!
Lisa: Aaaah, my solid shampoo bars. One of my best selling b&b products. People love them because they’re extremely economical, great for traveling because there’s no leaky mess in a bottle to worry about, and they last forever. I could never understand the reason behind paying for a bottle of water (liquid shampoo). Such a waste. With our solid shampoo bars, there’s no waste, no bottles to clutter up landfills and you’re getting a product that not only is better for the environment, but it’s a fantastic product for the health and conditioning of your hair, if I do say so myself. You get a literal mountain of thick, creamy, foamy lather on your head with only 2-3 swipes of the bar. I’ve been going to an upscale spa for almost 10 years now to get my hair done and every time I go, my stylist remarks about how healthy & shiny my hair has become since I started making and using the solid shampoo and solid conditioner. It’s basically all the same ingredients that I would use in my liquid shampoo, minus the water. I use many different emollients for the conditioning that your hair needs, plus I add in the extra goodies like panthenol, hydrolyzed wheat protein and cocoa butter. The surfactants that I use are very mild and gentle and contain no harmful chemicals or sulfates. These solid shampoo bars will clean your scalp so well that you’ll be amazed at how fast your hair grows after consistent use of the product. We can’t even wait a full 6 weeks in between hair cuts in my household.
Bramble Berry:Your salt bar looks awesome! When do you add the salt? Is it a lot of salt? A little? Tell us more about the concept behind the bar.
Lisa:Much to my own surprise really, I can’t keep my salt bars in stock. They sell very, very well. I say that I am surprised because I didn’t think that my customers would really ‘get’ what the salt bar is and how to use it. It’s not a regular bar of soap, it’s not a salt scrub. It’s a combination of the two. You won’t get tons of lather like you do with one of my bars of soap. Instead, you’ll get a lovely white, milky, lotiony effect. You won’t feel a lot of scrubbiness, it’s not harsh or overly abrasive. Rather, it’s very much like a smooth river stone would feel if you rubbed that on your skin. It’s very smooth. But don’t be fooled by that, you definitely will be exfoliating your skin and you’ll notice a healthy, radiant glow after stepping out of the shower with just one use. The idea behind the salt bar has been around for ages, but I’m fortunate enough to know an incredibly talented soapmaker who lives in Denmark, that openly shared her methods and techniques to perfecting the salt bar. Of course being the formulating tweaker that I am, I couldn’t leave well enough alone after reading and researching about this type of bar, so I came up with a few extra ingredients that I add in with the salt, to help give the bars that extra ‘umph’. I have my own technique and methods for making these bars, but I’ll have to keep those a secret for now. Haha! But if you want to try your hand at making your own salt bars, I’ll give you a few hints: Use a high % of coconut oil, as this is one of the few oils that will actually produce a lather in a salt environment, calculate the total amount of your oils/butters (NOT including the water & lye) and then use equal amounts of fine dead sea salt (do NOT use the iodized). If the salt feels too coarse to you, just throw it in your food processor or grinder. You don’t want a powder, but you don’t want large, rough chunks of salt either. Always use the FULL water amount suggested by your favorite lye calculator and superfat your batch at least 10%. I superfat mine at 15%. I soap using the cold process method, but for this soap batch, I use the CPOP method. Be prepared to move fast, because of the high salt content and depending on your scent choice, these batches set up very fast. Stick the whole log into the oven at 170 degrees for 2 hours, turn the oven off and let the log sit inside the oven for an additional 3 hours. Once you remove it from the oven, you need to unmold and cut right away, otherwise the salt content turns the log into a hard, solid brick very quickly and you’ll be unable to cut the log into bars. Voila, salt bars! Hope that helps.
We’ll have Part II of the Lissa from Arcadia Aromatics tomorrow.
Interview with David from The Bubble Roome
Interview with David from The Bubble Roome
A-M: David, your flair for packaging is fascinating! Tell us about your background and how you got into soaps and toiletries.
David: I’ve been a graphic designer for 10 years, starting with print projects and then moving into web work. Around 2001, I was freelancing and was constantly looking for the next job. After 9/11 everything in the city kind of stopped for awhile and the job market for freelance seemed very inactive. So I began to think of ways to make money on my own terms, without sending out resumes and waiting for work. I had always been interested in Melt and Pour Glycerin soap, but as I began researching in bookstores I became very curious about Cold Process. I started test batches, then came up with recipes for 16 (too many!!) soaps, and began designing the labels not really concerned how or where they would be sold. It was a fun hobby that I had felt had retail appeal.
A-M: Are you working out of your home right now? Or, are you in a warehouse type space? We’d love details about how it’s set up.
David: I am working out of my apartment, and making my products in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen. I am so jealous of other crafters with the luxury of a garage or basement, but these limitations have caused me to be inventive and extremely organized. The kitchen is filled with Container Store shelving attached to the walls, with lots of labeled plastic containers for herbs and ingredients. One table with a blender and Cuisinart, and under the table 5-gallon buckets of oils. In a storage closet I have a 14-tray bakers rack that I bought for the soaps to dry on. Shipping boxes fill every nook and cranny and, the bane of my existence – styrofoam peanuts – litter the floor all over the apartment.
A-M: You’ve gotten some very heavy hitting press lately. Was Lucky a total surprise or did you do a guerilla marketing campaign to get all of your press?
David: I’ve been very lucky with the press I’ve received, but it is one of the benefits to being in NYC that you can have stores exhibit your work with magazine editors as their customers. One of the best blogs on the internet (designsponge.blogspot.com) spotted my soaps in her neighborhood store and when she wrote about them I got a lot of interest from other retailers as well as web orders. From that, the beauty editor of Teen Vogue asked for products for her magazine. Her friend is Christina Mueller, the beauty editor of Lucky, and that spread to People Magazine, and Bust, and so on. The Lucky piece was a surprise because it had been killed each month since November, so I just gave up hoping. Then I closed my site for reformulations and Lucky came out, and everything kind of exploded.
A-M: Do you notice any spike in sales when you get national press?
David: Definitely. Because I don’t really advertise, the press I receive is what generates the spikes. Lots of web orders, but even better, is the attention from other retailers who hadn’t heard of TBR.
A-M: What are your goals for your company?
David: I want to outsource my recipes to a reputable manufacturer because working in the kitchen is getting old (fast!). I also need a fulfillment center to handle shipping. I have a great rep company lined up to represent my work to retailers, but they were worried when I said I made the products in my kitchen. They felt that they wouldn’t be confident taking orders if I couldn’t fill the orders quickly. So if I want my business to grow (and I feel a rep company is the only way for that to happen) I have to produce larger volume with outsourcing.
A-M: Who are your favorite authors or mentors?
David: A key business book for me was “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber. It describes the common pitfalls of entrepreneurs and how to overcome them.
Susan Cavitch’s book “Soap Maker’s Companion” was a great start, though I feel it’s a bit too technical. A business model I have is Lisa Price of Carol’s Daughter, who also used to make products out of her Brooklyn kitchen, and due to being on Oprah is now a huge success.
A-M: Favorite fragrance?
David: In terms of designer fragrances, it’s Stella McCartney.
A really subtle rose that’s hip and elegant. And Lush’s Karma always makes me happy. My fave EO combination is Ginger, with Peppermint and Sweet Orange. My favorite Bramble Berry FO to the list. It’s Arabian Spice, and was used in one of my Brooklyn Slice Soaps to represent the middle-Eastern “Atlantic Avenue” neighborhood. Intoxicating and very popular.
A-M: Product from your line that you’re absolutely diggin’?
David: I’m working on a new Butter recipe with lots of botanical extracts, proteins and three kinds of butters.
A-M: Any last words of wisdom to cottage industry mavens out there?
David: Mainly it’s not too give up or get overwhelmed. When I walked by a Bath and Body Works I can get discouraged and think “why I am bothering. There are already 1000’s of bath lines out there”. But there is enough of the pie for everyone to have a slice.
Contact information:
david e johnston