Spa Gift Basket Supplies

In another post, I talked about how to encourage others to purchase more for you, thus resulting in higher sales/person. Another idea is to create custom one-of-a-kind spa gift baskets. What can you put into your spa gift baskets?

soap
bath salts
body butter
lip balm
massage oils
loofah sponges
netted poof scrubs
washcloths
small hand towels
coffee
flowers (I'd use artificial)
tea
biscuits
any type of organic edibles
and so on...........
I'm sure you can think of many good ideas. You can theme the baskets and add the specialty products for that theme.

One resource that I will recommend for spa gift basket supplies is Quinessence. They offer products that can help you expand your product line to create beautiful one-of-a-kind gift baskets. I do a lot of soap with Fragrance Oils because so many of my customers love them. But they also love good quality Essential Oils (especially lavender). Aromatherapy is very beneficial and many customers want those benefits. So you can list your features and ingredients in your products, but be especially sure to list the benefits -- THE BENEFITS SELL THE PRODUCTS!!!!!!!

If you know of a good business to add to my blog directory that is in the spa gift basket supplies area, please leave me a comment and I'd be happy to get their link on my website!

Remember, you can use aromatherapy benefits to sell your soap! And if you need any help learning to make soap check out my website at How to Make Soap.

How to Make Lip Balm

If you are looking for an even easier recipe for how to make lip balm than my previous recipe look no further. This is a great lip balm recipe that I sold by the masses.

How to Make Lip Balm:

2 parts sweet almond oil
1 part beeswax

Melt the beeswax in a 2 cup pyrex measuring bowl in the microwave. Then incorporate the sweet almond oil. You can add sweetener and flavoring (see previous post for more information regarding those and more complete instructions). Pour into containers and let set up. It really couldn't be any easier.

My friend that I talk about on my website How to Make Soap who let me watch her make soap tried this recipe and wanted to know the secret of my recipe. Her recipes were more sticky and not as moisturizing. I told her the ingredients and she couldn't believe how simple it was. Try this recipe and you will see for yourself!

Make Shea Lip Balm

Would you like to make shea lip balm? I have a very easy recipe that is nourishing and moistuirizing. You can make shea lip balm in any size amount because I am going to give you the proportions for making any size batch you want. Here is the recipe:

Shea Lip Balm
1 part sweet almond oil
1 part shea butter
1 part natural beeswax

Instructions:

Melt the beeswax and shea butter in microwave in glass microwave safe bowl (use a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup). Once they are melted you can add the sweet almond oil. I like to purchase lip balm sweetener and flavor oil from Sweet Cakes for my lip balms. They also have containers for your balm. You can use the small white tubes because many people like them. However, Sweetcakes also sells clear lip pots. I LOVE the way the lip balm looks in the lip pots!
You can add a cosmetic grade pigment to color the lip balm from The Pigment Lady. Don't add too much pigment, because unless you add additional ingredients the pigment tends to settle at the bottom of the lip color before it is cured. I like to keep my lip balms simple with fewer ingredients, so I just go for soft colors with the pigment.

You can pour the lip balm directly into containers from the measuring cup. Do this quickly before the balm sets up. If you have lip balm setting up, just throw it back into the microwave again until is it re-melted. One tip for pouring into the lip balm tubes -- use masking tape to tape several of the tubes together. This keeps them upright (they like to tip over) and makes for fast easy pouring. Be sure to pour the lip balm into the tube until it is very mounded on the top as the balm tends to settle once it cures.

Lip balm cures quickly in relation to soap. Overnight will do the job.

If you would like soapmaking help, you can check out my website at How to Make Soap.

Why Do Customers Buy More at a Lower Price?

Have you ever noticed that customers will buy more when you give them a deal? Why do customers buy more at a lower price?

I have noticed that grocery stores offer "deals" all the time. For instance they don't say everything is a dollar. Rather they will say 10 for $10. Even though they usually give you each item for $1 whether you buy 10 or not, the suggestion of 10 for $10 usually gets people to buy 10 and not just one or two. Why do you think this is?

I will give you my reason for this. In today's economic condition, I will always buy more at a lower price if it is something consumable, so that I don't have to buy it again next week at a higher price. (For more information on our economic condition you can visit my husband's financial website at Economy Carberator). But if I get to thinking I need to buy ten to get that price, then I will buy ten to get that price.

So I ask you, how are you doing in your sales this week? Do you need to get things going? It's a perfect time to get rid of some extra soap that may be laying around and offer a deal. What kind of "deal" can you offer? Some suggestions would be
buy 5 bars of soap and get an extra bar for FREE
put a soap package together where YOU get to choose the soaps (include one or two that didn't sell super well) and sell the soap package for special price. This is especially a nice idea for Mother's Day ( we are already past Valentine's Day)
Offer ALL customers a punch card where if they buy X number bars of soap they get one or two free. This can help build new repeat customers. If you are at a craft show and someone buys a few bars of soap from you and you give them a punch card and punch the card for them, they will very likely call you again (be sure your co. info is on that card!) Give your customers EXTRA punches when they buy five bars or more or a soap package from you at one time.
Give your customers an incentive if they sell a soap package for you. You know how those direct selling companies have "outside orders only types of classes"? You can offer a "hostess" a free bar of soap for every soap package she sells for you. You give the hostess a form that each buyer fills out so you can follow up with them and add them to your customer base. Make sure your form asks for name, address, phone number, and email. Also, helpful, if they are purchasing for a gift or for themselves.

I am sure you can think of even more incentives to get customers to buy more from you than just one bar of soap. I would love it if you would post your ideas in a comment. We can all help each other grow our soap making businesses.

Check out my website at How to Make Soap.

Lavender Lotion or Bath Salt

Lavender is one of my favorite essential oils. It is known for many qualities, but perhps it is best known to have a relaxing and calming effect. I love goatmilk lavender and oatmeal soap and also lavender lotion and bath salt. You can create your own lavender lotion or bath soap with many recipes that are on-line for free. But I would recommend that you purchase your lavender essential oil from Camden Grey.

This company has a very good reputation among soap makers and I have been using their Lavender Essential Oil for many years -- it's wonderful!!! It is also excellent for using in lavender lotion or bath salt. If you need a good recipe for a lotion or bath salt, post a comment and I'll get a few listed here. If you already know how to make lotions and bath salts but would like to try making soap, visit my website at How to Make Soap.

All Natural Unscented Lotion for Mixing

Many of you know that I stay away from making lotion to sell. It is because of the rules involved with the FDA. Lotion is considered a cosmetic and there are a TON of regulations when it comes to cosmetics (and I would hate to have my business shut down).

I have however, made lotions for myself and my family. Lotions are easy to make. There are recipes with lots of exotic ingredients and there are simple recipes. I tend to favor simple ones. I found a recipe for an all natural unscented lotion for mixing. You can click on this link here to read it.

It is not specific about the type of oil you use. I guess I would tend to use sweet almond oil (it's my favorite in lotions and lip balms). I plan to make some up, but if you beat me to it, post a comment and let me know what you used and how it turned out!

Check out my soap making tutorial at How to Make Soap.

How to Remove Soap Scum

The key to managing soap skum is to realize how it forms. Soap skum is caused by the presence of hard water. Hence, soap skum is greatly dimished when you have soft water. This is due to the fact that hard water does not lather soap well. So when you try to lather up in the shower, you are actually using way more soap than you need. The excess soap creates the skum. Additionally, the minerals in the hard water also are deposited with the soap resulting in a skum that may be difficult to remove.
There are many different cleaners on the market, but many contain chemicals that I do not want to breathe, and I definitely do not want to expose my family to. If you prefer to make your own, try the following recipe:
Mix

½ cup vinegar

1 cup ammonia

¼ cup baking soda

1 gallon hot water

Wear rubber gloves and work in a well-ventilated area when using this powerful solution. Apply it to your shower walls with a sponge. If necessary, scrub with a brush to remove all the skum and rinse well.

The secret is....... to let any solution work before you start scrubbing. For heavy buildup, it can take 15 minutes or more for a solution to penetrate and soften the skum, so wet it down and leave it to soak. You may have to re-wet it from time to time to keep it moist. Once it has softened, scrub it off with a stiff brush or white nylon-backed scrub pad, and rinse.

Never mix laundry bleach with ammonia. A chemical reaction will produce toxic gases.

With soap skum, prevention is the best solution. Fiberglass enclosures can be waxed with automobile wax after cleaning to leave a slick surface that helps repel soap skum and hard water scale. However, do not wax the bottom of your shower or tub. It will make it too slippery. Ceramic tile can be wiped down with lemon oil for the same effect. It is also a good idea to use a window squeegee to whisk the water off the walls before soap skum has a chance to stick.

I hope these ideas and recipe help you in your quest: how to remove soap skum.

For a great soap that never makes your skin feel dry and itchy after showering, check out my website at How to Make Soap. You can learn how to make fabulous soap with your very first batch!

Thanks to http://www.solutions.psu.edu/ for information on the content of this article.

What Soap Ingredients Can I Grow?

In the last post I talked about a lot of ingredients I like to use in my soap. Many of them are costly, so I asked myself "What Soap Ingredients Can I Grow?" A few that I have grown in my garden are:

lavender - In Wisconsin, many varieties are not perennial, so I tend to re buy this plant a lot.
calendula - This plant is part of the marigold family and it is prolific. It self seeds!!!!
poppies - You need to grow a special variety to harvest seeds. I had trouble getting this one started.
loofah - Gourd family plant that has a long, long growing season. Loofah is the dried inside membrane of the gourd.

You can also grow herbs that you can infuse into your olive oil. I have infused St. John's Wort, Lavender, and there are many others that you can use. Herbs are easy to grow and can be grown in a window sill or in a small container on a patio.

It takes some advanced planning and time to be able to use your own ingredients, but it is worth it! Even though you may not be certified organic, you can let people know you grew your ingredients in your soap without chemicals.

As you browse through all the seed catalogues that are arriving in the mail, ask yourself, "What Soap Ingredients Can I Grow?"

You can learn how to make soap at How to Make Soap.

How to Make Cow Milk Soap

I have had people interested in making milk soap and they have asked me about my process, but what they really wanted to know is if they could substitute cow milk for goat milk. I live in the dairy region of the great Wisconsin dairy state, so it would not be out of the question to ask how to make cow milk soap. Quite simply, you can make soap as easily from cow milk as you can from goat milk. The key is to have a good recipe to start with and know how to incorporate the lye so your milk doesn't curdle.

You can read my story about getting started in soap making at How to Make Soap. The on-line or DVD soap making tutorial can help you learn how to make cow milk soap as easily as many have learned how to make goat milk soap.
Cow Milk isn't identical to goat milk, but I think any milk soap is far superior in nourishing qualities than non-milk soap (that's just my opinion, not a fact -- as there are some pretty nice non-milk soaps out there).

Homemade Goat Milk Soap Special Ingredients

We already discussed how you can turn any recipe into a homemade goat milk soap recipe. But what special ingredients can you add to your goat milk soap to make it unique and different from other soaps? A few ingredients I like are:
poppy seeds
dried orange peel
dried calendula petals *
dried lavender flowers
oatmeal (baby food kind *)
seaweed *
loofah (luffa)

I like using these ingredients in my homemade goat milk soap. But you have to be careful. Less is more whenever you add anything in your soap that will make it abrasive or exfoliating.

The very first coffee soap I tried to make, I put actual coffee grounds in the soap. That soap was SO bad. It was rougher than Lava Soap. I through most of it away. That was my first lesson in "less is more." I know I re-learned that lesson several times and now have a handle on that issue. Most folks want a creamy bar of soap on an every day basis. But a few cool, gently exfoliating soaps are definitely sure to be good sellers.

I marked with an asterisk the items that do not cause abrasion in your soap. Be creative and have fun experimenting!

Please check out my website at How to Make Soap.

Using Color in Cold Process Soap

I have been very happy with my results in using color in cold process soap. There are many ways in which I use colour. I will list a few that I am very happy with.
Spices - Spices are natural and can give some lovely soap colors. I have used curry for yellow soap and paprika for peach coloured soap.
Pigments - Pigments are also natural. I have used many of these colours, but you must know which ones are good for cold process soap. Some colours (like the blue) do not work in cold process soap, so be sure you ask before purchasing. I especially like gold mica, green mica, and crimson mica.
Food - Cocoa powder is an ingredient I have used for marbling or swirling a small portion of the soap into the rest of the soap - very pretty. Milk is an ingredient in soap making which turns the soap a lovely brown colour. Vanilla fragrance is an ingredient in many different Fragrance Oils which will turn your soap brown. Be sure to read FO descriptions carefully. I have been surprised several times when my soap turned brown from the FO and I wasn't expecting it to. The results were very nice, but not what I had expected.
Synthetic colors - There is a whole array of color here. These personally are not my favorites, but sometimes I will use one to get a special effect. I really dislike hand crafted soaps that are flourescent - like fuschia and bright blue. They just look fake to me. But using these colours sparingly in a few bars may give you a wider variety in your soap booth. I would have to say, however, that my top twelve soaps are made without using these kinds of colours.
Using colour in cold process soap doesn't have to be a daunting task. Just be sure to inquire if they work well in cold process soap before you try them.

For more information on making soap you can check out my website at How to Make Soap.

Homemade Goat Milk Soap

You can take any basic cold process soap recipe and turn it into homemade goat milk soap. How do you do this? You do this by substituting goat milk soap for the water.


If you check the MMS Lye Calculator at you will see that they do not recommend any change in the recipe for liquids if it is water or milk.

I also checked the Columbus Food Lye Calculator and there is no change in liquid amounts for milk versus water there either.


More lye calculators can be found at:

Cranberry Lane

and

Brambleberry

I have successfully substituted milk for water in all of my recipes and never had any trouble. So making homemade goat milk soap will be easy if you take an existing recipe that you know will work and substitute the water for goat milk. If you have tried this already without much success, I would recommend that you view my video. I will lead you step by step through more than one way to create goat milk soap. You can view an introduction at my website How to Make Soap.

Gingerbread Hand Soap

It's never too early to begin planning for your next years' soap specials. One soap that I am planning to make is Gingerbread Hand Soap. I plan to make a goat milk soap (which will naturally turn a lovely shade of brown). Then I will take a small gingerbread man cookie cutter and cut out a gingerbread man from the bars while they are still soft. Make sure you do this right away when you cut your bars, or the soap will get to hard too slice through with a cookie cutter. You can actually slice your soap a little thinner for this soap. You'll get more bars of soap to sell and they will be easier to cut.

I haven't really determined if and how I am going to attach some decoration to the soap (like a smiling face and some rick rack on his hands and feet). Any ideas? A good fragrance would be Christmas Spice from Sweetcakes. There may be a better gingerbread FO, but I have never used this fragrance before. I really try to stay to fragrances I know will sell so I'm not sure if I will venture to try something new. If anyone out there has experience with a gingerbread fragrance, let me know in the comments.

Well, I guess I will dream "visions of sugar plums" tonight and perhaps I'll be inspired to think of a few other "cookie cutter soaps." I guess that will be another post!

Also, I have never done this kind of soap before because itinvolves "waste" in your soap. I have never been fond of rebatching, so if there are any ideas on what to do with the scraps -- I'm all ears.

Please visit my website at How to Make Soap.

Starting a Soap Making Business

Feb. 12, 2008 - Starting a Soap Making Business
So you are thinking about starting a soap making business. What do you need to know to be successful. First, you need to be prepared to work hard for several months before you begin to see the money come in. Here are a few reasons why this is so.

You will need to gather your equipment and supplies.
You will need to make your soap.
You will need to let it cure.
You will need to get it packaged or get it ready for the point of sale.
You wll need an outlet to sell the soap.
All of these items require time. So you need to know this up front.

Starting a soap making business can create a lot of excitement. If you print out business cards and brochures right away, your word of mouth may bring your first customers while your soap is still curing. If you also make lip balms, body butter, bath salts, and such, you will have products that are "sale"able much sooner than your soap, so take that into consideration. You can also offer a few melt and pour types of soap while your initial cold-processed soap are curing. I really do not care for melt and pour soap (please, no offense to those of you who love it) because all too often I see the soap not looking very good after it has been transported, handled, manipulated -- the packaging tends to look dingy from the soap rubbing on it -- this doesn't happen with cold processed soap. Also note, that if you begin with a many different soaps and other products, that your inititial investment will be higher and it will take longer for you to break even and begin making a profit. I advise you to start small!

Please consider looking into liability insurance. I have always carried this and I think it is a good idea "just in case." "Just in case" someone's skin falls off after using your soap. I NEVER had a problem, but you never know. I did find a place with very reasonable rates (like around $10/month)

You should also get your business registered with your state so you can file your local and state sales tax. They get pretty angry if they find out you have selling something and haven't been paying in the required sales tax (did I mention they charge a hefty penalty?). In Wisconsin this required that I record how much soap I sold retail inside the state at my retail price. I did not pay sales tax on anything I sold out of state or anything I sold wholesale for resale. I had to submit my information on a form quarterly basis and then that was that -- very easy.

You will want to decide if you want to sell retail only or also sell wholesale. If you want to sell wholesale, you will need to find shops that are wanting to sell your soap. I had to do very little searching. I sold to many places and most of them came from word of mouth from people who had tried my soap. You may not be so lucky, so be prepared to take your soap everywhere you go and ask, ask, ask. Once you begin this endeavor, it is not a time to get fearful of rejection -- people will say no (as well as yes). Just do not take it personally -- it is business.

For your retail business, where are you going to concentrate on selling your soap? If you are going to go to a consignment type shop, you need to establish a booth. If you are selling a craft shows, you will need to locate them, get registered (well in advance for most) and prepare your booth display. If you are going to sell out of your home, you will need a corner or room where you can be organized enough to find everything you need at a moment's notice. You'll be surprised how many customers will pop over to get another bar of soap.

These are some ideas that you will need to think about before you begin starting a soap making business. It is by no means the complete exhaustive list, but many of the main ideas you should consider.

If you are unsure about starting a soap making business (maybe you've never made soap or made a successful batch of soap) you can check out my website at How to Make Soap. There I offer an on-line or DVD video tutorial about soap making and I include everything you need to know to make soap successfully from the very first batch. Dozens have learned how to make soap using this video and many are now "making real money" selling soap. I include everything you need to know to begin a home based soap making business.

Cheap Ways to Package Soap

Our landfills continue to overflow and soon little white plastic grocery bags will be banned. Looking to be good stewards of our environment meshes with cheap ways to package soap. The cheapest way I know of to reduce cost in packaging soap is to not package it at all.

What? But what about labelling soap and providing our customers with reorder information?

Well, that is quite simple. Include your business card with their purchase. If they truly need more information, you can easily supply that on a small notecard size paper.

Soap makers are not required by law to label their soaps, but I do like to let my customers know what kinds of oils I use. A small note card listing your ingredients and your company's information would truly suffice. Let's say a customer buys 5 bars of soap and you only give them one or two note cards, you save paper, time, and money.

Perhaps you sell your soaps wholesale and need to have them individually labelled. A cigar band paper label is one of the cheapest ways to package soap that I know of. Most computers have software that allows individuals to do a pretty decent job of manufacturing labels. Of course this is a little labor intensive if you sell a lot of soap wholesale. You will need to design, print, cut and apply all of your labels to each bar of soap.

Another idea is to tie a piece of raffia ribbon (also very cheap) around the soap and attach a small gift tag style card with your company information. This presentation gives the purchaser the feel that the soap is a little more "gift like" and has a quality of "boutique" about it.

Another idea (not quite as cheap) is to attach a clear mailing label with your company info printed on it directly to the soap. This is probably my least favorite option as the labels may not always stay on the soap.

I have used these labels in the past by applying them directly to a small gusseted plastic bag that I put the soap into and tie shut with a ribbon. Although I preferred to put the soap into the bag without any label at all except a small label on the back with my company information on it. I like my customers to see my beautiful soap. I always bought the ribbon on sale or from a wholesale ribbon source. The plastic bags ran about 5 cents per bag. I felt this presentation wasy very nice and a cheap way to package soap, but again it was time consuming to prepare my soaps for soap.

So....if you want my opinion on cheap ways to package soap, I would recommend that you NOT pakcage them at all and allow the beauty of the soap to sell themselves. Make yourself a card that gives all the useful information you want to share about your company and your philosophy about soap and share those with your customers.

It may be a good idea to give repeat customers a magnetic business card and they'll always have your phone number handy. You are keeping good customer records, right?Please visit my website at How to Make Soap

Oatmeal Exfolliating Soap

Oatmeal exfolliating soap is a must in the arsenal of seasoned soap makers. I have lots of clients who suffer from dry itchy winter skin and oatmeal exfolliating soap helps slough off dead flaky skin, revealing skin that is smoother and more radiant. There are several different ways you can incorporate oatmeal into your soap. I will list a few ways:
Put some whole rolled oats into your soap. A litle goes a long way when it comes to exfolliating properties. I usually make a batch of soap that cuts into 32 - 4 oz. bars. I would add about 1 cup of whole oats to this size batch. You can adjust the amount for the batch size you make. You can add these oats to one of your very best selling soap recipes and wah....lah.... it is now an oatmeal exfolliating soap.
Put a layer of whole rolled oats on the top of your soap right after you pour the sold in a big soap loaf mold. Push down slightly so it will adhere. When you cut the soap into bars, one end will have the oats on it. This will be the scrubby end of the bar, the rest will be smooth and creamy.
Blend your oats in a blender for finer particles. This makes the soap even more abrasive as you have many more (be it finer) particles in the soap. Again, a little will go a long way.
Blend your oats very fine and sift them. Use only the fine particles. The oatmeal is still noticeable in the soap, but less abrasive. If someone has sensitive skin, they can still use this soap by lathering the bar on their hands and then soaping their body with their hands. For more exfolliating power, just rub the bar on the skin.
You can add oatmeal to any soap recipe and you can use whatever fragrance you want in your soap (I prefer Lavender Essential Oil). These are just some ideas how you can turn any soap into an oatmeal exfolliating soap. I tend to branch off in new directions in soap making using best selling fragrances and recipes, because you know customers will buy them. Try adding oatmeal to your best selling soap and see what happens!
If you are not a seasoned soap maker, and need help with basic soap making, check out my website at How to Make Soap

Can You Make Money Selling Hand Made Soap Online

If you make soap, you may ask yourself, "Can you make money selling hand made soap online?" I will attempted to give you a few thoughts in regards to this endeavor.
First, do you know how to create a website and manage the website yourself? Website design is costly. If you do not have knowledge in this area, you could spend all of your profits creating, maintaining, and running the website (unless you have a huge volume of sales). I have heard many many individuals say they love their websites, but they do not make any money on it.
Do you know how to draw customers to your website. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of competing websites out there. How will people find you? Believe it or not.....you have to work daily on finding ways to draw people to your website. And you have to know how to capture these people to bring them back to your website. This takes consistant work. Some ways to draw people to your website include:
Linking to other websites and having backward links with your keywords embedded in the link on their websites.
Listing your website in directories (again with backward links to your website with your key words embedded inthe link)
Writing articles for free newletter article directories that contain your website backward link
paying for advertising (like pay-for-click)
paying for directory listings
This is the tip of the iceberg. If you have the desire, time, and knowledge to promote your website, then selling online is probably a good idea.
Can you afford to sell your soap at a price that will bring in customers and create repeat customers? Soap is very heavy, so it not easy to price your soap at a price people are wanting to pay and then add shipping on top of that. Are you willing to work for less profit if your soap doesn't sell at the price you normally sell it at?
One last thought. Many people have something they want to sell, so they decide they want to sell it on line. But the real question is......"What do people want to buy? Selling something you want to sell is like putting the cart in front of the horse. Why not sell what people want? So the long and short of it is.......Can you make money selling hand made soap online? .....The answer is.......Is there a demand for it? If you can find a niche that is currently not being satisfied, you can do great. But...... you have to offer something people are looking for. Maybe it is a specialty organic baby soap, or a bug repellent soap, or an ordor reducing soap, or something else. It just needs to be something that people want, that no one else (or very few people) are selling.
I hope that helps answer your question "Can you make money selling hand made soap online?"
Check out my website at How to Make Soap

Soap Sampler Natural Slices

Are you a soap maker? Do you have bars of soap that didn't well too well? If you are like most soap makers, you have a few of these bars around. How do you get rid of them?

I cut my 4 oz. bars in half and package several slices up together as "Soap Sampler Natural Slices". These sell particularly well at the holiday season. I like to take raffia ribbon or a 1/2 inch ribbon and tie them together with a little gift tag. The secret is to sandwich these "undesireables" between two of your best selling soaps. I try to make the package colorful, so take that into consideration when you are putting the soaps together.

Often I will package three slices together and sell them for $4.95. That is a nice package for a small token gift for a teacher, or neighbor, or friend. If you are building your customer base and are wise, you'll be adding them to an address (or even better....email) list. Let your customers know you have these little specialities before Valentines Day, Secretary Day, Sweetest Day, Mother's Day, and the like.

This is also a good idea to get rid of extra seasonal soaps you may have. For instance I might package up my Holiday Pie, Christmas Spice, and O Christmas Tree soaps at a reduced price after the holidays to clear them out of my inventory. You can let your customers know you are having a sale and selling your soap sampler natural slices at the reduced rate of $3.99 or $4.29 (or whatever you want).

Using these gift sampler slice packages is a great way to increase your sales and minimize your soap inventory.

If you are not a soap maker, but would llike to be one. Check out my website at How to Make Soap. There you will find an on-line or DVD soap making tutorial that will walk you through the steps of soap making right in my own kitchen. It includes "everything" you need to be successful from the very first batch.

Best Moisturizing Hand Soap

One of my most requested and best moisurizing hand soap recipes would be called "Moisture Rich." I like to use this soap myself in the shower because it is so moisturizing. What's the secret ingredient? Shea butter. Here is my recipe:

25 oz. olive oil

10 oz. coconut oil

10 oz. palm oil

5 oz. shea butter

16 oz. water

7 oz. lye

I make this soap a little differently than my other soaps. I melt the olive oil, coconut oil and palm oils together. I incorporate the lye/water solution into them. When the solution is at very light trace, I then incorporate the melted shea butter. I like to incorporate this at this point, hoping that most of the shea butter will not react with the lye and retain it's moisturizing properties. I do not use any fragrance in this soap because I like to offer a few fragrance-free soaps. I like to use LIGHT olive oil so I get a very light (almost white) color bar of soap. This recipe will produce 16 4 oz. bars of soap (about 4 pounds). The smallest amount I normally make is 8 pounds of soap (or about 32 bars), so if you are a seasoned soap maker I would double the recipe. If you are new to soap making you can check out my website at How to Make Soap where I have an on-line or DVD video soap making tutorial. You can watch me make soap right in my own kitchen.

Oatmeal Exfolliating Soap

Oatmeal exfolliating soap is a must in the arsenal of seasoned soap makers. I have lots of clients who suffer from dry itchy winter skin and oatmeal exfolliating soap helps slough off dead flaky skin, revealing skin that is smoother and more radiant.

There are several different ways you can incorporate oatmeal into your soap. I will list a few ways:

1. Put some whole rolled oats into your soap. A litle goes a long way when it comes to exfolliating properties. I usually make a batch of soap that cuts into 32 - 4 oz. bars. I would add about 1 cup of whole oats to this size batch. You can adjust the amount for the batch size you make. You can add these oats to one of your very best selling soap recipes and wah....lah.... it is now an oatmeal exfolliating soap.
2. Put a layer of whole rolled oats on the top of your soap right after you pour the sold in a big soap loaf mold. Push down slightly so it will adhere. When you cut the soap into bars, one end will have the oats on it. This will be the scrubby end of the bar, the rest will be smooth and creamy.
3. Blend your oats in a blender for finer particles. This makes the soap even more abrasive as you have many more (be it finer) particles in the soap. Again, a little will go a long way.
4. Blend your oats very fine and sift them. Use only the fine particles. The oatmeal is still noticeable in the soap, but less abrasive. If someone has sensitive skin, they can still use this soap by lathering the bar on their hands and then soaping their body with their hands. For more exfolliating power, just rub the bar on the skin.

You can add oatmeal to any soap recipe. Use whatever fragrance you want in your soap (I prefer Lavender Essential Oil). These are just some ideas how you can turn any soap into an oatmeal exfolliating soap. I tend to branch off in new directions in soap making using best selling fragrances and recipes, because you know customers will buy them. Try adding oatmeal to your best selling soap and see what happens!

If you are not a seasoned soap maker, and need help with basic soap making, check out my website at How to Make Soap

Can you make money selling hand made soap online

If you make soap, you may ask yourself, "Can you make money selling hand made soap online?" I will attempted to give you a few thoughts in regards to this endeavor.

First, do you know how to create a website and manage the website yourself? Website design is costly. If you do not have knowledge in this area, you could spend all of your profits creating, maintaining, and running the website (unless you have a huge volume of sales). I have heard many many individuals say they love their websites, but they do not make any money on it.

Do you know how to draw customers to your website. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of competing websites out there. How will people find you? Believe it or not.....you have to work daily on finding ways to draw people to your website. And you have to know how to capture these people to bring them back to your website. This takes consistant work.

Some ways to draw people to your website include:

Linking to other websites and having backward links with your keywords embedded in the link on their websites.

Listing your website in directories (again with backward links to your website with your key words embedded inthe link)

Writing articles for free newletter article directories that contain your website backward link

Paying for advertising (like pay-for-click)

Paying for directory listings

This is the tip of the iceberg. If you have the desire, time, and knowledge to promote your website, then selling online may be a good idea.

Can you afford to sell your soap at a price that will bring in customers and create repeat customers? Soap is very heavy, so it may not be easy to price your soap at a price people are wanting to pay and then add shipping on top of that. Are you willing to work for less profit if your soap doesn't sell at the price you normally sell it at?

One last thought. Many people have something they want to sell, so they decide they want to sell it on line.

But the real question is......"What do people want to buy?"

Selling something you want to sell is like putting the cart in front of the horse.

Rather, ask yourself....what do people want? And how do you find out what people want?

Can you make money selling hand made soap online? .....The answer is.......If there a demand for it.

If you can find a niche that is currently not being satisfied, you can do great. But...... you have to offer something people are looking for. Maybe it is a specialty organic baby soap, or a bug repellent soap, or an ordor reducing soap, or something else. It just needs to be something that people want, that no one else (or very few people) are selling. Otherwise you may be building a costly "lemonade stand" that is sitting at the same street corner as 1,000 other lemonade stands.

I hope these questions help you consider for yourself "Can you make money selling hand made soap online?"

You can check out my website at How to Make Goat Milk Soap

Herbal Natural Soap

Another one of my favorite soaps is an Herbal Natural Soap I call Herbal Scrub. I like to make this soap with the soap recipe from my DVD and I add a few extra ingredients to it. I like to add 1 -2 tablespoons of poppy seeds (not too many or your soap will be too abrasive -- ask me how I know!). I also color the soap a greenish color. You can either use a small amount of green pigment which I get from the Pigment Lady (she's no longer in business), or you can use a very small amount of chromium oxide. I like to try to stick to the natural pigments, but you can use whatever you wish. I have found that most individuals expect an herbal natural soap to smell like the herbal essence shampoo, so I use the Purely Herbal Fragrance Oil from Sweetcakes. Again, follow the recipe from my DVD (or use your favorite recipe) and use the same amount of Fragrance Oil as that recipe recommends. Purely Herbal FO was one of Sweet Cakes tops sellers for years. This soap is a good seller and looks very beautiful. I think you can be successful in the soap making business with offering about a dozen soaps. If each of your dozen soaps is a very good seller, then you do not need to keep a huge inventory of hundreds of different kinds. I like to offer about a dozen of the same best sellers on a regular basis, and offer a hand full of specialty soaps seasonally. I think you will find this Herbal Natural Soap to be a welcome additon to your soap making business.

If you would like more information on soapmaking you can check out my website at How to Make Soap

How to Make Soap

You want to learn how to make soap. But where do you find the ingredients? It seems that it can be tricky to find lye for soapmaking. You cannot use ordinary drain cleaner products as they contain other chemicals that you do NOT want in your soap. You need to use a product that is 100% lye (sodium hydroxide). I have always used Red Devil Lye. It was carried in many grocery stores in my area. Evidently many stores no longer carry lye because some individuals use it in creating illegal drugs. However, it is still possible to get.
You can also order lye on-line.

Here are a few resources to check:

http://www.gtflabs.com/ This is where I purchased my 50 pound box of lye from
http://www.candlesupply.com/
http://www.texasnaturalsupply.com/
http://www.lehmans.com/
http://www.thesoapdish.com/
http://www.boyercorporation.com/
http://www.snowdriftfarm.com/
http://www.aaa-chemicals.com/
http://www.greenbulldog.com/

These links are at least a place to start in learning how to make soap. Remember you need to use Sodium Hydroxide NOT the Potassium Hydroxide for most soap recipes -- they ARE different.
If you are afraid of working with lye because you have never done so before you can check out my new soap making DVD for learning how to make soap. I show you how easy soap making can be and I will really take the fear out of working with this unknown chemical. You can locate the video at How to Make Soap

Organic Natural Baby Soap

Organic natural baby soap can be expensive to buy and difficult to find, but you can easily and inexpensively make your own at home. The benefits of making your own organic natural baby soap is that you know exactly what ingredients are coming in contact with your baby’s skin. There will be no harsh chemicals and fragrances to irritate baby. One good recipe for making organic natural baby soap would be as follows:

Organic Natural Baby Soap Recipe
15 oz. Organic Olive oil
5 oz. Organic Palm oil
5 oz. Organic Coconut oil
3.5 oz. Lye
8 oz. Water
You can choose to add organic baby food oatmeal (about ½ cup) to your recipe or you can leave it out. Baby food oatmeal is very smooth unlike regular oatmeal or even finely blended oatmeal.
You can keep the soap free of any fragrance or you can add Lavendar Essential Oil. Lavendar is frequently added to baby items because of its calming effect. Essential Oils are natural versus a fragrance oil which is synthetic. I would avoid a fragrance oil or you will not have organic natural baby soap. You would need about 1 oz. of Essential Oil.
This recipe makes 8 – 4 oz. bars of soap. If you do not wish to make this much you can cut the recipe down, but I personally think it is easier to make a bigger batch (like twice this amount) rather than a smaller amount.
If you have never made soap before and thought of making soap terrifies you, you can check out my website at How to Make Soap. I offer an on-line or DVD video soap making tutorial that show you how easy it is to make soap right in your own kitchen. Dozens have already learned how to make soap and many have started their very own soap making businesses. You can make organic natural baby soap yourself!

How to Make Goat Milk Soap

If you have every wondered how to make goat milk soap I must say it is not much different than regular cold processed soap. The lye can be poured directly into the goat milk but care is needed to keep the goat milk from burning. I usually recomment freezing the goat milk ahead of time. I then take it from the freezer and microwave it a bit so it just starts to resemble a slush. I put my goat milk slush into a heat-resistant bowl and set the heat-resistance bowl inside a larger bowl that has an ice water bath in it. Both of these steps helps to prevent the goat milk from over heating when you add the lye. You should get a lye solution that is a beautiful creamy yellowish color. If it turns bright orange, then it was heated too high. I usually cool my lye solution and oils to around 110 degrees before making soap. Make sure you are using a tested and reliable recipe and substituting the goat milk for water should be no problem at all. That is how to make goat milk soap from just about any recipe there is.
If you would like to actually see for yourself how to make homemade goat milk soap you can get a first hand experience with my newly recorded DVD. My DVD will show you step by step how easy it is to make goat milk soap for yourself. You can go directly to my website How to Make Goat Milk Soap . Dozens of people have learned to make soap successfully from the DVD and many are now selling soap for a profit. You can too!

Loofah Soap Instructions

A brief outline for loofah soap instructions.

First begin with your favorite soap recipe. It can be a cold processed soap or a melt & pour recipe. You will need

• plastic PVC pipe (probably about a three inch diameter or so)
• loofah sponge (which is the inside dried membrane of the loofah gourd)
• your favorite soap recipe.

If you use a cold process soap, make sure you pour the soap while it is at light trace so it can penetrate into the gourd. Also be sure you allow the soap to saponify and cure 4 weeks.

Basically you get your items ready. You need to put your loofah into your PVC pipe and seal one end - which I do with freezer paper and masking tape. I use several short sections of the PVC pipe because it is easier to remove the soap from shorter sections than it is from a giant long pipe. When your soap is ready to pour, slowly put the soap into the mold. Again, I would seal the open end so there is no leaking. Insulate cold process soap and cool melt & pour soap. You will need to remove the soap, slice and cure. You may want to device a utensil with a round flat end that can push your soap out of the mold. You also may or may not want to lightly grease the mold.

This is a basic sketch that a seasoned soap maker will understand. If you are new to soap making you can check out my website at Easy Soap Making Steps. I offer an on-line tutorial or DVD which as helped dozens of individuals learn how to make soap. Many are now successfully running their own home-based businesses. 100% of the purchase price goes to help orphans through Impact Ministries International.

Best Soap Without Antibacterial Added

For a long time now, doctors have been warning against the overuse of antibiotics and antibacterial products. One reason for this is that the germs are becoming immune and resistant and are producing super-germs that are harder to fight. What is the best soap without antibacterial added and why would you want to use it?
By far, the best soap without antibacteral added is any kind of homemade soap. I especially love goat milk soap (you can check out my website at How to Make Soap for more soap making information), but any kind of handcrafted soap is going to leave your skin feeling nourished and soft - not dry and itchy. The purpose of soap is to break the surface tension of water, thus allowing the water to rinse away the dirt and germs on your skin. WIthout this break in surface tension, the water would just rinse over your skin.
Many people believe that using antibacterials in soap will help them stay healthier, but this is not true. Plain old soap and water is very effective at removing dirt and germs. I have found a very informative link that you can read HERE about the dangers of antibacterial soap. I hope you take the time to read it and encourage others to stop using them.