Facebook Soap Pic Of The Week

.Relaxing

So excited and honored! This picture was chosen as the photo of the week on the Soap Queen Blog.  It feels incredible to be recognized by someone who you respect. I have never met Anne -Marie, but she has been a long distance mentor for me - and she doesn't even know this!!  I have been making soap for about eight years and still learn tips, tricks, and get inspired by Soap Queen aka Anne-Marie.  Her attitude is uplifting and inspiring. For those who think Bramble Berry was an over night success should really read her story HERE.  After reading her story it gave me hope and some realization that you have to keep on keeping on.  Even though I love what I do, this doesn't mean it will come any easier to me.  I love making soap and selling it for a modest profit. Interacting with my customers brings me so much joy. Everything about the process from creating a skin loving soaping formulation to designing the label's and packaging is "JOY" for me. 

A big thank you to Bramble Berry for there amazing products. The soap that pictured above I used Bramble Berry "Relaxing" fragrance oil and Labcolors for high pH products. 

Don't forget you can win four bars of my soap - details HERE .

Let's Give Some Soap Away!!

 

 

 

SOAP GIVE AWAY

 In the spirit of the holiday season a soap give-a-way is in order!!   Here are the details:

Give away will run until Dec. 7th 2012 9:00 pm EST.  Soap will be mailed out by Dec. 12th 2012. 

**One person will receive four bars of my cold process soap**

What do you have to do to enter? 

 

*Comment on this blog and make sure I have a way of getting 
  back to you. = 1 entry

You can STOP here - a comment on THIS blog post enters you in the give-a-way.

 

If you would like additional entries into this give-a-way:

 

*Tweet this give-away and be sure to include @herbestapple so I can see. = 3 entries

 

and/OR

 

*Share on facebook and be sure to tag my page www.facebook.com/herbestapple  = 3 entries

 

and/OR

 

*Share this give away on your blog - with a link back to my blog.  Please put in comment section of this blog post that you did this with link. = 6 entries

 

and/OR

 

*Subscribe to my blog = 2 entries

 

and/OR

 

*Like my Facebook page here and be sure to leave a comment about the soap give away. = 3 entries

If a person does all the above, their name will be entered 18 times in a random draw.

Good Luck!!

Brooke  :)

 www.herbestapple.etsy.com

 

 

Book Of Days 2012

"Book of Days"

I would like to share what I will be taking part of for the new year -
"Book of Days 2012" with Effy Wild.  She is offering this free of charge, which is too kind!! She has already put much time into this year long process.  

This year was, well.....  difficult.  I really believe taking part in Book of Days will give me perspective, make me THINK and get to know myself.  I will be blogging about my experience once in a while here.  I know, this has nothing to do with soap, but this blog is about my life as well :)  

If you would like to sign-up for this or ask questions you can go here .  

              

Soap and Etsy Sale

It's been almost six months since I wrote a real entry.  Seems like life gets in the way of the things we really want to do!  Or I just suck with time management.

Since I last wrote I have been making soap like a crazy woman and actually having fantastic sells at my Etsy Shop. I am beyond grateful for all the sells and the awesome feedback all of you took the time to leave, thank you!!

Below are some of the soaps I made this year that have been awesome sellers!!

                                           Himalayan Pink Salt (Peach & Honey) Gingerbread Man
                                                           Peppermint EO Gingerbread Man
                                                            Pumpkin Spice Gingerbread Man 

Peppermint Essential Oil

 Herbal and Floral Infusion

"Honey Peach" Pink Himalayan Salt Bar 

Pumpkin Spice

Activated Charcoal

Lemongrass Essential Oil 

ENERGY

One of my latest soaps I made  huckleberry unfortunately doesn't have a look that appeals to many (IMO), but if you could scratch and sniff your computer screen, I swear you would look beyond the funky design.  

If anyone would like to try my soap now is a great time - I am having a "Clear Out My Etsy Store To Make Room For New" sale.  Everything is 40% off if you use coupon code 40off at check out.  

Thanks for reading!

Brooke

EtsyCouponCode - Your place to get Etsy Coupons before you Buy on Etsy.

EtsyCouponCode - Your place to get Etsy Coupons before you Buy on Etsy.

Please Vote!

Only takes a second to click on imgae below, log in with your FaceBook account and VOTE!

Column Swirl with Cold Process Soap

Hope you enjoy my first video. I had such a blast with this technique.
I would like to thank Debbie from Soapy Love - it was her guest blog on Soap Queen blog that tied this techinque with cold process soap.

I would LOVE to read your feedback, please feel free to post! If you enjoy this video please give it a thumbs up on youtube.

Whip It Good!

I ventured into new territory (for me) a couple of weekends back and had too much fun. As best as I could, I documented my experience with photos. I made cold process whipped soap. Cold process whipped soap is assembled and formulated differently then cold process soap. When formulating your recipe use 80% hard/solid oils and 20% liquid oils. Hard and solid oils are whipped until white fluffy peaks form, then liquid oils are added. I worked with my oils and lye solution at room temperature. First, I lined my soap mold, mixed my micas, and weighed my fragrant oil.

Weigh out hard and solid oils in a stainless steel bowl. Little side note here - make sure you use a bowl that is big enough to accommodate the hard oils, the air you are going to whip into the oils, the soft oils, and lye solution! I learned the hard way.

To whisk in enough air into your oils you need to use a cake beater or some type of whisk attachment. I switched off between a cake beater and used my whisk attachment on my hand held. The ideal tool to use, if you are lucky enough to have is a stand-alone mixer like Kitchenaid. If I had one I am sure I would have whisked / whipped my oils longer.

HARD / SOLID OILS BEING WHIPPED


I should have paid better attention how long it took to form soft peaks - I would estimate that I whipped the hard and solid oils about 50 minutes.

LIQUID OILS WEIGHED OUT - POUR SMALL AMOUNT AT A TIME



Add the measured liquid oils to the whipped hard and solid oils a little at a time whipping each time after. Your beautiful stark white peaks will deflate a tad, that is OK. Whip to incorporate.

HARD/SOLID OILS MIXED WITH LIQUID OILS










With gloves and goggles on, add about 1/8 of a cup of lye solution at one time to the whipped oils. Whip WELL each time you add a little of the lye solution. Make sure all is incorporated. Once all the lye is throughly whipped in add fragrance or essential oil. whip until a yogurt or soft cream cheese consistency.

If you plan on adding color now is the time to separate the raw soap and add your colors. Do not worry about your soap getting hard. I had plenty of time to color and play around molding my soap.

RAW SOAP SEPERATED FOR COLOR



MICA THAT I PREPARED BEFORE MIXING OILS AND LYE









I kept some soap in the bowl uncolored to have white.


MICA MIXED WITH RAW SOAP




The fun part for me was molding this soap! It does not pour like a thin trace cold process soap. I had to glop it into the mold - very simply to spread around. Side note, this soap hardens VERY hard and can be hard to cut without crumbling. If using a log mold you will probably need to use a wire-cutter. I am using a mold that has inserts so I will need to just pop the bars out. I would not use a fancy mold with designs (although if you can make it work, let me know!). This soap tends to REALLY adhere itself to the mold and even to the inserts! It was kind of a pain to release.

MOLD I LINED BEFORE MIXING OIL AND LYE



RAW SOAP PUT INTO MOLD



INSERTING DIVIDERS



UNMOLDED BARS!


In the pic below, not sure if you can see - the edge of the bar of soap broke as I was unmolding. GRRR!






Oh yeah........




THE SOAP FLOATS!

Sanfilippo Syndrom - One Click Can Help

Hey Everyone,

Pepsi is holding a project called Pepsi Refresh Project. Many great causes are being voted on each day to receive money for further research for disease, equipment needed, homeless and so on. One of the causes that I am asking YOU to vote for is personal to me because my 7 year old cousin suffers from this - Sanfilippo Syndrome. Below is a quick overview of this awful disease:

Sanfilippo syndrome is a genetic error of metabolism that affects children. It is a mucopolysaccharidoses, an MPS disorder, MPS-lll. Mucopolysaccharides are long chains of sugar molecules, used in building connective tissues. When the body is finished using these molecules, it breaks them down, with enzymes, and disposes of them. Children with MPS are missing or are deficient in the enzyme to break down the molecules. Instead, the body stores these molecules and this causes progressive damage.Thus, we plan to construct a vector plasmid for a self-complementary rAAV vector that creates the enzyme to break down the molecules. Once the vector is constructed, we will infect human MPS III skin fibroblasts cell cultures to determine the levels of expression and secretion of recombinant enzyme. After successfully replicating the vector, we will provide the GMP vector for preclinical studies and make this treatment available for all children impacted by this devastating disorder.

You can help this much needed money go to Sanfilippo Syndrom by voting each day via email, text, and through facebook. There is no cure and these children die young. Please, Please vote and help us get this much needed money so we can learn MORE about this disease and find a cure. VOTE NOW

Anyone Can Give

I want to start this post by saying how truly blessed I am. I have a husband who loves me, is beyond kind to me, and respects me. I have two children (teens) who are productive and treat me with respect and love. I am not hungry, or cold, or wear tattered clothes. I consider myself fortunate. Sadly, many are hungry, cold or only have tattered clothes.

All year round everyone should be thinking of the less fortunate; however, during this time of year can be especially hard for those in need – in need of companionship, food, warmth, clothes, and of course money.

Obviously not all of us are in the position to give money, but that should not stop you from giving. There are so many ways to help someone in need – no one really has an excuse not to give something. It is important not to forget those who are homebound, those who are older, or those who may not have family or many friends.

I thought of some ways we can give. I am confident this list contains at least one act of kindness anyone can do.

Monetary donation to a trusted organization
Donate Services. Offer to baby-sit for a single parent so they can have some free time.
Cook a meal and enjoy it with someone homebound
Donate time. Volunteer at a hospital, nursing home, soup kitchen
Donate clothes, blankets, toys and/or toiletries to a local shelter
Give life. Donate Blood
A simple smile may not pay the bills, but can do WONDERS for someone.
Offer an ear and listen. Everyone needs to be heard and validated.

Let's keep this list going - so many more ways to give this time of year and all year round.

Stocking Stuffer Sale

Stocking Stuffer Sale **FREE SHIPPING** to continental United States. Shipping charges will be refunded via paypal. Good on all items. http://www.mybestapple.etsy.com/ No promo code needed - shipping charges will be refunded on all items via paypal.

Hint for Contest

I promised a hint to the contest 'Guess My Destination'. You can read about the contest here to win 5 bars of homemade soap. Ok, so here is the hint....

The destination place is located in the state of Missouri.

Post your guesses on my wall here.

Have a great day!

xoxo

Win 5 Bars Homemade Soap

The Mr. and I went on vacation couple of weeks back. At the end of this post are pictures of the neat things we saw. Can you guess where we went? If so, you could win 5 bars of my homemade soap. Winner will be notified Jan 1st, 2011.

Details:

To be eligible all you need to do is "Like" my facebook page here. Leave your guesses (guess as many times as you would like) on my wall here. If you would like to gain more entries all you have to do is tweet this blog post, include @soapexperience in your RT so I can view.

I will be giving out hints from now until I pick a winner via blog, twitter, and facebook.


Huge christmas tree at night




Glass Blowing Demo Area

HUGE Christmas Tree

Candy Store
Yum! Tons of Taffy

blacksmith demo area

swinging bridge

Old fashiond flour mill

Candle store

one of many christmas trees

handmade soap demo area

handmade brooms demo area

Nothing like a couple years between posts!

Wow, it has been a LOooong time since I have written in my blog, shame on me! I am going to forgive myself and move on.


I am super excited I finally opened up my Etsy shop “My Best Apple” homemade soaps. You can view my shop here. Additionally I took the plunge and created my facebook page which you can view here, My Best Apple. Psst, if you want to “like” my new page and / or share it please do. For the wonderful, extraordinary peeps that have already liked my page a big FAT THANK YOU.

I started a contest on my facebook page in which you can win five bars of my homemade soap. I will shortly post another blog with the details. If you just cannot wait you can read the details in the ‘notes’ section here.

Thanks!

Brooke

Embedding Awesomeness

These past couple of weeks has been super hectic! Getting ready for back-to-school for two teenagers is not for the faint of heart! Clothes and school supply shopping took a couple of days. My daughter received her driver’s license and started her senior year of high school. I have played taxi to my son, getting him back and forth to football practice each day. We are still trying to find a reliable used car for my daughter – it is amazing what some people are trying to sell as “reliable”. The most exciting news is that we finally bought a house. We are supposed to close September 14th; keeping fingers crossed there are no named storms in the Atlantic. Without homeowners insurance we are unable to close, and insurance companies will not write any policies with a named stormed present. Whew!

I was able to squeeze in some time to play with some melt and pour soap. My results are pictured to the left and right. I have to say that I am usually a cold process soap person and find CP much easier then melt and pour. I have much respect for those who are able to create works of art with melt and pour. Some time ago, I saw the coolest project on Soap Queen TV. I broke up this project into two days and have to say that I am very happy with the results. If you would like to create this super cool bar of soap, Anne-Marie (Soap Queen) gives great instruction below. Thank you for such a cool idea.

Need to Brand Part 1

Branding is the bane of my existence. Ok, maybe I am being a little dramatic; however, after making and selling soaps (and other Bath and Beauty products) I have been all over the place. Consistency with color, material, texture, font, and logo is not a strong point with me. I have yet to find a “look” that satisfies.

Packaging for my CP soaps has seen many different looks. They have gone naked, cigar bans, shrink-wrap sleeves with cigar bands, shrink wrapped sleeves with labels, soapboxes with label, tied with fabric / tulle, and stuffed in organza bags. My newest “look” consists of a shrink-wrap sleeve with cigar band wrapped the long way.

Lotions, body butters, sugar scrubs, lip balms have all seen their share of change. Packaging for these products are usually dramatic changes. My lotions have seen bullet, rounds, cylinders, clear, natural, cobalt, and purple bottles…. Whew! Body butters went from tins to plastic jars. Lip balms from cobalt, natural, clear tubes. I think you get the picture.

So I am a bit inconsistent and lacking any sense of branding. I had one customer say, "You don't carry your Body Butter anymore?" The body butter was clearly sitting on the table, but I had changed the packaging and labeling.

I would not write this blog without having some sort of solution to my delimma. My first baby step will be to pick a pallet of three to four cordinating colors that I can choice when I create labels. Next step is to commit to a logo.

I have much brain storming ahead of me.