Lunch and stuff

Today I had lunch with a friend. He asked me why I hadn't been blogging.

Uh...lazy. Not enough hours in the day. All kinds of reasons. Mostly, I don't think anyone wants to read about the joys and frustrations of someone starting a business.

He assured me that I was wrong.

It's not like I've never had a business before. I have. When we closed our shop, I swore I'd never do that again.

There are a lot of headaches involved. It's up to me to make sure I have a product available. It's also up to me to make sure that I have a product that is viable in the market.

So what is my business? I'm making soaps, lip balms and lotion sticks. I'm not ready to try regular lotions. That requires a whole new concept and technique. There are too many areas to introduce bacteria, mold, etc., into regular lotion.

I'll stick with soaps, hard lotions, and even shampoo bars for a while. Later I'll think about branching out. But for now...the basics.

I've made several test batches of soap. I play with the different oils to see how they work and what type of bar the different oils produce.

I've also played around with the various ways to make soap. I've tried cold processing. It's where I make the soap, put it in a mold for 24 hours, take it out and cut it into bars. Then I have to let it cure for 3-12 weeks.

I've tried some using the hot process method. It's the same as cold process, but before I put it in the molds, I cook it on the stove for a couple hours. When I pour it into the molds, it's soap. The next day I remove it from the molds, cut the bars and let them finish drying for a week or so. But it's usable the very next day.

I love the time of having soap ready to use...but...when I stir it in the double boiler I end up introducing too much air into the mixture. I can't get those bars to be nice and hard like I want them to be. Hard bars of soap last longer, which makes customers happy.

The last method I tried was cold process in the mold in the oven. I cold process it, pour it in the molds, then put it in the oven for a couple hours. The next morning I remove it from the mold, cut it into bars. And. Oh. My. God. What a gorgeous bar of soap.

I've also been playing with the scents and things I can use to add color to the soaps.

Ground cinnamon makes a nice brown bar of soap. I don't know if it's the ground cinnamon, or the cinnamon oil in that batch, but while it's great on my hands, it's a little too tingly for the face. The man of the house has used it on his face and doesn't have any tingly sensations with it. But I love the scent of it. It has a mixture of cinnamon, lemon and sweet orange. The aroma is perky.

I've spent a few hours infusing lavender, promogranate seeds and lemongrass into olive oil and grapeseed oil. It does leave a hint of the scents in the soap. I'm just not sure if it will last very long in the soap.

I've also bought several essential oils and a few fragrence oils. I'm trying not to use too many fragrence oils. They do make the soaps smell really nice, but I like the healing properties of the essential oils. But I have to say, I do like the carrot cake soap I made on Sunday. It smells really good.

Tomorrow I plan on making several batches of soap. I have to get my supply up so I can ship some to my sister's store. She has a store in Lake of the Ozarks and her customer base likes soaps. I'll also send her some lip balms and lotion sticks. In the meantime, I need to get my logo created so I can label and package the products.

All in all, it's fun.

Eventually I'll have a website set up for my products. But honestly, right now I just don't have the time to deal with a website and the headache of trying to figure out how to do a shopping cart.

So, why haven't I been blogging? All my free time has been spent on getting supplies, making test batches, letting people try the soaps out and on and on it goes.

I'll try to do better. And in time, I'll try to get some pictures of the soaps I'm making so you can see them.