I am in the Etsy Twitter Picks Gift Guide!

Thanks to someone telling me on twitter I found out I am in the Etsy Twitter Picks Gift Guide! How cool is that!?!!

http://www.etsy.com/gift-guides/your-etsy-twitter-picks/223?page=2

3 bars of soap giveaway winners!!!

So guess what?!?!?!!? I have a surprise for everyone I picked more then one winner! I used random.org with a witness present to pick 3 numbers to each win 3 bars of soap they pick the scents.


First winner was #90 Tami!


Second winner was #5 Imciinn!


Third winner was #52 Abigail!


Congrats to each of you and thank you to everyone who entered.


Just to let everyone know I am running a buy one get one 1/2 off special August 28-30 mention "weekend deals" in the message to seller box on etsy see my shop announcement section for more info!
This deal is featured on etsy's weekend deals guide :)

new pink sugar and black raspberry vanilla soaps

Back in action for making soap this weekend. Been running low on a number of scents so started with these two. Also started testing ideas for a really great new scent I am working on, but round 1 didn't come out like I wanted. So more testing to do before I show what I am working on.

candles for a Celebrity auction

left to right Turkish Hazelnut Cafe, Cookie Jar, 2 Granny's Pie Crust, Fresh Brewed Coffee, Pumpkin Cheesecake

I know I haven't posted anything good recently but that is because I am still catching up from vacation and I had a candle order in.

I got an order for candles that will be going into a gift basket that is getting donated to a Celebrity auction event. Hoping this will bring me some new clients as there will be 750 people at the event.

I have to catch up on some soap batches that are getting low but after that I have 2 new great scents I can't wait to soap. So keep an eye out for what I will be adding to my soap line.

featured in Etsy's weekend deals guide!!

Etsy featured me in their weekend deals guide usually on page 2 is where you find my Oatmeal Milk & Honey soap. This is my first ever feature on etsy!!! I am offering 20% off in my etsy shop thru August 2 just mention "weekend deal" in the message to seller box and I will refund the discount.

http://burntmill.etsy.com/

Marketing to a famous person

Few more days of vacation left for me then it is back to the 9-5 job.

About 1.5 years ago I worked up a big marketing package of my candles and soap which I sent to Kat Von D of the LA Ink show. See the advantage of living in Hollywood is that there are a number of famous people around me that I can send things to.

These are the pictures of what I basically sent. I made up a tool box filled with 3 candles(the blue one was for the messenger who took the package to Kat), tons of soaps and some aroma ornies. I also included what is called a leave behind(bottom picture) which is basically a handmade photo catalog of my work. Never got a call back but it was worth a try right?!!?

Whipped Body Frosting

So yes I am on vacation until July 26 but I do have a few things to blog about while I am away from home and soap making.

Today I am going to talk about a recent Etsy purchase I made from http://verbenacustomblends.etsy.com/

I went on a search for some new face cream I spent some time looking at all the ingredients people used to make the creams and it lead me to Verbena Custom Blends.

I ended up selecting this face cream and while I was in the shop I was really digging the whipped body frosting. This shop does some of the best scent combos and will even make whatever scent you want. I decided on one that smelled like Marshmallow, Coconut, Butter cream cupcake mine was custom blend to include all ofthe scents I love.

I have to say I love love that whipped body frosting I smell so good when I wear it. I ended up using some of my soap money to buy 2 more for treat presents for my mother and sister who live in Colorado. My mom selected Buttery Toffee Carmel and my sister picked Cherry Almond Coconut which I have to say smelled really good as well. Both packages came with lots of great samples for soap and the yogurt whipped body creams.

This is a great find on Etsy and I know I will be back once I get my stuff all used up. Make sure you all stop by and check it out!

The Story of Cherry Cola soap

Thought I would talk some about my Cherry Cola soap today. I went to the Bitter Creek convention 1 year ago and they had up a table with every scent they carry. I spent a good deal of time there smelling all of them and the minute I hit the Cherry Cola I was blown away by how great it was. As soon as I got home from the convention I placed an order because I had to have that scent.

I decided to make it into some soap see top picture, well I couldn't seem to sell any in that scent which was odd since it is so good. Well turns out that it was just because the picture was so bad most people didn't even pay attention to it the top picture is one of the early ones of the soap and still a better picture then what I had up for a long time. I also noticed that over time the soap changed colors and the lines got softer as the second picture is still the same soap as the first picture. When I posted the updated picture(pic 2) all of a sudden people were taking notice of this great scent and by picture 3 update it is fast becoming a top seller.

Well I am down to my last 2 bars so it was time to make a fresh batch again. 4th picture is the batch I made this weekend, I used the same colors as the first batch and once again it is similar to the coloring of the first picture. So maybe this soap is like wine and it gets better and better colors with time?!?! Will be interesting to see if this one changes to a more purple color with soft lines.

PS I learned that it really pays to have good pictures!

mess up batch round 2

Top picture is the after, bottom is the before picture

So if you remember a few posts back I cut a loaf of soap before it was set and I only had about 1 bar that looked good. Here is my attempt at giving that batch a new life. I do have to say melt and pour soap is much easier to fix problems with then the cold process soap.

Scented with Energy, Red Apple, Cranberry Sweet, Cranberry Fig

15% off sale this weekend!

------------------------ SAFETEAM'S HUGE WEEKEND SALE ----------------------
Soap Artisan Friends of Etsy Team http://safeteam.etsy.com/ is having a sale this weekend!
June 19-21 I am offering 15% off everything in my shop, discount will be refunded! Etsy is featuring the team's sale on the weekend deals post!!!

I managed to get pretty much all my soap pictures redone so stop by my etsy shop and see all the new pictures.
Now I can finally get back to shop making again after that long project.

still hacked :(

Well I didn't seem to stop the hackers they attacked again and got all 3 websites I run(not my etsy one). I think I have a virus or something on my computer that I just can't get and trust me I have tried about 10+ programs. Or they are hacking the server I am still testing to see how they got in.

Looks like I am either going to have to reformat my computer this weekend or just buy a new one(it is getting old anyway). So I may not be posting until I get everything back up and running. I do have new things to show but just not time to work on getting them ready to show. well I am off to backup all the stuff on my computer......

oh and this is a reminder to everyone else when was the last time you backed up? you never know when a problem will happen right?!!?!

Love spell soap version 2

So this weekend I did manage to make a fresh batch of Love Spell type cp soap. I decided to change the colors up some by adding some green mica and oxide. See the first picture for the before and the 2nd picture for the new version. Both versions include black jojoba spheres for light exfoliation.

On another note I tried to go buy a new digital camera this weekend but the HUGE camera store was sold out as well as another branch they had. Not much else open on Sunday's so there went my plan to work on new pictures all weekend. :(

Going to try another melt and pour batch of soap just trying to pick the scent like normal. Also need to fix my not so great colored batch of basil nectarine, I see chunk soap in the future for those I am thinking!

English Retreads

English Retreads

So since I have no soap to post just yet I wanted to do a shout out to a great business. About 1.5 years ago I got the best purse I have ever had the best part is it is made out of recycled tires. This purse has been great it has held up great and all you have to do to shine it up is use some Armor All on it, you sure can't beat that right?


This store was started out of the need for a purse that wasn't made out of leather yet is still durable. I am so glad I found this purse and the best part is if it ever breaks or has problems they will fix it. They have lots of great products so go check the shop out!

Artfire!

So much like I did with etsy I signed up for artfire and never bothered to set up my shop until last night. I already got an order so not only do I have my first order on artfire it will also be my first order going to Australia! Guess I shouldn't have waited so long to set it up right!?!?!?

Winner of my which scent to soap next seems to be Basil Necterine so watch for that one soon.

Visit burntmill's ArtFire Shop

Wet Soap is pretty

Some bars of soap become even better after they are wet. You start seeing all the fine swirl lines and combos of colors within the bar. The batch of Enchanted Apple soap(see pic) is one of those that transforms to another level when you get it wet.

Am I the only one that notices this about wet soap? :P