What to do....

I finally finished all the Jasmine!! So I plan to make Mango Mandarin Soap tonight.
Only I have a problem, I forgot to order the orange gel tone! So I am trying to decide what colors to make it. I have a touch of yellow(not enough to change red to orange), some melon color.

I have been wanting to make a black bar with some color swirl in it, just not sure how black soap will go over with everyone. It was tough getting people on board with the brown soaps in the beginning so the black makes me nervous. It is amazing how people do judge the soap based on the color, the brown soaps got alot of those look gross?!?!?! yet they in theory look more natural, who knows right?

Or maybe I will just toss every color I have in and make a 6+ swirl batch?

Going to be interesting to see what I do when I am standing there ready to mix colors.

Jasmine anyone?

So what was in the pot this weekend?? Well last night I started a pair of Sandalwood candles. These two candles are going to be a new color combo for me; the client wanted a goldish yellow top and cranberry bottom. I have in the past made that gold color with a dark purple on the bottom. I can’t wait to pull that one out of the mold and see how great those two colors look together.

I also started a pair of Rustic Woods square candles these are going to be cold pour candles in black and mahogany brown.

Started the first of 5 batches of Jasmine soap they will be for a baby shower in May. It is funny how some people like different kinds of scents. I brought this client 1 of every bar of soap I have made and she didn’t like any of them. I soon figured out she was looking for floral type scents. So I came back with some samples of some that she mentioned being interested in and she picked the Jasmine. You have your bakery type people, sweet type scents people and you have the floral people.

It is funny how a scent that I like another hates and vice versa. This happens for me often as one of my top selling scents is coffee. I hate coffee scents they always smell like a skunk if you ask me, but to a coffee lover it smells wonderful. So I can understand why the floral client didn’t like any of my other soap scents.

Next up in the candle making will be a pair of cranberry woods candles and 1 vanilla and 1 lavender heart candles.

Really can’t wait to get done with the 5 batches of Jasmine soap so I can make a new scent I got called Mango Mandrin that one is calling my name!

March already?

where has the time went?

Well sad to report my experiment with the dirt smelling soap didn't go over to well with the testers. Initial reports were it was very interesting and different and did smell like dirt, but after time it also made the bathrooms sort of smell like mildew. Well at least I gave it a try, you can't be afraid to try things out cause you never know if you will make something wonderful. Hmm now what to do with all these bars of dirt soap at my place………

Good news to report on February 14 I won The Yummiest Soap Bar contest with my Forbidden Fruit Soap!!! Check out these two links to see the reviews and info
http://thesoapbar.blogspot.com/2008/02/photos-of-winner-soaps.html
http://crystala25.typepad.com/cute_indie_finds/2008/02/burnt-mill-soap.html

This last week I made fresh batches of Tropical Sunset(Honey Coco Mango) and Cupid soap.

Also been making a number of pillar candles, this week’s main scents have been Pink Sugar and Crackling Firewood.

Funny story I had a stuffy nose this week and earlier in the week I had made a hot pink heart candle in blueberry and also in Pink Sugar. Well I had left the extras in pots and when I wanted to use the pink sugar one in another candle I couldn’t smell which pot was the right one!!! I decided to wait a few days till I could smell again before I attempted to make the pink sugar one just in case I picked the wrong one. Talk about candle makers nose right?

hearts are in the air

so I have been busy cranking out pink sugar scented heart candles. Here is a picture of 2 of the 10 or so I will be making before valentines day gets here.

I will post a picture of more of them once I get them done.

One of my clients had a wonderful idea. This year instead of sending out holiday cards, she is sending out valentines day cards to all her friends and family. She added a heart air freshener(cherry kiss, cinnamon and love spell scented) to each of the cards.

Put up about 4 new soaps on my website. I have to say the new Island Kola Nut one has been making my house smell wonderful!

Things for a new year

Well off to the start of a new year. I have many goals for the year. This year I am going to work on adding more new products, going into testing phase soon. Some of things I want to add will be body sprays which will be available in your favorite scents, so now you can have pink sugar candles, soap and body spray if you want. I am thinking of adding bath bombs, and maybe reed diffusers.

I am also going to work towards doing craft shows, which will mean making lots of candles to build up my stock. Since I usually do custom work I haven’t really kept many candles on hand so this will be a big project for me. That also means I will have more ready made one of a kind candles up for sale on my website as I start making these.

New for this year is that I joined the Soap Makers Guild (soapguild.org)!

I had a big picture taking weekend planned so I could work on finally getting all my new stuff up on the website. But with all the rain we got here in Los Angeles my place has a small flood so that stopped that plan for a little while. Once everything is back to normal I will update things.

I have some new scents coming for soap. Already made and in the curing process is called Mud Bath which has Moroccan red clay in it. I will be doing a special feature on my website which will explain all the wonderful benefits of this bar of soap. News scents on the horizon will be
Beneath the Stars which is described as Grape, Peach, Citrus, Plum, Rose and Musk.

Sex in the Shower (may rename) described as Orange, Cherry, Peach, Pineapple and Vanilla.

Island Kola Nut this is an exotic creation consists of tropical coconut and African Kola Nut blended with fresh Island fruits.

So as you can see lots of great spring and summer type soap scents are on the way!

Electric Sugar

here is the new non brown version of pink sugar! To the left and behind it is the newest batch of Black Raspberry Vanilla.

Happy Holidays from Burnt Mill Candles & Soap

long time no post

It is the busy time of the year and I have been busy pouring candles. So I haven't had a chance to keep everyone up to date in the blog.

As soon as the rush passes I will be back to my normal blogging.

I did happend to make a really cool looking batch of Black Raspberry Vanilla soap over the weekend. I will do my best to get a picture up soon so you can all get a peek of it before everyone else does.

ok back to pouring holiday orders I go!