River County Soapworks produces high quality soap and toiletries that are both pleasing to the senses and terrific for your skin. I invite you to try our products.
The past couple of week ends I’ve had the new handmade soap displays set up at the outdoor market I attend most weekends. This market is the Portland Saturday Market which is gigantic and keeps me pretty busy. I get to meet and talk with retail customers but also potential wholesale soap customers too. Handmade soap is very, very heavy and so it was really important to try to come up with a display system that would allow me to fill it in the shop and just set up at the market. Reduction of tubs of inventory was the main motivator in order to save my back every week end. Every outdoor market, fair or special event that I’ve attended to market my handmade soap company at has always had 10 x 10 booth spaces. Trying to condense things into a 8 x 8 space is no easy task. We are almost there but not quite. I love how the handmade soap bars are displayed in their new do but the booth is still too stark. We will need to jazz things up a bit. How? Well…now, guess I’m going to have to figure that out.
One of the fun things about being a handmade soap company is blending essential oils together to use in handmade soap. Sometimes you hit on what you think will be a great blend out of the bottle so to speak but once it hits the soap pot it quickly morphs into something that grows out of a swamp. No kidding! On the other hand, you can mix up a blend and it doesn’t strike your fancy out of the bottle but is just beautiful in handmade soap. Today I poured a test blend of what I think I’ll call Summer Solstice. I know, I should have made this soap a few months ago, but hey, better late than never. It is a essential oil blend of Lavender, Litsea Cubea or May Chang and Patchouli. Nothing fancy but I am pretty confident that these handmade soap bars once cut will smell awesome! Here it is just poured in the slab. If this soap goes over like I think it will at the Portland Saturday Market then I’ll add it to the website and as a wholesale soap selection. That’s the best part of doing markets, I can see how a new handmade soap is received before making the decision to add it to the line. Nothing like doing a little market research!
We are in the process of designing portable new handmade soap displays which should make my life a bit easier when doing shows and markets. I am getting very excited. I can see potential for wholesale soap displays in these too. This is a prototype that was put together this past weekend. The finished displays will each hold five different types of handmade soap bars with 15 of each fragrance. I will be able to load the display in the shop and set it up fully loaded at the event I’m at. This will save SO much time! The finished product will be made of birch and black walnut. It’s going to be great! Thanks to my wonderful husband who is always thinking of ways to streamline my workflow.
Well…yesterday, I opened up my laptop and could not get the darned thing to start up properly. Nothing, nada, zip! As I’m sitting there with the laptop on my lap trying to get the screen to come on, I’m thinking of about all the essential oil recipes for my handmade soaps, documents for my wholesale soap accounts, photos for the website, saponification tables for my workshop and just about all the pertinent information I need to function while making handmade soap! While this is all rapidly going through my mind, I remember the slip drives I purchased to back up all my information but those were still sitting on my desk. By now, I’m starting to sweat with anxiety! Yes, dripping! I get dressed and take a drive down to the computer shop I use to fix all my screw ups. I walk in and the nice young man asks me what the problem is. I proceed to tell him in a panic that the laptop won’t start up and I need it because I’ve got a lot of important information on it regarding my handmade soap company!!! He opens it, presses the start button and voila, the laptop miraculously turns on. I’m standing there dumbfounded. Apparently, the dork that I am did not press the start button hard enough. So today, I am backing up all my files and vowing to do this on a weekly basis. Yes I am!
It’s my belief that packaging and presentation is almost as important as the quality of the handmade soap being offered to our wholesale soap customers. That’s why I went to the expense of having custom made soap boxes made to fit our handmade soap bars. Not only do these boxes allow our wholesale soap orders to arrive in pristine condition at the retailers place of business but also prevents damage by all the handling the handmade soaps receive prior to purchase by individual customers. The soaps display neatly on the shelf and the boxes protect the handmade soap bars from from all the handling that they receive. No more dinged up and too loose cigar bands!
Well, after several requests from wholesale soap customers I broke down and purchased some molds that will support handmade bar soap for smaller guest size bars. These molds will produce 1oz handmade soaps in the size of 1 1/2 x 2 1/2 x 1/2 inches. This size is perfect for hotels, bed and breakfast inns and make nice wedding favors too.
With LOTS of calendula flowers that’s how. Calendula has so many wonderful skin care properties that it just begs to be put into handmade soap. Every year, I grow a garden patch of calendula, pluck off the flower heads every morning and dry them. Once dried the petals are pulled and put into bags for future use. The dried flowers can be made into an herbal infusion which makes an excellent addition to handmade soap bars and is one herb that retains its natural color through the soap making process. The dried flowers yield a beautiful soft yellow to handmade soap bars. Take a look at the Pearberry soap we make. It has ground up and whole calendula petals in it and is very popular with both retail and wholesale soap customers.
Yep, we are actively seeking to increase our line of wholesale soap and that is the reason for offering soap logs. This past winter I’ve had many requests from wholesalers wishing to purchase our handmade soap by the log so that they can cut the bars into sizes they want and add their own labels. Private label soap is a way you can add premium handmade soap to your list of products and keep the cost down. There are many terms for soap logs which include soap loaves, bricks and bulk soap. Use the “deli” approach and cut the log in front of the customer and charge by the ounce. It’s an interactive and interesting approach for the customer.
Who can benefit from offering handmade soap logs? Just about everyone. Adding quality, handmade soap to your current product line is great for:
One of the first questions I get from a new wholesale soap client is “What are your best selling handmade soap fragrances?” and “How do I choose, you carry so many fragrances? Let’s make it easy. You can’t go wrong having a selection of handmade bar soap that includes citrus, lavender and mint. Those simple fragrances please just about everyone. Don’t forget to include a floral like Gardenia or Plumeria and a spice like Applejack & Peel or Warm Citrus Spice. I know it can be overwhelming to choose from a large selection. Keep things simple. Start with six or eight different fragrances but include a citrus, lavender, mint, floral and spice fragrance. We have several different handmade soap bars within those categories to choose from. Enjoy the process!
Oh I had a time today cutting a hugh batch of Lavender & Rosemary goat milk soap. I had so much to cut that the smell was overpowering and all I wanted to do was go outside and take a whiff of fresh air. I’m sure your wondering why I’d want to get away from fresh goat milk soap blended with lavender & rosemary essential oils. Let me explain. Freshly cut milk soaps have a funky smell initially which actually smells just like one of those old fashioned diaper pails you used to put baby diapers into. Oh my gosh, it’s bad! This is because the sodium hydroxide reacts with the milk protein and produces a bit of ammonia. Thank goodness the smell dissipates over a few days of sitting on the drying rack. This is because ammonia is very volatile and just evaporates off. What you have left is the lovely smell of your scented goat milk soap. All of our handmade goat milk soaps are favorites for wholesale soap customers.
