Oh well... it's the taking part that counts right?

Well.  Sad news.  The finalists for the Irish Blog Awards were announced on Friday night - I didn't make it! I know! Crazy or what? Anyway, given this blog is relatively new and it's mostly about soap, I guess it doesn't fall too much into the sphere of what you'd imagine the normal run of the mill person to read.  But, hey, I'm back up on the bike and gonna try again for next year!

Actually, I was VERY happy to get to Round 2 at all ... and it really is the taking part that counts... if you don't put yourself forward for things, you'll never get anywhere.  So what I didn't win? I didn't have a fancy schmancy dress anyway and I can't wear high heels to save my life! And God knows I could drop a few pounds too!

So, the plan for next year is 1) get nominated again .. several times this time, 2) get them to spell my blog name properly (the link never worked, annoying), 3) get into Round 2,  4) get on the finalists list and 5) eventual world domination.

Yeah, good plan, great work for a Sunday... now I'm starving!!

(Drop a few pounds, who am I kidding??!!)

Handcrafted luxury goatsmilk & glycerine soap from Soaperstar - all made in Dublin, Ireland

Guild of Craft Soap & Toiletry Makers - Soaperstar accepted as the first ever non-UK member!

The Guild of Craft Soap & Toiletry Makers was formed by a group of dedicated crafters in September 2007 and was officially launched in September 2007.  It has two specific aims:

• To raise awareness of the legislative standards that are in place that apply to craft soap and toiletry makers
• To register as members of the Guild crafters who work in compliance with this legislation and who hold relevant public liability insurance

EU legislation is in place to set specific standards of practice for those who make handcrafted soaps and other bath & body products.  They help to ensure that every ingredient we, as handcrafters, use in our formulations is safe for consumers - they also help the consumer because you will know that what you buy from a Guild member, and, therefore, what you use on your body, will be safe for you to use. 

Soaperstar is very proud to announce that we are the first non UK soap handcrafters to be accepted into the Guild - it is a hugely positive statement of the care we take to ensure that our customers are uppermost in our minds when we carefully formulate our products.  We take huge care to ensure that we abide by all EU legislation in terms of quality of ingredients, the processes we use to manufacture our products, taking care that all our labels are fully compliant and that all of our products have been fully safety assessed by a highly qualified cosmetic chemist.

There still are, unfortunately, handcrafters out there who do not abide by the legislation - it is a real pity that others don't consider the safety of their customers as one of the most important elements of their business.  You can be totally assured that all Soaperstar products are fully EU compliant and that the safety and care of our customers is a vital concern for us. 

I'm so proud to be the first non-UK soaper ever to be accepted into the Guild and I will wear the Guild badge with pride on my website and my blog. 

If you'd like more information about the Guild, please check out their website here.  I'd like to thank Mike at the Guild for all his support and help. 

If you are interested in purchasing any of our Soaperstar products, please don't hesitate to drop into our website - we'll be delighted to see you there! 

A new look for our blog

Well, you'll have noticed by now that we have a new look to our blog.  I had been pretty happy with the look of it up til now but I felt that it didn't really reflect Soaperstar and didn't really link in with the look of the Soaperstar website.  It was too bland, too dull really.  I spent a long time looking for something that would work for us - that'd link in with the look of the website and that would look more professional too.  I found the template we're using now and thought "that's it"... the "bubbles" in the background image are very similar to those used as the background image on our site and, well the fact that they look like bubbles makes you think of soap too! I just love the colours as well and I think the darker background gives it a more modern look. 

I'm hoping that you like it and enjoy reading the blog as much as I enjoy writing it.  I know some people think "what am I going to write about" when they start blogging first (or maybe most of the time?!) but I see it as a sort of diary that tracks not only the birth and growth of Soaperstar but also the things that happen around me that go to make me who I am which, ultimately, makes Soaperstar what it is.  The longer I use this, the more I find that it helps me focus on what I want for this business and what direction I want it to take.  But that's probably another day's post!

If you'd like to make any comments about the new look, feel free to send me a comment - I'm happy to hear all views!

Irish Blog Awards 2010 - Moving into Round 2

Well, I have to say I got a very pleasant shock yesterday - having been nominated in the Pop Culture section of the Irish Blog Awards 2010 (for which I was utterly chuffed), I was reading a friends profile on Facebook where she'd posted that the Round 1 lists had been published.  I checked them on the website and I found out I am through Round 1 judging ... well, I have to admit I'm pretty thrilled.  I didn't expect to get past the nomination stage, let alone through Round 1.  Round 2 judging starts on Friday (12 March) and, from that, the list of finalists will be issued. 

I just want to wish all my fellow nominees in all categories the very best of luck and thanks to the judges for their hard work also.  I am just thrilled to have gotten this far to be honest ... but how cool would it be to actually be a finalist?! I'll keep you updated!

Spring has Sprung ... Hawaiian Blossom is here!

The sun is shining and the evenings are getting longer - yes, I still have to scrape the ice off the car windscreen every morning before I go anywhere but still, the sun is shining! We have sun! It does exist after all!!! So, in celebration of the fantastic feeling of Spring in the air, I made a fabulous new soap - bright yellow sunshine with a fantastic glisten of natural mica!

We have taken the purest, highest quality goatsmilk and clear glycerine soaps (which are natural humectants - they attract moisture from the air into your skin) and added exotic Mango Butter which is rich in beta carotene and Vitamins A & E. It is highly moisturising and has excellent softening and regenerative properties, with the added bonus that it is thought be protective against UV rays. It is claimed that mango butter can help to reduce the degeneration of the skin’s cells and help to restore elasticity, so would make an excellent ingredient in products for mature skins.

To this we have added our special additional skin hydrating element which provides your skin with increased hydration and provies excellent moisturisation.

Hawaiian Blossom soap is wonderfully fragranced with the sweet exotic tropical fragrance of frangipani - this flower can be found in areas of Asia and is native to Hawaii is a stunningly beautiful white and yellow flower, with a beautiful floral fragrance. Reflecting the natural yellow and white of the Frangipani flower, we have coloured this luxury soap with tones of yellow glycerine and white goatsmilk soaps - we've also added natural mica to give a glittery sheen, reminiscent of the sun shining on moisture drops on the flowers.

This is really a luxury soap - perfect for all skin types, deeply moisturising with added ingredients to treat your skin to the quality it deserves, wonderfully coloured and deeply fragranced with an exotic floral scent .. a perfect gift to anyone you love.

If you'd like to purchase this fabulous new soap, click here to go direct to our online store!

Hawaiian Blossom handcrafted luxury goatsmilk & glycerine soap - from Soaperstar

The Power of Positive Thinking

I attended a training course today and the key concept behind it was the power of positive thought ... I had some thoughts about it on the train home. 

We all have days where we get up in the morning and think "oh no, not another day - isn't it Friday yet already?".  But how often do we think that? Once, twice a week? More? I wonder how much that negative thought affects the rest of the day - seems to make sense that, if you start the day with a negative thought, surely the rest could go downhill after that.  How about thinking "ok, another day to wake up and do lots of things, meet people, laugh, hug my husband, love life"... it's probably a bit too touchy-feely for lots of us to accept but I'm interested in trying to adjust my thinking to see how much that positivity affects my daily life. 

The theory goes that thinking positively builds confidence, improves your attitude to life, helps you cope better with the stresses and strains we encounter everyday and helps you to visualise positive outcomes - which is supposed to help you achieve your goals. 

I think I'm a pretty positive person all in all but there's always room for improvement for us all! So I'm going to work on this .... think more positively, see the good side of things more, find the silver lining! I find my soaping a hugely positive project in my life - the creativity helps me release tensions and strains and the mental thought process of designing new products really challenges me and gets those synapses sparking! Working on increasing my positive thought can only help me more.  Why not join me in this ... see how it works for you. 

March Special Offer from Soaperstar

Our previous monthly special offers have been very successful and I wanted to continue with them for March - so I want to introduce our new special offer. 

Introducing our new organza gift bags - in our signature purple, these beautiful organza bags are absolutely perfect as gift wrapping for one of our Soaperstar soaps.  I've shown some examples in the picture to the left - I think they look really excellent.

The price of these bags will be 75 cent each but, as a special offer to our customers, we'll be offering these at a reduced price of 50 cent per bag for the month of March! That represents a 33% reduction in price from the regular retail price. 

These would look really excellent for any gifts - with Mothers Day coming up in the EU (14 March everyone, have you got your pressies ready??), they'd be fantastic as gift wrapping - they also really add to the luxury element of our handcrafted soaps - anyone would be delighted to recieve one of these!

If you're interested in purchasing, please check out our site at http://www.soaperstar.com/ - enjoy!! Don't forget to buy in time for Mothers Day!

Everyone needs a holiday!

Sorry I've been so quiet this last week - I had some time off and my hubby and I decided to take a min-break to a place we love dearly with all our hearts.  West Cork is in the very South West tip of Ireland and it is an utterly magical place - right by the sea, you can go for miles without meeting another soul.  It's so beautiful, peaceful and quiet and the people are really lovely.  We've been travelling down there there for the last 8 years - in fact, it's where we went for our first holiday together (when we only knew each other for a month!) and it was absolutely the first choice for our honeymoon too! Our long term plan is to move there at some point - we can't at the moment due to family committments but moving there is absolutely our biggest life plan.  Below are some of the pictures from our trip ... I hope you enjoy them!!

Inchydoney Beach. Clonakilty on a quiet February Tuesday afternoon

A tired me, by the fire, in the local - hubby's pint of Murphy's can also be seen!

A secret place just beyond Mizen Head, West Cork - we've spent a lot of time here, the sound is magical as the waves crash against the rocks

Proof that the sun does shine in February in West Cork!

Crookhaven, West Cork - a perfect day out!

It looked warm enough to paddle but look at his face! He was shouting "It's soooooooo coooooolllllllllllddddddd"

Gorse burning, Crookhaven

Well, that's all the photos - hope you enjoyed them... it was such a fantastic trip and one sorely needed too.  Sometimes it's important for us to remember what's important in this life - for me, it's family, my lovely hubby and spending quality time together.  With the hustle and bustle of life, a new business and other issues, it can be hard to get time out to just breathe the air and remember what's important in life.