Rum Runner

This is a remake of Rum Runner - a soap for men (but women will steal it, no doubt about that!). The fragrance is described as an exotic blend of Allspice, Cloves & Nutmeg drizzled with Sweet Orange on a bed of crisp Pine Needles nestled within a deep warm base of Patchouli & Vanilla. It honestly smells like the sexiest man in the Universe! Packed with Sweet Almond & Golden Olive Oils with tons of creamy Cocoa Butter and Goatsmilk, this is a total treat for the man in your life!

Available for pre-order from http://www.iamhandmade.com/ourshop/prod_1904217-Rum-Runner-PreOrder-Cure-Date-9-April.html

Pink Sugar

I thought you would like to see my Pink Sugar soap - you might have already seen the You Tube video that showed the browning of this from the time I made it to about 4 days into the process.  Here you'll see the soap with almost it's full browning ... this, as you may know, is due to the natural vanillin in the fragrance which turns the soap a very dark brown.  For this soap, to keep the pink, I didn't put fragrance in this portion - so I have a pink part with no fragrance, a dark brown with fragrance and the third part is the browny cream which does have fragrance but also has titanium dioxide to help whiten up the soap.

I can't tell you how GOOD this soap smells, I just adore it ... sweet yes (and I'm not overly fond of too sweet fragrances) but it's such a complex blend of fragrances.  It's described as having base notes of candy floss, caramel, toffee, and vanilla mingling with middle notes of fig, strawberry jam and violet musk. The fragrance is rounded off with top notes of lemon drops and sweet brown sugar... it is just simply divine!!!

The soap will be fully cured as of early February 2012 and will be available online at http://www.iamhandmade.com.

If you haven't seen the browning video, here's the You Tube link http://youtu.be/ZZ9Y9njpOS8.

And here's the final soap:

Final images - Raspberry Mimosa and Jasmine & Green Tea

Well, you've seen the cutting videos for both the Raspberry Mimosa and the Jasmine & Green Tea but they still needed stills photography so that I can upload them to the website when they're fully cured.  Thankfully, Titch was home from her gallivanting around the Irish countryside and took these images yesterday evening.  There's something about the evening sunshine that gives such a lovely warm light ... sadly, I do wonder how long we're going to have the pleasure of that because I can feel Autumn coming in right now, the air is far cooler and the leaves are turning shades of red and gold.  As much as I love the Autumn/Winter seasons, I do so miss the sunshine. 

Anyway, whilst we still have the sun, we took advantage of the light and Titch took the following images ... and I hope you'll agree with me that she did, yet another, amazing job. 

So here are the images, hope you like them.

Raspberry Mimosa (fragrance reminder - a cocktail of juicy raspberry, crisp green apple and citrusy/sherbery May Chang essential oil) - available from 11 October:

Jasmine & Green Tea (fragrance reminder - heady, exotic Jasmine florals blended with calmy, citrusy Green Tea) - available from 10 October:

Really hope you enjoy the images - thanks to Titch at http://www.facebook.com/takenbytitch for her fabulous work; if you want to Like her Facebook page, you'll see more of her fantastic images. 

If you'd like to pre-order either of these soaps, please don't hesitate to drop me a line at info@soaperstar.com and I'll keep one by for you. 

Excellent Reviews for our Sheer Luxury Body Butter

Since their lauch on 1 April, our Sheer Luxury Body Butters have really gone down a treat with our customers.  I've received two absolutely fabulous reviews of them and our luxury handcrafted soap and thought I'd share them with you here.

Sinead recently ordered one of our very new (not yet even released!) Body Butters and said "I received my new Zesty Citrus Cream soap yesterday which smells fab and can't wait to open it (I know it will be amazing, the soaps always are!) but had to share about the bodybutter - I was sent an exclusive - Summer Sunflowers!! Opened it and the smell - pure sunshine - but it gets better, normally body butters are kind of thick? This is like a mousse - goes on the skin and becomes like a body oil that feels amazing and soaks right in! I'm converted totally and recommend this product to anyone - friends are sorted now with presents for ever! Well done Celine on an amazing product!!".  

And Felicity messaged me on Facebook to say "Hi Celine, I just wanted to post up about the products I received from you this week....the package was so beautifully wrapped that I took it into work to show the girls before I defaced it with my scissors. Well the excitement of the wrapping alone was tremendous and then came the two body butters that I ordered. The girls went mad for the citrus scented option and immediately wanted to try both out. they loved it, I loved it and I had to give up the business card and the little sticker on the front of the box so that they would know how to contact you. I am looking forward to my yummy hot bubble bath this evening where I will be doing eeeney meeeny miney mo on which option to smother myself in when I get out. To a job well done on both a professional as well as a fun level, I give you a big thumbs up. PS - Your packaging and branding is just excellent."

I was blown away by these reviews and wanted to thank both girls for taking the time to tell me how much they love the products! I really appreciate - feedback like this makes all the months of research so worth it!

Oddly enough, both girls are florists so know a thing or two about fabulous fragrances and excellent design!

If you'd like to check out our Sheer Luxury Body Butter selection (new fragrances being added next week, including the Summer Sunflowers) then check out our website at http://www.soaperstar.com/ - we also carry a wide range of luxury handcrafted goatsmilk & glycerine soaps.  

Selena just loves Soaperstar!

You may remember a couple of weeks back, I ran our first Soaperstar competition to win a Soaperstar tshirt and soap of your choice.

Anita Karir won the competition because by telling everyone, if she had the choice of any of the Soaperstar soaps, which one would she choose.... she said "Colour Bomb as I love rainbows, can teach my baby daughter colours using it, and it is so bright and cheerful and will put a smile on my face brightening up my dull life". 

Well, at Soaperstar, you know we're all about colour and fun and can't stand the thought of anyone having a dull life! So, the tshirt and soap were duly packaged and sent off with the mail fairies. 

And today, on a day when I was more than a little stressed out anyway, some of the cutest pictures in the world dropped into my mailbox totally making me grin from ear to ear!

Anita had taken some of the most adorable photos of her little girl Selena (just gone 1) posing with the tshirt and soap... have a look see and tell me they don't just melt your heart!!

Hmmm... Mum, this doesn't taste as good as it looks

Hello, Hello??!! There's no-one on the soaphone!

Ok, so you MUST buy this fabulous soap dahlin' !

Aren't they simply adorable??! Thank you SO much Anita for sending these on to me - they really put a smile on my face today!

Remember, if you want to get your grubby mitts on some of our fabulously luxury handcrafted goatsmilk & glycerine soaps, then hop, skip and jump along to http://www.soaperstar.com/ and buy, buy, buy!!! Limited stock on some items, so order soon. 

A little something for myself

Well, I'm in the envious position of having a pretty much fully stocked store (if you want to change that situation, check us out at Soaperstar's Online Store and buy tons so I have to make more!!), I decided to make a few things for myself!!

Pretty much everyone who makes soaps and creams and all the yummy bath and body type things you can get, doesn't often get time to treat themselves and make something for just them! But I decided I needed a treat, and here they are:

All the soaps are cocoa butter based (very gentle on your skin) with our normal skin hydrating element plus added Sweet Almond Oil (can't help but make it pure luxury you know!) - the yellow ones on the right are a blend of Grapefruit & Lemongrass, the green ones are Peppermint & Spearmint and the orange ones on the left are Sweet Orange & Mandarin (the little two coloured one is a little bit of left over orange and grapefruit together).  All are scented using pure essential oils and coloured using natural micas (the green one, you'll notice, I could have mixed that in a bit better! D'oh!).

In the middle is a total experiment - handmade shampoo!!! With great hair loving goodies like Oat Protein and Panthenol (the pro Vitamin B you get in some big brand shampoo's).  I've never made a 'poo before so it was an utter experiment but it's a lovely pure white colour and a great texture (thickens up naturally overnight to a cream texture - which is good cos it sort of looked like frog spawn and pond water when I started!).  This is scented with Rosemary & Lavender essential oils - perfect for hair.

So, a few little pressies for me ... I really enjoyed making them and I hope you enjoyed having a peek at what we have in our bathroom!

If you need a gift for someone special or even yourself (and who isn't special enough to buy a gift for themselves!) check out our handcrafted luxury goatsmilk & glycerine soaps - and afterwards you can slather yourself in our Sheer Luxury Body Butter too! We're getting rave reviews back on these! Check out http://www.soaperstar.com/ for details - oh and we've got a new May special offer happening too!!!

Welcome to our First Women Wednesday Blog Roll!

Welcome to Creation|Collaboration's 1st Women Wednesday blog roll, hosted by Beads & More by Lois, Soaperstar and Plans and Presents.

Creation|Collaboration was set up by eight women, all existing friends, who run small businesses from their homes. We have started Women Wednesday blog roll to link up with other women in business, spread the word about Creation|Collaboration and basically just have fun visiting all of your interesting blogs!

We are also in discussions with regard to listing features companies (on a regular basis) as part of our promotional campaign so by joining in with the blog roll we can get to know you and your business and maybe you could be one of our first features.

Heres how you can join in with Collaboration Women Wednesday:

• Link up your blog name and URL using the McKLinky below (you only need to add on one blog to be seen on all of the McKLinky blog roll's)
• Follow our Creation|Collaboration blog and the hostesses listed in the first 3 slots.
• Grab our Women Wednesday button in your blog post.
• Follow and comment saying you're from Women Wednesday on as many blogs as you likes listed in the McKlinky box.
• Follow back any new followers from Women Wednesday.

It's that easy and a fun way to discover new and interesting blogs and us women at Creation|Collaboration get to meet other women in business!

Mmmm Summer sunshine... Pineapple Beach anyone?

With the hope of some fabulous Summer sun, I've added to my Summer range by making a fabulous new fruity, delicious soap - Pineapple Beach another of our luxury handcrafted goatsmilk and glycerine soaps.

To keep with the tropical theme, I've added pure Organic Coconut Oil, which has been called the healthiest oil on earth - it has incredible abilities to moisturise your skin and is particularly good with dry or mature skin.

To increase moisturisation and to give you even more fabulously soft skin, I've also added my usual skin hydrating Ecocert additive - you'll know by now this is a vital ingredient in all my soaps as it adds yet another vital luxury element.

This summery soap is fragranced with a delicious, fresh, sweet & juicy pineapple scent - for a real tropical Summer! And I've used a blend of two different natural micas, specially imported from the US, to create a true juicy pineapple colour. These micas glisten gently in this wonderful soap - perfect for those warm Summer days!

If you are interested in purchasing this truly Summery soap, check out our Soaperstar Online Store - we'll be happy to see you there!!

Colour Bomb!!!

With the delivery of my fab new POP micas (from TKB Trading), I have been wondering how I could incorporate all the colours together in one soap... and I did it this weekend! I haven't tackled stripes in the past and this was fun to do, if not a little scary!!!

Colour Bomb is another luxury handcrafted pure glycerine soap which is perfect for all skin types, especially those suffering from dry skin conditions.

To the naturally moisturising soap, I have added pure Coconut Oil, which has been called the healthiest oil on earth - it has incredible abilities to moisturise your skin and is particularly good with dry or mature ...skin. Along with that, I've added a skin hydrating Ecocert additive that increases the level of moisturisation in your skin.

Colour Bomb is fragranced with a soft aldehydic scent with citrus top notes, a floral heart with base notes of musk—a really soft & clean perfume.

I used six different natural micas to create our Colour Bomb; from the top - Lemon Drop Yellow, Tangerine Orange, Apple Green, Raspberry Pink, Blueberry & Grape! These micas glisten brightly in this softly perfumed soap which will gently scent your skin throughout the day.

I really love this soap and I'm hoping that you do too!!! If you're interested in purchasing, don't forget to check out our Soaperstar Online Store today.

Happy Easter everyone!

Just a quickie to say Happy Easter to everyone! I bet you're all stuffing yourselves to the gills with chocolate today.. and why not, if there was ever a day for it, today's it! I've been off chocolate and all matter of naughty munchie type things for 12 days now .. currently now changing my addiction from chocolate to oranges! Yep, I am a freak.. so far it's not been difficult at all to be honest - I love most fruit and veg anyway (not the hugest fan of green vegetables in the main though) and I'm not a big meat eater usually (in that I do eat meat but I often only want a small portion of it). 

My problem is comfort eating so I'm trying to replace that with more healthy choices without going too mad about counting calories or doing stupid stuff like weighing myself everyday.  I didn't even weigh myself at the start of this - I'm just going by how my clothes feel (they were starting to get tight which I really hate).  I'm going on hols in August and wanted to drop a bit before I went (I've a lot to drop I'm afraid but something is better than nothing right?!).

Anyway, I digress (as usual)... just wanted to say Happy Easter to all my Soaperstar's .. hope you have the best day and enjoy that choccie .. think of me whilst I have another orange!!!

Fancy treating yourself to some fabulous luxury handcrafted glycerine & goatsmilk soaps? Go no further than our online store for more details!

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!

Fabulous new Soaps! Rain Shower & Oriental Crush

As I said in my Facebook/Twitter post, I've been a little poorly lately but I've still managed to go ahead and make two stunning new soaps... I'm really proud of these.  Both are made with our excellent quality goatsmilk and glycerine soap, which, if you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know I'm completely in love with! I just adore them because they are so excellent for your skin - glycerine is a natural humectant... a what now? I hear you say.... it simply means that it draws moisture from the air into your skin, which means that it helps you have silkly soft skin.  As usual, I also add an Ecocert skin hydrating factor - I find this so incredible to increase your skin's moisture levels - honestly, I've made lots of soaps, some with this and some without and there is NO way on this earth that I'd make any without this in it.  As you know, I will NEVER sell anything I wouldn't use myself and I wouldn't not add this hydration factor (you know what I mean, I never said I had a degree in English!). 

First up, we have our new Rain Shower goatsmilk glycerine soap - unusually for me, it's actually quite a muted coloured soap (you know me, I do love my colours) but I had a beautifully fresh fragrance oil and had been trying to design a soap for an age that'd do it justice.  Then I thought ... pastel, muted, calm, clean, soft ... and here we have Rain Shower. 

Rain Shower - what can I say about this fragrance? To me, it's such a fresh and light scent and it reminds me of the smell of a garden straight after a rain shower - you know that clean, fresh fragrance that smells like the world's worries have been washed away and everything's all clean again?  Along with the excellent qualities of the goatsmilk and glycerine soap, we've added pure Avocado Butter - this is a very rich and moisturising butter cold pressed from the pulp of the avocado. The soap is wonderfully pastel coloured and calming with a hint of glisten provided through the used of natural mica. It has a blend of soft turquoise (THE colour of 2010) with cool green and pure creamy white and a soft glisten.  Our Rain Shower Fragrance Oil is a fresh aquatic blend of lily of the valley, gardenia, raindrops, mist & clean green countryside - so reminiscent of the fresh scent of a spring day, after a rain shower.  I think this is such a wonderfully uplifting and fresh soap - a perfect start to your day.

Then I decided to go crazy and make my next soap, Oriental Crush - this one took a minimum of 4 hours! I stopped counting after that!! Each of the soap "bubbles" is moulded seperately and have to be hand trimmed before embedding into the goatsmilk white soap.  It is really perfect for all skin types, and especially those suffering from dry skin conditions.  Along with the usual skin hydrating factor, I have also added pure Coconut Oil, which has been called the healthiest oil on earth - it has incredible abilities to moisturise your skin and is particularly good with dry or mature skin. Oriental Crush is fragranced with a blend of zesty lime & mandarin, leading to a base of basil with warm accords of precious woods & amber. To match the scent perfectly, we've used glistening brightly coloured spots of glycerine soap in co-ordinating colours. The soap is wonderfully citrusy with a herbal background - a very beautiful blend and a perfect oriental influence. This really is a wonderfully fresh and zesty soap and will gently scent your skin throughout the day.

I hope you're enjoyed a glimpse of our two new soaps ... I just loved making these (even if they took ages to make!) and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the fragrances.  If you are interested in purchasing either of these soaps, or in fact any in our ever extending range, don't hesitate to check out our online store at http://www.soaperstar.com/ - we'll be delighted to see you!!!

A Facebook and Twitter Tip for businesses

Firstly, can I say a quick "sorry" for not having posted in a while? I've been under the weather and, in the main, under the radar.  I''ve been working away quietly and slowly making some soaps and experimenting with lip balms and bath bombs too.  I'll post about this tomorrow as I've to work on some photos beforehand.

 

So... the real point of this blog post to give you a tip about Facebook and Twitter.  Lots of small businesses are focusing on social media to get their message out - it's a hugely powerful tool and it's free! You can reach millions of people via what is called "viral marketing".  What is that I hear you say? Basically, it's marketing through networks.  Let me give you a scenario - before I started Soaperstar I knew that I had to get a presence online and build up interest for the product and company before I could start selling.. otherwise who will buy something they don't know exists? Ok. So what did I do? I set up a blog firstly (you're reading it!) that just told of what I was doing - plain and simple English, just to say "hey folks, this is my stuff and this is what I'm working on now".  Then I decided to set up a Facebook Fan Page.  Lots of people already have personal pages on Facebook but you can also set up a business page too to promote your products to your network... who are they? Your friends and family that you've sent a link to and said "come and join us on our new business page". 

Ok, so now my friends and family have joined but I'm not going to take over the soaping universe through them am I? Well, yes in a way.  You ask your friends and family to send an invite to your Facebook Fan Page to their friends and family.  So .. how you've reached two layers of people.  Then on your Facebook Page, say to everyone please feel free to invite your network to join.. so now how many people can you reach? Plenty! Loads more than the number of people you ever know.  They invite their network, who invites their network, who invites their network.. see how it works? Ok, not everyone is going to be interested or join or even click the link - but imagine if even 10% do!

I've just done a forum post on some tips arising from the use of Facebook and Twitter and thought I'd do a blog post on it also; it may be of some interest to people so I thought I'd share it. 

 

Vanity URL's with Facebook:  When you've built up at least 25 fans, you can change your facebook fan page to what they call a "Vanity URL". When you first create your Facebook fan page, pretty much just a string of letters and numbers and long and not very attractive.  To make it more like your own site link, that contains the name of your company this is what you should do:

Click http://facebook.com/username.  At the bottom of the page, you'll see a link called "set a username for your pages".  Click on it and then you'll see a drop down - click on this and you should see your "business fan page".  At that point, you should put in the name of your company/fan page, ie Soaperstar.  Word of warning, at this stage you have to make committment to using that name - you can't go back and change it later so make sure you've clicked the right thing!!!

After doing all this, you'll have a nice simple Facebook Fan Page address ... example http://www.facebook.com/soaperstar - instead of a mass of jumbled up letters and numbers after the dot com.  This is handy to quote on your business cards, the end of your emails, on Twitter, your blog, the end of forum signatures etc.  

Twitter and how to manage your messages:  If you're using Twitter regularly, download Tweetdeck, click http://www.tweetdeck.com; it's free and it manages the process far easier.  You can set up columns for your friends or for specific people you want to keep a track on.  If you want to use hastags (which are used for subjects of interest to people - if lots of people use it for the same subject, it's called trending) then add the hashtags #soap and/or #handmade to your Tweet.  Then people can search for all the #soap tweets if they want.  Also it makes it a more trending topic. 

I hope this information proves useful to someone - I am a big fan of social media and I think, for small businesses who don't have marketing budgets the size of the big guys (or any marketing budget at all!), then the social media route is so important to check out.  Don't underestimate the power of a network!!!

New February Special Offer!

We've decided to continue with our New Year resolution of offering our valued customers a free gift with their orders! In January, we offered a mystery soap with every order for 4 or more soaps and it proved hugely successful!

This February we've decided to offer our customers a free, 100% cotton washcloth with every order of 2 or more soaps - no need to add them to your order, we'll pack them along with your soaps.  The cloths are made of the softest, white cotton and would be perfect to use in the shower with your Soaperstar soap! It will come tied in a beautiful purple bow!

Just a little "Thank You" to our valued customers - we hope you love this offer and we're working on ideas for continuing offers for the months to come.

Don't forget to order your Limited Edition Valentine soaps online soon! A perfect piece of practical art for the love of your life!

Check out all our products online at http://www.soaperstar.com/.  See you there!!!!

Soaperstar gets a mention!

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to Babs at http://www.soapstuffdaily.com/ for featuring Soaperstar soaps on her wonderful blog.  It's great to get a mention from anyone but from a fellow soaper, it's great to be recognised for my work.  She featured my two new Valentine Limited Edition soaps - Velvet Heart and Midas Touch.. I'm so delighted. 

You can read her post here - thank you again Babs, I really appreciate it!

Fabulous Limited Edition Valentine Soaperstar soaps!

I wanted to make some Valentine specials this weekend and thought why should it only be for women (so many Valentine gifts are) so I made one for the ladies and one for the men!

Midas Touch is our limited edition Valentine's soap for the man in your life!

A luxury handcrafted pure glycerine soap, perfect for all types of skin, with added Apricot Kernel Oil and a skin hydrating Ecocert additive to ensure your skin is treated with the luxury it deserves!

Midas Touch is a very modern style soap, deeply coloured with black and two different types of golden natural mica.

Fragranced with our special Midas Touch Fragrance Oil, a lush green woody citrus blend of sandalwood, cedarwood and tobacco leaf - a very male scent, deep and mysterious.

Velvet Heart is our limited edition Valentine soap made specially for the woman in your life - a luxury handcrafted blend of Goatsmilk & Glycerine soap, to which we've added Apricot Kernel Oil and an additional Ecocert skin hydrating additive to keep your skin soft & supple.

We use natural micas to create the softest, most romantic pinks and this wonderful soap is beautifully fragranced with our Velvet Heart fragrance Oil - a beautifully soft, romantic blend of Red Roses, Sweet Violets and soft White Musk.

I loved making both these soaps - the fragrances are wonderful, my house smelt like heaven when I made them!!!! Both are now available to buy online at http://www.soaperstar.com/ ... and remember they are both limited edition so once they're gone, they're gone!!! AND, they're both covered under our New Year Special Offer - buy 4 soaps, get a 5th mystery one for free... this finishes on 31 January so get your skates on!!!

Two new Soaperstar Soaps! Indian Rainforest & Lavender Champagne... bliss!

Introducing two new Soaperstar soaps! I got back to some post Christmas soaping on Saturday and made the following two soaps, I'm just adoring the fragrances used and the subtle modern colouring... here come the details!!!

Both of our new soaps, Indian Rainforest and Lavender Champagne are handcrafted luxury Goatsmilk & Glycerine soaps with added Apricot Kernel Oil for extra skin moisturisation and an additional skin hydrating factor to ensure your skin in treated with the luxury it deserves!

On the right hand side, Indian Rainforest is designed as a soap for men - it is deeply fragranced using a wonderful blend of cedarwood, giving a warm woody masculine base, alongside the deep earthy scent of patchouli, a fragrance element used in many commercial aftershaves for men. However, many women will just adore this fragrance too!

The soap is coloured using two different natural micas, a deep forest green and a lighter green gold, alongside the white goatsmilk - giving an impression of dark deep Indian Rainforest.

Our Lavender Champagne is wonderfully fragranced with our Lavender Champagne fragrance oil, a blend of uplifting lemon against a background of calming, soothing lavender.
 
This beautiful blend is perfectly balanced - neither scent overtakes the other, the lemon adds a wonderful freshness against the more comforting lavender. The subtle colouring is enhanced with the use of natural glistening mica - a truly modern take on a traditional theme.

I hope you enjoy both of our new soaps - both are now availalbe to purchase from our online store - just check us out at http://www.soaperstar.com/ - we'll be delighted to see you there!!!!