Punkins' world....SUNSHINE, seeds and no more drought!

rebecca100

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You might want to be careful, I would hate to see you stormed by cops at gunpoint so definately don't GIVE anything away! LOL otherwise, I think it would be great to have something like that around here.
 

BeccaOH

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I'd LOVE to find a 100% local market (and be involved with one). There is an old garden store for sale near me that would be the perfect place, if I only had the money and time to set it up. ** Dreams **
 

FarmerChick

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hey punkin

We have those co-op building stores in NC....quite a few here.

Just google Tennessee co-op farm stores and see what you hit. You have to be a member to sell of course and there are tons of restrictions etc.....but you never know.

Also...when you perfect your soap--google your local health food stores and send all of them a sample along with wholesale list. You would be surprised how many stores that will want your soaps. I did that and am in 9 stores now and sale orders are HUGE!

best of luck!

(I got the great day today--sunny, cooler but warm, windy to dry clothes, fluffy clouds and that good feeling! :) )
 

Dace

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I love the idea! Sign me up...not sure what I would have to sell, but I will figure something out ! :weee

I need to pick your brain on soaps...I think we are going to give it a go next weekend. I want to make a couple types for holiday gft baskets....I am thinking something floral (maybe lavender/vanilla) and something citrusy. DO you have any fave scent combos you can recommend?
 

FarmerChick

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Is that one for me Dace?
LOL


I don't combine many fragrances. One always over powers the other and is lost anyway and those stupid oils are super expensive.

Most I do is seasonal like ---cinnamon and clove go wonderful together...alot of cinnamon and a tiny touch of clove.

gingerbread is ginger and a baby touch of vanilla and a baby drop of cinnamon. (smells like real gingerbread men)

combine sage and chamomile and it makes a great fragrance together. sell the heck out of that one.

other than that I don't really combine. if you do lavender vanilla---then the lavender will over power the vanilla and it is not noticed much
(I tried that one..lol)
 

punkin

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Dace said:
I love the idea! Sign me up...not sure what I would have to sell, but I will figure something out ! :weee

I need to pick your brain on soaps...I think we are going to give it a go next weekend. I want to make a couple types for holiday gft baskets....I am thinking something floral (maybe lavender/vanilla) and something citrusy. DO you have any fave scent combos you can recommend?
Well, in my short lived soaping experience, :lol: FC is right. Alot of scents do overpower others. One of the favorites I have found is just using cocoa powder - great scent and wonderful brown color. To that one, I did add some almond fragrance oil, yummier.

Jasmine is great to use and I did honeysuckle today. With the jasmine, I added green tea leaves. The jasmine was a rebatch soap.

As far as citrus, I love grapefruit fragrance oil. You can get it at Hobby Lobby.
 

punkin

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FarmerChick said:
hey punkin

We have those co-op building stores in NC....quite a few here.

Just google Tennessee co-op farm stores and see what you hit. You have to be a member to sell of course and there are tons of restrictions etc.....but you never know.

Also...when you perfect your soap--google your local health food stores and send all of them a sample along with wholesale list. You would be surprised how many stores that will want your soaps. I did that and am in 9 stores now and sale orders are HUGE!

best of luck!

(I got the great day today--sunny, cooler but warm, windy to dry clothes, fluffy clouds and that good feeling! :) )
OK, soap questions.

How big of a batch do you do?

Do you color yours? I did a Honeysuckle with turmeric added to about 1/3 of the mixture and swirled. Looks pretty in the mold. I've also used carrot juice (rich golden orange) and coffee (rich dark brown).

How many varieties do you do?

What oils do you use?
 

FarmerChick

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essential oils and some fragrance oils

I use veggie food coloring. Natural no chems. I get a ton of range of color then.

I am averaging about 500-700 bars per week. I make monster batches. Use 4 out molds and run about 20-30 molds per pour and do that 7 days per week along with 2 runs per day sometimes. (I work well into the night..lol)

Everything I buy is in bulk. I buy from those warehouse places that you have to have a biz license and bulk only....so I buy like $1500 worth of fragrance at one time.

I got big money into this big time.

Now I have 36 fragrances running now and to add a few seasonal like Pumpkin Pie and Christmas Tree Pine scent in Nov and Dec.

(remember I have been doing this for over 10 years and it is a biz for the farm)
 

Dace

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You girls and your soap making magic are the bomb!

Ok, so careful on mixing oils...got it!

I am so excited about starting on this. It will have to wait until next weekend. We have a local soap making store so DH and I are going to go check it out! WOOWHOO!!

Any favorite oil combos? I would love to find some goats milk on craigslist but I doubt that will happen.
 

FarmerChick

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Dace when you get your soap perfected and labeled and all that----take it to health food stores. Local ones. They usually will buy.

Never do consignment. Always a sale. I did an order of like 300 bars to a charity shop that sells stuff and WOW--they killed my soaps. I don't know what they did--put them near a heater or something? but they were a disaster...I lost about 175 soaps (and of course I use the bad ones...so the family is using up the disasters...lol) but consignment is a no no ever in biz.

favorite combo is sage and chamomile
ladies just love this scent
 
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