Carrot extract as a purple dye?

Yep that's one of the things I'm working on today. I'm re-melting a couple bars of Wino to add this organic carrot extract that is supposed to be a pure all natural purple vegetable dye. We'll see if it works! It says if heated it may change colors so I'm not sure what to expect. I'll of course add them at the every end but they'll still be heated for a short time. Outpost had a few food colorings like this. There was a red and yellow one too.

Second on the agenda for the day is waiting for the outcome of the beer soap I made this morning. Alpha Brewer is chilling in the refrigerator right now. We got a really amazing smelling cherrywood smoked barley from Northern Brewer (a home brewery supply store). It smells fabulous so hopefully by adding it at the very end of the cooking process when I was ready to pour it will retain it's smell. I then put it in the fridge asap to keep the heat from killing the smell but I'm still waiting for the outcome. We also got some simon hops to map a soap I'm wanting to call Hop-a-licious:) I want it to green but who knows how it will react with the heat.

Update on another special soap... Lush Lilac is cut and curing right now in my lab. It looks really cool with the flower petals in it but it doesn't smell like lilac. It smells more like a potpourri. It still has a smell that is nice though so it's a success as far as I'm concerned. We'll see how it sells on May 15th at the second flea market we're selling at. I'm going to have that one and hopefully 2 beer soaps along with the standard ones available. All for $5 a piece and if one or more of the special small batch ones go over well maybe I'll have them become regulars and add them to the website.

Great Day of Soap Sales!

We sold 15 bars of soap today at the Fox Skylight Antiques Flea Market. Really great reaction from people about it too. Olive bar was our number 1 seller hands down. We sold more of that then the rest combined. Espresso buzz took second. We can't wait to do it again! We signed up for Saturday May 15th and it's going to be bigger then this one plus Rummage-o-rama at State Fair Park won't be going on to compete for customers:) CHEERS!!

Saki takes over the label making...

ha! yeah right even she can't get them to line up and print out even:) What a process I thought the idea of these companies making templates for there labels was so it was easy to line up and print. Ugh! long evening of not getting them done, hopefully we have better luck tomorrow.

On a more positive note, our soap making lab is coming along fabulously! I'm designing it while I work in there so It's as practical as possible. This is what we've got so far. Great lighting in this room due to the tons of windows. LOVE! I've still got too much on the floor though.

Business Cards are HERE!!

Just got the business cards in the mail this afternoon! It only took a week... thanks www.OvernightPrints.com you guys rock! They did a fabulous job. Super vibrant colors, clear clean print overall and great cutting job. So happy we'll have them to pass out at the flea market this Saturday at Fox Skylight Antiques in Milwaukee.

Flea Market Sales!!

We'll be selling our soaps May 1st at the Fox Skylight flea market, 112 E. Mineral St. in Milwaukee from 9AM until 5PM or until we sell out! I came up with a great idea for a sign at our booth too, it will say:
ANTIQUES MAKING YOU FEEL DIRTY? CLEAN UP WITH PENINSULA SOAP!

How cute and catchy is that;)
So exciting but I've got a ton to do this week because once we start selling in person we will be directing people to the website too because it's on all the soap labels so we need to have the ordering process set up just in case. I also only have like 10 bars of each soap perfected and made so we need to get to work:)

On the schedule today... get the website up and running for orders and get lots more molds cut down and ready.

Tomorrow... we'll be making at least 2 batches of Door County Cherry soap and 2 batches of Olive Bar soap it will be a long day!!

Pop Ups Out...

instead of pop-ups when you click on an individual soaps page for more info and to add to your cart were going to do a whole normal web page for it instead. Today we updated web pages and added the "view cart" to each page in the same spot by the other icons (twitter & blogger). We had a lot of fun the other night coming up with the descriptions and wording for each soap. I also created a "add to cart" icon that will be on every individual soaps product page in the same spot.

I don't know which version I like better... I'm thinking the one with more photos though even if the type in the description and "add to cart" have to be smaller. I emailed these versions to a couple people we'll see what they say.

Espresso Buzz perfected in trial #3

Cut down our 1st perfected batch of Espresso Buzz! Were loving the creamy color and swirls of Espresso grounds:) We're still loosing about 1/2 the batch due to air bubbles. Small imperfections are fine and expected because it's handmade and that's what makes it unique and reminds you that a person made this soap not a machine in a factory. We can't waste that much though... I think we could solve the problem if we cut our molds in half because the air pockets usually occur in the middle and right now the molds are around a foot long. We're going to try that with the next batch of Wino I make and see if it fixes the problem.

Currently all 4 soaps are now perfected for selling, just one more to go. Wino needs to be perfected and today I'm going to get a new round of grapes to squeeze, dehydrate, grind and brew for a batch tomorrow.

Product Shots & Lab Organization...

all getting organized today. We got some great light coming through this afternoon so I took the opportunity with the recent printing of the labels for Olive Bar to get product shots done for the website. I also spent most of the afternoon setting up my lab:) We needed a stop to make the soap so that I could have soap saponifying at any time and the kitchen wouldn't have to be off limits to food. It looks like it's going to be a great way to use our sunroom which is probably the least used room in the house and until recently just had plants in it. After hanging some shelves we should be able to make the soap, dry, label & package it for shipping all in one place instead of having everything scattered in every room.

Business Cards ORDERED!!

We ordered our business cards from www.overnightprints.com today. We're excited to get them in 5-7 business days:) They have such a sweet deal of 500 cards for free it only cost us $7.75 for shipping.

The website also went live over the weekend with paypal so we can now sell Olive Bar online! Were making some finishing touches to it now and we'll be taking better pics tomorrow when it's sunny.

Label Satisfaction!

Thanks ULINE your labels were perfect! We got the templates working and the first label printed last week. I've been a little slow about postings since our New Orleans trip but were back to work now and ready to get product out there! Next are the business cards and brochure cards.