New Scents, New Products

I just LOVE rolling out Brand New Items! And we've got several for you!

Introducing Vanille Noir:

Vanilla grew up and got all sophisticated on us in this sexy little blend! Rich Notes of Vanilla blend with the dark sexy tones of Sandalwood to create a mysteriously alluring blend.

Currently Available:

Vanille Noir Handmade Soap
Vanille Noir Shea Butter Lotion
Vanille Noir Perfume Oil

Coming Soon:

Vanille Noir Indulgence Cream
Vanille Noir Sugar Scrub
Vanille Noir Bath Salts
Vanille Noir Body Gloss

Introducing Velocity for Men:

ve⋅loc⋅i⋅ty = Rapidity or speed of motion; swiftness. Let's get your man moving in high gear with this sexy Sandalwood & Leather .



Currently Available:

Velocity for Men Handmade Soap
Velocity for Men Shea Butter Lotion

Coming Soon:

Velocity for Men Body Spray
(at the moment, this is all I'm planning on offering. If you'd like to see it in other products, please let me know!)

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Birthdays, BOGOs & a Blog Giveaway!!!

It's going to be a BUSY BUSY BUSY week in the Body Language Soaps house!!! To start with, there's Thanksgiving. Luckily hubby & I just have to make my husband's fabulous mashed potatoes and show up at my parents (gotta love parents!).

We also have two birthdays this week! Tanner turned 7 today! And Ashton turns 6 on Wednesday (yes, you did that math right, they're only 1 year and 3 days apart!).

We are also having an awesome sale through the end of the month!

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Holiday BOGO Sale!

Through the end of November, helps us ring in the holidays with our HOLIDAY BOGO SALE! Buy any 3 products and receive a 4th product FREE! (details for how to purchase are listed on each site since it's slightly different depending on where you shop)

www.blsoaps.com
www.blsoaps.etsy.com

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Blog Giveaway

We're also offering an awesome giveaway on Cherry Blossoms Blog! There are lots of ways you can enter, so make sure you enter as many time as possible for a chance to win a soap of your choice from Body Language Soaps!

Read the details here!

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So it's going to be a hectic week for us, especially considering we're still half living out of boxes! I figure we can unpack after Christmas! LOL! Who needs sleep??? Not me!

Moving Update - Sunday, November 8th

I promised to post updates on our move when I could, so here is update number one!

Saturday’s move went VERY well. We had neighbors chip in on both ends, so it all went very quickly. We still have a lot of stuff that needs to be unpacked at the old house and brought over, but we moved all the furniture and made a huge dent in our progress. Our new neighbors have been incredibly friendly and helpful (considering we’re essentially strangers!).

We arranged all the furniture in the new soap room. So mostly it’s just organizing everything back onto their shelves. We have most of the finished product unpacked already. We’ll be starting in on all our equipment and raw materials over the next couple days.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures of the new soap room!

The big gray drawers hold most of my containers (bottles, jars, lids, etc). The shelves along the wall will hold most of our raw ingredients (except our oils, those are being kept downstairs closer to the kitchen since they need to be used with the stove).

This pile of boxes will be replaced with my computer desk, file cabinet & printer. I haven’t figured out exactly what will go into that back closet. I’m thinking of setting up my curing rack in there. If I put it in there, I could even set up a dehumidifier in there to help speed up the curing process (assuming I could find a dehumidifier in Utah…. They mostly sell humidifiers!).

We're excited about our new place. Even though almost everything is still in boxes it already feels VERY much like home!

Wordless Wednesday - The Richness of Fall

Lesson & Laugh of the Day

I LOVE funny blogs. Seriously, absolutely LOVE them! There's nothing better on a blah day than to head over to my short list of funny blogs and be immediately cheered up. Heck, I even have a column on my TweetDeck called 'Humor'. This was good enough that I just HAD to share it!



HOW TO CHANGE YOUR OIL

Women:
1. Pull up to Jiffy Lube when the mileage reaches 3000 since the last oil change.
2. Drink a cup of coffee.
3. 15 minutes later, write a check and leave with a properly maintained vehicle.

Men:
1. Go to O'Reilly auto parts and write a check for 50 dollars for oil, filter, oil lift (AKA kitty litter), hand cleaner and scented tree.
2. Discover that the used oil container is full. Instead of taking it back to O'Reilly to recycle, dump in hole in back yard.
3. Open a beer and drink it.
4. Jack car up. Spend 30 minutes looking for jack stands.
5. Find jack stands under kid's pedal car.
6. In frustration, open another beer and drink it.
7. Place drain pan under engine.
8. Look for 9/16 box end wrench.
9. Give up and use crescent wrench.
10. Unscrew drain plug.
11. Drop drain plug in pan of hot oil; get hot oil on you in process.
12. Clean up.
13. Have another beer while oil is draining.
14. Look for oil filter wrench.
15. Give up; poke oil filter with Phillips screwdriver and twist it off.
16. Beer.
17. Buddy shows up; finish case with him. Finish oil change tomorrow.
18. Next day, drag pan full of old oil out from underneath car.
19. Throw oil lift (AKA kitty litter) on oil spilled during step 18.
20. Beer. No, drank it all yesterday.
21. Walk to 7-11; buy beer.
22. Install new oil filter making sure to apply thin coat of clean oil to gasket first.
23. Dump first quart of fresh oil into engine.
24. Remember drain plug from step 11.
25. Hurry to find drain plug in drain pan.
26. Hurry to replace drain plug before the whole quart of fresh oil drains onto floor.
27. Slip with wrench and bang knuckles on frame.
28. Bang head on floor board in reaction.
29. Begin cussing fit.
30. Throw wrench.
31. Cuss for additional 10 minutes because wrench hit Miss December(1992) in the left boob.
32. Clean up; apply Band-Aid to knuckle.
33. Beer.
34. Beer.
35. Dump in additional 4 quarts of oil.
36. Beer.
37. Lower car from jack stands.
38. Accidentally crush one of the jack stands.
39. Move car back to apply more oil lift (AKA kitty litter) to fresh oil spilled during step 23.
40. Drive car.

(courtesy of Swap Meet Dave)


I'm married to a very handy man. Changing oil is easy for him. I have even helped him completely replace a car engine. Let me tell you, there seriously is something very hot about a man covered in car grease who knows what he's doing underneath the hood of a car. But I digress! (fans self!)

Anyway.....

Even HE sees the advantage of delegating things out to people who have the skills & tools to do them properly and efficiently. YES, there are many things we could do for ourselves. But sometimes, it's better to let the pros do it!!!

Chaotic Times at Body Language Soaps

It's been an unusual year for us. As many of you know, we moved at the beginning of the summer. A friend of mine had an unusual rental available that was actually perfect for our needs. It had two kitchens. While that'd be weird for most people, it was perfect for us! We had his and her kitchens!

Unfortunately, due to some circumstances that none of us could have foreseen, my friend decided she needed to sell the house we're in. So we found ourselves looking for a new place to live when we hadn't even fully unpacked from our last move!

It took some crazy hunting (and viewing some terrifying places!), but we've found a place that fits our needs and our price range. Our move will be more than a little chaotic, but you do what you gotta do! I'm going to be spending all of this week packing up as much as I can out of dressers, shelves etc. My parents are going to help us move all the furniture over on Saturday (the 7th). Then over the course of the next few weeks, David & I will slowly but surely pack up everything else and get it transported over to the new place.

So, what does this mean for the business?

At the moment, we're not planning on closing down, just letting everyone know about the possibility of small delays in both communications and shipping. We will still do our best to get all our orders out in a timely manner.

While I admit that I'm not excited about moving so soon after this last move, I'm not dreading it either. I know we were supposed to live in Cedar Hills for the short time that we did. David made connections that he otherwise wouldn't have, and this lead to his new job (that he still is loving!). Also, the longer we were here, the more I realized that as much as I loved having my own kitchen for our business, the storage space that I had was just way too small. The new townhome in Provo has quite a bit more space, especially for our business that just keeps growing!

I know the picture below doesn't show much, but it's a quick glance at the room that will very soon be my studio. Ashton is standing at one end of it. This shot is showing less than half the room (there's another window identical to the one you can see). It's a nice big room, lots of sunlight (great for product pictures!!!). So I'm really excited to be able to spread out a little more than I currently am!


If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to ask. Just be patient with us. I'm going to be incredibly busy for the next few weeks, and before too long I'm sure I'll also have very limited internet access (the less to distract me with! LOL!). But keep us in your thoughts and prayers! We're probably going to need it over the next few weeks!

Harvets Market Success (and pictures!)

We had so much fun at the Harvest Market at Sundance on Saturday! Even though I was in pain most of the day and drugged up for all of it, we had a lot of fun (I severely sprained my ankle Thursday night, had a splint on it, and honestly, wasn't supposed to be on it nearly as much as I was!).


We arrived right at eight, and I hobble through FROST to get to my booth space (seriously, my splint was caked with snow by the time I got there), only to find out I was on a hill. Even if I thought I could set up without all my product rolling off my tables, I knew I would never be able to navigate on anything but a level surface. Luckily the coordinator sympathized, and he moved me down to a more level location!

My parents were kind enough to come help me & David with the set up. I could lift things, but not walk. David could walk but not lift things. Yeah, we were a GREAT pair! As we started to unload the van, David panics. He forgot the tent!!! Miraculously, he was able to run home in my parents' truck, grab the tent, and get back down with it before the show started, but it was a lovely little wrench thrown into the plans! But we survived!

While he was getting the tent, my parents helped me set up as much as we could. I went to put the black table cloth down on the 8 foot table, and found out that my cute little WHITE puppy must have somehow found it. It was covered in dog hair! So we were forced to use the green cloth that was provided with the table. It looked okay, but not quite what we were planning!


Although I really like how the burgundy runner looked draped over the table. I think it'll be really stunning on the black cloths for future shows. We did have another one for the other table, but forgot to put it out, and I'm going to blame my forgetfulness on the percocet! (which sadly, is probably accurate)

We also added sheer burgundy tie back panels to each of the front corners (sorry, no pictures!). It really added a nice final touch to the booth and helped tie things together.

Oh, and our other freak out moment during set up...

My mom asks me, "Lindsay, where are the rest of your lip balms?"

Me, "They're in one of the boxes."

Mom, "No they're not."

WHAT?!?!?!?! Guess what, I left two entire boxes of lip balms at home. We had about 7 flavors out of our normal 40 flavor line. Of course we discovered this AFTER David had texted me to let me know he was on his way back, otherwise we would have had him bring those with him as well. So... big change of plans in set up! We originally had one more 4 foot table running along the right wall. Without all those lip balms, I didn't have enough product to fill all 3 tables. But in hindsight, the good thing about pulling the table, it gave me a place to sit and elevate my foot during the day.

(our booth is the one to the left of the big american flag)

Finally it's 10am, our booth is set up, I'm not completely freezing, and the buyers are starting to stroll in. My parents head home and David & I are up and ready to have a great day in sales.

And we really did! I am so glad he came with me. Even if I'd been at 100%, I wouldn't have been able to do it all on my own! We were kept busy busy busy all day long. We handed out at least 150 business cards (I'll need to get more before the next show!), we handed out all our 1/4 oz lotion samples (those were a hit!). We sold out of several soaps and a couple of lotions. We also took some custom orders that we'll be shipping out this week.

Highlights of the day:

• Someone came to the show because she read about it on my blog! That was awesome!

• I met one of my regular Etsy customers! She and her friend walked around the corner of my booth and all of a sudden I hear her shout, "Oh my gosh, come here! This is who I buy all my lip balms from!" As soon as she told me her name, I knew exactly who it was! It was so much fun to meet her in person!!!

• I also had two ladies ask me about wholesaling! They're both unique local business, and they'd be a lot of fun to work with! So here's crossing fingers that that works out!

Finally 4 o'clock rolled around, and my brothers showed up to help us break down. I was actually sad to go! We had sales right up until the very end (and some people looking even when we had almost everything packed up). It was so cool to be hauling EMPTY product boxes back to the van. We brought 8 or 9 bankers boxes filled with product and we went home with 4 empty ones! WooHoo!!!

I'm now utterly exhausted (I slept for 12 hours last night!!!), and I'm forcing myself to take Sunday completely off (more for my ankle than anything else). But I'll be jumping back into the swing of things Monday morning again! (and we'll be adding our soaps back into our shop as we double check our post show inventory since we also have a new wholesale account that we'll be filling as well)

If you'd like to see more pictures of the show, we have some posted on our Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blsoaps/sets/72157622467673770/

Harvest Market at Sundance

If you live in Utah, come visit us this Saturday (September 26, 2009) at the Harvest Market at the beautiful Sundance Resort! It runs from 10am - 4pm.

We will have our booth set up there and we'd love for you to come meet us in person (not to mention the opportunity to smell & try before you buy!).

If you mention you read about our show on our blog, we'll give you 10% off your purchase!!!

(discount applies to purchases made at the Harvest Market only)

Soaping Madness!!!

We've been trying to get our soap inventory bumped up before the holidays hit us too hard. Well, guess what, it's here! Orders keep coming in, shows are going well, and we keep scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to our soap inventory! We're making soap almost daily, usually double batches at least. So if you don't see what you're looking for in our shop, let us know you're looking! If it's not already on the curing racks, we'll do what we can to bump it up on the production schedule!

In the meantime, enjoy some soapy pictures!


Charcoal Cleanser: I just love how these swirls turned out! I don't want to cut them into bars!


Zebra Face: We've made extra batches of this one since it keeps selling out on us so fast!



Rebel: A new Mens Soap - this will be coming out hopefully the first of next week. We still need to take pictures of the final product.


Pakalana: Also a new soap we're adding to our line! Look for this early next week!

The Soap Creation Process

There is something about making soap, the creative process, that is inspiring. I love picking out the ingredients, the scents, the additives, and blending them together to make something unique and beautiful!

I am constantly asked about the soap making process, so I thought I'd take a few pictures along the way! This is our Mint Tea Handmade Soap. I didn't take pictures of every step, but took pictures of the more interesting ones! LOL!



I started by measuring out my oils and lye solution. I then added Green Tea Powder to the lye solution (as evidenced by the brackish muck in the pictures below!).


Once the oils and lye solution both cooled down, I added my essential oils to the oils (peppermint and rosemary essential oils for this batch). Then I added my lye solution to my oils and blended. This batch, because of the botanical ingredients, as well as the essential oils used, it tends to heat up very quickly. When oils & lye are combined they naturally produce heat. Certain ingredients can add to that heat. I always have to watch this soap carefully, or it will volcano up out of the mold on me!

But once the solution has achieved a light trace, I pour it into my pre-lined molds.


I then sprinkled green tea leaves onto the top for texture and aesthetics.


And after the soap mixture has thickened a little more in the mold, I took a knife and added some texture to the top of the soaps.


After several days, the soap is ready to cut into bars. They then sit in my curing rack for 3-6 weeks till they are fully cured. Once cured, they are wrapped and labeled, and ready for some lucky buyer to purchase them!!!


Each soap is a little different, with different scents, different colorants, different additives. They are all beautiful, they are all unique, they are all special in their own way!!!