Liquid Soap

USA USA USA!!!! Happy Olympic Games everyone!!!

One of my goals this summer was to start a line of liquid soaps!  So I researched a lottttt and finally got around to making my first batch of liquid soap.  I thought the whole batch of soap was going to be a complete fail because nothing seemed to be going the right way according to everything I read about liquid soapmaking.  However, I think it actually turned out pretty good.  Here are some pictures from my soaping venture!!

First, I added all the oils together.  Since I am making liquid soap, I have to use potassium hydroxide instead of lye.  This was right after I added the KOH.

Yahoo things were looking great!!  This is exactly what was supposed to happen after awhile of stick blending! It supposed to go from cloudy to clear.

Okay this is when I started getting worried.  For some odd reason, the soap went back to the cloudy stage after the clear stage.  Yall, that is not supposed to happen so I was freaking out a little bit, but I decided to keep going even though I had no idea what was going on.

The next morning, this is what the stuff looked like.  Now, this is actually not that bad.  When you make liquid soap, you are making a 'soap paste' which you add water to after this stage. The only bad part: this is pretty cloudy when it is supposed to be clear. I figured I would still keep going and if the soap turned out cloudy, I would kick this whole batch to the curb (AKA put it in my bathroom to use up!) I also tested this soap paste with a pH indicator which told me that the pH was stable for skin.  So the venture continues.

I heated the soap paste back up in the crockpot and added water to the mix.  It took a whole 24hours for the soap paste and the water to mix all the way together.  (Uhhh if you are keeping track of the time, yes it took me about 3 and a half days to finish four bottles of liquid soap....) Finally when it finished it was a little cloudy which I expected, but still great soap! But then....

I let the soap settle for about a day and look!  The end result was clear (not cloudy!) liquid soap!  This is super exciting.

However, even after all that jazz, what it comes down to is that it took three days to make this stuff, which that is a crazy amount of time compared to the research I did online.  Somewhere I did something wrong, but in the end the soap turned out great.  I'm off for more trial and error of liquid soap, but hopefully will have this recipe down pat and can start selling it by the fall!

I came up with my own recipe for this soap.  It is made with coconut oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, and castor oil.  I scented this batch with Blue Fir - a blend of grapefruit, fir needle, and coriander essential oils. 

PS - Revive never tests our products on animals, so that is why we need YOU!  If you are interested in testing out our liquid soap, please leave your email in a comment so I can be in contact with you!  Testing the soap will cost $5 - this covers the cost of materials plus shipping the item to you.  You will be required to write a review on the product after you have been using it for awhile.  Please let me know if you are interested!

Have a Reviving day and GO TEAM USA!!!!!!

Caitlin

Around the Soap Shack

I've been busy busy busy lately!! Here are a few pictures from our latest happenings!

Sharing information on handmade soaps and my products at Eco Denizen's grand opening!

Hmmm new bottles means new products right?!

I love my job!

Getting ready to layer some 'Merica soap!

Oh yeah! Looking good!

Soaps in the mold.

Lots of soap on the curing rack!  'Curing' is when the water in the soap evaporates from the soap making the bar really hard and last a long time.

Blue Fir bars on the curing rack. 

Loofah bars on the curing rack!

I always add pictures of my latest happenings on Facebook so make sure to 'Like' our page!

Caitlin

New Retail Locations!!

I am excited to announce that Revive products are now available in three new retail locations!  This is really exciting especially for all my locals out there so you won't have to pay for shipping from my website anymore.

You can find our soaps, soaks, lotion, and gift sets at Eco Denizen in Atlanta, GA.  Eco Denizen is a awesome shop that offers eco-conscious consumers products for their daily lives.  They have a unique natural cleaning refill station; you can bring in a container and fill it up and the cleaning products are sold by weight.  They also offer a variety of products for you home, whether it be natural bamboo flooring to recycled glass counter tops...they have it all!

Eco Denizen is located at

999 Peachtree Street NE Suite 180

Atlanta, Georgia 30309

(678)705-9880

You can find our soaps, lotions, and lip balms at Love Street Gifts & Gardens in Smyrna, GA.  Love Street is a cute boutique that is a staple in the Smyrna area being open since 1999.  They offer tons of cute gifts - including Vera Bradley, Tervis, Rewined Candles, and tons of other cute items.  They really want to support local artists so make sure to stop in and ask them what gifts they have that are locally produced!  

Love Street is located at

1295 Concord Road

Smyrna, GA 30080

(770)434-8578

Our full line of products are available at Treasure Hunt Antique Mall in Powder Springs, GA. Treasure Hunt is a new antique mall that just opened in the beginning of the summer, and just had their grand opening last Saturday!  You can find all kinda of nifty one-of-a-kind items including some great shabby chic furniture.  

Treasure Hunt is located at

3217 New Macland Road, Suite 110

Powder Springs, GA 30127

(678) 398-9195

Stop on in one of these great stores and grab yourself a Reviving soap bar or two!

Caitlin

Custom Soaps

I have officially finished my first order of custom soaps!  A customer came to me asking if I could stamp other words into the soap after they saw my "Revive" stamped in.  I let them know I would have to order a custom stamp for them, but that would be no problem at all.  They ended up ordering 60 Blue Fir bars stamped with the words "The River House" to put in their vacation home.

The custom stamp I had made!

The stamp turned out great and the customer was so happy with the soaps!  

If you are interested in getting some custom soaps, please contact me for more information!  I would love to work with you and creating soaps for your vacation home, half bars with your initials for a wedding, corporate gifts with your company logo, and anything else you might have in mind. Not only can we customize the stamp, we can also customize scents and colors to match anything.

http://www.reviveyourbath.com/contact.html

Have a Reviving day!

Caitlin

Clarity

Apparently one of those people I mentioned in my blog post titled "Decide Today" thought it would be awesome to post an anonymous comment on my post telling me I did not clarify the reasoning behind these comments said about my business.  Please let me clarify!

Please let me clarify this.  One day in class, my professor taught a lesson on targeted marketing.  "You wouldn't try to sell your new brand of dog food to an antique store now would you? No, and that is why all businesses use the approach called targeted marketing."  So the lesson went on about how you should market and try to sell your product to businesses with the type of store front you want your products represented in as well as stores that carry like products.  I took my notes home and simply applied the concept taught in class that day by using social media outputs as a way to target my market and spread the word about my business.  I searched on Facebook for cute little boutiques, checked out other soapers to see where they had their products, and also searched on Google for bath and body boutiques.  I gathered a number of stores I would like to approach from big box stores to small little gift boutiques.  

After this, I found these places on Facebook and posted a comment to this extent on their walls - "We believe our products would be perfect for your store!  Please visit our website for more information on wholesale!"

What I did not know is that some people took this as an unethical business practice.  However, how in the world can this be unethical?  If small businesses like myself never approached stores, how would they ever hear about your brand or products?  I bet Whole Foods gets numerous emails daily about bath and body companies, but you don't see companies like Hugo Naturals or Pangea Organics writing rude/harsh/anonymous comments about those businesses?  No?  I did not think so!

The fact of the matter is, some people will not or cannot get over their jealousy or just hate the fact that some people are going to be successful.  It is sad to me that instead of banding together and supporting one another, people have to let their jealousy and hate take them over.  

Please let me apologize to anyone reading this post who thinks this style of approaching stores to carry my products is unethical.  I hate to tell you, but this is a practice heavily taught in business school, so much so that big companies even hire people for this exact reason.  I am sorry that I will not stop approaching stores through social media, nor will I stop targeting my market of stores to approach.  I am sorry that these practices have lead to almost all of my current wholesale accounts.

If any of you who wrote these harsh comments about myself or my business is reading this, PLEASE feel free to contact ANY/ALL of the stores carrying my products.  Please pitch your products to them!  I would LOVE to see all of your products right next to mine in the stores. I wish many successes to you!

I hope that clarifies things for anyone who has heard bad things about my company or to anyone who wrote those bad things about my company.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July spent eating BBQ & watching fireworks!

Happy birthday America!

Caitlin

DIY 'Merica Shorts

Can you believe that it is already July 1st?! Woah Momma!

Every year around this time, people seem to break out their patriotic wear here in America.  Maybe that is one reason why I was so inspired to make the 'Merica soap!  In honor of the holiday, my friend Jordan and I took on a Pinterest DIY project to create a pair of embellished American Flag shorts to wear this July 4th.

Here are the steps to creating these wonderful, trendy, American Flag shorts for July 4th!

Materials:

Old pair of jeans

American flag bandanna

Fabric glue

Pinning needles (for some reason we thought safety pins would work the same, but I would definitely recommend using pins)

Scissors

Needle & heavy duty thread

Jordan and I first hit up the thrift store to get an old pair of jeans which we then measured and cut.  I used a 3inch inseam, but I would probably measure out your favorite pair of shorts to see how long or short you want them.  Keep in mind that you will have to create a cuff at the end.

Next, cut a portion of the bandanna out almost to fit one side of the shorts.

You want to leave a little bit over so you can fold the bandanna under to create a nice seam when gluing/sewing.  The next step is to fold the fabric under and try to match it up to the jean seams.  Use your pinning needles to hold it into place.  When you are close to the top, make sure to cut out the place around the belt loops.  Also, try not to pin the jean pockets with your pinning needle or you may end up sewing your pockets shut!

Here comes the fabric glue!  Now you can skip this step if you want to go straight to the sewing part, but we highly recommend gluing the bandanna down as well as sewing it so the pants don't come apart in the washing machine. We started taking the pins off one by one and putting a small amount of fabric glue along the seam to glue the bandanna down.

After this step, take your needle and thread and sew around the edge of the bandanna for even more security.

**Make sure NOT to stitch the bottom of the pants!  When you go to create a cuff, you will be able to see the thread on the bottom of the shorts.  We did this and had to redo it!**

Take the same steps for the other side of the shorts, and whalla! A wonderful pair of 'Merica shorts!

If you decide to make a pair of these, I'd love to see them!  I am wanting to make more of these shorts with different fabrics.  You can find lots of ideas on Pinterest, so go crazy!

Have a Reviving day!

Caitlin