A little about me...

I've recently taken a quiz for a training I attended, identifying what personality type relates to me the most. This ultimately helps people around me work with me more effectively and helps me identify how I can best accomplish my goals.
I have a day job, regretfully it's not soaping, it's project management at a very big IT company, I get to work with a loooot of people around the globe, so if I know how I work I will be better prepared to work with others. But this self assessment has also trigerred a more rigourous search for the real me. I feel like I lost myself somewhere a long the way this past year and am trying desperately to find what I lost. I've also been asked to take the strengthsfinder assessment (also for work) and this has also proven to be enlightening. The things I was trying to run away from the fastest I could because they were drowning me are the things that make me - well - me. By nature I'm a realtor, restorative, emphatic, individualizer, achiever and responsible person - and let me tell you, this combination takes a big toll on my feelings. I feel other people's feelings like they were my own (reason why I can't watch dramatic/meaningful movies and shows - they charge me with negative energy), my greatest strength is servicing and listening, I'm intrigued by the unique qualities of each person and take satisfaction from being busy and productive. Finally I am committed to stable values such as loyalty and honesty.
It's amazing how a questionnaire can be so accurate, I couldn't have described myself better than that and although I try to not be that person because it's a heavy burden to carry I still am. So now that I know who I am and what I do best I have a heading on what I need to fix.

And just to make this soap related...here's some much deserved porn. Thank you Sergio for being such and inspiration!

xoxo
Irene

My first job booked - baby shower favors

I'm soooo happy!! I got a call from one of the clients at the last fair asking to please please do 15 packs of 1 oz bars for a baby shower at the end of the month. They both loved the product (mom and grandma) and wanted to share with their guests an unique gift that they could use. The baby shower is going to be a mixer so they needed something useful and unisex. I am so happy they chose my product, the scents are bromelia - funny story about that one - strawberry chocolate and coconut milk.

She's having a girl and asked for a strong pink or pink ribbon...hope she likes the curly things I did with the ends.. I've got the soaps packed and ready to be delivered. I also had the request to put a small sticker with the name of the soap and my contact information in case the other guests were interested in the favors - how cool is that! I wish all customers were like that. So all I have to do now is print the stickers and label the soaps and deliver.

The funny story about the bromelia is that I had this one customer pick the soap up, smell it and his comment was "Wow!! smells just like bromelias" and then gave it to his wife to smell and she agreed. The funny part is that bromelias do not actually have a smell, they're not even flowers, they are just pretty colored leaves. Sooo...since the customer is always right I totally agreed with him and he bought a bar :)

Hope to have more party favor requests in the future...they're awesome fun to make.

xoxo
Irene

Beautiful new molds and cutter

My hubby is the best one out there! As I was getting ready for the fair, it was clear that with only one mold I wasn't going to make it. So he stepped in to help :) He asked me a few questions, sat with me while I did my things and then took off to the hardware store. He made me three of the most beautiful molds in the world, and a cutter to go with them. They are impecably made, close tightly and don't unlatch when I have to bang them to settle the soap. I absolutely love them!!
On this pic you can see both the cutter and the mold (with some wacky soap that did not work too well :()

Here you can see the mold completely opened up. this is great for those soap logs that just refuse to budge. I just open the sides and TA-DA! Soap log is out. The size is the same as the cutter so I just take the papaer out and transfer to the cutter. It is really practical, multiplies my production capacity by three and my cutting is super fast and easy.

xoxo
Irene

Health and Environment Fair

Was a success!! I love the organization of the fair, everything was nice and neat, my product looked great in the table, lunch was amazing, it was free, we had a lot of fun and made a bunch of sales and contacts. Overall a complete success!

Lip balms and solid perfumes were the big sellers, also the small 1 oz soap bars which I make from the ends split in half. Nobody seems to mind they are not even sided, I suppose it adds to the glamour of handcrafted soap. Everybody loved the chocolate soaps but strangely enough nobody bought any, they went with the seaweed, bromelia and tweed ones. Another eye opener is that no one minded that the soaps were made with fragrances rather than essential oils. Seaweed is made with essential but the other two have both color and fragrance, so that was interesting.

I would say that 90% of the people that went by my table bought something, and out of those about 80% asked where my shop was to buy more product in the future. This is greatly encouraging as I've been quite afraid to open a shop. But after yesterday it is definitely something to plan for.

The other interesting thing we saw is that no matter the level of income or age or sex, everybody had something they were interested in. I thought only middle/high class women would like my product but yesterday's fair proved me wrong (another go ahead flag for the shop :)

So overall it was an eye opener! We need to get our ducks in order and go ahead with the store idea. I've also been invited to an upcoming fair in July, so I have an excuse to make more soap (as if I needed one).

I just finished photographing my soaps, trying to update my website and facebook...I hope I can get to it today as I handed out a lot of business cards yesterday.

xoxo
Irene