The Rollercoaster

Hello all. Thanks for stopping by and reading what will surely be a strange, yet provocative piece of non-fiction. Nothing to tell the grandkids, you know, but still...

At the end of August, my mom decided to call it quits with Soapier. She just couldn't do it alone any more. My sister had taken a full time job because the soap business wasn't able to support both my mom and her.

So, basically, my mom was overworked.

She said "I'm done. Done. DONE. I can't do it any more." This was on the phone, you know.

So, she said tell them we're closing. Tell them we're closing, but if they want to buy us, they can. If not, I'm going to, I don't know, be a greeter at Wal-Mart or something. But don't tell them that.

Sigh, ok mom.

Now, listen. I love everything that we've done over the past however many years. I love it. I love, more specifically, the amount of help, support, and love we've received from Reddit. I don't know how many retail companies can say the have received as much as we have. It was truly unbelievable.

I know I say it often enough, but I don't think people grasp the full scope of what happened.

I post a thread on Reddit and receive quite the sendoff.

But from that moment on, I was kind of obsessed with keeping the business.

We received over 40 interested parties who wanted to obtain Soapier. We sent out emails with an asking price, and by the end of the month, we had two potential buyers, and one party interested in investing with us.

In the end, none of it was a good fit. I was both relieved and a bit disappointed. My sister and my mom (not to mention myself) could have used the money from the sale. But I had other plans.

I haven't been working steady since February of this year. Nothing's really been working for me. I've been a graphic designer for 13 years, and I'm, unfortunately, in that position where people won't hire me for entry positions because they think I'll rabbit if something better comes along. I'm also in the position to know the value of my experience, and when a company is looking for me (or someone like me) to do the work of 3 people for a ridiculously low salary.

Ok, ok. I applied to those jobs, too. Beggars can't be choosers.

But nothing was happening. I even applied for dog walking positions. One place told me they received over 400 resumes for the position. That was when I knew that not only were things tough, but that my not finding work was not my fault.

So, I thought. And thought. Thought some more. And I decided that I would go down to Florida and take over the business.

Posted it on Reddit, got in touch with our customers who purchased during September, to give them the opportunity to return their product, just in case they felt that they were buying under false pretenses...

And now we're at present day.

Oh, check this out. Stephen Colbert mentioned Soapier in a letter he sent to Reddit. That day was pretty much THE day that I decided I wasn't giving up. It's not every day that someone like him mentions someone like us. I was floored. I mean, seriously floored. I read that letter five times. I couldn't believe it.

So, I'll be heading down to Florida, then heading to Washington, hiring a part-time person to help us get through the holidays, and trying to find a warehouse space in Florida that we can use, so that I can get the business out of my mom's apartment.

I also have a couple of great ideas for the holidays that we're sure are going to be fantastic gift ideas this year.

We're very excited.

Thanks for reading. One of the things I'll be doing is updating this blog more and more, as the days of my being at Soapier continue. Should be a lot of fun, and I'm very excited (and nervous) to get started. Wish me luck.

John

Martha Stewart Would Love These Soaps!!

Lemon Pound Cake Soapanimals!!!

Well, we think she'd love them.

She loves animals right? Got all those cute dogs and new pet products, check she likes animals.

She loves food right? Has her own recipe magazine, plus she started with a catering business way back when, check she likes food.

So we combined two of Martha's loves and made our very cute soapanimals (that's a new word that we're hoping will catch on).

First lets talk about the scent. A rich buttery lemon pound cake fragrance that has you going back for more. I'm a food fragrance lover, actually I love all the fragrances but I think the food ones are the best. They are the most fun and they always bring a smile to my face. It's a bit uplifting to smell a really good food scent and my gosh lemon pound cake is one of them.

Now we would be remiss if we didn't discuss all these cute face animals. This set of nine different soapanimals includes the cat, giraffe, hippo, lion, cow, elephant, dog, chick and bunny. There isn't a sad one in the bunch, I think they all look pretty happy, but maybe it's the lemon pound cake fragrance that has them so content.

Mix a bit of lemon pound cake scent with a bunch of animals and I'm sure we could have Martha Stewart singing, ahhhhhh, a bit off key but singing.

I have to tell you that making these soaps is so much fun and I think using them would be just as enjoyable.

Each glycerin soap bar weighs in at 2 ozs each and you receive one of each of the following; Sorry folks only one set is available and it's only on Etsy. Click HERE to find them

Cool As A Cucumber

August, the dog days of summer! It's hot, it's humid, we all want relief!

I live in Florida and the beach is pretty close but my days are so hectic that I rarely get to go. What's a gal to do? Showers, lots of showers! I love a good shower, it cools me off, makes me feel human again and it helps to relieve that hot humid fatigue that sort of comes with the dog days of summer.


Wanting relief from the heat got me to thinking about a cool smelling soap for these humid days. Cucumber Mint or as I call it Cool As A Cucumber was the answer (pictured above) . It's cucumber cool and minty fresh with just a touch of sophistication. Pretty... cool! So fire up those showers, get cooled off and then you'll be human again to do those things you need to do.

Because I love this soap so much all orders from August 6th till the end of the month will get a guest size bar free (2 ozs) in each order. (shown here) You can order the best soaps on the net HERE

Remember keep it cool!!

Linda

FROM ORDINARY TO EXTRAORDINARY

I don't want you to think that I think that I can do things extraordinary, but really what I wanted the title to mean was don't just settle for ordinary, take it to the next level.

I have this wonderful guest soap mold, that makes these cute 2" x 2" x 1" soaps. Each soap weighs about 2 ozs each. Great size to put at the bathroom sink. I love the size, I love how it has a bit of beveled edge and on it's own it's pretty.


Here I just swirled two colors for each set to make it a bit different. I was pleased with them. They actually were made for my Day At The Beach Gift Set available now on Ebay. You can find them HERE

A blank canvas can become almost anything, so can this soap mold, almost anything. So my first attempt was these heart ones below. I loved making these and they went very well during Valentine's Day. Each color was a different fragrance and I packaged them up four in a clear cello bag, pretty ribbon and a gift tag. They would make great bridal favors or wedding favors.

Then I realized that I had some small silicone molds for seashells. I made a bunch of them in white soap and added them to the top of clear turquoise beach fragrance guest soaps. These are so cute, they are perfect for a destination wedding or even as a gift for someone you are visiting at the shore.

Now I could of added a small toy to the top but I only like using soap on soap. I fear that a toy object might be accidentally rough, scratchy on the skin. Below is the finished product. I just added them to Ebay under our new Ebay name SoapFavors and you can find them HERE

I have a few more ideas cooking in my brain for this blank canvas and I'll give you a holler so you can see and then tell me what you think.

Soap Pets Are Fun!!!

ELEPHANT, LION, HIPPO AND GIRAFFE

I love these soaps, I love how cute they are, I love the different animals and I love their faces. I just want to squeeze their cheeks, but I can't.

Along with the great design of these molds, we want to make sure we give them a look you will love. So we did them up in our Oatmeal Milk and Honey recipe with that great fragrance of the same name and we added oatmeal for it's great benefit. The texture that comes thru on them is really special. It just gives these guys a bit of oomph!! Don't you agree?

Now you could buy these for your kids to entice them into the bath, you could buy them as baby shower favors, or as favors for those kids parties. Oh yeah you could also buy them for yourself, but you better hide them like that candy you don't want hubby and kids to find.

These cute soaps as of today May 8th 2010 are up for auction starting at .99 for the set of four. You can get there from HERE If you can't wait for the auction to end you could also buy them at $4.00 for the set plus shipping and you can get there from HERE . Take a look to see what we hav going on at Ebay.

Have a great day, week, month, year!!!

Linda

Closeout Soaps and Soap Favors Now On Ebay

We've just opened a new Ebay account under the name SoapFavors where we are listing closeout soaps and soap favors.

Pictured shown is a set of 3 White Chocolate Covered Cherries soaps in red and white on a wooden soap dish. With all soap it's important to keep it from sitting in water. Water sitting will make your soap dissolve quicker and become a bit gummy. This wooden soap dish solves that problem with it's slots that let the water escape from the soap. Keeping your soap dry in between washing will let you keep your soap that much longer. You get it all for $12.95 here at EBAY

You say white chocolate covered cherries, what can that possible smell like? It's yummy and one of those scents that you just can't stop putting up to your nose to inhale the sweetness of it. Double fragranced like all of our soaps, the scent will linger awhile on your skin. It will also make your bathroom smell divine after your shower. Oh yeah I know you know this but I'll mention it anyway, glycerin soap is great for your skin. It moisturizes plus the lathered is rich and creamy. Soapier's great soap is an affordable luxury that you enjoy to the very last piece of it.

Don't forget while you are there at EBAY check out some of our other cools soaps. These soaps that you find on Ebay won't be found on Soapier.com. Act fast before they are gone, and once gone, they are .......... gone.

Have a great day and thanks for thinking of us here at soapier.com
Linda

Soapier stuff

Hi everyone,

Hope your 2010 is going well!

Things at Soapier are doing pretty darn good, thank you very much for asking. We're closing in on our 2000th order, if you can believe that. Just a scant 9 months ago it looked like we were not only going to have to close our doors (and website,) but also put my mom in a home for defunct soapmakers.

They have homes for them, you know. They're very clean, and very bored. There is no Fight Club there. Supposedly.

So, thank you all for your continued support. We really appreciate it.

Now onto some cool stuff.

First, we created a grab bag soap offer. For $3, you'll get one of our discontinued, holiday, or plain old extra soap. All great quality, all awesome. You can check them out here.

Second, we are also, now, selling our Soap Ends. Since we're so cool, most, if not all of our soaps we ship out are actually a bit larger than 5oz. So, at the end of a soap loaf, there's always a little extra. We're now selling those extras by the pound, for just $8. You'll get an assortment of awesome soap. Check them out here

Third, our Wikileaks fundraiser is coming to an end. Get one of 6 great bars and support a fantastic website!

And, finally, fourth, as one fundraiser ends, another begins. We're starting an Easter fundraiser with 4 soaps, where $2.50 of every bar sold goes to St. Jude's Hospital for Children. It's an awesome cause, and we think one worthy of some help. This fundraiser will go from today until March 31st! Check them out here.

Thanks for checking it out! Be back soon - John