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My name is Peg and I'm a soap newbie; I stumbled onto Becky's page last fall (1998) and we started emailing. She eventually got me subscribed to soapnuts@onelist.com and the rest is history. In the months to come I will regularly provide you with information and hysterical laughter at my stumbling and bumbling as I start my journey into soaping, small business, and craft shows. As a measure of quality for supplies and suppliers I've used so far, I am going to be giving these products a "bubble rating." One bubble means I'm "not too lathered up" about the product. Five bubbles means "giant happy foaming suds"--utter joy. As a chandler (wow! Did you know that's the name of a candle maker? Not just that cute guy on friends?) I may add my 2 cents worth on candle supplies on down the line, but for now I'll stick to soapin'. At the start of my journey I kept a notebook close to the computer and took down all the information I thought would be handy as I started searching for supplies. Then as I would do my grocery shopping, I'd spend agonizing minutes in the gadget aisle trying to decide just what I'd need first. On to the cleaning aisle--to price Red Devil lye in a can near the Drano as I had been told. Over to the baking aisle, where I would just gaze lovingly at all that oil, thinking- this could be soap! But I still can't look at huge amounts of Crisco and not shudder... all these years of not using it for anything and now all of a sudden I need vats of the stuff. Off to the health food store... where the cheapest thing I could get was the sea salts that the grocery store sells also. This health food store carries essential oils by Aura Casia and Frontier. The ladies there were interested in what I was thinking of doing, and they showed me all the beautiful carrier oils they sell (sweet almond, grape seed, vitamin e, avocado, and flax seed to name a few) that I would need. They told me they could order some of the more elusive herbs and oils that they normally wouldn't stock in a town this size. They wanted to see the finished products, maybe carry them, and we could do a wholesale type deal for product--mine for hers. Wow! I went out of the store ten feet tall, and I hadn't even made my first batch of CP (cold processed) yet! We have a pharmacy that has a corner devoted to "wellness" products made by Tisserand. They have a whole line of essential oils and products that contain them and are labeled as "aromatherapy". To get a better idea of the properties of the various essential oils, the pharmacist gave me a few pamphlets of information, plus went through the whole wall of bottles and smelled them with me. I told him what I was doing and he was very supportive and helpful with a basic list of essential oils that I may use to achieve certain properties in my products. Needless to say, I had a "snootfull" of smells by the time I left, and a lighter purse (they have since told me they use a diffuser of essential oil to make people spend money). I will continue my findings on Tisserand oils in the next edition. But before I go, I'd like to give out a few ratings!
For my soapnuts pals who've been such a great support system for me in this endeavor. For Linda Jines for bringing back the Hollinator's beloved Apricot Freesia... what a great show of how customer service should be! Tisserand Oils
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Hello
fellow soapnuts!
