After cutting the latest batch of Grubby Gardener this morning, I have managed to get our products page updated with the Summer Soap photographs. These soaps were launched at the Rowhedge Regatta last Saturday.
Some people who saw us at the Regatta have stopped me in the street and asked for a product list so I made an A4 flyer, and have now completed an on-line version with photographs of each soap.
3rd July arrived and everything was packed and ready for the stall. Fabian had lent us a beautiful yellow trestle table and late the previous night, Clare had located the only spare gazebo in the village still intact after the windy Saturday of the Strawberry Fair. So on the morning of the Regatta all we had to do was take it all across to the quay, set it up and sell soap... And so we did!
I liked to see which soaps interested different people, (and why) and the most popular - on that hot and sticky day - was the refreshing and cleansing tea-tree oil soap we call Grubby Gardener. It also has sweet orange and cedar wood essential oils, as well as rose madder root, which colours it a deep red/maroon. Perhaps it was because I told everyone that the first thing I do when I get home on a hot day is use it to wash my feet. (well, not until we've made some more, I won't be, as we nearly ran out of it on Saturday- only a few bars left until the next batch is ready)
Christian's Volcanic Lava Swirl came a close second- sweet orange oil again, but this time mixed with geranium oil- a lovely combination. Lots of things noted from people's comments and suggestions for the next range- clove, cinnamon and orange for winter will be a definite, I think.
Lavender was popular and we also gave out samples of Dave's Soap (with nothing in it) to several people who need to use very pure soap on their skin.
We offered hand washing opportunities on a small table in the gazebo- a chance to wash off the ice-cream and candy floss and try different types of soap. There were several children with extremely clean hands that afternoon, having made extensive use of this facility. Friends' children were however very useful for running errands - Charlie kindly ran home to re-fill our water container and Tilly left us a cuddly lamb, for company.
The gazebo provided a shelter for some of the visiting grandmas, too. Our stall was right on the front of the quay, offering unrivalled views of the duck race, blindfold canoeing and visiting barges and smacks. The ladies we accumulated over the course of the afternoon therefore had a shady place to sit, in our very comfy fold-up chairs and they didn't miss a thing (we might do them a nice cup of tea next time). Maz's mum, down from the North, for her very first Regatta: 'Well, I liked your stall, but I've really enjoyed just sitting here these last couple of hours' she said, as she made her way off to check if she'd won the lucky programme draw.
Look out for some of Christian's photos of Regatta day and the River Colne, coming soon...
The simple ways to use less oil in relation to products are:
Prefer products packaged without plastic.
Buy beauty products (shampoo, soap, make-up) based on natural ingredients, not oil.
Prefer locally produced products (less transport involved).
These all apply to our soap- and, in addition, handmade cold process soap uses very little energy in the making- our natural vegetable oils are melted and heated for just a short while, to get them to the correct temperature before we add the lye-water and that's it. Everything else is done by hand. So a lot greener than mass-produced cleansing products. And no parabens or SLS.
The long, light days are so good. The sudden, rapid growth of plants always surprises me. Yesterday I tied rows of string between two birch branches Christian had found for me to support bean plants. When I looked this evening, two of the plants had already reached the string and were curling up and around and above it. A bit of sun and rain today and away they went.
You can see Saturday's sunshine through our stencil
The rows of soap on the curing racks are moving gradually to the table where we've wrapped and labelled them. Over the weekend, Christian spent some very productive time working on our soap making identity - signs for when we sell direct, as at Rowhedge Regatta, and stencilling on the wooden boxes that we use for storage, transport and display. This involved spray paint as well as sunshine.
(and 50 soaps wrapped before the England game started). So we are pretty much ready for Regatta (including the gazebo)- and and and- Christian has taken with him to London a sample box of our soap.
Christian took some amazing photographs of our soap yesterday- and you can see a few at the top of the page. I've just been looking at them all full screen, even though the actual soaps are here on their curing racks and in their stock boxes I am transfixed by their lovely digital images- and I have extra advantage of the scent of the last batch still wafting through the air.
I am very excited indeed that we are getting close to our local launch at the Regatta and are well on the way to sharing all the soaps we've made with a much wider audience. Slightly nerve-wracking sometimes, but we're getting there.
Christian and I were working on the labels and flyers again last night and we are close to completing these...btw, I had better get on with some of that -after another quick slide-show of the lovely photos of course :-)
I was chatting with Anne the other evening, the subject had moved on to me making some point about Dave's Soap. And how, in responding to a customers request we have managed to developed a useful product for others to enjoy as well. She turned round to me and said, "Yeah, you're right, it ain't what's in it that counts, it's what's not in-it, that's more important!" - Never a truer word spoken and this gave me part of the subject matter for this entry. The other half is embedded below.
I returned home this afternoon, to find my screen exactly as I had left it, You Tube flashing red in the top corner.
I must explain, that recently, I have been learning about how to make a liquid soap. and as part of that process, have spent, some, - no, a great deal of - time watching video's on You Tube.
Glancing down the suggestions, I came across"Making of Quality Liquid hand soap".
You may probably have realised by now, I'm a good sucker for a bit of You Tube watching, especially when I have at least 10,000 other things I "should be doing". Also, that Sunday afternoon feeling was creeping up fast, so I clicked on it and sat back.
As it whirled into gear, I glanced to the two attached comments. I imagined a guy in a beach shack somewhere in Calinfornia as he taps away at his iPad, the cool ocean breeze embraces the room and the sharp mid afternoon sun sends it's rays visible through reflections in the dust whipped into life by the wind. Grateful Dead murmurs quietly in the background on the docked player, he writes "to much chemicals man ".
The second, a piece of equally wry wit, "Hmmm, nice lot of ingredients".
Both made me smile, and as I watched I was remined of Anne's phrase,
It aint what's in it, It's what's not in it, that counts !
Now one quick point, before I leave you to watch.
We at Colne Soap Makers, do not make soap as shown in the video, we use natural products, and in good measures.
I think this video serves as a good reminder for myself, when I make liquid soap one day, it's going be like Dave's Soap and made with oils and lye, processed and dissolved in spring water. I'll leave the video to speak for itself.
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