Olive Branch Soap Blog

January Thaw...yeah!!!

2008-01-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Gotta love 40 degree days in January in Minnesota! Our street is almost clear of snow and you could actually hear the birds chirping today!!!!

The spring seed catelogs have started to arrive. Likewise we are on the hunt for new fragrances for spring. Yes Lilac wll be back.....sometime in March! The first new soap for spring is called Parsley Water.....I made this one up yesterday and I love it! So fresh and soooo green! Another new one I am going to make up in the next day or so will be Lemon Sugar and Candied Violets. Smells nice in the bottle and apparently it will bloom when made up in soap. I am looking for a good honeysuckle and maybe a jasmine or magnolia. Tulips...hot house build...need to look for that too! Gardeners soap too!!

I am thinking that I will make up a selection a tropical themed soaps to help get us thru the winter blues.....Plumeria, Pikaki Lani and maybe White Ginger Blossom. We need the florals....I am just so tired of the spicy witer fragrances!! I love the spices but I want spring!!!!

I spent part of this week restocking lip balms. They sold like crazy over the holiday season and we were down to almost nothing! Speamint has become my favorite....cool and refreshing!!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T11:45:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!!

I am sitting back quietly watching my girls play with their christmas haul. Needless to say I can barely see the livingroom floor.

It was a very busy day at the shop yesterday! Our Coal Soap was featured in the Star Tribune as the final "Gift of the Day" .... it appeared on the front page of the Source/Lifestyle section. The phone started ringing at 9am and kept going and going. Customers kept coming and coming...it was so nice to see so many new customers!

Candlemaking

2007-12-07T06:25:00.000-08:00

Brrrrr......it is cold here!!!

Yesterday and today I have been working on making candles. Occasionally I have to take a break from making soap and creating candles is a challange. Candlemaking is much more difficult than soapmaking....it is not just a matter of melting the wax and sticking in a wick. There are so many variables....the wax, the size of the candle or container and the fragrance. Even the wax can vary from batch to batch. So a lot of testing is required. Soapmaking is pure chemistry although the wicked soap fairies can mess up a batch for no reason at any given time!

I really like making soy candles. Cedar and Saffron is my absolute favorite.....the scent is just so unusual and refreshing. My girls like Pink Sugar and strangely enough, eucalyptus! The have a eucalyptus soy jar that sits under their lamp...they don't burn it but the warmed of the lamp is enough to release the scent.

The newest soy candle?? Scent of a Lutheran! A pure white soy candle in a 8oz square mason jar. Scented with buttercream. I got the idea from another candlemaker at a show I did awhile back....she did Scent of Lutefisk...so I thought, why not Scent of a Lutheran! It has been selling very well!!

It is been a very busy fall!

2007-12-02T10:44:00.000-08:00

Wow..it has been awhile ....again. We have been very busy!

For starters, Fox 9 here in the Twin Cities came to our shop in October to shoot a segment focusing on my girls. Christine Clayburg, one of the Meteorologists at Fox 9 is a big fan of our bars and we spent a wonderful couple of hours with her and the cameraman shooting the segment! It ran on October 24th....unfortunately this was a World Series night and it did not air until about 11.30 in the evening! Melissa had picked out a bunch of bars for the morning crew at station....she watches them every morning while waiting for the school bus. On the morning of the 26th, the morning anchors showed off their bars on air too!! We have also appeared on series on Green Christmas Gifts for Woman and Children!

To top this off, the Star Tribune was out at our shop this past Friday. We have been selected to be one of the Trib's Gift of the Day. This appears on the front page of the source section. We don't know the date yet...but we are anxiously waiting to hear!!!

We have been very busy in the studio daily making soaps. One of my new favorites is Eggnog Soap! We make this bar with full fat, rich premium eggnog! It smells sooooo good, especially if you like or love eggnog!

Another hit item this holiday is our Coal Soap! Know anyone who failed to clean up their act before the "big guy" arrives!! Coal Soap is the perfect stocking stuffer for them! 6 pieces of coal shaped soap in a nylon net bag.

Only a month left for the Minneapolis Farmers Market

2007-09-30T23:10:00.000-07:00

Well actually the market runs until Thanksgiving. We however, usually only stay until the end of October, if the weather is good! Right now the fall veggies are in full blast...wonderful squashes, pumpkins and brussel sprouts. For those of you who don't like brussel sprouts, try them again! According to Ted Rolf of Rolfs Produce, this vegetable gets sweeter with each good frost or freeze. Even my girls will eat them!

This was our 5th season at the market and honestly, we miss it so much during the winter months! Yes it is a lot of working getting up at 4.30am and setting up each Saturday and Sunday. However we miss all the vendors and customers during the long winter months!

New Bars for Fall!

2007-09-25T22:10:00.000-07:00

New bars for fall!

We have recently introduced some new bars plus we brought back some old favorites!!

Cedar and Saffron.....this one is selling like crazy at the market!
Ecalyptus Mint
Orange and Clove...we made our old clove even better!
Dead Sea Mud Soap....we added lots of dead sea mud plus tea tree and lavender oils!
Cinnamon Apple
Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin
Packer Backer....for all those Green Bay Fans!

State Fair Time!!!

2006-08-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a very busy month making soap as our soaps are going to the Minnesota State Fair!! They can be found at the Northwood's Cabin on Machinery Hill. This is the home of Minnesota Bound with Ron and Raven. We won't be there although my girls would love to spend the entire 10 days there!! They love the Midway and the Kidway! Both are rollercoaster nuts!! Anyways the soaps that will be at the fair are....Minnesota Lady Slipper (Sparkling Currents!), Bison Soap, Woodlake Herbal and Walleye Weekend. Boundary Waters, Northwoods Cabin and Little House Soap are products I make specially for Minnesota Bound. Boundary Waters is a fresh outdoorsy water scent. Northwoods cabin is apple cidery, spicey with pine notes....very true to it's name. Little House Soap is our interpretation of Caroline Ingall's of Little House on on Prairie fame favorite pastimes..baking! Apple pie with lots of cinnamon and nutmeg! Back to the soap pot!!

A busy soapmaking day!!!

2006-07-25T23:44:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple more pictures from the market! I took the picture of the sweet peas a couple of weeks ago. The vendor across from me that day was selling them and they just looked so pretty....I love this photo and I am getting it enlarged! The other photo is our stall at the market...the table is not as neat as I would like, but it was late in the day and very hot! I just finished putting the 6th batch of the day in the mold! Black Raspberry Vanilla continues to be our #1 seller so I made a double batch of that one today! We tried a new Fig fragrance today...Fig and Cassis. It is similar to the Fig and Pomegranite we are currently using so we will see what our customers think at the market!! Our youngest soapmaker Melissa has been in Toronto visiting grandma for the past week....she is coming home tomorrow! Neither have been with me at the Market for the past 3 weeks due to trips to ND to visit there other grandparents and both are looking forward to getting back. You can probably find Melissa down at Rolf produce selling (and eating!) watermelons! She became quite a pro at selling watermelons and corn last summer....not bad for a city kid! That's it for tonight!!!

Wow, has it been that long!

2006-07-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I haven't kept up with this...I really have to set a reminder and keep on on top of this! The market has kept me really busy this year...so far this season I have only been shut out of a spot one Saturday. We have been churning out anywhere from 60-80 lbs of soap each week and I am still having a hard time keeping everything in stock. We found some wonderful new fragrances that have become big hits!! Lemon Poppyseed...finally found an absolutely delicious lemon. True and tart! We decided to create some new "true" farmer market soaps for the summer. Freddie down at the market got a huge shipment of California Black Mission Figs. I already had a bottle of Fig fragrance oil sitting on the shelf waiting to be tested. So, we blended up the figs and thru them in a batch! "Figs on a Mission" turned out a lovely off white flecked with fig seeds. It has a very fresh scent! I have enough pureed figs in the freezer for 4 more batches! Next, we got a whole pile of English Cukes from Lori at Rolf's produce in the1st row down at the market. If you have never tried an english cuke, try some now while they are in season. I am originally from Canada and these are the main cucumbers in the grocery stores...you look for the skinny ones. If they are fat, they are over ripe. These have the best flavor around. Anyways, we blended up 4 good sized ones and thru it into a batch, skins and all! "Cool as a Cucumber" is fresh and green, great for this stinking hot weather! To complete the series, we bought a tray of mini avocados from Freddie....he has some really cool stuff! Peeled them and put them thru the blender. We added some peppermint and eucalytus essential oils and viola!!...."Avocado Mint" was born! We sold out on that one this weekend so another batch is planned for this week!!! Well, it is time to go set up tomorrows batches!!!

Happy New Year!!!!!!

2006-01-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone!! Thankfully my girls went back to school this week...two weeks is just too long for vacation in the cold winter. I think they are glad to be back with their friends! The holidays did give me some time to do some planning out for this year and now I am trying some new things out. I am planning a beer soap, using something Minnesota brewed. Probably Summit. I am trying to figure out a creative name for it...Summit and Shea??? Nah, doesn't work. (If anyone can come up with a good name I will send them a free bar from the first batch!!) I have also had several requests for coal tar soap. Well I have the coal tar but I keep putting off making that one because the coal tar smells so bad. I will get that made up before the market opens again in April!! What else am I working on....hmmm. I do have a good sugar scrub recipe under my belt now....and some new bath melts!!

Quick update!!

2005-12-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

All of our shows are now over for 2005. We did 127 show dates this year, topping last year by 10 show dates! Right now we don't have another one until the beginning of of March. Actually it will be nice to take a break from hauling boxes and tables around! I pulled a muscle in my shoulder in late October and it is still healing!

Orders are coming in fast and furious. I am working double time to get a bunch out before the snow hits tomorrow.

We are already working on spring. Lilac is on order and I will be testing a couple of other new florals. Another new fragrance I will be introducing is a new coffee fragrance called Turkish Mocha!

Back to the grind!

Happy Holidays!

Welcome!

2005-11-27T21:55:00.000-08:00

I welcome you to my new blog! I call this my new blog since I somehow lost my old one! So time to start all over again!

This is a busy time for us here at the Olive Branch. We are still doing shows plus christmas orders are coming in like crazy! (Not that we are complaining!!) I spent Thanksgiving weekend making up 11 batches of soap...that is 88 lbs of new soap curing right now! 16 lbs of that was Black Raspberry Vanilla...it continues to be a favorite. I am going to be at Hamline University this week and lip balms are very popular there so I have been whipping them up too! Lots of new flavors....Candy Apple, Banana Creme, Maple Butter Cheesecake will join Chai Latte and Fudge Lip Balms this year!

I just realized today how much I miss being at Minneapolis Farmers Market! Only 5 1/2 months until it opens again!

Back to the soap pot!