Blissology

Winning!

2011-11-23T08:40:00.001-08:00

Congrats to Vickie A-Morgan for winning a free bar of our newest holiday soap! You all voted and it was a close race to name the soap between "Elf Farts" and "Elf Magic" but the latter got the most votes.

For all you local people, Cloud 9 has all our holiday soaps and lots of lotions, bath salts, lip balm packs, and other awesome Blissology products for sale.

We have a lot of family things going on, so make sure you put your Christmas orders now!

The Elf Did It

2011-11-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

You could probably tell by the advertisements and songs on television and the radio. Or by the decorations at your favorite store. Or, if you happen to live in Colorado like we do or in more Northern states, you could probably tell by the layer of snow melting slower than usual. Christmas is upon us!

Blissology has been gearing up by restocking everyone's favorite things (like Footsie Bars - no matter how many I make, we always need more!) and cranking out our holiday edition soaps. We already have some Cinnamon Spice Soap made (we stock that one all year now since you all love it so much!) and a lovely new one called Christmas Memories. Both of those will be ready in a couple more weeks.

Pam is about to mix up another new holiday soap, but there's a slight problem. We don't know what to name it! She keeps accidentally calling it "Elf Farts" which is hilarious for many reasons, but one of which I should probably explain.

See, there's a popular tropical fragrance that is mostly banana called "Monkey Farts." You know, since they eat bananas all the time, only I'm quite sure monkey's don't pass fruit-fragrant gas. Our supplier calls our new holiday fragrance "Elf Sweat" for the same cute novelty effect. Only Pam merges those two together and gets "Elf Farts." I'm not sure that it's so cute then!

Anyway, we need your help naming the new soap! It isn't made yet, so I don't have pictures, but the plan is to make it a white soap swirled with bright happy green and blue. It smells like candy, sweet sugar, peppermint, and effervescent soda pop.

Over there on the upper left hand side of the page is a poll. Vote and let us know your favorite! Also, if you comment here on why you like the one(s) you picked, we'll enter you in a drawing. The randomly selected winner will get a free bar of the new soap as soon as it's ready! Share this on facebook or twitter and we'll enter you again. (Make sure to follow/like us and tag @Blissology (for facebook) or @blissmistress (for twitter) so we can be sure to count all your entries!)

The poll and contest closes on November 20th at midnight so get going!

Soap Cures

2011-04-19T08:15:00.000-07:00


Pomegranate Soap freshly poured and swirled.

I don't mean that soap cures diseases. I do mean that soap has to cure, or age, before it's good to use. When we make a batch of Blissology soap, we can't just sell it the next day or even the next week. How long soap cures depends on a few factors.

When soap is poured into molds, it's a thick liquid consistency - ideally. Sometimes particular fragrances will speed up the process and make it get thicker faster so sometimes we're glopping in soap that looks more like mashed potatoes. Even though it would still be okay to use, soap that moves too quickly sometimes ends up being cosmetically challenged or downright ugly.

Large block of Angel of Shavano soap.

In either case, we wait for about 12 hours before we try to unmold the soap. If we're using particular molds, we can often pop the whole thing in a warm (not hot) oven to make sure the saponification (making of soap) reaches the "gel" stage. We prefer to do it this way because the soap seems to become usable faster. We can shave off several days of cure time and get soaps back in stock sooner.

Sometimes soap is still too soft after 12 hours to get it out of the mold or cut it without risking damage to the bars so we'll give it another day before trying again. What is best is after the first twelve hours, the soap is firm but not so hard that cutting is difficult. Once soap is out of the mold, it gets put into a tray to cure.

Beautiful Life soap cut and ready to cure.

Blissology soap ages for about four weeks before it's ready to use. Some soap cures longer and some soap, like our Beautiful Life Spa bars, are ready much sooner. As the bars cure, they get harder and more mild. Very fresh soap hasn't completely finished saponifying so it can be harsh to skin. The longer soap ages, the more gentle it becomes.

We wait as long as possible before packaging Blissology soap because it loses water as it cures and shrinks. If we wrap them too soon, the paper slides right off the bar. For this reason, we generally package days before a market or show and as orders come in. That in itself is a whole 'nother process!

Spring Favorites

2011-04-04T10:22:00.000-07:00

Warmer weather, bursting buds, fresh new flowers. Spring is certainly here! Of course, here in Colorado those beautiful warm days are interrupted with snow storms and blizzards on occasion too, but we don't worry - it will all be melted in a day or two!

Every spring we plan to have a few new scents in our soaps and other products, but for now, I'll just stick to what we have ready and in stock.

In this season, most people are ready to put aside the spicy, foody, and more winter-related scents and opt for fresh and floral. (In soapmaking, floral fragrances are the most challenging because they are often responsible for "acceleration" which basically means that the soap gets really thick really fast and we have to rush to mix in additives and colors and swirling pretty can be very difficult.)

Here are some springtime favorites from Blissology:

Grass Soap

You'll be amazed how much this soap really does smell like fresh green grass, freshly mowed. We've added finely ground cornmeal to give it some scrub so it makes a great gardener's soap. Time to get those seeds planted!

Lavender Footsie Bar

It's almost time to break out the sandals and flip flops! And sometimes our feet need a little help to really be ready to show off. Footsie Bars are the absolute best moisturizer to take care of tootsies with rough, dry, and calloused areas. It's a hard lotion bar without the mess.

Lavender Lemongrass Lip Balm

This lip balm speaks to the promise of sunshine and fields of flowers. It's also great for kissing goodbye dry wintery lips!

Mountain Showers Soap

Fresh, clean, cool rain. This soap is a favorite year-round but surely it should be mentioned for April Showers!

Vita-Skin Lotion

Winter is rough on skin. So now, it's time to rehydrate and condition it. Blissology's Vita-Skin lotion has extra vitamins and extra-good-for-you oils to treat skin right.

Acai Berry Fizzy Bath Salt

No matter the season, a hot bath can be extremely therapeutic for body, mind, and soul. This salt fizzes briefly in the water releasing a wonderful berry scent. Highly recommended!

Beautiful Life Salt Scrub

This is another much needed step to rejuvenate winter-tired skin. Salt scrubs away dead and dry skin while oils replenish and moisturize the new skin. If you do only one special thing for your skin this season, it should be a salt or sugar scrub!

Yuzu Soap

Fresh, bright, and like a kiss of sunshine! Yuzu (or Japanese Grapefruit), is such a delicious way to welcome spring.

Blissology Home Party

2010-11-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we packed up the car and drove to Canon City for a home show. We brought the baby and my sister to help and ended up having a great day.

Our gracious hostess, a friend of my Granny's, had snacks and plenty of chairs for all her guests. Most had just enough time to change out of their church clothes and were ready to hear all about Blissology.

We talked briefly about all of our products and how they could really help them or those they know. And then we played a fun game which tested their memory and noses. We chose 8 soaps and sent them around so everyone could have a sniff. They were all labeled and they needed to remember the name that went with the scent. Then, a short time later, we sent out 6 numbered bags, each with one of those soaps in it. They had to guess which one was which (and could refer to the tray of 8 soaps to make it a little easier). Only two people got all 6 right - the two youngest! The girls got a prize, of course, but we didn't leave anyone out. Everyone that made a purchase got free soap too.

It was a lot of fun and we realized that we really do like doing these home shows. This was only our second one, but both were certainly successful. Our hostess got credit for products too and I'm in the process of sending her a thank you card with a coupon for 18% off. It seems like a strange number, but she had 18 other people attend so that's how we came up with that number.

If you live in Colorado and want to host a home party, let us know! We'd love to meet your friends and you'll get some great products and deals for yourself. Now is a great time to do it because everyone's looking at buying for Christmas. Let us know how we can help you spread the Bliss!

What's in Your Shower Right Now?

2010-09-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

That's the most recent question a reader has asked me. Normally I'm not one to invite just anyone into my shower, but in this case, I'm happy to show and tell!

Now, I just recently moved so my shower stock is very small compared to what it was a few months ago before the move. So this is going to be a short list!

First, I have a big bar of Dragon's Blood by Blissology. I was a little unsure when I chose that one a couple months ago because it was still very much summertime and I'm one of those people that just must match my scents to the season. So even though it wasn't a "Dragon's Blood" sort of day when I chose it, it is now! The rich, sweet, spicy, and smoooooth notes of it really make it a fall and winter kind of soap for me. Of course, my sister and dad will gladly use it all year long regardless of the weather.

You won't find any bottles of shampoo or conditioner (or anything!) in my shower. We use shampoo and conditioner bars made by Get Lathered! on etsy. Some of you have no doubt heard me talk about how awesome they are. My hair and scalp are so much healthier and feel so much better since I started using these about a year and a half ago. Right now for shampoo I have just a sliver left of my favorite Vanille de Framboise and a new bar of the Willow scented shampoo. My husband is using Nor'Easter which I love too. And I have a Thai Coconut conditioner bar that has lasted me for months and months now.

For my face, I use our Au Natural soap made with goat milk and oatmeal. It's unscented, super creamy, and very mild. Store-bought facial cleansers completely wreck my complexion. They're just too harsh for my sensitive face and cause me to break out. I also used this soap exclusively when the baby was first born so she wouldn't be overwhelmed with extra smells. Now I use it on her too but I use a washcloth to apply it to her skin because she doesn't need the extra exfoliation from the oatmeal.

My husband has another soap bar for his face. It's a really old Christmas soap my mom made years ago for her soap business (Anyone remember Mountain Homestead Soaps?). As soap ages it becomes more and more mild. Often after several years the oils in soaps will start to go rancid, but not with this one! It still smells, albeit more lightly than when first made, and my husband has found that it makes a superb shaving soap! Since he's been using it, his face is smoother after his shave with much less irritation and bumps. I don't have a picture of this one since it's not for sale.

That's it! I'm sure in a few months I'll have twice as many soaps. Now I want to know - What's in Your Shower Right Now?

Working at Home with Kids

2010-08-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

One of our favorite readers, Cheryl, wants to know how I schedule production with two little ones at home.

It sure isn't easy! I have two girls, one is 3 1/2 and the other is 2 months old. As one might imagine, they (happily) take up a lot of my time. Getting anything done on *my* schedule can be difficult.

Since so much of our day is sporadic and unplanned, I have to fit business in whenever I can. Instead of saying, "This morning I have to make 3 kinds of lip balms and this afternoon I have to make footsie bars," I say, "Today, I hope to get this stuff done whenever I can." And sometimes, I can't.

I've found that setting daily and weekly goals helps tremendously. Also, I try to set aside time especially for answering emails and doing the online parts of business that need to get done every day. I can feed and dress the baby to make her happy, get the older child set up with breakfast, and then have a good 15 minutes to shoot off a few emails.

The most difficult thing is that I'm always interrupted. It's rare that I start and finish something all in one sitting. A few years ago this would have drove me crazy and I probably never would have completed anything. I've had to learn to adapt and find different ways of working.

So far, while typing out this post, I have had to stop to feed the baby, stop to read a story, and pause countless times to answer questions.

To make matters more challenging, the things mom and I used to do together we now have to do apart. My little family recently moved a couple of hours away so we've had to redesign how we get things done at Blissology.

Mom works on the things that cannot be easily interrupted - soaps and lotions being the primary products. Meanwhile, I have products that I call "meltables." These are ones that I can measure ingredients for, pause, melt and pour. And if I get interrupted before pouring, it's okay - I can just re-melt them. Lip balms, footsie bars, hard lotion bars, and shea butters are all on my list. To balance it out, mom also does massage candles and oils.

The main thing is not getting discouraged and trying not to be in a hurry. Having small children means that everything takes longer than you think it will. Be patient, consistent, and work in small intervals whenever you can.

Keeping the "Family" in "Family Business"

2010-08-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

I posted a request on Twitter for ideas on what to write about today. Clare wants to know how our family influences our fragrance choices.

Our main determination for continuing certain fragrances of course comes from our customers. What people love and buy, we make more of. If something just isn't selling well, then we obviously either make less of it or stop offering it all together.

But when it comes to choosing new scents for our products, family members are our first review panel.

We get little bottles of sample scents and I'm not sure that I can accurately convey the excitement these new little bottles bring. My mom and I huddle together and take turns opening and sniffing. Then we separate them into two sections - the ones we love and the ones we don't. Occasionally though, we'll have two similar ones that we just cannot chose between. This is where family comes in. They get to vote and help us choose the right one.

But the most useful way we employ their help is by naming. A lot of times the fragrance name suppliers use just don't really say what it actually smells like. Or they're too boring. Or weird. Or corny. So most of our scents are renamed to better fit Blissology.

Our naming sessions are generally brainstorming around the dining room table. They might go something like this:

"Peppercorn? It doesn't smell like pepper."

"No, it smells... like spice. Manly."

"Is that cinnamon? Oh, and clove. And something woody. Forest something?"

"It reminds me of fall. Fall Spice?"

"Hmm... Autumn... something."

"Like a crisp fall breeze. A... whisper."

"How about 'Autumn Whispers'?"

My sister, Ashley, gets most the credit for that one. It fits perfectly and is so much more accurate than "Peppercorn." It's also something my mom and I never would have come up with ourselves. We've found that family is the best way to think out problems and find solutions like this. By the way, this is also how we decided on the name "Blissology" for our company.

The other way family members influence which fragrances end up in products is simply by bugging us to "hurry up and make that soap with that one smell." We recently purchased an oil for our new "Colorado" inspired line. My dad loves it. Even more than his old favorite, Dragon's Blood. My mom finally made him a special batch of shea butter with it since soap takes so much more time and he was just so impatient to have it. I'm sure he won't let up on the soap issue for long though, so look for "Rocky Mountain High" soon!

Thanks for the writing suggestion, Clare! If anyone else has anything they'd care to hear more about, just let us know - I'd love to share!

"Oh My God, I Need This!"

2010-08-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

Stress-Be-Gone soap with lavender and calendula petals

That's usually the first thing a customer says when they pick up Blissology's Stress-Be-Gone soap. We all laugh and I usually say something about how everyone could probably use a little Stress-Be-Gone in their life or about how the world would be a happier place if everyone had that soap. We might both be mostly joking, but really, it's all true! That customer probably does need less stress and the essential oils we use in our Stress-Be-Gone blend really do help.

Each of the essential oils in this blend are recommended by aromatherapists to calm, relieve stress, or boost mood. Some are even touted to have antidepressant and energizing qualities, further stimulating those "good mood" vibes. We see this right before our eyes when that customer then smells the soap they just proclaimed they needed. They close their eyes, take a deep drag of the scent, and then exhale, dropping their shoulders and sighing. Just that one sniff has made them feel better.

Rosemary and Eucalyptus essential oils alone can smell a little sharp and medicinal. Even lavender, the oil people most often associate with relaxation, can be a little much. But when combined with sweet orange, peppermint, and spearmint oils, a wonderful balance is achieved. The Stress-Be-Gone blend then becomes this intricate but somehow familiar fragrance that is both soothing and invigorating.

The current best-selling item on thescienceofbliss.com is Stress-Be-Gone soap. However, we use the same blend in a massage oil, salt scrub, massage candle, and a hard lotion bar.

You "Need This!" Really, who doesn't need a little stress-be-gone?

Custom Gifts for a Special Wedding

2010-08-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Yuzu Hard Lotion Bar

Planning a wedding can be lots of fun, but it's easy to feel overwhelmed by all the small details. Blissology tries to make at least one part easier - wedding favors!

This last week we've been working on several items for a bride and groom who are set to marry in October. They have a lot of guests coming in from out of town and had the great idea to set them up with a care bag.

Each bag will have a guest soap, lip balm, and hard lotion bar - all with scents chosen by the happy couple. The bride also chose a few extra things for her brides' maids. It's going to be such a beautiful wedding and if their guests use their new Blissology products before the ceremony, it's going to smell wonderful too!

I'm going to have a few lotion bars left over so decided to make them available on our website. Yuzu is such a great scent and so perfect for these lotion bars, I think it will become a part of our regular line! The grapefruit fragrance is sunny and fresh and such a nice, sweet, citrus. It's one of those scents that just makes you happy the moment you smell it.

For the wedding favors, we'll be lining the round tins with tissue paper that coordinate with their wedding colors. They're so customizable for these special occasions. We're so glad they're making us a part of their happy day!

If you're interested in having something specially made for your important day, let us know and we'll see what we can do!

What's Your Sign? Here's Your Soap!

2010-08-12T12:14:00.000-07:00

Astrological sun signs are determined by one's birthday. And each sign is said to influence certain aspects of a person. Just for fun, we've tried to categorize our soaps into each sign depending on their qualities and fragrance. Try your sign's soap and let us know how accurate we are. Are the soaps in your sign some of your favorites?

Dragon's Blood Soap

Aries
(March 21 - April 20)

Aries is the ram. Those that fall under this sign tend to be assertive and confident. It's a fire sign so they can be a little impulsive at times too.
The best scents for Aries tend to be warm as this is a fire sign. Dragon's Blood fits the bill perfectly.

Other scents for Aries are RoseBerry and Irish Mocha.

Enchanted Forest Soap

Taurus
(April 21 - May 20)

Bulls are very appreciative of the finer things in life. Sometimes this can make them a bit indulgent in the eyes of others, but hey, when they find quality, they want it!

It's no surprise then than a Taurus would love handmade soap. Enchanted Forest, with it's notes of fine amber, sandalwood and vanilla is perfect for the discriminating bull. Another luxurious scent for Taurus is RoseBerry.

Honey Almond Oatmeal Soap

Gemini
(May 21 - June 21)

The air sign of Gemini is an intelligent, imaginative, and sensitive person. They find it easier than most people to change in and out of different situations including relationships, jobs, and locations.

The nutty, sweet, foody scent of Honey Almond Oatmeal soap will appeal to Geminis. Also try Beautiful Life and Lavender.

Black Raspberry Vanilla Soap

Cancer

(June 22 - July 22)

The summery sign of Cancer is all about the home. Family is really important to them. Sometimes they are said to be worrywarts but often keep their worries to themselves to spare others the stress.

Cancers should try Black Raspberry Vanilla Soap as it is a sweet "homey" scent that evokes feelings of summer, warmth, and mouth-watering sustenance. Also try Zen Green Tea.

Beautiful Life Soap

Leo
(July 23 - August 22)

Leo is the proud but generous lion. This is the sign of leaders, the King (or Queen!) of the jungle. They are usually comfortable in the spotlight and sure of their abilities. Of course, they can sometimes be a little arrogant too.

Generally Leos like sunny, bright fragrances so Beautiful Life is the perfect soap for them. Also, scents with warm spices, so Cinnamon Spice might be a good choice too.

Stress-Be-Gone Soap

Virgo
(August 23 - September 22)

Virgos are logical and practical people. As an Earth sign, they are "down to Earth" and often quite nurturing. However, they can sometimes be over-critical of others and a little nit-picky.

Virgos like natural scents so Stress-Be-Gone is perfect for them. They also would appreciate Honey Almond Oatmeal Soap and Earth Song for their simple practicality and earthiness.

Zen Green Tea Soap

Libra
(September 23 - October 22)

Libras love balance in all things. This makes them fair and just, but also seemingly indecisive since they must first weigh all things before making a decision.

These are the peacekeepers of the zodiac and keeping in mind "balance," the perfect soap for the scales is Zen Green Tea. A libra may also like Lilac or Angel of Shavano which speaks to the airy, romantic quality of the sign.

Cinnamon Spice Soap

Scorpio
(October 23 - November 21)

Scorpios are passionate and fiery. They are sensitive to others' feelings and while they feel deeply themselves, it is sometimes difficult for them to express. Because of their intensity, Scorpios can sometimes be seen as obsessive.

Spicy scents capture the passion of this sign so the best Blissology soap for them is Cinnamon Spice. They'd also enjoy Autumn Whispers and Dragon's Blood which both have warm, intense, and maybe even "secretive" notes - just like a Scorpio.

Autumn Whispers Soap

Sagittarius
(November 22 - December 21)

Smart Sagittarians are sociable, witty people with a flair for spontaneity. They love interacting with people and highly value truth. Sometimes they can come off as being a bit careless.

The best scents for the Sagittarius are ones that tend to be stimulating - emotionally and physically. Autumn Whispers then is the soap for them. They'd also like Cinnamon Spice, Plum Spice, and Stress-Be-Gone.

Earth Song Soap

Capricorn
(December 22 - January 19)

Capricorn, the goat, is sure-footed and ambitious. When they see a mountain, they climb it no matter how high or how rocky the climb may be. They are intelligent and straight-forward but can be stubborn, aloof, and mistrusting of others.

Being a deep Earth sign, Capricorns will appreciate similarly Earthy scents. What could be better then, but Earth Song? They would also like Grass or Dragon's Blood.

Plumeria Soap

Aquarius
(January 21 - February 18)

Aquarians like new things - technologies, ideas, and challenges. Anything to use their high-level thinking skills makes these thinkers happy. They can sometimes seem a little cold probably because they do not find it easy to share their feelings with others and usually have only a select few close friends.

Being an air sign, some floral scents will appeal to an Aquarius. We recommend tropical flower Plumeria. Other good choices for mentally stimulating Aquarians is Stress-Be-Gone and Lavender.

Mountain Showers Soap

Pisces
(February 19 - March 21)

Pisces, represented by the fish, are artistic and inspirational. They are kind and gentle. Being a water sign, Pisces people can be restless and emotional.

We chose Mountain Showers for this sign not just because it's a fresh, watery scent, but also because it is the sort of scent that instantly transports one's mind - something that would appeal to the idealistic fish. Other good soaps for them would be Angel of Shavano, Acai Berry, and Plumeria.

We Don't Do Bath Bombs

2010-05-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

For those of you that are not yet subscribed to our newsletter, first, you should sign up! (See the little spot over there on the left - so easy!) If you didn't get to read the last issue, I wanted to share one of the articles. "We Don't Do Bath Bombs." Thanks to my etsy SAFEteam for reminding me exactly why we don't!

You've no doubt seen huge salt-packed balls many call "bath bombs" before. They're really neat looking and great fun in a bath. Most even fizz fantastically as they dissolve in the water.

But you won't find them at Blissology. Not anytime soon, anyway.

It's not that we don't love the idea of them. And it's certainly not due to any personal issues about putting "bombs" in a bathtub.

Rather, we just can't. We've TRIED! There must be some special secret to them that we just cannot quite piece together. Maybe it's the weather, the humidity, the current phase of the moon. Or perhaps just our lack of patience or muscle.

Whatever the reason for our consistent bath bomb failures, we decided as a team that the frustrations they cause us just do not mesh with our striving to live a -blissful- lifestyle.

So, in order to promote continued bliss, we offer our customers wonderful bath salts and fizzing bath salts. Just not in ball-form. No bombs, just shrapnel, if you will. Find them in tubes or bags in a variety of wonderful scents. They are a great addition to any bath and you get to choose how much or how little you want to add. Chances are, you'll never miss the exploding balls. We don't!

About that Blogging Stuff....

2010-05-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

....I've been horrible! Anyone that has a blog knows what kind of outright determination it takes to actually maintain and post consistently and I just completely fell off the wagon.

So now we have a lot of catching up to do, don't we?

First things first - that new logo and re-branding I was talking about so long ago. We finally did it! It took so much longer than anyone anticipated and we still have a lot of work to do (like changing over ever label, getting new pictures done, and just updating the website in general) but we're so happy with what we have so far.

Here's a look at our new logo:

It's so much cleaner, fresher, and more "us" than our old one. See the aspen leaf there? That's "us" too. We love aspens and nature in general. Actually, where we're located, in a beautiful valley of Colorado Rocky Mountains, we're surrounded by quaking aspens that turn a brilliant golden yellow in the fall. It was only fitting that we included that little bit in our new look.

As I mentioned we've been busy redoing all our labels to reflect the change as well. To see how it's coming along, check out our website.

And speaking of the beauty of nature, The Trail Ridge Road gift store near Estes Park in the Rocky Mountain National Forest is going to be carrying tons of Blissology products this summer. We're so excited to share what we do with so many people. I don't think the store opens until near the end of this month, but I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

Meanwhile we've been working really hard to stock up and get orders out to all our customers and wholesale accounts. It's a lot of work when the soap factory is also the household kitchen! And at the beginning of July Shannon is expecting another baby so we're certainly going to have our work cut out for us.

There's so much more we have planned, but it's still too early to spill the beans on ALL of our projects. In the meantime, hope everyone's lives are perfectly blissful!

Re-Branding

2009-10-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

We haven't really said much about this yet, but we're working on a new project for Blissology. Well, we're always working on new things but this one is going to be big. Re-branding.

With the generous help of Luke Paxton, a true professional designer, we're in the process of creating a whole new look for Blissology. It's so exciting and nerve-wracking and fun and difficult.

I keep thinking to myself that this is going to change everything. Which is true! Everything is going to look completely different but inside will always be the same great products you expect from us.

This change is going to mean a wider appeal and a more professional appearance. We're not quite ready to unveil the new look yet, but I can tell you it is clean, modern, fresh, and simplistic. There's still so much to do, but with our excitement, we just had to share!

Labor Day Sale

2009-09-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

We're gearing up for a busy weekend! We've been at the Salida Farmer's Market every Saturday and we enjoyed the Buena Vista market while we were attending that as well. This weekend at Salida we're having a scrub testing station with free hand treatments. A delightfully relaxing hand massage with one of our scrubs, and then, feel the difference! Skin is soft, smooth, and perfectly moisturized.

Now imagine that on your entire body! This stuff works like magic.

Last week we only had sugar scrubs (oops!) so I'm finishing up a few salt scrubs today.

I know a lot of our readers aren't local though. And you're all going to be busy (whether out doing stuff or busy relaxing!) so we have some news for you!

We're offering 10% off your entire order when you buy through our ArtFire page this weekend! Just enter the coupon code "labordaysale" and it will be applied automatically.

Visit blissology's Studio

SAVE 10.00 % On Order Total

Use Coupon Code:

LABORDAYSALE

during checkout.

Earth Friendly Gifts

Flying to the Market Solo

2009-06-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

Time sure does fly when you're busy sharing bliss!

We attended our local annual Holistic Fair last weekend and it was really nice. We had gone last year, but did even better this year. The best thing about these sorts of events is really the networking and meeting new people. We made some great connections, got our aura's photographed, and had a great time.

I do recall June being a slightly crazy month last year, but I'm not sure if it was ever this chaotic! In a few days Pam heads off to conferences for her "real" job (she's a middle school teacher!) and will be gone for almost two whole weeks. In the meantime, I'll be at home making lots of lotions, muscle balms, and footsie bars. We're drastically low on all those items and as I sit here I keep thinking of more things to add to the "to do list." (wrap soaps, make massage oils, salt scrubs.....)

And a week from today I'll be setting up for our first Farmer's Market of the season! By myself! Thankfully I think both my sisters will be around to help keep my two-year-old entertained but it's still going to be a big job and I'm definitely going to be missing mom! She'll probably be playing with cool new computer technologies while I try to figure out how to set up the tent alone. Oh woe is me.

Regardless, the farmer's market is going to be awesome! We've had people telling us how excited they are for it since March. Here's more information on it:

Where: Alpine Park, downtown F-Street, Salida, CO
When: Every Saturday starting June 20th until October 17th, 9 am - 12:30 pm
What: Lots of fresh, local produce, coffee and drinks, ice cream, hand baked goods, local art and crafts, cheeses, meat, breads, live music, and Blissology!

It's going to be a great summer, but this next week before the market starts is going to be hectic! This will be the last day I have Pam to help me out so we're going to make a few batches of soap. On the agenda: Pomegranate, Plumeria, and a new summer essential oil blend featuring Ginger, Lime, and Orange.

Introducing Acai Berry Soap

2009-05-11T12:01:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure I have it in me right now for a full-fledged extravagant post, but there is one thing I really want to share. Blissology is so proud to announce....

Açai Berry Soap! I don't really like having to mess with the special ç (it's called a Cedilla just in case you didn't know) so I'll just drop it for this post. Hope you don't mind!

No doubt you've heard of Acai Berries and all the wonderful things they can do for your health, especially weight-related. It's being added in all kinds of energy drinks and I suspect in smoothies very soon (if not already) too. It's been used as a flavoring in Brazil for quite some time already. I should mention, the fruit comes from Acai Palm trees which grow in the Amazon rainforest.

The correct pronunciation is ah-sigh-EE, but I usually hear people say uh-ki (rhymes with "high"). Regardless of how you say the word, you should get used to hearing it often because it's likely going to join the ranks of such fragrances of pomegranate in terms of fruity favorites.

So of course, we had to make some soap! We had grand visions of just how we wanted this soap to look. But the fragrance, as we say in soaper land, accelerated saponification. In other words, the soap got thick, FAST the moment we added the delicious acai scent.

Instead of the pretty dark purple and pink swirls with purple jojoba beads, we got basically two layers of the same color light grayish lavender color with the top layer sprinkled with purple jojoba beads.

Pam hated it at first. The color was not what she envisioned at all, and she even may have uttered the word "ugly."

After we gave it some time to change and do it's thing, unmolded it and dusted it with beautiful pearlescent merlot mica, it was done. It wasn't as we expected, but it actually did turn out quite pretty. The muddy gray-purple is now a soft light lavender color and even though the mica on top washes off after the first use, it is the perfect presentation for a gift.

And what does it smell like? Berry! Very few of us have likely smelled an actual acai berry and it's rather difficult to explain: try describing to someone what "strawberry" smells like! I will do my best though. It is sweet, fruity, and a bit like "tropical grape." If colors were scents, this one would certainly be "purple."

Of course, the best way to smell this, is just to try it for yourself! I promise you won't be disappointed. Personally, it's my new favorite! The scent lingers on your skin, and I know I've said this before, but it just smells so delicious! Plus, thanks to those jojoba beads, the top half is scrubby and excellent for exfoliating. It lathers beautifully and makes my skin feel fabulous. Try it!

Baby Shower Gifts for Mommy (and baby)

2009-05-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about baby showers recently because it's about time for us to start planning one for my sister. Now some get gifts just for the new baby, and that's great, but taking care of the new mother is even better!

The last shower we went to was for my cousin and for a gift we made a big basket of Blissology stuff just for her. I wanted to show you how easy and fun this can be! And don't forget - Mother's Day is just around the corner!

Pampering Gift Ideas for the New and Soon-to-be Mommy

Shea Butter

The best thing for stretched, tight, itchy skin is pure shea butter. According to the American Shea Butter Institute, shea butter can even prevent stretch marks during pregnancy. They also recommend it for "muscle fatigue, aches and tension" as well as skin rashes. So not only can mommy use it for herself during her pregnancy, but on baby too. Two-in-One!

Lip Balm

One of the most prized possessions in the hospital is lip balm. It's small and easy to forget when you don't need it. But trust me, a new mother is going to need this! Blissology offers several great flavors and we recommend getting two of them - one mommy can use now, and one she can pack ahead of time in her hospital bag.

Lotion

Pregnant women's skin can often be challenging. Her best friend at this time may very well be a big bottle of Blissology lotion. And of course, she can have you to thank for that! Any of our lotions would be great, but for extra pampering, opt for the Vita-Skin Lotion. We add extra skin-nourishing vitamins and a gentle essential oil blend for fragrance.

Massage Oil

This is another one for both mommy and baby. Blissology's Serene Slumber Massage Oil is just what mommy-to-be needs before those long, uncomfortable nights. There comes a point, not long into a pregnancy, when sleep becomes difficult and is not so restful. Serene Slumber is a blend of lavender, rosewood and ylang-ylang essential oils to calm the racing mind and hopefully call the sandman. Plus, every pregnant woman deserves a daily massage. Of course, this can also be used as a bath oil.

Baby massage is becoming more and more popular but it's often difficult to find an oil suitable and gentle enough for baby. Serene Slumber uses just the right safe amounts of essential oil to provide for the aromatherapy benefits. It is especially helpful as part of a bedtime routine after a warm bath and during and before quiet time with mommy and/or daddy.

Footsie Bar

Blissology's famous Footsie Bars are a woman's dream-come-true. They're moisturizing and energizing. When she can't reach her own feet anymore, it's quick and easy for someone else to do it for her. And a great excuse for a foot massage too!

Handmade Soap

The list would not be complete without this essential. Not only do Blissology soaps make a great addition for any gift basket, but using handmade soap is one of the best things a person, pregnant woman, baby, ANYONE can do for their skin.

Blissology has a huge selection of fragrances including essential oils and every bar has shea butter and the finest vegetable oils.

Blissology Takes to Radio

2009-04-29T09:17:00.000-07:00

We have been on the radio *twice* in the last five days. Awesome! Now, these haven't been paid advertisements either, just little blurbs talking about the company and what we do.

The first was at the Home and Garden show we went to on Saturday. I talked to Kim Kreiss about all the cool products we have.

And today, The Peak 92.3 is doing an auction all day. So many people have given items to the station to be auctioned off (in return, businesses get advertising worth the value of their items). We said that we would do it, but it was never communicated exactly *what* we were going to put into the auction.

Well, this morning the auction started and Jim Berry started talking all about Blissology and the soaps and baskets we had up for bid. But we didn't. So I called and let them know I'd bring stuff up as soon as I could. And I guess I just had good timing because I got to go on air and explain myself the stuff in our Spa in a Box and let people know the gift certificates were good for anything on our website.

In case you're interested, for our Spa in a Box we included an Almond Salt Scrub, a massage oil, and one of our Beautiful Life Spa Salt Bars. Perfect ready-made gift for Mother's Day!

Again, I must just say, Awesome!

Wrapping up the Home and Garden Show

2009-04-27T08:41:00.001-07:00

The Home and Garden show was great! We saw lots of previous customers and friends and had a good, albeit long day.

So many people commented that they can't wait for the Salida Farmer's Market this year and YES, we WILL be there this summer too. In fact, while we only did part time last summer, we'll be there EVERY Saturday this summer starting the third week of June. It's at Alpine Park again and I think it's going to be even bigger and better than last year. We're really excited!

But I'm jumping ahead of myself here. At the Home and Garden Show we did a "Spa in a Box" giveaway and tons of people signed up for it. The winner has been contacted and we're so happy to share our goodies! The box includes a Beautiful Life sugar scrub, a Vital Spirit Uplifter massage oil, and a bar of our Beautiful Life spa salt bar which happened to be our best-seller this weekend!

That reminds me - I still haven't added our Beautiful Life sugar scrubs online yet. Actually, I have lots of products begging to be added to our websites but I just haven't had time to take the pictures! So that's my goal this week. Look for new products online very soon! Of course, you can count on me updating here when I add them too. Oh! And goal number two - get the newsletter sent out! Now I feel like a huge slacker and need to get some work done!

Springing Forth to Spring Gardens

2009-04-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy lately! There's always a period of time between Christmas to about March that things really slow down. I think that's the case for most all retail. One might think that would be the perfect time to make, create, and increase stock.

But not us.

See, when everything else slows down, so do I. It doesn't matter that I had months to prepare for the upcoming craft season, I procrastinated and am now rushing around trying to get everything ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow marks the "first of the season" show for us, and we'll be doing a local home and garden show hosted by our local radio station, KVRH, et. al. For those of you that are in the area, we'll be at Brady's West in Salida, just behind Burger King.

I'm pretty sure there will be lots of booths there and I know most everyone is giving away prizes so there's a good chance you might even win something free! It runs all day, from 9 am. to 5 pm. and despite feeling completely unprepared, I'm excited for it. There might be some scattered rain showers in the afternoon, but we're indoors! We'll be in one of their empty greenhouses so even if it's raining, come out!

We'll also be debuting some new products. We'll have hard lotion bars, several new soaps (including Grass, Acai Berry, and Lilac) and a super cute gift "basket" for you or your favorite gardener. It's actually a flower pot packed full of gardener's goodies. Grass-scented soap with cornmeal to really scrub away grit and grime, hard lotion bar to sooth dry, cracked, working hands, and some other special stuff every garden-lover should have on hand.

I'll take pictures soon, but I've been too busy "catching up" lately! Hope to see lots of people tomorrow!

Scrub Off Winter Sale

2009-03-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

First of all, the obligatory "sorry I've been away" thing. I've been sick and tired and so has most everyone else in this house! It's just that time of year, I guess, flu and horrible colds just make their way around. Several times each.

Now that is out of the way.... We're having a sale!

It's also that time of year that you and your skin are ready to be done with winter! Pack up the sweaters and break out the spring wardrobe!

But what about that less than exciting winter skin? Never fear! Blissology to the rescue!

The best way to get that dry, scaly, flaky, ugh, winter skin to blossom like your favorite flowers, is to exfoliate and moisturize. With Blissology salt and sugar scrubs, it's not only easy, but enjoyable, relaxing, and extremely pampering.

Select salt and sugar scrubs are now $13.99 (regular price $16) so you won't even have to stress over the cost of pure necessary indulgence. Yes, indulgent. But yes, trust me, you definitely need it. Your skin will thank you!

Without further ado, you can purchase your magnificent skin-loving scrubs here. If you have questions or need help deciding, let me know!

New Room Diffusers!

2009-03-06T10:49:00.000-08:00

We now have our best diffuser pots yet. They are bright, colorful, and really cute - real works of art!

Local potter Stephanie Amos created them for us specifically for our room diffuser oil. We're selling them in kits that come with a pot, rattan reeds, and buyer's choice of fragrance oil.

These are perfect to scent a small to medium-sized room. We actually have our diffusers scattered throughout the house. We notice them when we first come home, but the real treat is when we have guests over - they also compliment how wonderful our house smells thanks to these reed diffusers!

Since each pot is a one-of-a-kind piece of art, I've listed them once only between three different sites.
You can find a majority of them on our main website:
Blissology: The Science of Bliss
A few on our etsy site: http://blissology.etsy.com
And a few on our ArtFire site: http://blissology.artfire.com

They're $20 each and come in a great gift box. We also sell Refill Diffuser Oils that come with fresh reeds when you run out. You can use the refills in any container suitable for diffuser oil (if it's pottery, it must have proper glaze on the bottom or it will seep through).

Like any other sort of room fragrance, the usual warnings apply. Keep out of reach from children and pets, avoid contact with skin and eyes, do not swallow. These oils can remove furniture finishes and varnishes so use with care.

Enchanted Forest and Ripe Red Raspberry

2009-02-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

Enchanted Forest was our "Valentine" scent this year. Not only is it great for both men and women, but it also smells simply enchanting. It's a delightful mix of deep woody smells like Cedarwood and Sandalwood, earthy Amber, sweet Vanilla, and a little bit of foresty florals if you can really pick out the individual scents. They all meld together to create a magically sexy fragrance.

As a brief side-note, vanilla is a really funny thing in soap. Most people think "white" when they think vanilla although I'm not sure why now that I think about it. Vanilla beans are a beautiful dark brown. Anyway, that's what happens in soap too - it colors it brown.

We really weren't thinking about the vanilla components of this fragrance when we added it to the soap. We envisioned a lightish tan base color with beautiful purple swirls. Which of course were completely lost as the soap turned chocolate brown. It's a great color and actually fits the scent (luckily for us!) but it just wasn't what we had envisioned. We're used to that by now though - it's rare anything in reality comes out how we thought it would!

Ripe Red Raspberry was our other Valentiney scent this year. It has been a main staple to the line even way back when it was just Pam running "Mountain Homestead Soaps." The colors, of course, are valentine-like, but the scent was also perfect. We've had women report to us that for whatever reason, when they wear this raspberry scent (we also have it in lip balm and massage oil candles), their husbands take it as a sign that they're feeling frisky. If that's not perfect for Valentine's Day, I don't know what is!

Of course, I likely should have made this post about this time LAST month, but I didn't have my new camera then and our pictures just weren't up to par. They still could use some improvement, I think, but they're MUCH better now. And since they really are great for the whole year, not just one day, we Highly Recommend them both!

Wasabi and Dragon's Blood Soap

2009-02-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

Wasabi is our first Spring Soap for the year. When people ask what it smells like, we can honestly answer "green." It's fresh and bright and doesn't smell at all like the wasabi horseradish you have with sushi. Wasabi is sweet and floral and a little bit of tang.

We added jojoba beads to give the bar some nice, gentle exfoliation. Plus, it looks pretty in subtle swirls!

Of course, like all our soaps, we've added shea butter for an extra boost of luxury and moisturizer.

Even though we're introducing this as our newest seasonal scent, we're hoping everyone loves it so much they demand us to keep it around all year. That would be fine with us because we love it too!

You might remember a post I did several months ago about our Dragon's Blood Soap. It has become a favorite for some of our family members now thanks to its deep, complex smell and wonderful lather. I took some more pictures of it with my new camera.

The brown has darkened a little since the first pictures and it's really more fitting that way. Above the large brown layer is a layer of green with jojoba beads, then a layer with red jojoba beads, and finally a lucky dragonesque dark brown layer at the top.

These are our large-sized spa bars so they're almost twice as much soap for not much more money. (They're $5.50 compared to $4.25 for our regular bars.) They last a really long time.

Earthy, sultry, mysterious, woody, and sexy are all good adjectives of this Dragon's Blood soap. It's wonderful for men or women and we've even had one customer by it just so her kids would wash their hands more. I guess it might be fun to wash with "Dragon's Blood!"

Irish Mocha Through a New Lens

2009-02-20T13:17:00.000-08:00

I am completely in love. With my new camera, that is! She's an Olympus Evolt 420, and is absolutely wonderful. Naturally I've been very busy taking new pictures! I don't want to bombard you all with random photos, so I'm going to try to take it slow, one day at a time.

Today I'll start with one of my favorite pictures from my little photo shoot - Irish Mocha Soap.

Looks good enough to eat, doesn't it? Well, it SMELLS good enough to eat too! It smells very chocolaty, and of course, coffee too!

I'm pretty sure that this is the absolutely best way to wake up in the morning. It's so smooth and decadent that it makes for the perfect night cap too, especially after a long, stressful day when all you want is something comforting.

You'll notice that the size is larger than our normal 3.5 oz. bars. These weight in at about 5 oz. and are part of our "Spa Bar" line. Since they're bigger, they are $5.50 and last a long time.

And just in case you need one more reason to have one of these beautiful bars for yourself, just say it's for St. Patrick's day! It is "Irish", after all!

This bar is best enjoyed by chocolate-lovers, coffee-lovers, and those seeking a sinful experience, without the sin.

As always, you can buy on our webpage.

Making the Soaps

2009-02-09T14:37:00.000-08:00

We finally managed to make some soap last night. Three batches.
Restock of Lavender (It's much prettier this time! Last time it stuck to our mold.)
Guinness Beer Soap with Irish Oatmeal (This one sold so fast last time we didn't even manage to get it online for sale. And it will be ready in plenty of time for St. Patrick's Day!)
Black Raspberry Vanilla (A new one for us! It's colorful and smells divinely berry.)

I would take a picture, but I can't seem to find my camera. I guess that means it's time to clear off the table! Stay tuned for pretties.

Need Newsletter Ideas in Return for Delicious White Bean Chili

2009-01-28T13:35:00.000-08:00

I've started on next month's newsletter, but I haven't gotten very far. I'm finding that it's a little difficult to write quality articles that I think people might actually care to read about. So I'm asking here - is there anything you'd like to read about that is related to handmade soaps or other bath & body products? Any ideas?

If I don't know something off the top of my head, that's okay. I actually like to research. Last month I wrote about shea butter. Where it comes from, what it's good for, and some of the many reasons we love it in our skincare products.

Of course we usually add any of our new products in the newsletter. But we don't really have any this month. We also highlight and offer a special sale to our newsletter subscribers in every issue, and February is a great time for Valentine's Day offers. I've just hit a creative wall with what to include about our special informative piece.

In completely separate affairs, I have a recipe to share! A food recipe! This is SO good in cold weather, but also light enough for warm weather too. I've been making it for several years now and we're still loving it. This chili, like most others, is really fast to start and smells wonderful while it slow cooks all day. Chipotle chili powder used to be a little hard to find, but it seems to be most everywhere now.

White Bean and Turkey Chipotle Chili

Cooking spray
1 pound uncooked ground turkey breast
1 med. Onion, chopped
4 medium garlic cloves, chopped
3 16 oz. Cans chicken broth
2 tsp. Ground cumin
2 tsp. Oregano
1 to 2 tsp chipotle chili powder
3 16 oz white beans, rinsed and drained
¼ cup limejuice
¼ cup cilantro, fresh coarsely chopped, plus extra for garnish

Spray large skillet. Cook ground turkey, onion and garlic over medium-high heat until turkey is browned. Drain off fat.
Add turkey mixture and remaining ingredients to a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low heat setting for at least 4 hours.

Enjoy! If you try this, let me know how you liked it.

Pretty Piece of Layout

2009-01-14T12:12:00.001-08:00

I decided it was time to re-design the blog layout a little. Not because I'd had the old one for so terribly long, but because I hated finding so many other blogs with the same exact layout. It was pretty and neutral, and apparently pretty popular. So I spend most of the morning searching and setting up the layout you see now.

I like this one because it's simple and clean and the colors match our logo/theme. So let me know how you like it.

Yesterday I had my top two wisdom teeth extracted, so it's a good thing to do computer work today. I'm supposed to take it easy and am taking some pretty good drugs, so I can't do anything that requires much thinking either. Thankfully the blog install was pretty simple. It took me longer to reinstall all the little widgets and stuff than anything else.

Still on the list of things to do today is... well... hmm... it's hard to remember things today. Oh! I have to make a phone call to try to get a little something in line for spring. That is purposefully vague, but I want it to be a surprise for later. I will tell you that it involves a birdhouse though.

I'm really itching to make some soap today, but I really shouldn't today. Maybe tomorrow though. Need to get some Guinness. Not for me! For soap. We've never sold our beer soap online yet, but that's really just because it sold out too fast to even list it. Maybe this time around we could keep some for our online customers!

Angel of Shavano

2009-01-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

It's been hard updating lately because there really hasn't been much news. At least on the business front. Other things in every other aspect have been busy.

We've mostly just been restocking and restocking. Like our Angel of Shavano soap. If you've ever smelled Thierry Mugler's "Angel", then you'll know what this smells like. It has hints of lots of different fragrances including sandalwood, vanilla, patchouli, plus faint notes of fruits and citruses. It is meant to arouse fond memories that one cannot quite place with smells reminiscent of chocolate, honey, and caramel.

So that's the Angel part. You might wonder what "Shavano" is though.

We live at an elevation just under 8,000 feet, surrounded by mountains in all directions. Out of our kitchen and living room window is the perfect view of the Collegiate Peaks in the Sauguache mountain range. It's one of the "Fourteeners", mountains above 14,000 feet, and has an interesting visual feature to it.

On the eastern face of the mountain is a deep crevice that forms the shape of an angel usually for most of the spring. Can you see her in the picture? (Picture was taken by Steve at ColoradoGuy. I couldn't take one myself right now because the whole mountain is covered in snow and the angel isn't visible.) Look for a big "Y" just below the summit. The legend goes, that there was once a great drought and the Indian people of the valley were suffering. A Ute Princess went to the mountain and prayed for her people. She was told that she must sacrifice herself so that her people could have water again. She did, and now every spring when the snow melts, it is her, crying for her people and renewing the valley with fresh water.

In our soap, we added calendula petals too. It looks pretty, smells pretty, and has a nice story to go with it. Needless to say, it sells very well locally! We think you should have a piece of our beautiful mountain too - every time you wash!

The last picture I wanted to share is what Angel of Shavano looks like when it first comes out of the mold. It's so smooth and pretty-smelling!

ArtFire

2009-01-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

Let me start off by saying that I do like etsy. I like that there is a built-in community there and it's clean design aspects. It's easy to use. BUT, there are some problems. Despite users clamoring since etsy's conception for stats and other small changes, these things are still missing from the site. It's really difficult to know what sort of advertising techniques are working for your etsy store if you have no idea how people are finding your products or where they are coming from. There's also been other complaints that I don't think I need to get into. The stats are the main issue for me.

So now, along comes ArtFire. The idea is the same - a collective showcase for people with handmade stuff to sell to other people that buy handmade stuff. Only it's free. At least, for the first ten items listed. If you want more product space, or more options, you pay a FLAT RATE, currently $7 a month. There's no commission fees like there are on etsy. Which is really nice.

I'm not jumping ship. At least, not yet. For now I'm offering my products BOTH places. You can pick where you'd like to buy from. Or, of course, you can always go to our main site and purchase from there. You'll also notice that I've only listed 10 items on ArtFire. I'm not ready to commit just yet. I need at least a couple of sales there before I can decide if it's going to work out better for me or not.

First, read this features list. Then, if you decide that you'd like to try out ArtFire for yourself, say that "blissology" sent you in the "Where did you hear about us? From an ArtFire user" pull down menu when you sign up.

Shea Goodbye to Dry Skin

2008-12-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

I finally managed to take some pictures of our new shea butters. We have four different scents now and all of them are really divine.

African Rose -
Smells like fresh, romantic roses with just a little bit of the shea butter smell coming through. It's pretty, floral, and feminine and is sure to make anyone that wears it feel just like that too.

Pomegranate -
Bright and fruity pomegranate has been a customer favorite in all our products so of course we had to include it in our shea butter too. It's one of the few fruity scents that is great year-round.

Amber Allure -
Enchanting, exotic, and sensual. Amber Allure is earthy and musky and smells so delicious. It compliments the natural scent of the shea butter perfectly.

Lavender Lemongrass -
This is our essential oil choice for the shea. It's very lemony, fresh, and exciting. But the lavender adds a softness with a gentle sweet floral undertone. I wasn't sure if I would like it, but this one is actually my favorite. I'm wearing it now and because it's so bright, it's going to help me get through the rest of winter just fine.

Shea butter is the Queen of skincare. We've always put it in our other products, including soaps and lotions. It's such a wonderful addition to any skin care regiment though, we knew we needed to include it in it's pure, 100% shea butter form.

Shea Butter comes from the karite tree nuts in Africa and has been used for at least hundreds of years by people there to help with a variety of skin conditions including eczema, minor cuts and lesions, sunburn, stretch marks, blemishes, scarring, and of course very dry or cracked skin. It's also wonderful for the scalp and hair. Shea Butter has been shown to increase the skin's elasticity and the thinning of skin that is inevitable in aging skin.

With such a long list of touted benefits, it's easy to see why so many people love shea butter. It's super moisturizing, absorbs into the skin quickly, and leaves it feeling soft, smooth, and supple.

$15 for 4 oz. is a great price for something that honestly, no one should be without.

Tying Up Loose Ends

2008-12-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

First of all, we're in a treasury today, so please check it out! http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=37419

Next, I'm just about ready to send out the next newsletter, so if you haven't signed up for it yet, go here and do so.

And, we're GIVING AWAY A FREE MASSAGE OIL CANDLE. That's right, I shouted that. The winner gets to pick whichever scent they want from this list. And all you have to do to be entered to win, is to go to this Bath, Body, Candle blog, read the article, and do what it says. A winner will be randomly chosen in two weeks and I'll then send it out right away. Did I mention it was a FREE MASSAGE OIL CANDLE? Just checking.

Now, as promised and only a few days late, I have pictures AND a name for our muscle rub. Introducting, Blissology's "Ultimate Muscle Therapy Balm" with Arnica, comfrey, and menthol. You can buy it now here for only $12.

I also now have more information about that day spa I wrote about not so long ago. Bella Vita Day Spa is opening January 2nd for business. I've stopped in a few times already and the transformation on the building is incredible. It used to be Kathy's Kandyland, a specialty bakery and handmade candy store. Now it looks completely different inside.

Anyway, Bella Vita is going to be using all of our products. Soap, body scrubs, massage oils, everything that they can possible get from us, they are. Plus, they're going to have almost our entire line of products for sale right there in the spa. We are SO excited, and I think that Jennifer, the owner, is really excited (albeit stressed right now) too!

So for anyone who's local or who wants to visit, you can call Bella Vita at (719) 539-8558 or stop in at 7620 W. Hwy. 50 in Salida, Colorado. They're going to offer massages, facials, body scrub treatments, hair, waxing, nails, private parties, the works!

I think that sums up all the little loose ends hanging around. I still have to tell you about our new Shea Butter, but that can mostly wait for another post.

Hope everyone had a great holiday. If you didn't get what you wanted (namely, Blissology stuff), you know where to go!

Lil' Bits of Bliss

2008-12-19T15:08:00.000-08:00

We decided to name the muscle rubs "Ultimate Muscle Therapy Balm" which sounds like it should come in the size of say, a sack of potatoes, but really it's about the size of a deodorant container. So, don't be intimidated by the name. I'll post pictures and a link where you can buy it as soon as I have a little more time.

Today I've been working on the newsletter. I've sent out a few issues of our monthly "Lil' Bits of Bliss" but it hasn't actually been monthly. At all. Mainly because it has been such a huge pain to actually do it. It took literally days to put it all together even with my computer, editing, and layout experience. So I've worked out something a little different and am now using an editor and mailing program all-in-one type of thing. It's so much easier now.

You're probably hopefully wondering by now how you can get to read this awesome newsletter with its cute name, exclusive sales, and company and product information. Well m'friends, for you, I'll share the link so you can add your name and email address and start receiving your monthly newsletter packed with little bits of bliss.

All This Work is Why I Use My Own Products

2008-12-13T08:54:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was really busy. I made lipbalm, footsie bars, and something new - our New muscle rub bars. I'm not sure what exactly to call them yet. But they have olive oil infused with arnica and comfrey, and menthol crystals, and camphor oil, peppermint, lavender, juniper berry, and a titch of tea trea. I tried it out yesterday and it's really nice and works great.

My shoulder was sore, I think I slept on it wrong, and I just smeared on some muscle rub and it was nice and warm and cool and tingly, and it really helped. I also have problems with my ankle since having surgery on it many years ago. It gets really sore without even doing much. I put some on last night (after having been standing all day) and it did the trick! So yay! This stuff might replace our Footsie Bars as bestseller.

Any ideas on what to name it though?

I've been sick the last week and a half and I think it's affected my brainpower. Of course, it could just be that we've been so busy and it's the holidays, and all that too. I think everyone's mind goes a little this time of year.

Today is another busy day. On the agenda is Caramel Pears Lotion (pictured) and three batches of soap. Angel of Shavano, Cinnamon Spice, and either Mountain Showers or Ripe Red Raspberry. Sounds like it's soon going to be smelling wonderful in here!

New Pots from a New Potter, Coming Soon!

2008-12-08T17:39:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention something about the craft fair this last weekend. We have these really cool room diffusers, but they used to be much cooler. See, the pots used to be handmade and beautiful and people really seemed to love them. Unfortunately, our pot thrower is unable to make more right now. So in the meantime, we have the clear glass ones you see now.

On Saturday though, we were fortunate enough to be placed right next to Stephanie Amos of Muddy Potts. She was selling some really cool looking pots and we just knew they would go great with our line. So we talked to her about our pots and I think she's excited to make them! I can't wait to see them. You're all going to love them! You can see her etsy shops here or here.

So I realize now that we may be stuck with a bunch of these plain clear glass pots because now anyone that reads this is going to want to wait for Stephanie's handmade pots. So we've dropped the price on them to $14 for now. Soon as we get our new handmade diffuser pots we'll go back to the regular $20 for the kit (which includes the pot, diffuser oil, reeds, all in a white box ready to gift).

As soon as we get our new pots in I'll take some pictures and get those up on both our websites. They're gonna be awesome!

Soap Good Enough to Steal

2008-12-07T11:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our Holiday Bazaar Craft Fair and it was excellent. So many great people came out to do some Christmas shopping (and shopping for themselves!) and made our day great.

Whenever we do any kind of craft show, we always try to put a bar of soap in the bathroom. For one, we really hate using any other kind of soap and the liquid soap in bathrooms is so drying. So we put it there for us, but also as a sample for everyone else that happens to wash their hands that day. We always get positive comments and frequently people buy our soap that never would have given it a second glance because they got to try it out first.

Yesterday's show was no different. We chose our Cinnamon Spice soap for the bathroom and we've nearly sold out of it in large part because so many people wanted to buy "That one from the bathroom." But a few hours before the end of the show, one of the other vendors approached us and remarked that our soap was gone. Someone had stolen it!

I guess they just really needed some soap and couldn't or wouldn't buy it. We took it as a compliment though. Now we know that our soap is good enough to steal. Not that you need to, really. It's quite affordable and a person would probably feel a lot better every time they used it if it didn't conjure feelings of guilt, but oh well.

And lest you think our town is full of soap thieves and criminals, let me assure you that this is one of the last places I would have expected this from! But here, I'll let "The New York Times" do the talking. They did an article about Salida today.

Bad-Luck Fairies

2008-12-04T21:13:00.000-08:00

Sometimes people attribute bad luck in soap making to "soap fairies." I think we had some kind of fairies around here today. It wasn't with soap, but pretty much everything else.

I had a pretty rough day. Dayna was particularly trying, getting into everything she knows she's not supposed to, and really pushing all my buttons. Plus, I'm coming down with something. Some sort of miserable, awful head cold. I didn't even attempt to do much work today besides mail out orders just because I don't think that I could have.

When my mom gets home, she relays details of her day too. More bad-luck fairies. The kids she teaches were wound up and horrible, co-workers were demanding, and the computers in her room were breaking down.

So we were both pretty ragged tonight. But with a looming deadline for this weekend (Holiday Show at the Chaffee County Fairgrounds! Saturday, all day!), we knew we had to try to get some stuff finished.

I started with olive oil infusions. I had arnica and comfrey to filter out of the now infused-oil and I made a big mess of it. My fine-mesh strainer broke.

Meanwhile, my mom was starting a batch of lotion. Only she couldn't find the recipe. After quite awhile of searching, we figured out what to do and then she realized she needed more stuff from downstairs. Finally, she started measuring and heating, etc. And then the scale broke. So no more lotion tonight. Our backup scale only reads in ounces and so tomorrow I'll have to get a new one and hurry hurry to get everything done.

I really hope these fairy's are gone tomorrow!

I Need Eight Arms Right Now Too

2008-12-03T09:18:00.000-08:00

So our first corporate event holiday fair thing went alright. It was a long drive in the dark, but it basically cost us nothing. The costs we did incur (gas, food) we made back. And we got some Christmas shopping done. It definitely wasn't a wasted trip, but I wish the turnout had been better. The people that came bought, but we just needed more people.

I came home to some surprises though. A few orders, a few special orders, and a blog write up! Anna of Northernista.etsy.com wrote a glowing report of several items that she had ordered from us. Go read it!

Also, check out her ADORABLE octopus plushies and cool stuff in her etsy shop.

Now I'm off to pack and mail a ton of orders. Wish me luck!

Free Shipping!

2008-11-30T08:59:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the holidays (and shopping season!) we're offering FREE SHIPPING on all orders over $35 on our main website (http://www.thescienceofbliss.com) and our etsy site (http://blissology.etsy.com) until Tuesday, December 2nd.

Also, if you go to our main website and sign up for our newsletter, we'll likely be giving out more discounts there.

Get shopping!

Scrub Day

2008-11-29T08:44:00.000-08:00

I've taken a few days off and I guess that's all it takes to feel really behind in blogging. I didn't make my "30 days of blogging every day!" I should have started in August or something when there aren't any holidays. Oh well. New Goal: Post every day possible.

Today we're making scrubs. We ran out of foot scrubs and people are loving our deal with a foot scrub and a footsie bar together for $13. It makes a great gift and now we need to make a ton more!

I love the smell of the foot scrubs. Lemongrass, Peppermint, Spearment, Eucalyptus, and Tea Tree. It's so fresh and clean-smelling. And I've never heard anyone complain about having fresh and clean-smelling feet!

We also have to make a few samples for that new spa I was talking about a few posts ago. Brown Sugar & Fig sugar scrub and a Stress-Be-Gone salt scrub. They'll also have an almond salt scrub, but they already know they love that one.

So now, on to the scrubs!

Anyone Seen my Brain today?

2008-11-25T19:29:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you about the stupid thing I did today.

First of all, I was really tired. I stayed up too late finished my book. ("Rasputin's Daughter" for those that care. It was good.) I made some Peppermint Bath Salt tubes today because I had an order for them and we'd sold all our previous ones at the last craft show.

Anyway, it took me a lot longer to make them than usual because I was so tired and I kept forgetting stuff in the basement. I did get them finished and ready to mail off in plenty of time though, so I was pleased. They also looked really quite cute. Anyway, I took the package to the post office and came home to start cleaning up the kitchen a little bit.

I was about to put the other salt tubes away when it struck me that something was a little different about them. Oh, yes, the labels! I hadn't printed them off yet so I'd have to do that before putting them away.....

And you can perhaps see now how my mind quickly reached the conclusion that "CRAP! I mailed off salt tubes with no labels!" I had to race to get them printed off then race back to the post office and pray they package was still there. It was, and the post mistress laughed at me, but we got the labels on and the package re-sealed and taped.

So if you happened to have ordered Peppermint Bath Salt tubes, and you find your package looks a little disheveled, you know why.

Hopefully tomorrow my brain will fire more precisely and I won't be so spacey.

On a related but seperate subject, for those of you that make bath salts or bombs or fizzies or whatever, what do you think is the best way to color them? For instance, do you mix the colorant with a small bit of anything before adding it to the main batch? How do you do it? I'm just curious.

New Spa in Town

2008-11-24T12:57:00.000-08:00

I mentioned this a few days ago, but I'd really like to talk about it in more depth now that I've had some time to mull it all over.

On Saturday when we were at the craft fair, we got some exciting news. A new spa is opening up in town and the girl that does our hair (me, my mom, both my sisters) is moving her shop to the new place. They'll have, of course, several massage therapists and at least one esthetician too. That's all cool and good for them and stuff... but... they want to use all our products!

Massage oils, body and foot scrubs, massage oil candles, lotions, soaps, everything! And when we have our shampoo and conditioner, they'll be using that too! And of course they'll also be retailing stuff for customers too.

After taking time to think it all over, I'm still just as excited. For everyone. For us, for them, and especially for their soon to be customers that are going to be getting awesome treatments with the best products available!

If you're a massage therapist or if you know one and are interested in hearing more about our specials for them, let us know! We have mailers full of information about our products and special pricing too.

I Dream of Soap Rooms

2008-11-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to do my best to relax. I've usually already blogged, emailed, twittered, and various other things by this time of day. Today though is slower. I think everyone needs a little break now and then and hopefully today can be mine.

I'm a little worried that we won't be getting much business stuff done this week. We're hosting Turkey Day at our house and that means a lot of preparation and house cleaning. It also means we have to take all the supplies from the dining room to their proper place in the downstairs soap room. Lugging down big heavy buckets and baskets is not very fun.

It would be really excellent if we could make enough money this holiday season to pay for a water heater and a plumber. Just like that we could have a dedicated space for production. A girl can dream!

It WILL happen, it's just a matter of when. We have a nice little room downstairs with a plain concrete floor. It already houses a stove and it used to have a full-sized refrigerator/freezer but it stopped working. We'd have to install some simple shelves, but I wouldn't even care if they were just wood and cinder blocks at this point. The only thing stopping us from this point is that there's no water hookup there yet. And no sink. Both are easy to get, they just take some money. So that's what we need.

Until then, we just have to keep lugging these supplies up and down the stairs. And using the kitchen for double duty. When you see a stock pot here lined with a creamy looking sauce, don't eat it. It's probably soap.

Holiday Fair I - Successful Completion!

2008-11-22T17:27:00.000-08:00

Today was our Holiday Bazaar hosted by our local school Booster Club. We really didn't know what to expect. It was our first time doing this one, and it's only the second year of the fair. We did go shopping there last year and it didn't seem like there were many people there. But it was $25 for a table and we didn't have any reason not to go.

So glad we went!

I'm not sure how the other vendors did, but we did very well. We sold TONS of soap. We even ran out of a few kinds. There wasn't very many people, as we expected, but those that were there were there to buy. At least they did from us.

If there was any clear best-seller today, it was Stress-Be-Gone Soap. We sold every bar we took and probably would have sold more if we would have had more. It has an essential oil blend of sweet orange, peppermint, spearmint, eucalyptus, rosemary, and lavender. I think people always need stress relief products, but especially during the holidays. To make this bar extra awesome we also added lavender buds and calendula flower petals. It is GOOD STUFF and today's sales reflected that.

We also lined up a large wholesale/consignment with a new day spa. They'll be using our massage oils, scrubs, lotions, and pretty much everything else they possibly can. When we unveil our shampoo after the new year (shhh! that's still a secret!) then they'll be using that as well. Plus, they'll have our full line available for sale too.

Today = Successful

I'd rather be sleeping

2008-11-21T08:23:00.001-08:00

Today is going to be a crazy day. I'm tired because I stayed up too late last night doing labels and then reading to "unwind." I think if I would have gone to bed just an hour earlier, I would have been fine. So I'll take some B-Vitamins and hope they can help kick start me.

I have a few packages to mail first. Then it's time to wrap up the to-do list. Lotions, labeling (lotions, footsie bars, SOAP), and gift baskets. It's completely doable, but lotions take twice as long to make if Dayna is up and running around. For one thing, she likes to "help," and when she can't, she finds it a convenient time to get into stuff she's not supposed to. For instance, it has so far taken me about 15 minutes just to type these few words.

Did I mention it's going to be a crazy, long day?

For anyone local, tomorrow we'll be at the Salida Middle School for their annual Christmas Craft Bazaar. It goes from 9 am to 4 pm.

Riding Without a Helmet

2008-11-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

I feel a little out of practice for this craft show business. It's been about two months since we've done any type of one at all, but it feels like even longer. I suppose it's rather like riding a bike. Down a big hill. With no helmet. It really sucks going UP the hill, getting ready for the descent but once you start heading down it's exhilarating and exciting and fast. But also a little reckless because you never know if the ride is going to be worth all your hard work and effort to get there.

So we have a smaller craft fair this weekend. I think it will be a good one to get us into the swing of things again. Then the next week is Thanksgiving. We opted not to do a fair that weekend because we're hosting the meal at our house and that just seemed like way too much work. But then the following weekend we have another, larger craft fair. Hopefully the ride downhill will be pleasant and completely worth the trek and climb we're working on going uphill right now.

I also would love to hear from all of you. I just had this idea. I always try to give out a business card when someone buys something from us at a craft fair. Do you think it would be a good idea to print out the address of this blog on the back? It's too late to put it on the front, and I don't think I'd want to do that anyway, but what do you think? It might help to get the word out, and might show potential return customers a little bit about how their favorite products come to be. Yes? No?

2008-11-19T08:47:00.000-08:00

First of all, an update on yesterday's bow post. Last night my youngest sister was having serious difficulties with her computer and a deadline looming close. She was waiting, trying to be patient, as my husband tried to fix her problems. To prove that she can channel her frustrations better than either of her other sisters, she made a bow. It was twice as big as my bows, and she did it in about the same amount of time as my little ones. She thinks she was being clever, but now, we have a new bow maker!

Now then, on to business!

Last night I spent some more time in the etsy chatrooms. I mentioned that we were making massage oil candles and then got to tell everyone what they were. For as cool as they are, not many people have ever heard of them yet alone used them. So I figured I'd write about them here too.

If someone were to say to you "Pour this melted candle into your palm. It makes for a great massage!" you'd probably be more than skeptical. But that's exactly what you can do with our massage oil candles!

They do have some soy wax in them, but they also have cocoa butter, shea butter, and almond oil. When it melts, it melts into an oil, not a wax. So you're not going to have a waxy layer on your back after the massage. The oil is slick enough for a massage but eventually absorbs into the skin leaving it moisturized and silky smooth.

The candle looks just like any other candle but it starts to melt at a relatively low temperature, about 102 degress Fahrenheit. After there's a pool large enough to work with (about 15 minutes or so), you can just pour the now-liquid oils right into your hand. It's perfectly warm for a massage.

Like regular candles, they're wonderfully scented and burning them fills a room with fragrance. And if you don't have a massage partner at the moment, they also make for a great cuticle treatment. Because of their superior moisturizing qualities, they're also wonderful for dry elbows, knees, feet, or anywhere else that needs some TLC.

Our best-seller of these has been our Sensual fragrance. It is what it says it is, with sandalwood and vanilla and hints of patchouli and lavender. Customers also love our Stress-Be-Gone essential oil blend, and our Raspberry candles.

Last night we also added two other fragrances using only essential oils. Lavender, and Ache-Ease. The latter is a blend of eucalyptus, juniper berry, rosemary, and lavender and it does wonders for sore, aching muscles. I'll be adding these two within the day to both our etsy site and our main web site. If you are really excited about one of our new fragrances and want to order one right this second, go ahead and purchase any of the others from either page and add in the order comments which kind you'd really like.

Bow Retarded

2008-11-18T08:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had to put together 9 gift baskets that customers ordered. That's a lot of baskets, which is great! But it's also a lot of bows, which really sucks.

Mom is self-declared bow retarded. She had lots of practice, but just can't make a good looking bow. Unfortunately, I think I'm about the same minus the practice. It took about an hour and a half to two hours for me to make all those bows. I would take a picture, but the baskets are already gone.

Now we have to make several more bowed baskets for our craft show this weekend. But this time, we're buying pre-made bows.

Etsy-bitsy Celebration

2008-11-17T08:08:00.000-08:00

I'd been working several days on this "blogging every day" stuff. And I was visiting forums and plugging our products everywhere I could possibly think of. And our sales were really not showing any improvement. Last night I was pretty bummed about it all. When you work all day long at something you expect to have something to show for it.

Then finally, something happened. I was prowling around etsy like normal, and stopped into a chat room again. I was there for about 30 seconds when someone out of the blue asked "Does anyone here make soap?" I just happened to be the only soapmaker in the room, which I think is rare. She looked at my products and loved what she saw! She ordered a gift basket full of stress-be-gone stuff for her husband and plans on buying a few bars for herself as well. Score!

A few minutes after those details were worked out, another person joined the fray. Etsy's chat is pretty cool because you can post pictures up in a sidebar of products that you like from people in the room. Someone had posted our pomegranate soap and this person messaged me very excitedly. She has been wanting to make cold-process soap and almost has all the ingredients she needs. But, she said, she got excited and bought a bar of our pomegranate.

So finally! It seems like I did *something* to pay off a little! Not only the sales, but both of these people seem like genuinely good people. I know I'll be talking to them both again soon. Go Etsy!

Glowing Skin, Glowing Words

2008-11-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon I spent several hours making a couple of batches of lotion. One of them was smaller bottles of Cranberry Bliss to include in our gift baskets. The other was Vita-Skin. Normally it doesn't take quite so long to make, but Dayna, being almost two, is extremely busy, loves to "help" and when she doesn't get to, she gets into everything else she can think of. So a lot of my time is spent going back and forth between whatever I'm working on, and getting her out of trouble.

This stuff is seriously magical. It has a nice, gentle, natural scent thanks to our essential oil blend of Palmarosa, Rosewood, and ylang-ylang. And we added vitamin E, vitamin B5, and Raspberry Seed Oil, each of which are really excellent for skin. If you want to learn more about it, just go to our website. It gets into more detail about each thing we add and what it can do for skin.

We have one customer that works at one of the shops that we have wholesale items in. She uses the Vita-Skin lotion like crazy! She says it's helped her when nothing else has. Her skin is now soft and silky smooth and she even says that it's helped with age spots on her arms. Of course, I can't prove that it does that part, but we certainly do appreciate such glowing testimonials!

One perk of making lotion is that it can get pretty messy and I get to slather it all over myself! I actually used to really hate making lotions. If you don't do everything just right, it might never get thick. And if you wait too long to pour it into the bottles, then it does get too thick and it's hard to shove it down the funnel. But with more practice, I've gotten much better with it. It's not so bad now.

Brambleberry's Soap Queen

2008-11-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

If you make soap, chances are you're familiar with a company called Brambleberry. We choose them for our supplier for several items including some wonderful fragrance oils. In fact, our very favorite ones come from there.

Brambleberry's owner is Anne-Marie Faiola. She is one super-cool lady that loves similar things that I do. Like Soap, good-smelling stuff, and of course, all manner of cupcakes.

I love reading Anne-Marie's blog, Soap Queen, because she always has great pictures of stuff she does or sees throughout the day. Plus she gives helpful soaping advice among other things. She's always inspirational.

So for Anne-Marie -- Thanks!

Trooper the Oil Dog

2008-11-14T08:07:00.000-08:00

Trooper, our Vizsla, is pretty sure he's more human than dog. While we're all eating and he doesn't get a hamburger, he acts as though it's a personal offense. Sometimes I wonder if isn't just going to cry right there.

He also gets that crying look if we leave the house without him. He stands at the window looking out surely wondering if we're leaving him forever. Yes Trooper, we're never coming back, ever, and now you'll have to find hamburgers all on your own.

Vislas are very much people dogs and extremely protect of their people. If we tickle and roughhouse with Dayna (almost two years old), Trooper is OMGRIGHTTHERE making sure she's okay and we're not hurting her. He'll get right in there and gnaw on your hands if he has to. And he does the same for any of us.

I guess Trooper's a pretty good dog. Even if he tends to be up against your legs all day (he's a leaner), starts whinning and crying when 4:30 comes around and his "mommy" (and mine) aren't home yet, and is sure that he can still fit in your lap though he's long outgrown that.

He does have a very helpful quality when it comes to our business, though. We store various large containers of oil in various places in our house. Some are in boxes with valves, some are in plastic jugs, some in giant plastic cans, and some harder ones in plastic bags and cardboard boxes. Since we don't have the greatest storage arrangement right now for all our stuff, it means lugging these heavy things up and down the stairs, stacking them in the dining room when we don't want to take them back down again, and sometimes tossing the smaller jugs into a laundry basket with a bunch of other supplies.

The thing is, sometimes our oil containers will leak a little. There's different reasons. Maybe the cap is loose. Or once "someone" (mother) didn't fully close a valve so oil slowly dripped out. Another time one of the smaller plastic jugs of castor oil got a crack in it, and filled a thin layer of thick, gooey, sticky oil at the bottom of a laundry basket. And all over various other supplies. Thankfully we had Trooper or all of that would have drizzled onto the floor too!

See, Trooper, he who loves hamburgers and peanut butter, also enjoys a nice lick of oil. Ricebran oil will have him spriting from the other room. He prays I'll drop just a little chunck of coconut oil. And when there's oil slowly dripping on the floor in the basement, or spilling out into a laundry basket upstairs, Trooper will find it! We'll soon be alerted with the sound of a frantic tongue slopping and slurping up every drop he can. Of course his noisy eating habits completely give him away and we stop him before he drinks up, say, all of the castor oil. I'm just guessing that would do a pretty good number on his digestive system.

I suppose that with all the money and hassel he saves us from these oil spills, he deserves a hamburger now and then.

Give the Gift of Foot Pampering

2008-11-13T09:40:00.000-08:00

The holidays are always an exciting time. During the rest of the year people usually like to buy soaps, lotions, scrubs, and other things for themselves. And we strongly believe that everyone should pamper themselves at least a little bit every day. But during the holidays people tend to buy their favorite products for others. We love this because it means that those who might not have heard of us or maybe have never used handmade soap before, get to experience the luxuries we have to offer.

One of our best sellers at any time of year is our footsie bar. It's a hard lotion bar with beeswax, sunflower oil, cocoa butter, apricot kernel oil, coconut oil, castor oil, and peppermint essential oil. This is the absolute best thing for dry, cracked feet. I think it's our best seller for three reasons. First of all, people are eager to try anything that might help heal their feet, so they'll by a bar. Secondly, they'll keep coming back because it really works. And then, they'll buy several bars at a time to give to people they love. Of course at this time of year, it's the last reason we see so often. We're just so proud that people love our products enough to share it with others.

Right now we have a great deal on our Footsie Bars. We've paired it up with our Minty Lemon Poppyseed Foot Scrub and put them both into a cute little brown organza bag -- ready to gift away! The scrub exfoliates with coarse turbinado sugar and poppyseeds, and then conditions with high quality oils. Follow up with the Footsie Bar for deep penetrating moisture to soothe away those harsh edges of your feet. Our Footsie Duo Pack is only $13 which means you save money! And with such a great price, you don't have to feel bad about buying yourself a duo pack too!

We have a very limited number of those little brown organza bags though, so if you want one, you better order fast.

We've Been Blogged!

2008-11-12T09:03:00.001-08:00

I mean, you know, by someone else!

A couple of days ago we were featured on the Chic and Green blog. Or rather, our Peppermint Bath Salts on Etsy were featured. Karley Ziegler Mott does a wonderful job over there at Chic and Green. She finds the best stuff on etsy, and then writes about it. For the entire month of November she's doing a great Etsy Gift Guide featuring spectacular handmade stuff on etsy for under $20.

Now, she also makes facial products and sells them on etsy. But her blog is fully about promoting OTHER etsians. I think that speaks a lot to Karley's character. She's doing a great job with everything and I've already told her, but I'll say it again here, I wish her the greatest success.

And I hope everyone else enjoys our peppermint bath salts!

NaBloPoMo

2008-11-11T12:30:00.001-08:00

If that title makes you wonder about my sanity, let me explain. It stands for National Blog Posting Month. In an effort to make more regular posts, I've joined up to dedicate myself to a blog post every single day for an entire month. Even weekends. Now that I've explained, you may STILL be wondering about my sanity.

On the soaping front, we've been intermitantly busy with periods of slowness. We've made several new batches of soap, some restocking, but a few new ones too. We've got our seasonal Cinnamon Spice, Caramel Apple and Plum Spice, and a new spa line bar, Dragon's Blood. They're all really wonderful, but the Dragon's Blood was really a nice surprise.

Here's a picture of it:

The pinkish layer there and the green one above it are colored with jojoba beads. They give a cool visual effect, but they also gently exfoliate. And the smell is WONDERFUL. There's hints of vanilla and patchouli and a sweet, exotic musk.

We have it for sale up on the website already for people who want to order it now, because we know this one is going to sell FAST. We have a big craft show the day after it's ready to ship so if you order it now, you can be sure that we'll save yours.

Other than the soaps, we've also been working hard to keep our stock up for all this holiday buying! Our lotions are selling like crazy and everyone that's purchased a small moon cream is coming back for the larger sizes!

Now then, to keep me encouraged, I want people to please comment on this post! If I even suspect that someone might be reading this, it will be so much easier to keep this thing updated!

Catching up to Fall

2008-09-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been too long since I've posted here. Needless to say, things have been busy. We've nearly survived the summer now, and indeed it is seeming more and more to be fall here. We have a few more weekends at our local farmer's market and then it's time for the holiday fairs!

In the last post I mentioned that we'd been testing out massage candles. They've been a big hit! We can barely keep up on production with them and they sell almost as quickly as our footsie bars!

In all honesty, we've had a hard time keeping up with all our stock. School started up and that meant that Pam has precious few hours to devote to production. And with a nearly-two-year-old in tow, I can't seem to get much done until after she's in bed. Ahh, the life of a business-mother-at-home.

This morning I did manage to place two large orders for supplies though and as soon as I was done with that, another order arrived at the door. It was essential oils! I love fragrance oils, but there's just something about essential oils that I really love too. Now I can finish making more massage oils for the market tomorrow. And massage candles. And footsie bars. We have a lot to do still -- I better get back to work!

This week we've made five batches of soap, one of them in our new silicon mold. Pomegranate, Autumn Whispers, Lavender, Bushels of Fun (which we may rename), and Roseberry. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of the newer scents soon.

Website is up and running!

2008-03-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yay ! I have been so busy and productive with the soap stuff! If you'd take a look at the new webpage and let me know what you think, I'd appreciate it.

www.thescienceofbliss.com

Huge thanks to Jim because I know it would not be up without him. Thanks Jim!

I know there's still some pictures that need to be redone (I'm getting better!) and I want to add some gift baskets, but there's a lot of cool stuff there now.

We're testing massage oil candles right now. The wax/oil melts at a low temperature so you just light the candle and then pour the oil for a massage. I think I might have mentioned this already, but the testers are really loving it so I think we're going to go for it.

We were supposed to be making more lotions, bath teas, and fizzing bath salts this weekend but it just didn't happen.

Short Update

2008-02-23T09:59:00.001-08:00

A lot has happend since the last time we posted. We got that article in the paper, SIX new soaps, and materials for bath teas, massage oil candles, and even more soaps.

I don't have the newspaper article scanned into the computer yet, and I don't want to post just the words (we had two pictures too -- one was on the front page!) but when I do I'll be posting it here.

We moved the webpage to a different host. It is soooo close to being up and active. Just waiting on our web guru to finish up. Then of course it'll be up to us to keep all the content active. That's a whole new job!

The last batch of soap we did turned out a little different. The edges were really soft and it was all just very strange. It's been curing for awhile now though and it looks like it's going to be just fine. What a relief. We were worried we'd have to toss the whole batch. It was a new fragrance oil -- guess you just never know.

Crazy kind of soaping life

2008-02-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

The Blissology house has been pretty crazy lately!

On Wednesday a reporter from the local paper, The Mountain Mail, came by to talk to us about our soap. She took some pictures, asked some questions, and the story will be published either late next week, or the following week. I'll post a link when it's up!

For the interview though, we made a couple of batches of new soap. We don't usually do that on weekdays so it was a little hectic. We did our unscented version which also includes oatmeal and goat's milk, and a new kind, Pomegranate. The latter turned out really pretty and swirled just right. Can't wait to have pictures of that one!

Besides all soapmaking and newspaper interviews, we've been having a heck of a time with our webpage. The provider we have keeps wanting to charge us for every little thing, but they don't want to charge just a little. The cost just keeps going up and up and we're about to just jump ship and go with a different service provider. Unfortunately this may take a few days. BUT, I think we'd still be able to get the page opperational faster by moving than by dealing with the people we have been. It's unfortunate, and of course it's literally a huge headache, but we'll do what we have to.

New page, new store, new soap

2008-02-01T20:46:00.000-08:00

The real website is almost complete! Well, for now, anyway. I should say it's nearly fully functional. It may never be "complete" what with the adding of new products constantly.

I'm really excited for the "unveiling," but also wishing I didn't have quite so many photos to take and descriptions to write. I think it will be really good for us though. People will actually be able to buy the same stuff that locals buy.

And speaking of locals buying things...

We hope to have our soap line, and some salts and lotions in a store in downtown Salida by the middle of next week! They will be at Earth Song Creations along with lots of other great stuff by local crafters and artists. Obviously we're excited about that. Hopefully we'll all benefit.

Tomorrow we're going to get busy making more soap. Plumberia and Very Vanilla are on the list. Anything else you want us to make? I guess we should plan on Lilac and Rose in the very near future as well. Maybe Sunday? Or is that too ambitious? We'll see.

Lye?

2008-01-27T12:28:00.000-08:00

We've been making our soap with lye that we acquired years ago. It's a huge bag, and we still have several batches worth of it left, but we're not sure where to get more once this is gone.

We're in a pretty small town, and none of the places here carry it anymore. Even the Farm and Ranch Supply store, who has access to good chemical places, can get it. It all has to do with "The War on Drugs" and meth labs. They use lye too, see, and now it's almost impossible for us to get it. I'm guessing that we may have to even prove that we use it for our business.

So my question to you all is, any ideas on where I can get some lye? We'd rather buy in large quantity, but we'll take what we can get.

New Labels

2008-01-24T10:47:00.000-08:00

I still haven't gotten much done on "the to-do list", but we did get some really awesome labels in for massage oils and bath salts. White labels are out! In with the tan!

Really, I think theses will look so much nicer and it really just feels more "blissful."

Now if only our new printer would hurry up and get here so we could print them!

Falling Behind

2008-01-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

We're getting a little bit behind! We definately need to make some more lotions (can you believe we completely sold out?!) and I was just waiting for the labels to come in to make some massage oils. Well, the labels are here, and still no oils are done! In fact, I don't think I can blame a shortage of supplies at all -- we have everything we need to really get going on stuff, except maybe TIME!

And the room diffusers are gorgeous. I really hope that they sell well, because they're just so dang cute! We do have a limited supply of the handmade pots that hold the oil, though, and we really haven't discussed what to do if/when those run out. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, I guess.

And soaps! I think I've got four batches of soap that are ready to wrap, post pictures of, and SELL! Maybe I'm just being a little lazy? I need a push!

Beginnings of Blissology

2008-01-16T13:42:00.000-08:00

What is Blissology? Well, simply, it's the "science of bliss." Still too vague? Blissology is a line of handmade soaps, lotions, massage oils, and other products that really bring bliss into people's every day lives. I really believe that people deserve to pamper themselves EVERY day.

I guess I'll tell you a little about how Blissology all started.

About 7 years ago my mom wanted to know how her grandmother made soap. She was a 3rd grade teacher at the time and they were doing a section on "pioneering." She did some research, made the tallow (out of animal fat -- yuck! our new soaps have no animal stuff in them), mixed the lye, and made soap! Then she researched some more and found out that soap-making was kinda a big emerging hobby at the time. So she bought some oils and some fragrances and made wonderful soap.

Then other people found out. And they bought it from her. And wanted more. And more. They loved the scents and the way their skin felt afterwards. Soaps you buy from the store are actually detergents. They remove the glycerin (so they can sell it to other companies for a profit) which is so good for your skin. Her soaps were creamy, lathered well, and smelled so good. And they did great things for their skin!

Then she started making other stuff too. Lotions, bath salts, facial creams, shaving "creams", lip balms... And people bought those up too! She loved making people happy with her products, and people loved having them.

But then a horrible thing happend. My mom and sisters were hit by a drunk driver. We are so lucky that she lived. But she could not walk, had only one usable hand, and certainly soap was the last thing on her mind or anyone else's. It took a long time before she could move normally again. Lots of pain, physical therapy, and of course, time. Lots of time. And even though she could finally do things she used to do BtA (Before the Accident), she still didn't want to think about the soap. That was a reminder of her past life, and a reminder of the accident.
People still wanted her soaps though. They begged her to make it again. Some offered to pay her hundreds of dollars to start again. But she just couldn't quite face it.

That's where I come in!

She had a room dedicated to her soaping supplies. It was piled high with junk and stuff. I knew if I could just organize it all... make it workable... she would be inspired to start her business again. So I did. And she did. WE did.

After we made our first batch, there was no going back. She wanted to change the name so that it was part of her NEW life, not her old one. So Mountain Homestead soaps became "Blissology". That's "the science of bliss." Soap making really is a science. And our soaps really are blissful.
Mom and I are partners now. 50-50. And we want to share our bliss with you.