Friday, July 26, 2019

Opening August 1st!

Golly, where have I been all summer? I've been around for sure, but more importantly Ravish Soap Company is officially opening August 1st, 2019!!!

Ravish Soap Company...we're trademarked ya'll!

That's next friggin' week ya'll and I'm "bit" stressed out about it to say the least. But I know it will all work out in the end and there will be bumps I'm sure...probably mostly with shipping. That's been the most stressful thing of all!

"My BFF Rosie" has come a LONG WAY BABY!
If I could go back in time and tell my future self this, I'd say making soap, body butter, sugar scrubs, shampoo bars, etc. are going to be the easy part. Not only am I the formulator and manufacturer, but I'm also the IT person, web-designer, graphic artist, business manager, shipping & receiving, social media marketing specialist, photographer, tax specialist, permits, insurance, supplies...and-on-and-on.

"Dirty Girl" let's you get dirty as much as you want!
We are launching with 9 baseline, cold-processed soaps, 8 matching body butters and foaming sugar scrubs. Solid shampoo bars will be launched this fall along with 4 seasonal soaps, body butters, and sugar scrubs. WOOT!
"My Happy Place" makes me so happy!
There's still a ton of small ends to clean-up, but I'm ready to get this party started. Check us out at our website to purchase (note, the website will be live after August 1st):

https://ravishsoap.com/

Or follow us on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/ravishsoap/

Or Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/ravishsoap


Right now I'm learning all the ins-and-outs about having a business on social media. But I have a good feeling about it all.

Have a good weekend!

Friday, March 15, 2019

Soapy Friday - Celebrations

There's much to celebrate this week! First, my trademark approval finally came in and Ravish Soap Company is legally legit from copyright infringement...


This alone has been a journey that has taken well over a year to finalize. I won't bore you with the legal details, but I'm very proud that I did this all on my own and have learned A LOT from it.

Secondly, all of my box designs are finalized and are ready to go to the printers. THIS I am very, very excited about and a bit nervous....it wasn't cheap to do what I did, but go big or go home, right? Some people have kids and spend the money to put them through college at my age...me?...I start a business. LOL! This is my child and I'm investing in its future. :-)

All the single ladies...almost ready for showtime! 

Have a few more tweaks yet...
Thirdly, I've started official production! I've made 50 lbs. of soap this week and put in my first "big soap" supply order. The UPS guy/girl is gonna hate me! Since I wan't to give my soap "at least" 6-8 weeks to cure, I need to start now. Each 25 lb. slab gives me about 80 bars of soap.

2 batches down, 7 more to go!

My "Taste of Honey" soap overheated, but I think it makes it look more authentic, yes?

Is it a real honey comb or soap?
My "original" goal was to launch by May 31st, but I don't see that happening. There's just too much to do graphic-wise yet and my graphic artist is taking sooooooo slooooooow to finish. I'm thinking of hiring a second one to help out in the meantime, but we'll see.

Lastly, I was recertified this week for a professional certification that I worked really hard to get 3 years ago. Something sparkling and alcoholic will be enjoyed tonight!

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

One Year Ago - What's Next?

It's hard to imagine it's been a year since we sold our house and began this odyssey of  "What's Next?".

Bittersweet...we miss the old place!
We are still very happy that we sold and moved. Still, it's hard for me not to think of all the things I would be preparing in the old gardens, what would be sprouting, getting excited for the upcoming season. Spring is the hardest because you're anxious to start moving and start warming-up. It's the season of renewal and growth.

Glory days in the old veggie garden
So, what's next? We are pretty sure that we do not want to stay in the D.C. area. No one moves to D.C. to kick back and relax or to retire. It's too hectic and expensive. And the traffic...don't get me started!

Retirement priorities!
We have our eyes set on Ohio - preferably the Columbus area. The area has a job market that will support us into retirement and it's pretty cheap to live there compared to here. Taxes are decent...not the best, but better than many. Retirement is decent there as well. We knew that we did NOT want to go back south (too hot) or even much further north where we would experience much of the same lifestyle - hectic and expensive.

The Buckeye State is lookin' pretty good to us!
Plus, when we went there last August, we really liked the "small town community" feel that many towns/neighborhoods had. We like the thought that our next house will be "our forever home" and we'll get to retire eventually...but more importantly, we'll be able to afford to do what we WANT to do versus what we HAVE to do as far as work. I want to make my soap company a legitimate business that would support us, and we couldn't do that if we stayed in the D.C. area.

We're going out to Ohio in May to do some scouting...if everything goes according to plans, we'll be looking into buying a home there later this year!

Friday, February 15, 2019

Soapy Friday: Almost Ready to Party!

After many, many, many tweaks and edits, my graphic designer and I have finalized a baseline template for my soap boxes. I am now shopping printing companies for production. Ultimately, these boxes will have a soft, matte finish with spot glossing...

My BFF Rosie...ready to get printed

This soap, "My BFF Rosie" is just one of NINE baseline soaps that I will launch with Ravish Soap Company later this year. This will also include matching body butters and sugar scrubs. I'm hoping to have shampoo bars too, but you know....test, test, and test.

I'm aiming for a May 31st launch, but it takes SO MUCH TIME to put all these pieces in place....including trademarks, licensing, insurance, A WEBSITE. Ugh...but I just try to think about the old saying that goes, "How do you eat an elephant?"

Friday, February 01, 2019

Soapy Friday: Sealed for Freshness

It seems like little has been going on this month, but there has been a lot. I've been tweaking formulas, buying equipment, and finalizing packaging labels.

I bought an induction heat sealer to give me lovely sealed jars like this:

Sealed for Freshness

Got anything you want me to seal?
It's an interesting machine. Hubby thinks it looks like one of those defibrillator paddles and keeps yelling, "CLEAR!" when I use it.

"CLEAR!"
I'm on a deadline of getting my business up-and-going by May 31st...god willing. I still have to have an e-commerce website built, get all the boring business stuff in place, and actually have a product line to launch other than one bar of soap. If I keep on top of things...and keep on top of the people helping me...it will happen.

In the meantime, I keep experimenting to formulate a solid shampoo bar that will give all the good things healthy hair wants and needs, but also remain hard enough in the shower. I think I stopped counting past batch #7...

What batch # is this?

Friday, January 04, 2019

Soapy Friday: Goals for 2019

Happy New Year everyone! I'm SOOOO glad the holidays are over, although I always get the "post holiday blues"...I'm glad to be rid of the mess, but I do miss all the fun and cheer. Now it's on to 2019!

This year will be very, very interesting. I'm not going to set any uber lofty goals other than officially launching an online and vendor-based business, which to be honest is a lot! We are on the fence on what to do with our current renting/living situation and may be moving again by April...and it might be out-of-state!

We shall see...

In the meantime, I am on revision cycle #3 for my soap box templates with my graphic artist. This does take a while, but it's worth it and we're close to finalizing something.

So close and yet so far
I haven't made any soap lately, as I don't want to waste ingredients if I'm producing and not selling, AND those ingredients are expensive to purchase and have expiration dates. Also, I don't want to make a lot of soap that may or may not fit in my future soap boxes.

So...I experiment with formulas. Here I've made 3 different shampoo bar samples using 3 different formulas, I'm close to getting what I want, but need to order more ingredients.

Shampoo Bar Formula Experiments
I've FINALLY found the holy grail of rock hard bath bombs that float and fizz...except now they are FLAT! Grrrr....back to the mixing bowl.

I like flat butts...said no one EVER!
Although the funny thing is I don't think I will sell them as part of my product line...they're too mainstream now and you can buy bath bombs at the Dollar General Store. I just prefer to solve the mystery and move on....I don't like to leave problems unsolved.
 

design + development by kelly christine studio