# Christmas Sales.......now on to Valentines Day!



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I didn't go look up my posts from December 2009, but I can tell you I am doing the happy dance being done with Christmas! Whatever orders that come in tonight or tommorrow are simply the special I am running on Face book and they are preboxed just waiting to be labeled. No soaping until after Christmas.

Sales were good and if I had not done the special, I would not have ran out of soap. Other than what is boxed away for my normal store reorders, I am out of 7 of my soaps....I think it was only 2 last year. We are at #133 in the invoice book on the christmas special so it was a huge success.

How did your Christmas sales go? Will you do anything differently next year? I am going to prebox all my specials, into Christmas scents, women scents and men scents and that is your choice.

So what are you doing for Valentines Day....I got a box of mylar boxes (think chinesse takeout boxes) they are frosted and opaque with red hearts on them, they hold a bar of soap and maybe a 2 ounce lotion and lip balm...600 to the box for $10 at a garage sale in Cleveland...it was meant to be :biggrin I was doing a good samaritian thing, going through a rack of nearly new coats to donate, when I saw the box from oriental trading! Now for a new scent!


----------



## Guest (Dec 16, 2010)

My Christmas sales were also very good this year.. don't know why but I don't do much for valentines... New scents.. try Victoria Secret knock offs for Valentines.. they go over very well..


----------



## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

With the new products added this fall we did very well. I am very pleased to be out there now It was a good sale through FB and will do everything on there the same next year. I figured it out that with 20 % off they were actually getting shipping for free plus a little extra depending on how much they ordered, much like your sale Vicki Next year I will have more lotions made up, I ran out. And I will be adding Lip Butters.
I haven't even thought of Valentines yet!

Congratulations on the great sales!
Tam


----------



## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

Christmas soap money paid a lot of bills this month! I probably doubled my sales over last year and I didn't do any shows. I'm loving that part. I did two shows last year and it just wasn't for me. I hate sitting there all day. Sold out of 5 of my scents and I am really low on most of everything else. I need to soap like crazy to get my stocks back up. I have never sold any soap for Valentines. I do have a couple of ideas tumbling around in my head, maybe I should give those ideas a try.


----------



## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Well, I'm the odd ball. Sales have been good but I could have handled much more and even at Christmas I don't match my mid-summertime sales volume when all my markets are in full swing. And we had a near blizzard AGAIN this year on our open house weekend. Even so our year end soap sales are more than double over last year and I've got 3 stores lined up who've asked me to call after the 1st of the year.


----------



## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

Congratulations to all of you - it must be very satisfying to have done so well with something you made! :handclap


----------



## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

Kathy, my christmas sales haven't exceeded what I make when market is in full swing either but considering the fact that I haven't had to schlep my setup and soap anywhere I'm tickled with the money coming in.


----------



## Jenny M (Nov 21, 2009)

I'm finally done . Sales were very good & I sold out of everything. My soap room's a wreck & the shelves are empty. The last two weeks I've been scrambling to get product made. I noticed at the shows I did that anything handmade & consumable did well. Dust catchers, jewelry & "art" were big loosers. 

I got inquiries from more shops too. I'm looking for spring to really kick butt but right now I need a long nap. Oh wait, kidding starts for me on the 29th. 

I've never done much with Valentines Day. Maybe I need to re-think that. I'm sure I'm missing some good sales.

Jenny


----------



## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

I am planning on adding sugar scrub cubes for the only January show i do. need to stock up on the gm and sugar scrubs anyway since I rarely ever have them. I always sell out of the peppermint ones at Christmas. Otherwise I don't do much extra for Valentine's.


----------



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

OK what are sugar scrub cubes


----------



## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

The sugar scrub cubes are made with M&P with some added butters or oils and sugar. Mashed into a silicon mold, pop into the freezer to cool and then they can be rolled in granulated sugar or not. Kind of a one cube per use thing. There aare a bun ch on Etsy and they are really easy to make so I thought some pink ones might go well for Valentine's.


----------



## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Wonder if they could be done with rebatched CP instead of M&P.


----------



## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

hsmomof4 said:


> Wonder if they could be done with rebatched CP instead of M&P.


Yes you can! I've been playing around with this lately. The only thing is that when you rebatch a milk soap it turns brown. I've been putting brown sugar in mine then. I even made a fresh batch of of cp so I could have non-brown cubes. I made them too dry though so will have to play around more with that. My cubes using rebatched soap were very nice! I don't have a link but do a search on the dish. There is a big thread on this with directions and recipes for making sugar cubes with cp.


----------



## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

No, no, no......I will NOT try another product! Well, maybe I'll take a peek. LOL


----------



## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

I also make a sugar scrub that goes into a jar with grated GM soap, oil. Heat, stick blend and add sugar. It is hard to get a decent color though. Although the OMH fragrance goes well with the brown. 
I am making these with the M&P becasue I got the bright idea last January that I wanted to make M&P so I have a box of M&P I need to use up. It is GM M&P so I don't feel to much of a traitor to my goats.

Anyway - the original recipe was on Brambleberry's blog.
6 oz M&P
6 oz oils or butters (your choice) ( I have used shea butter and cocoa butter) both worked fine
18 oz granulated sugar

Heat the soap and oils or butter, add sugar. Don't forget to add your FO. I did forget. Twice Pour into a silicon mold. I tried a metal mold and had a time trying to get them out even with oiling the pan. I am using silicon hearts right now. I have also used a square silicon and cut them into fourths. They look fine that way too.

They are super easy. I made peppermint EO ones for the footsies. And rose scented pink ones. Will make some lavender colored Lavander and Violets next.

The only thing I am doing different than the blog recipe is to add a little ewax. I have a pound of some unknown brand that I got somewhere that I won't use in lotion so that is another way to use up an ingredient.


----------



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Do you mind putting this in the recipe section? And thanks for doing this. I think this might be a really good addition to Valentines bags!


----------



## [email protected] (Sep 18, 2008)

Oooooooh, I'd be interested in the recipe for the soap shreds, oil and sugar scrub if you'd add that recipe please.  Since I started trimming my soap (nasty habit-LOL) I have WAY more shreds than I can use even in soap, I hate rebatching (although am thinking about trying it again just to use some :/ ) and my attempt at a decent laundry soap was a total bomb.


----------



## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

Necie said:


> Oooooooh, I'd be interested in the recipe for the soap shreds, oil and sugar scrub if you'd add that recipe please.  Since I started trimming my soap (nasty habit-LOL) I have WAY more shreds than I can use even in soap, I hate rebatching (although am thinking about trying it again just to use some :/ ) and my attempt at a decent laundry soap was a total bomb.


I don't mind sharing since I stared with someone else's recipe. It is in my soap ktichen so the next time I go out there I will hunt it down.


----------



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Denise are you interested in selling colored shreds? I really really need pink/red/purple ones....and then if you do any others that are colored, greens, reds, yellow, orange etc...not to many browns or beige soap...I would be interested in buying some, perhaps a flat rate box filled? My Almond Biscotti thanks to Lynn became my best seller this fall, and between needing pink shreds for Rose soap and colored shreds for Almond Biscotti, I am at the point I need to make soap to shred and I hate doing that! Vicki


----------



## [email protected] (Sep 18, 2008)

Hmmmm....would love to....but suppose I should start keeping the shreds separate. :/ LOL I have a batch of Rose that is pink that I'll be trimming this next week. I'll keep it separate and let you know how much I have.


----------



## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Thanks Denise, I will take them, even if it takes awhile for you to accumulate them. With the rose I use about 1 pound per batch, about 3 pounds per batch in the almond biscotti.

Anyone if you have failed batches, faded scents in your colorful soaps, let me know if you want to sell them, I would like to get a bunch put back so I don't have to think about this. Scent makes no difference since almond masks anything.


----------

