Bubble Works

2011-09-19T15:09:00.000-07:00

Soap Making Day 1

Plan for today:

Guest Soaps:

- Heather

- Violet

- Tea Rose

- Jasmine

Lots of florals, we will have some tantrums and some badly behaved soap, not looking forward to it, but the batches are too small to Hot Process these, so I plan some coloured swirls instead.

Essential Oil Soaps:

Peppermint Spearmint - still not sure if I should use a swirl or my green shavings

Cupcake Soaps:

Start working on the topping, so I feel confident doing these tomorrow. Will make an unfragranced batch and start testing this.

Phew busy day.....

6am

.....

7am

.....

8am

aargh - we have overslept. Daughter rushes round like a banshee, getting ready for school, no time to make breakfast or packed lunch - must remember to put money on the lunch card.

9am

time to sit down with a coffee and check Facebook and plant some things in FarmVille. Only for half an hour

10am

realize somehow an hour has passed. Time to get moving. Have shower to wake myself up. Realize that the shower curtain is getting rather stiff. Take down shower curtain and throw it into the wash. Need another coffee after that, and just a quick game of Rummy.

11am

I will win the next game....need another coffee

12:00h

Hang shower curtain back up. Put bed sheets in the wash. Hear stomach grumbling. Clean the kitchen, do the washing up and make Spanish Omelett. Have coffee and play a quick game of Rummy until lunch is ready. Daughter calls, needs money on lunch card. Pay lunch card and pay water bill. Must remember to ask for more overtime at work.

1pm

Finish eating lunch. Clean kitchen and do dishes. Need coffee and cigarette after that. And check on my Farm.

Put bed sheets in the wash. Start thinking about what I will make for dinner tonight. Without a freezer at home, this will involve going shopping to Tesco and cooking from scratch. Might as well try and figure out what we will have tomorrow, so I don't have to go shopping again for a day. This needs a coffee and a quick game of Rummy.

Print out today's recipes and download the MSDS sheets for the new FOs.

2pm

Put bedsheets in the dryer. No more excuses, time to measure out the oils.

3pm

Making soap

4pm

first batch is made, waiting for oils and lye water of batch 2, 3 and 4 to cool down. The first FO is definitely a fast mover. Wouldn't want to do a swirl with that one, but it's not soap on a stick either. Just gotta be quick.

6pm

all soaps are made, but there was no time to get started on the essential oil soap. Will have to wait until after dinner.

Pre-washed all equipment, now in the dishwasher. Quick break, then off to Tesco for dinner shopping.

11pm

Dinner done and far too tired to do anything else. Will make more soap tomorrow. I am absolutely shattered. This is rather annoying. Glad to get rid of my fibroids soon. 4 soaps should

not be that hard to do....

It is Finally Done !!

2010-07-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the long delay between blog posts, but I have been busy working behind the scenes and did not have much time to post here.

Sadly the shop we have previously announced did not come to fruition, as STUFF was closed before we were able to open up. But I went back to the drawing board and there are many new plans to come this year.

Our website is finally up and running. There are no photos yet, they will follow in the next couple of days, but I have uploaded all of the products while making more of them and preparing for our big event on Sunday. It's been quite busy and occasionally a bit hectic, but we are running on schedule and may even have time to go to a birthday party tomorrow evening.

More news from the Bubble Works kitchen soon, let's just hope the weather holds for Sunday and that nasty wind dies down. Anyone fancy coming along and play "catch the Gazebo?".

Exciting News

2010-02-15T17:31:00.000-08:00

We have exciting news !!

Bubble Works will open their first shop at the end of this month !!

In the future you can find us at STUFF Marketplace, Croydon, UK.

As you may understand, I am really busy right now, but will come back and post more details. I hope you will join us in this exciting adventure and bear with us, if blog posts are going to be a little bit on the thin side for the nest 2-3 weeks, while we get up and running.

Parabens again

2010-02-11T01:47:00.000-08:00

Just a quick link this morning as I am busy working and making soap. It is another article showing that Parabens are essentially safe. I am hoping it will filter through to the buyers at some point. Although it may never do, just like the MMR Jab. Parabens are safer, cheaper and require less usage than some of the alternatives.

For now we will keep staying Paraben Free, because that is what our buyers are requesting. Hardly any of my products need preservatives anyway, and it looks like I will even be able to go completley preservative free, if I change one or two goodies. But all that will change later in the year when we will be introducing Lotions and Creams.

Parabens, Cancer & Experts

Shipments of sustainable palm oil to Europe surge

2010-02-07T17:10:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting article regarding Palm Oil. This is very good news and should make it easier to source sustainable palm locally, rather than having to have it shipped to me from half way across the country (adding to the environmental footprint)

Here is the Article

CERTIFIED sustainable palm oil shipments from exporters like Malaysia to Europe have surged in January, matching production levels, said the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

Close to 120,000 tonnes of sustainable palm oil or matching certificates were traded using the GreenPalm and UTZ Certified trading programmes, it said in its latest newsletter.

"About the same volume of sustainable palm oil was produced in January by RSPO-certified oil mills and their supply base, bringing the market uptake for that month to a whopping 98 per cent."

The global organisation estimates that production will increase with "much oil from 2009 still readily available" to product manufacturers and retailers.

According to GreenPalm, the supply of RSPO certified palm oil is now substantial, thanks to the hard work palm oil producers are putting in to meet the RSPO's challenging and rigorous sustainability standards.

Another two palm oil plantations, PT Hindoli and the IOI Corp Bhd (Pamol Sabah Palm Oil Mill) have both passed their RSPO 'Principles & Criteria' sustainability audits.

In November 2009, 34 operating units from 11 companies including Sime Darby, IOI and Kulim have been certified with a production capacity of 1.75 million tonnes of sustainable palm oil for the year.

Late last year, purchasing sustainable palm oil became even more attractive thanks to GreenPalm and UTZ Certified lowering their transaction fees to US$2 (RM?? ) per tonne of sustainable palm oil.

Many palm oil traders are preparing to begin trading sustainable palm oil, according to Bas Geerts, head of business development of Amsterdam-based UTZ Certified, which traces sustainable palm oil up until final refinery.

"In recent months, we have seen many players start to trade volumes of sustainable palm oil to experience first-hand the ease of our traceability system," said Geerts.

"Many others are demonstrating their interest by requesting to participate in one of our Web training sessions, which include a demonstration of the system."

More soap on the way

2010-02-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

We have been busy in our tiny little kitchen and have been making some solid sugar scrubs (smelling divine, Sweet Mango) and some whipped shea (unfragranced). Tonight there will be more soap on the way, a lovely all natural Oatmeal, Milk and Honey soap and a funky nearly natural Bubblegum Soap.

Here is a link to an article why Glycerine Soap is good for you. Although we do not make many pure glycerine soaps, our natural Handmade Cold Process Soaps keep all their natural glycerine which is a byproduct of the soapmaking process.

Why Natural Glycerine Soap is good for you

Restocking taking shape

2010-02-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

Hello

not many blog posts at the moment. I have thankfully picked up a small temping job, so some bills can be paid and re-stocking is still going ahead with full steam. So not much time.

I am planning to re-open the Artfire Shop at the end of this month (wow January went quick!) and since I have discovered Joomla, I am finally confident that we will have a "proper" website by then as well. Don't worry, this blog will not disappear, but it will be linked to and from my website, I may at some point get a Joomla plug-in for a proper blog over there and maybe even a shopping cart, but for now, I will just be happy, if I can finally get a website that I can be proud off and which reflects my style.

Soaping has come to a short halt, as none of the pharmacies around here have any Castor Oil left. Not sure if there are too many people being constipated or if there really is a season for it (that's what one pharmacy told me), but I tried 6 Chemists in a 5 mile radius, and not one of them had any Castor Oil. London Water (liquid rock) does not allow me to leave it out. I need Castor Oil to get bubbles (we are called Bubble Works after all) and without drying the skin.

This did allow me to make plans for the B&B things though and I will be ordering supplies asap, so I can get started on those. I am so looking forward to it, instant gratification products are fun after 2 weeks of making soap and not allowed to use it for another 3 weeks at least....Not fair !

Hope you are all well and that I will see you at one of the events.

Restocking Week

2010-01-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

This week we are stocking up for the first part of the year. Look forward to pictures following soon. Soaps will be cured and ready for sale the beginning of March when we will also re-open our Artfire store.

So far we have made:
Chocolate Mintini
Banana
Apple & Custard
Peppermint

Still to come this week:
Lavender Patchouli
Citrus Burst
Cherry
Bubblegum

Next week it will be all b&b things:

Bath Salts
Sugar Cubes
Bath Melts
Bath Fizzies
Bath Bombs
Whipped Shea / Body Butters
Lip Balms in Tins

some of them matching the soap smells, some of them just in their own lovelyness.

Parabens

2010-01-08T20:42:00.000-08:00

I found an interesting article on the internet regarding Parabens. Quite surprising that good old Nivea Cream is now free from Parabens but the article also throws up some very good points regarding the whole issue. What are we going to do when consumers no longer accept Parabens at all, even though the majority is perfectly safe and has been protecting consumers from eye infections and MRSA for years? While mould is an easy thing to spot in a cream (the black or green spots tend to be a dead give-away), bacteria are very good at hiding, they are just too damn small to be spotted. But they can have devastating effects on your health, blindness being the least of your worries here.

Now, if every consumer would only ever use cream with extremely clean fingers and use every pot of cream within the stated use-by-date, things wouldn't be of a big concern, as there are other preservatives which are just effective and are not called Parabens. But what happens if you buy this really expensive pot of cream and use it really frugally to make it last longer and then you end up having half the pot left when the use-by-date (more importantly the open-jar-date) has passed. Do you throw it away, or do you keep using it, thinking all will be well and this is just a silly date they print on to make you buy more?

I am lucky that I don't really have to think about preservatives yet, as none of my products need any (hence me being able to state quite clearly that all of our products are paraben-free). I am considering adding some preservative to my sugar scrubs, just because people could be introducing water and therefore bacteria to them, but I don't need to go heavy handed and as it is only a precaution, I can easily go paraben-free. But I am working on a line of face creams and body lotions and I am really wondering what to do. Paraben-Free is all the rage, so do I jump on the bandwagon and use something that may be free of Parabens, but may require a lot more of something else or may have a shorter shelf-life and trust everyone to throw away unused products after the use-by-date has expired?

A lot of natural preservative are irritants to a large number of people (this was a main reason for developing Parabens in the first place), going preservative free in a product that contains water or fruit extracts is way too dangerous, although some companies have done just that (and have consumers complaining about mouldy creams - just lucky they cannot see all the bacteria crawling around). Would you sacrifice valuable space in the fridge for all your cosmetics and make sure you put them back after each use, even late at night? I think that space is much better served by filling it with some wine or beer and keep the creams and lotions where they belong, in the bathroom.

So, what are the alternatives? I think this article sums it up perfectly, yes there are alternatives and some companies try to dupe us by using Japanese Honeysuckle (INCI: Lonicera Caprifolium Extract – a natural paraben, virtually identical to synthetic parabens and products should not be labelled paraben-free if they use this) or one of the new preservatives which have the INCI name “parfum”, but are these really any better ? And what happens if a couple of years down the line someone decides to scare consumers about those?
I am all for natural things and less chemicals (hence me starting my company in the first place), but not everything that’s natural is good for you and not every chemical is bad, otherwise we would all go in the woods and rub poison ivy all over us…

Snow ? What Snow ?

2010-01-06T00:34:00.000-08:00

So we braced ourselves for heavy snowfall, possibly Blizzard conditions. It started well, about 2cm within 30mins at around midnight. Went to bed and this morning ? Most of it has melted and there is hardly anything. Nice sticky stuff, perfect to make a snowman, but not even enough to close the schools. Such a shame, considering most of Europe has a bank holiday today I was hoping we would be able to join them in a duvet/snow-day. No such luck...

2010-01-01T05:50:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you had a good night and that the hangover is not too severe.

2009-12-19T00:31:00.001-08:00

Trying to link my facebook fan page with this site and twitter. Hoping that it will work

2009-12-17T12:57:00.001-08:00

Making a new website is taking me much longer than anticipated. I have the design in my head but finding it very difficult to translate it to HTML. I am still working on this and hopefully I have some more time over christmas and New Year to complete the project.

I have made some more soap, pictures to follow soon and it will be uploaded to our Artfire Studio as soon as they are cured and ready to ship.

Wishing you all a peaceful christmas and a happy and healthy New Year
Sabine @ Bubble Works

2009-11-09T18:00:00.000-08:00

we are slowly moving forwards and most stuff has now been stored away. I am working on the website and hope to have the new site up and running in 1 or 2 weeks.

2009-10-09T17:28:00.000-07:00

Just a really quick update, we have finally moved house and internet has been connected, but everything is in various boxes and even cooking becomes a misson at the moment, so please bear with us and we will be back up and running in about 1 week or 2. Hopefully we will even have our new website by then.

2009-09-12T03:41:00.000-07:00

Hello

we haven't disappeared or anything, but we are still trying to re-locate and it is taking up a lot of time at the moment and all soapy-things are in storage, so cannot make any more goodies.

Please bear with us, we should be back shortly with a new website and more exciting products.

Cheers
Sabine

Peppermint Lipbalm

2009-07-18T11:01:00.001-07:00

This is the perfect Lip Balm for the summer. It is from our all natural range and flavoured with cooling and refreshing peppermint essential oil.

It is made with luxurious Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter and Almond Oil and will leave your lips tingling with freshness and softness.

English Rose

2009-07-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is an uplifting, feminine and elegant smell. It is very close to natural essential rose oil, but without the sensitizers (natural essential rose oil contains methyl-eugenol which has been heavily restricted by the International Fragrance Assoiciation).

This soap was made with the hot process method and it has a rich, creamy lather which feels luxurious on your skin. Just like showering with rose petals.

2009-07-18T10:26:00.000-07:00

It is done, the website has finally been created and I am getting ready for my first Market tomorrow.

I never thought it would take this long. But settling on a logo / company colours was harder than I thought and many nice logos had to go, as they were too difficult to implement with packaging, website and many other things which suddenly crop up.

Let me know what you think and hope to see you at our stall soon.