A word about shipping charges....

Many people comment that shipping charges made by my shopping cart system seem high. I will apologize for that and explain...

There is no good formula for calculating shipping charges within my shopping cart system. Each item is assigned a value, that we base on the weight of the item. The cart however will also include an extra value to help cover the weight of the shipping container and packing material. Some items are almost too small to assign a value to, so tend to get overdone. Others are larger than normal and may require special packaging so we try to adjust for that also. All in all though, we do set the values on the high side. I also will add shipping insurance to larger orders for your protection. I try to adjust shipping charges before I charge your credit card or issue a refund if appropriate. If you pay by Paypal I will issue a refund after the item is shipped. I do charge a small handling fee of $1.50-1.75. This helps cover the cost of any shipping materials and time to pack the item and process it for shipping. I have found that it is easier to adjust the shipping charges before I charge the card or issue a refund than to undercharge for shipping. I don't feel comfortable asking you for more money...I'd rather be able to surprise you by charging you less or returning some of your money. Being the small company that I am, I am unable to absorb shortages in shipping charges as easily as other larger companies are. I hope this makes sense! That being said there are plenty of times that I do unintentionally undercharge for shipping and I do take the loss. If you ever have any questions regarding shipping charges, or anything else for that matter, please feel free to call or email me.

Thank you

Craft show dates, Bookmarks, and One of a Kind items:


First, I would like to introduce Charming Bookmarks by Lauren to you. Lauren is our 12 year old daughter. She started making bookmarks this summer. Her business is called Charming Bookmarks and More. She makes beaded bookmarks with charms, as well as cell phone charms and unique bracelets made with fishing swivels, beads and charms. You can find her products at: Skinsations on Etsy
Lauren's bookmarks are unique, no 2 are alike. She uses waxed linen string, glass , wood, and ceramic beads, shells, glass and real pearls, stones, and a variety of charms. Her bookmarks some in Paperback size, which means the length of the bare string is between 8 and 9 inches long. Hardcover size means that the length of the bare string is at least 9 to 10 inches long. You can make a special request if you need a longer or shorter length.

Coming soon, you will also find unique and one of a kind soap and bath items on the Etsy site. Occasionally I test run new items, by introducing them at craft shows. While I would like to make them available to my internet customers, I do not feel they have a place on my website, as I often do not have the ability to produce them in mass quantities. So I will be offering them on the Etsy site, in time for the holidays.

Craft show dates for Skinsations Soap and Charming Bookmarks:
November 14- Fremont High School, Fremont Mi
November21- North Muskegon High School, N Muskegon, MI
December 5- Pentwater High School, Pentwater MI
December 12- Happy Elves Craft Show/White Pines Middle School-Grand Haven, MI

More dates will be added soon. We hope to see you there.

I often hear people tell me how they still have some of that lotion or Shea souffle or lip balm that they got from me "x" years ago. I have to say that this bothers me for a few reasons. First of all, I wish you would use it on a daily basis. What easier way to give yourself a little treat than by using a dollop of lotion or a bit of lip balm. You deserve it, don't save it for "special" occasions, because what it going to end up happening is that you will have wasted your money.
All items have a shelf life or expiration date of some sort. Many sites I have gone to recommend anywhere from one to three years for most bath and body items. These recommendations of course, are for commercially made items. It's a bit different when it comes to handmade items. First of all, commercially manufactured items have a lot of preservatives in them. I try to use a little chemical content as I can in my products. Lotions are tricky and due to the fact that they are water based, they need specific things to keep them from getting funky! Things like my lip balms and Shea souffle are all natural items. These do not have any water content so there is no worry of mold or fungi growing in them, however, they are made out of oils.
Oils, technically, do not spoil, but they do get rancid after a time. Some oils have a longer shelf life than others, but basically it is exposure to oxygen that starts the process. You may have noticed a bottle of cooking oil that, while it looks OK, might smell bad, or it may have an odd taste. At this point it has lost much of its nutritional value, if using for cooking, and it may take on a sticky feel. I've read articles that say you can still use rancid oil to make soap with, but I'd rather not!
Again most oils have a shelf life of 1-3 years. Handling and storage methods as well as temperature fall into play. If stored in a cool dry place and not exposed to air for long periods of time, items made with oils will last longer. I encourage people to keep items like lip balm or Shea butter, stored in the refrigerator when not in use. I also use vitamin E (tocopheryl) to help extend the shelf life. When using items like the Shea souffle, having clean, dry hands will also help prevent possible contaminants into the product. Leaving your lip balm in the car on a hot summer day, will result in melted lip balm, that most likely will still be usable after it has cooled down, but the heat has caused the oils to start to break down. This tube of lip balm will get rancid faster than the one you keep in your cool, cry purse, or desk drawer.
Now, not to scare anyone, but you should use handmade natural products within 6 months to one year. This is my personal opinion. I have some customers that purchase a dozen lip balms...to last the whole year. Again, keep the unused ones in the refrigerator. I have had lip balms last for up to two years, I have also had a batch that got funky in less than a year. I try to use the freshest ingredients but I don't know how long that oil sat before it was shipped to me. Don't save that Shea souffle, use it every day. Pamper yourself...every day. You deserve it and you deserve to get your money's worth out of the handmade product that you purchased.

New products, new ideas, new thoughts...

There are several new designs on the website and a few more to come. There are fairy designs, a mermaid and some is an awesome dragon design, very detailed. I'm working on some new ideas, a few new fragrances and hope to get these on the site by fall in time for the holiday season. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Right now I have some cute spa bags and will be putting together some gift packages with them. The candle combos have been very popular. Be sure to check them out.

I get asked every so often if my soaps are "antibacterial" or if I can make "antibacterial" soap.
This question always makes me laugh as all soap by nature is antibacterial. There are basically two functions of soap. One is to bind to dirt, and bacteria, or other substances. The other is to decrease the surface tension of water. Soap is kind of contradictory in it's make up, as one part of it's make up is water binding and the other part is water repellent. Basically, the foreign substances (dirt, etc) becomes trapped in droplets of water after it binds to the soap's fatty acids. They are then rinsed away. So soap in itself is antibacterial as it removes the bacteria in the natural course of it's use.
The effectiveness of a so called "antibacterial" soap is called into question as the actual antibacterial ingredients generally need to be left on the skin for at least two minutes in order to kill the bacteria. I know I generally don't stand there and time myself as to how long I leave the soap on my skin, but I know it's nowhere near two minutes. Therefore, my using an "antibacterial" soap would be fairly useless.
According to an article on www.webmd.com:( http://www.webmd.com/news/20070817/plain-soap-as-good-as-antibacterial ) "An FDA advisory panel considered the question of the effectiveness of antibacterial products in the fall of 2005; the panel overwhelmingly concluded that there was no evidence proving that antibacterial soaps were more effective than regular soaps for preventing infection."
So there is something to ponder...soap is soap. Amazingly I also find that the same soap that causes the soap scum in the bath tub and shower is pretty effective at removing said soap scum if rinsed down immediately after. I use bar soap and shower gel to clean my tub and shower all the time. I don't think I have purchased a commercial shower cleaner in years!

Until next time......have a bubbly day.

Gift baskets and candle combos!!

Skinsations Soap along with the combined efforts of Tartan Candle Company have come up with some awesome candle combos. Soap and Candle combos contain matching soap and 5 ounce Tartan candle. They come in a variety of fragrances....including Love Spell and Monet's Garden, as well as Tartan Candles "Book Scents". Book Scents are fragrances carefully selected to represent characters or settings in your favorite books.

We also have Bath Salt and Candle combos. A 5 ounce Tartan candle and a 5 ounce jar of bath salts so you can soak in the tub while you read your favorite book.

First in the gift basket line is Claire's Herb Garden basket. This lovely basket contains a Tartan candle, several lovely Oatmeal, milk & honey soaps with a bee hive theme all fragranced with Claire's Herb Garden fragrance, a lovely herbal scent. It also contains 2 all natural bath teas, a milk bath and a clay facial mask so you can pamper yourself in the tub.

Skinsations also has several new soap designs on the site. More new products are being added in the next several weeks. Be sure to keep checking back. The holidays are coming up. Soap and bath products make a great gift.

Keep checking back for more new products and ideas.

So inventory is done and now it's time to decide what products to keep, which ones to discontinue and which ones to change. It is also time to look for new designs and fragrances. I love this part, really, because I get to be creative, I get to look at fragrance descriptions for hours on end and imagine the luscious scents.... I get to imagine what color combinations and designs would work best with which fragrance.
My latest creation is my Bath Truffles. A wonderful little treat for your bath tub made of cocoa butter. A wee bit of color and fragrance adds to the skin softening butter as it melts into your hot bath. A lovely way to pamper yourself. I have to get these up on the site, but for now they are available in a wee gift bag containing 3 bath melts in Love Spell, Monet's Garden or Nibble My Ears. Cocoa butter is good for dry rough skin and is a wonderful moisturizer.

It's that time of the year....inventory time. As much as I love making the soaps and pretty, smelly stuff, I really hate counting it all at the end of the year. I seem to have an abundance of leftover this year too. So I am having a sale 30% off all in stock items. I'm also doing a soap by the pound mystery box sale. This is where you can purchase "scratch & dent" items by the pound. $6 per pound and I fill a box with items that are flawed, dented, faded, wrappers messed up, basically the ugly beat up, yet functional product. To receive the discount or order the mystery box, visit the website at http://www.skinsationshandmadegiftsoap.com or email me at skinsationsbath@cs.com. These sales will run through February 2008.
If you are looking to get into soapcrafting yourself contact me also, as I will be selling off, most likely on Ebay, many of my older, outdated molds and some supplies.