Exciting new additions to my shop!

If you look to the right at my Morning Valley Soaps Etsy Mini, you'll see that I've added a new solid perfume as well as my first bath salts!

The new perfume fragrance is called "Love" (not very creative, but it's supposed to be a counterpoint to my scent "Lust"). The fragrance consists of juicy, tangy blood orange, with a sweet and creamy layer of vanilla, and a gentle hint of floral lavender. I adore it and have been wearing this scent myself.

My bath salts (pictured above) are from one of two recent batches. I recently made one Eucalyptus batch and one Tea Tree batch. The Eucalyptus are the ones I just listed. I've decided to pack them in some of the small cloth pouches I make that don't seem to be selling well on their own in my other shop. It seems like a great way to gift them to someone, even after the salts are gone, they'll have a reusable pouch.

I've also recently created a batch of lavender mint whipped sugar scrub with lemon verbena. It's so creamy and moisturizing on top of the obvious values of exfoliation it provides. The lavender and mint essential oils smell great and the lemon verbena herbal steep I used in it doesn't add much scent, but it very good for your skin. It also has shea butter and sweet almond oil in it, so it's quality all around. I just have to get some jars to put it in and it will be joining the menagerie of my shop as well.

Lip Balm Experiments

I have several recipes I've been toying with- an attempt I made the other day is close. A little too waxy, I need to increase the amount of the oils and tone down the beeswax.
I'm optimistic that I'll be able to have some in my shop by the new year! I'm having friends test my bath salts so they can join the inventory in January as well.
Now I'm trying to decide on packaging for both of these items. I like balms to be in tubes instead of tins because it doesn't get your hands messy, nor does it put your germy hands in your mouth. I really like the oval tubes, they are better shaped for the natural curve of the lip, but they also tend to be about twice as expensive, so I don't know if it's worth it.
The salts could either go in some sort of jar or bag- again, I'll see what is both classy and economical.
Recently I've also had the random idea to make a set of Sherlock Holmes dolls. I'm a big fan and have been working my way through the canon for a while now. I checked, there doesn't really seemed to be much in the way of Holmes/Watson dolls out there. Though, if I do make them it might not be for selling... I might not be able to part with them.

I'm in Love

If I could marry a scent this might be it.
I've been stocking up on fragrances, essential oils, etc. for some new projects (more on that later), and some arrived today.
This morning I made a new soap called "Captain Wentworth" after the hero of my favorite Austen novel, Persuasion. It is a blend of tobacco flower, blood orange and leather with a little sea salt for exfoliation mixed in. It smells so fresh and clean- and it's not super masculine so females could totally use it too. I think I'm going to have to make a 'man soap' gift pack with this scent as the centerpiece. My new gunpowder fragrance blend is gorgeous as well. I had a female friend request that I make her a solid perfume with the scent.
My next projects on the horizon are bath salts, sugar scrubs and lip balms. I've already started playing with bath salts, making some lovely eucalyptus scented salts the other night. For the rest of the year every order will come with a small sample of my new bath salts- I have some friends testing them as we speak.
I've found a recipe for whipped sugar scrub which intrigues me, so I'll be playing with and tweaking that. And as soon as my beeswax arrives I'll be playing with some lip balm recipes as well. So, I'm keeping busy and finding new inspiration for my soap shop.
I will be putting my first shop, Blackbird Crafts, on vacation for a while and just focus on Morning Valley Soaps. I see that being a better long term focus.