Spring cleaning...

Today the sun is belting down outside and up here in the North East, it's around 20 degrees!! that's good for a summer day never mind one in March!! Please don''t burn yourself out before we have a real summer Mr Sun...

I've recently been designing some all new fantastic soaps to add to the range. Some older ones will be dissapearing for a while to make room for their new gang members.

I've always wanted to have a go at salt bars, these are fantastically scrubby and really good for buffing up tired winter skin and boosting sluggish circulation. They can be used as invigorating all over shower soaps, foot scrubs, or as a pre-waxing exfoliation for your legs. Basically they will help buff up your bod ready for it being bared in the summer (GULP!!!- note to self...LOTS more belly dancing and long bike rides required before then!!  ;)

Sooooooo.........Introducing 3 new salt bar soaps, names to be confirmed...

Detox spa bar 

 

Detox Spa Bar - coloured with Spirulina (seaweed powder) and fragranced with  purifying essentail oils of Juniper, Rosemary and Lemon. As Spirulina is a very natural ingredient, I'm hoping it will hold it's colour and stay this vivid green, fingers crossed for me.

Clay Spa Bar

Clay Spa Bar - with green clay for extra cleansing, Chlorophyll extract for the green hue and fragranced with  Sweet Fennel, Rosemary and Peppermint essential oils...

Lemongrass, Salt and Pepper layered Spa Bar

Lemongrass, Salt and Pepper layered Spa Bar - coloured with annato extract and fragranced with Lemongrass, Coriander, and Black Pepper essential oils.

These three ladies will be cured by the end of April and available from their own special section on the website www.oakwoodsoaperie.co.uk

There are plenty more new and exciting creations in the pipeline but that will have to keep you going for a bit ;) They will all be revealed in good time, anyhoo, the sun is blazing outside and it's calling me out to bask in it for a bit, so TTFN xxx

My New Spangly Soap Workshop - guided tour

Spring is underway and what better time to reveal my newly re-fitted workshop? It has taken a while but at long last, I now have a fully functioning and lovely (well, I think so) workspace to design, make and wrap all my lovely goodies just for you.

The Design Hub (well,  really just my desk ;)

I love to have inspiration at my fingertips so any beautiful things I find get put onto the heart rack, for reference later on. You can even see one of the lovely calendars I got made up at Christmas time perched to the side of my screen, birdie keeps a close eye on it for me so I don't forget which day it is!!

Storage, Storage, Storage!!

I now have tonnes of MUCH needed space to make, wrap and store everything, it's already filling up nicely. You can see my crates under the bench - these come to my regular craft fairs around the North East...spreading the Oakwood Soaperie lurve out there...I have space for 12 in total, I think this will do me for a while!!
The far side of the bench has an open cupboard for all my equipment and soap oils, better for easy access mid soaping. All my ingredients are over on the racks in the corner (don't look too close, they need a tidy!)  while this side is my wrapping and postage half...with doors to prevent the labels etc. getting all bits on them when I'm making goodies.
At the back are my new curing towers - I LOVE these, lots of space and good ventillation for curing soaps / drying bath bombs / bubble bars etc. Each basket easily holds around 40 bars...that's a lot of soap!!!

Online stock storage for Folksy, WowThankyou and my new Website

Here are my new shelf units too, when you order from one of my online shops or the website, this is where all your goodies have been waiting for you, ready to be re-homed. As well as the storage shelves above, I also have a space specially for larger orders and wholesale / retail allowing me to have everything in one place. It's much easier to see what I have now and what needs replenishing. I plan to get more stacking boxes to utilise the shelves a bit better but that is the easy part.

Well that's it, tour finished...I hope you have enjoyed a sneaky peek behind the doors at Oakwood Soaperie, it may be small but it's mine and I'm very proud to have done every bit myself, including laying a new floor, all the painting and sourcing and building all that storage. I think it's time for a nice cuppa and back to some soaping...thank you all for coming round :)

TTFN xxx