Preparing for the holiday RUSH

It's that time of year again....time for our little handmade soap business to become a mini factory! Soap bars are flying by like beer bottles on the line in the Laverne & Shirley opening. (did that just totally show my age? or was it the use of the word TOTALLY? LOL!)

We have been making TONS of soap in seasonal scents, special shapes, building inventory of our 'regular' fragrances & restocking scents that we offer in limited quantity. Boy, oh boy, does it smell good in here! All the little soapies are nestled & snug on our curing rack waiting for their time to shine! The photo below is a few years old & shows how we used to have soap curing. Now we have one of those rolling baking racks with a gazillion shelves. It is able to temporarily house TONS & TONS of curing soap....and it's mobile! Thank goodness for that rack, it was one of the best purchases ever. Although, we need to get a second one now.

What else is going on? A few new ideas are currently being worked out. Local craft shows have been booked. Black Friday sales & giveaway details are being planned. In fact, we *just* placed an order for a special FREE giveaway for our Black Friday sale. We're not telling what it is though....you'll have to stay tuned to find out all the details!

Well, I  guess that is all for the update for now. I'll be posting, tweeting & blogging when items become ready for purchase. So....stay tuned for the Gingerbread Man's return announcement!

A few items...

Hi everyone! Well....it's that time of year again....time to ramp up production for our busy season! Here are a few things we've been working on....

First off....a request....vote for us....pretty please!
*jumping up & down* PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!

We would LOVE to win an Intuit Hiring Grant for Concord Soap! Oh....the things we could do!

Newer items that have been added to our ever-growing list of products:

Laundry Soap

We've had such a GREAT reaction to our laundry soap! People everywhere are now enjoying the menial task of doing laundry now! You only need 1 tablespoon to clean an entire load of laundry. Give it a try....we have small 3oz samplers available.

Perfume Oils

We now offer our customers the opportunity to layer their favorite Concord Soap scent by using our soap, salts, lotion & now perfume!

Lastly, our seasonal soap will be ready SOON! Keep watching for their arrival! 

Oh....and did you notice? We're down to only 3 states that we haven't shipped to yet! Come on Nebraska, New Mexico & Vermont....try some Concord Soap TODAY!

Woohoo! Only 5 more states until we've shipped to every state!

Since I had some free time today (sarcasm), I decided that my time would be well spent by checking how many of the 50 states we have shipped our goodies to. (again, sarcasm) To my surprise, we've almost shipped to every state in the country, 45 out of 50! WOW! I was really surprised....I knew we had shipped to most of the states, but I was expecting more like 40 or so. Of course, the next question you are all wondering is...which 5 states have we NOT shipped to?

Here's the list: 
NEBRASKA
NEVADA   
NEW HAMPSHIRE
NEW MEXICO
VERMONT
Is it weird that 4 out of the 5 states begin with an N?

Soooooo.....here's a challenge.....if you place an order in our Etsy shop to be shipped to one of these 5 listed states you'll get 15% off in our quest to conquer the country!! (you don't have to live there, it can be shipped to a gift recipient in 1 of the 5 states, as well)
Use code: ConquerUSA15 to get 15% off at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ConcordSoap

And, YES, we will be making up a world map soon....to plot conquering the entire globe! Mwahahahaha!

NO...we didn't fall off the face of the blogosphere...

We're still HERE! lol Well...what can I say? Ummmm...I am really bad at keeping this blog up-to-date! Here's what we have been up to...

BEER Soap!

We had a very busy Black Friday-Cyber Monday 2010 weekend. Our BEER SOAP was blogged about & we were selling it faster than we could make it! Throughout Nov & Dec, we participated in our usual local craft shows & even added a new one in Mayfield Village, Ohio. Then it was the mad rush of holiday shopping that kept us busy. But nothing compares to how busy we get during our Annual Half Off End-of-Year Clearance Sale!!! Phew...that week is sooooo CRAZY!! We sold almost every last bar of soap that we had! At the end of the week, we had about 10 bars of soap left...that's it!

Red Clover Tea Soap

So, as you can imagine, we have been busy busy busy restocking all our inventory. In fact, we are STILL working to restock lots of our regulars...and some scents that have already been restocked (like our MOST popular, Red Clover Tea Soap) are already getting low again! So, as you can tell, we are keeping very busy. So forgive us for not posting more often!

As a very special thank you to our blog followers, we are offering a coupon code that you can use at our Etsy shop, http:///www.ConcordSoap.etsy.com. Use code BLOG25 to get 25% off your entire order!!

Thank you for a wonderful 2010! We look forward to an even more amazing 2011! We look forward to being your supplier of high quality, handmade soap, bath & body care products!

NEW NEW NEW!

Pumpkin Spice Handmade Soap

We've been BUSY! We have been making soap like crazy lately. We have made lots of our handmade cold process soap in amazing holiday scents...some are ready now & a few are still curing. The seasonal scents that we now have available in our Etsy shop & on our website are: Gingerbread, Mistletoe, Snowflake, Frankincense & Myrrh and Pumpkin Spice! Yummy! We will be adding these holiday fragrances to our Zibbet & Trunkt shops this week. Our Autumn Spice Soap Leaves are back in stock as well! Look for Cranberry, Bayberry Spice, Candy Cane and more to be released as the soap becomes fully cured. Keep in mind that these are seasonal scents, so there are a limited quantity available. So....get them before they are sold out!

Oatmeal, Milk & Honey Handmade Soap

We've also brought back a few soap favorites that our customers asked for: Black Pepper and Oatmeal Milk & Honey. And we finally have 2 sachets online that have been missing for too long: Almond Amaretto and Eucalyptus & Spearmint. Another new handmade soap scent now available is Jasmine. Other newbies to be released very soon: Lusty Musky Mornings Handmade Soap, Morning Mocha Handmade Soap, Rootbeer Float Lip Balm.

Assorted Cupcake Soaps

We are SUPER excited to announce the release of our Cupcake Soap! These little cuties are sooooo adorable! Our Cupcake Soap is 1.5-2.0 ounces of soap packaged in a colorful cupcake liner with a nylon body puff embedded into the soap. It is wrapped in cello and sealed with a ribbon bow. They will be available in different colors and scents. To use: peel off the liner paper & wet. Work lather into the puff & wash away! These make ADORABLE gifts or favors! Perfect for the cupcake lover you know...and NO calories! Check our Etsy shop for the newest releases.

We have started to release other new items such as Roll-On Perfume Oils and Laundry Soap. Psst...here's a secret that we haven't released until now...we are going to be offering Sugar Scrub Cubes VERY soon! Check our Etsy shop for the newest releases. We will blog about these as they are more readily available. Other newbies: Pink Gift Box Set, Purple Gift Box Set, Nylon Puffs and Fragrance Samples.

Gingerbread Handmade Soap

Phew...that was a lot to mention! We've been so busy making all these new goodies that we don't get to update the blog as often as we would like...thus the super long 'new product' announcement! As of right now, the Etsy shop gets the newest items listed first, so you can always keep up to date by checking what's new there!

Blog Feature & Giveaway!

Concord Soap Company is being featured on the Women-Prenuer Galore Blog! Stop by and read the kind words Nathalie had to say about our products. We are also sponsoring a FREE SOAP giveaway on her blog. Follow her directions to get multiple chances to win. The giveaway ends September 5th at midnight...don't miss it!

Women-Prenuer Galore Blog Feature:
http://women-prenuergalore.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-of-concord-soap-shop-giveaway.html

August Scent Sale - Fields of Lavender
Every month we select a different fragrance to be featured in our Etsy Scent Sale. During the Scent Sale all of our items in the special scent are marked down 20%. This is ONLY in our Etsy shop. August's Scent Sale fragrance is Fields of Lavender! Don't miss out...there's only a few more days to get your favorite Fields of Lavender items at 20% off!
Our Etsy shop: http://www.ConcordSoap.etsy.com

Holiday fragrances coming soon!

We are working hard to get all of our fall/winter/holiday scents made & fully cured in time for the holidays! Some of the soap scents that we will be offering are: Pumpkin Spice, Black Pepper, Cranberry, Gingerbread, Oatmeal Milk & Honey, Mocha Latte, Bayberry Spice, Snowflake, Candy Cane, Musk and more! Look for our future email, blog & Twitter updates for availability.

We're the Featured Zibbeter!

WE'RE FAMOUS! We've been selected to be the featured seller on Zibbet.com!

Many of you have probably never even heard of Zibbet.com. What is it? Zibbet is a NEW global marketplace, connecting buyers and sellers of Handmade Goods, Fine Art, Vintage Items and Crafting Supplies. It is very similar to the more known, Etsy.com. But, Zibbet is still in its infancy stages, while Etsy is all grown up! You can find all kinds of amazing handmade items on Zibbet, including jewelry, clothing, candles, accessories, furniture, housewares, paper goods, plants, wedding and of course, BATH and BODY! You can go directly to our shop by clicking here or typing in this address: http://www.zibbet.com/ConcordSoap!

I'm not sure how long we will be "Featured Zibbeter" before another lucky shop gets picked. I'm guessing we'll only be on the Zibbet front page for a day or two, so go check it out! Don't miss us while we're famous for a day or two! If you miss us on the front page you can always read the article about Concord Soap on Zibbet's blog: http://www.zibbet.com/blog/category/featured-zibbeters. Read the article to learn more about Concord Soap Company!