Cakeballs, Anyone?

Delicious cakeballs from right to left: Raspberry Champagne, Red Velvet, Lemon Dream, Blueberry Muffin, Maple Bacon, Coconut Cream, CherryBomb!, Smores
Images with permission from: http://www.auntielianas.com

Who here likes cake?  ::Raises hand::
How about cakeballs ::raises both hands!!!!::

If you're not sure what a cakeball is let me explain.  Picture a round, condensed, moist, cake nugget, enveloped in a snappy, crunchy, chocolatey (or white chocolatey) shell.  That's how my friend and baker extraordinaire, Liana Knudsen, makes them.  I piggishly bought about 24 of them from her site and fell in love! 

How much in love, you ask? Well, let's just say that no other cakeball seems to do it for me.  That's why I am EXCITED to share her Kickstarter campaign with you!
Auntie Liana is raising money on Kickstarter to bring her operations to a larger scale so that she can share her delicious creations with the world! 

Check out her delightful video on how she got started and where she hopes to take her business after the campaigns a success. Be sure to check out her rewards too!

To follow Auntie, check out her social media sites:

Website
Facebook
Twitter

What's in a Name: Tips For Choosing a Business Name

Coconut Calendula Soap

Above is my latest creation. You can see by the state of my shop that I've been keeping busy with working on my summer soaps. After doing a quick search for my blog on google (because I'm lazy that way), I found soap company that is now using the "Soap Kitten" name (whoopsie).  At first, I was shocked, but then realized it's not quite an original idea. :)  I'm glad this happened as it's a good opportunity to discuss marketing/branding and choosing a company name.

While I'm okay with the SK name being used, it's very important that those who are considering company names to do their research!  I just recently underwent this process when I made "Havana Soap Company" official.  I scoured my state's database as well as Google, making sure I wasn't infringing on existing companies when I settled on a name.  After making it official, it's important to grab social media handles on twitter, Facebook and any other sites that you use for marketing. I knew this back in 2007 when I first started the blog, but because it was a blog that was just purely for fun (and still is), I never made the jump to reserving the name.  I'm okay with that, but a good lesson out there for those considering planning on starting a company/brand.

And as a small disclaimer, I'd like to let my readership know that the Soapkitten blog and the Soap Kitten soap company are not affiliated in any way, although I do wish the company best of luck on their new venture! :)

That said, if you haven't been keeping up with my Etsy shop, here are some of the projects I have been working on.  Really feeling the Summer/beach theme. :)

To purchase, feel free to click on the links below.

Happy Soaping Everyone!

Peppermint Rosemary Soap

Mermaid Soap

And a picture of my ADORABLE cat (sorry not for sale).  :) 

New soaps up!

Posted some new soaps up in my store! *Squeeeee*. Really excited about these since both are inspired by my Cuban upbringing!

Sueño Cubano (Cuban Dream) is a lovely chocolately-mocha scent! Available here. 

This soap is a salty/ocean fragrance called Salty Marinero (that translates to "Sailor"). Available here in my Etsy shop.

Soapy Sunday

Earlier I was making a fresh batch of soap. My fave scent (they all seem to be my fave these days): Oatmeal Milk & Honey.

This creamy soap is warm and inviting and made with REAL oatmeal! Designed to soothe and delight! :)

Available in my etsy store! 

Summer's Here Early

At Havana Soap Co., that is. Check out our newest soap in our shop: Tropical Blue Crush. Fragrances with lime, bergamot oils. A real treat!

Having Fun with Vanillin

Or vanilla, as it is more commonly known, has a tendency to darken bath & body products over time. You can add chemicals to soap to slow down the process, but over time they all naturally discolor. Depending on the percentage of vanillin in your fragrance, it can change into light beige to a dark chocolatey brown. Not a bad thing if you intend on working with a fragrance that lends itself to a brown color, but sometimes you'll get something called "snow angel" and it'll discolor to a deep dark brown.

That's why it's important to always check with your fragrance distributor how fragrances behave in soap.

No stranger to this change, I expected this fragrance to discolor, since I knew it had a high percentage of vanilla in it. It worked well with a new shea butter recipe I've been eager to try!

Here's the loaf cut on the second day. Notice the vanilla color already setting in the edges?  The inside of the loaf is originally (more or less), the color I poured at. Knowing this in advance, I decided to take advantage and lighten my layers with white as I poured along.

Here's the loaf just three days later! Notice how much darker it's gotten. It's still considered a baby in the curing process, so I expect that it'll continue turning-- which works fine for my design as it works for the fragrance. I hope to unveil it in my shop next month! :)

Ta-ta for now!

-SK

Cat-approved!

One of my customers was nice enough to send me this pic! Looks like I have a fan! :D

Thanks Dawn for sharing this wonderful picture of Paws!

Taking the plunge..

It's official! Havana Soap, LLC is now on Etsy and Facebook! This year's theme is "Go big or go home", inspired me to put my energy and efforts into my new soap business.
Feel free to take a gander, like my page and check back periodically on Soapkitten for soapy updates!

Violet Soap available here

Havana Gold available here

Guava Soap available here

After the cut...

Very psyched that I'm getting back into cold process soaps! I forgot how lovely it was to make it from scratch.  Here's my latest-- name to be determined. Originally it had lavender buds on top, but aesthetically wasn't my thing, so I cut the tops off.  Warning to soap makers: Using lavender buds is very much a "go big, or go home" kind-of-thing. I found that as I trimmed my bars they scattered everywhere, even clinged on my untouched areas of my soap. Not fun picking tiny buds off. Make sure it's what you want before decorating your tops with it. 

This soap is made with olive, coconut, (sustainable) palm and castor oils.  The scent is an intoxicating bold mix of lavender, cedar wood and pine. Definitely a great, unisex scent.

Testing, testing...

That's right. Testing is the theme of today. I'm so PSYCHED. Besides making test batches of cold process soap to refine my reciepe, I'm also testing out high quality, natural bases to be the face of my MP soaps!  It's gonna be a good day! 

Pictured from left to right. Row 1: glycerine clear, glycerin white. Row 2: goat milk, Shea. Row 3: hemp, honey (not pictured: aloe). 

Unveiling!

Today was the great unveiling of the two soaps I made yesterday.  This fun soap has peek-a-boo hearts embedded so that they reveal themselves as you use it. It's sweet sugar cane scent has hints of vanilla, shortbread and lemon rind.

On to our "mystery soap".  At first glance it looks like watermelon-- but nope, it's guava and a homage to my Caribbean roots!  This delightful soap is a yummy blend of blend of guava, orange, papaya , peach and strawberry.   

                 

Both are available in my etsy shop here.

xo
-SK

My Kitchen Smells Like Love.

Soapy love, that is! Back in the saddle for some soap crafting! I've been slowly coming back to it and bought some new soapy supplies recently. 

Can you guess what I'm making here? Hint: it's not what you think. 

 Speaking of love, the month of LUV is coming up. In celebration I'm making these candy-scented exfoliating soaps made with real sugar. It's sweet upon sweet. Here's before the pour. After pics to come. 

And if that weren't enough, I played around and make a rice flower scented soap. Since I couldn't decide what to make it look like, I opted for simple and clean, just like the fragrance.

 

:)

-SK