Have you updated, given your site a new look, or made a new site? Send the site URL and your name and I will be glad to post it here.

Jonie Lang has a new site. Joni loves essential oils and sells doTerra essential oils. Take a look at her new site. Oil Essentials

Top search terms that brought people to Soap N Stuff Daily: 

All of you have heard of keywords, at least I sure hope so. On this blog, I have a program that keeps a running total of visits, visitors, and keywords that bring people to the site.

Occasionally I look at this information, but do not take the time to analyze. On 8/20, someone googled “is glycerin safe for dogs”.  I learned it was from Chattanooga, Tn and this question took the person to my post on July 10.

This one is interesting, in that the google took the person to a post dated May 23. This was an interview I did with Battys Bath. “patchouli flower” was googled and I do not see where “patchouli flower” was mentioned in the interview. Essential oils were mentioned. This inquiry came from Perth, Au.

I doubt if the person who googled “lump of coal” was looking for soap, but the exciting thing is this took them to the spotlight done on Nov 30, 09 and featured Twin Dream Creations. This inquiry came from London, England. Not only did I get a new visitor, Twin Dream Creations possible got a sale!

If you use WordPress for your blog site the plugin I use for the statistics is:

Keywords and keyphrases are very important for the sucess of your site. You can have the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it……..

Have a Happy Day,

Barb

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Oh my goodness, I do not know what happened. WordPress only published part of my spotlight. Now I will have to write it all over.

I am so sorry Skinvas and readers. I have to leave and take my husband to the Dr. so it will have to wait til this afternoon.

Barb

While cleaning out the porn people and other spam, I found one of my new followers on Twitter is a company called Skinvas Bath & Body. Her profile picture is beautiful, but I am guilty of profiling.

My apologies to Skinvas. You really need to check into her Etsy store.

The remarkable effects of candle making industry are truly evident nowadays. It has been practiced for about thousands of years to give light at nighttime. It is a type of pastime that most of the people enjoyed doing at the present time. Due to some reasons, they are fond of doing these for their child’s school projects, as gifts for their love ones and means of livelihood for their family.

Candle making in either for personal use or gifts for love ones is really awfully satisfying and uncomplicated to do. All of the materials can be found in different craft store. Local craft stores have all the things you need to make your own personalize candles. From wicks, wax and molds are made available for you to easily start making candles. Because of rising demands of the candle making hobby, different craft store made everything accessible for home based candle makers. Fragrance, decorations and colors are made available by the craft suppliers to sustain the needs of the candle making lovers. Since candle making is so simple, hobbyist easily provides their own needs to produce their own candle artifacts. Candle making’s systematic procedures are easy to acquire, from initial to its final step. First is to choose which wax you prefer to choose. After that, set up the wax and melt it into a double boiler (consist of the small and large pot). The small pot is where you put the wax that is placed over the large pot and the large pot is where you put the water which is placed in the top stove. It is easy to use double boiler because the wax melts faster. When the wax is completely melted, prepare the wick by placing it inside the mold then carefully put the melted wax into the mold. You can squirt non-stick cooking materials into the mold first before pouring the wax for easily exclusion of the finished candle. Give at least six hours time frame for cooling before fully remove it from the mold. Placing it into the fridge for about an hour may help for easy removal of the finished candle.

You can also try different style, design and color of your own in making candles. Creating different styles of candles are boundless for as long as your creative mind takeover of every designs you want. Most of the candle making lovers created their own molds by means of liquid latex to construct startling candles. The only problem is that molds made from latex are too bendable and can’t stand on the other end when you are about to pour the wax onto it. So to solve this problem, you need to support it using strapping cardboard.

Candle making is indeed one of the profitable businesses. Hobbyist uses their talents to create something different that could sell out the market. By means of experimenting they can easily make money out of it. Wholesale buying of the materials can have them big discounts in prices. Giving enough effort in packaging of their products and creating something new for the consumer is one of the major key to stay in this kind of business.

About the Author

The author has been written various articles regarding health, family, pets and a lot more. Read more about Tips in Making Candles.

The idea I have for todays spotlight would be about soap & candle molds. Unique and different molds.

With so much competition you need your soaps to stand out in the crowd! Unique molds are not easy to find.

A company that I used to buy from is Chase.  They have a large variety of molds and some are flexible. For glycerin soap flexible molds are the best.

When I made soaps,  I started looking for compound to make my own molds. My husband designed a dog bone for me to use for dog soaps. I wanted a large bar and could not find molds larger than 2-3 ounce.

After drawing what I wanted, he cut it out of wood. In the hobby train section of Hobby Lobby we found a mix that made a rubbery mold. You had to brush coat after coat on letting it dry for a day in between. This was extremely time consuming, but I had my own unique dog bone mold!

 Today, I have found what looks like a wonderful product for you to use and make your own original molds. You can buy it on Ebay, Amazon, and many other places. It is called “Melt N Pour Compound. This is easy and hardens in 10 minutes! Not recommended for large molds, but would work nicely for making guest soaps or even sample soaps. This stuff would also be great for making your own stamp of your logo or name.

A site that might be worth checking out is: http://www.makeyourownmolds.com/. You will find several compounds and tutorials on how to use them.

I am always looking for a special look, scent, etc. to spotlight. Contact me at barb@soapstuffdaily.com to have your soap, business, or other craft spotlighted.

Have a Happy Day,

Barb

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Did you read the spotlight on the new forum a few days ago?  Bubblin Bath and Crafts .

I was on it last night and found a wealth of recipes. Have you wanted to add solid perfume to your inventory? Or do you need a good recipe calculator?  Trying to decide between making sugar or salt scrub? Get the opinion of others. All you need to do is join.  Painless and quick.

 The url is long so be sure to put it in your favorites. http://bubblinbathandcrafts.forumsmotion.com/profile.forum

Have a Happy Day,

Barb

I received this as a press release a couple of days ago.

I just wanted to let you know that with the help of many generous donors we are going to be able to donate 5,000 bars of soap to the Canadian Forces for Christmas this year.  Our biggest sponsor was Voyageur Soap & Candle who took this on as their corporate sponsorship for 2010 and donated over 4,000 bars themselves.You can read all about it on our website – www.MalaspinaSoapFactory.ca

Of course I had to look both of these wonderful companies up.

Malaspina Soap Factory deserves heartfelt thanks  for taking on this project and making it such a huge success. And, it is only July!

It seems there are going to be a lot of Canadian Military men will be clean and have baby soft skin! 

Voyageur Soap and Candle Co really helped this project to make its goal with the donation of 4000 bars of soap. That is a lot of soap!

It seems this company started out like all of us as a homebased business makeing candles. They have now grown into a large soap and candle supply company. Perhaps much of their success is from giving as much as they receive. Check out their site, there is more than supplies to help the soap and candle makers. Thank you Voyageur .

Have a Happy Day,

Barb

I have always liked the scent of Citronella  and used it in all of my dog shampoos. Had a spray with citronella that freshened dogs between baths and kept the mosquitoes away.

I decided this was the day to look up Citronella and do a short article.

Did you know that Citronella has many uses besides as an insect repellant? According to what I am reading it was and is used in traditional Chinese medicine. Used in the treatment of fevers, menstrual problems, digestive problems,and internal parasites.

In aromatherapy, Citronella has been used as an insect repellant, to treat colds and flu, headaches, excessive  perspiration, migraines, and neuralgia.

Never having used Citronella for anything but insect repellant, I do not know if any of the above works. I do know that as an insect repellant it does work.  In another time frame, we used to spend our weekends anchored out on our boat. I always lit a citronella candle on the table while eating. It was great to keep the flys away from my floating picnic!

Amazing what you learn by reading and research! The plant sold as the mosquito plant is not Citronella, but a geranium with slight scent of citronella.

 This is what Citronella really looks like. A member of the Cymbopogon family. Commonly called Lemon grass.

 So, don’t be fooled and buy the mosquito plant that does not work!

 Citronella scented geranium.

Email me at barb@soapstuffdaily.com and I will be glad to give you my formula for Insect spray.

Got a another use for Citronella or experience with it? Leave it below in the comment section.

Have a Happy Day,

Barb

Dr Mom Essential Oils

Someone asked the question: Is it safe to use glycerin or lye soap on dogs?

Yes, it is safe, in fact it is lot better than using the commercial dog soaps. Commercial dog soaps have so many chemical ingredients that you cannot even pronounce. I will not use these on my two dogs.

I keep hearing to use Dawn dishwashing liquid. NO, NO, NO. If you have a groomer that uses this, either switch groomers or give them your own shampoo to use.

The poor birds and animals in the Gulf are being cleaned with Dawn. This is great. It does kill and remove the oil. I love Dawn for my dishes! It cuts grease better than any of the other dish detergents. Your dog needs his natural oil that his skin produces. This prevents dry and itchy skin that causes your pet to scratch when there are no fleas.

By the way, birds need the oil their skin produces to stay afloat. I am assuming that this is one of the reasons, the birds are kept for several weeks before turning loose. If any of you know the answer, please let me know in the comment section.

These are writings I have done on dog soaps and links to their shops

  Dog Shampoos and Soaps on Artfire.

Spotlighting Dog Shampoos  and Soaps

More dogs soaps spotlighted

Keep your dog happy and scratch free. One other thing, always rinse well to get all soaps out of their coats.  

Have a Happy Day,

Barb