The Italian American Cultural Center Fall Craft Show

Please join us at the Italian American Cultural Center Fall Craft Show on Sunday, October 28, 2012 from 10am-5pm. They are located at 43843 Romeo Plank Rd., Clinton Twp., MI. We hope you can make it and check out some wonderful new soaps and lotion bars.

It sure is sweater weather right now and the Holidays are fast approaching! Every time I think that I'm going to be soaping all day, something comes up or there is a change of plans. I'm feeling the stress of the upcoming holidays a little early. I feel that I'm running behind. You never know how much soap you'll need for the craft shows.

 I'm happy to announce that Hedgeway Cottage Soaps are now blessed to be available in some retail stores. Our first store that we have been in for  more than a year is The Trading Post at Frontier Town in Romeo, MI. Our second store is Pigeon in the Parlour on Main St., Holly, MI, then we are in the Starkweather Art Center in town in Romeo, MI. We just added two new stores this month which are Whimsy in Royal Oak, MI, and Gracious Seasons in Southgate, MI. We will be adding another store at the end of the month called Vera's Daughter on Mack Ave., St. Claire Shores, MI.The Lord has been kind to us.

This display of our soaps is at Gracious Seasons in Southgate. Kathie is the owner and very talented. Such a sweet woman. This store has such beautiful and unique decor for the home. Kathie makes beautiful wreaths and she does tole painting that is so pretty.They will officially be open on Oct. 20th.
Thank you to every single one of our customer friends! Please mention this post and recieve 10% off your purchase at the Italian American craft show.
Hugs & Blessings,
Bernadette

Festival of the Senses in Clinton Twp, MI

Twilight in the Woods soap. LOVE this fragrance!! It will be ready in mid October

Apples & Cinnamon is ready to go and is so pretty!

Happy Hour in the Shower Beer soap is made with real stout beer and the lather is pure luxury. Beer softens the skin and I love using it, even though it smells like beer

We will be at the Festival of the Senses in Clinton Twp., MI  Sept. 22 and 23  from 10am to 5pm so I hope you can come and check out the fall soaps. I have a new work partner and her name is Kasie and she is so sweet and I'm looking forward to our first craft show tomorrow. She is very friendly and she is going to be an amazing asset to the company. She is also young and will bring some fresh ideas and is also a girly girl. Welcome Kasie!!!

See you at the festival tomorrow. Hugs!

Bernadette

Romeo Peach Festival craft show at Frontier Town

It sure has been a while since I've written on my blog. I've been so busy. The  cupcake soaps above are Flutter kisses and they are scented with a mixture of Rice Flower and Shea & Honeysuckle. I will be selling these this weekend and they will be packaged in a small paper box  with cello.

I absolutely LOVE this soap. I have been washing my face with it. The lather is wonderful and it's so creamy (But  my face smells like beer) No, it doesn't. LOL

I made cupcake soaps and bar soap with this fragrance that I call Essence of Fall. Love them!!

YUMMY, Chocolate Mint foaming bath bombs made with natural cocoa butter and peppermint essential oil

 

What can I say about this soap except it Rocks in the shower and it Rocks in the tub

Packaged bar of Essence of Fall soap in a cute basket

We will be there at Frontier Town Saturday, Sunday and Monday so I hope that you will come and check out all the new soaps.
Have a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend!!
Bernadette

Soap Cakes verses Cupcake Soaps

Lets face it, everyone is attracted to the cute, pretty, appetizing cupcake. Everyone loves cupcakes and they are made in all different kinds of materials. The cupcake soap above is Love Spell crowned with two real rosebuds. It's beautiful. Does someone really want it because they want to wash with it or because it's shaped like a cupcake and "it's so cute"?

I just made 2 of these Fairy Garden Soap cakes tonight. Soap cakes are fun to create and the soap maker can really let loose and make it an artistic creation. What about the soap cake? Does a customer really want to wash with a slice of soap cake?

Margarita cupcake soaps---they smell amazing! Topped with a small wedge of lime soap and sprinkled with large sugar crystals that sub for salt. Really? Is this a novelty item or is this practical?

Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Soap Cake. Come on-- yes I made it--it's actually a beautiful soap cake. It's infused with silk and made of wonderful ingredients. It smells wonderful. Would you wash with it? Would you buy it?

Here the soap cake is sliced and is curing. It is really an awesome soap cake.

I made a couple of these Margarita soap cake slices for an order for a bride who  is making up gift bags for her guests that will be staying at the hotel from out of town for the wedding. A Very thoughtful thing to do. Here I think the soap cake slices are a very unique and thoughtful gift. Will they be used by the guests? I hope so. They'd be missing out on some wonderful handmade soap that smells great, is moisturizing, and is infused with silk. You can't get that kind of soap at the grocery store.

Razzberry cupcake soaps are so pretty. Made with the same ingredients as the soap cakes. They'd make an awesome gift for someone. A great shower gift, birthday, etc.

Everything you buy is a personal preference. So many times I have been told " Oh, it's too pretty to use. I would never use it". That drives me nuts when someone says that. They love the cupcake. They love the soap cake. They are unique. They make a great gift. But-- every soap that I make is meant to be used. I don't infuse these soaps with silk and wonderful fragrances so that they are just looked at and collecting dust just to be thrown in the garbage later on. That person has cheated themselves out of a wonderful bathing experience with a soap that has been made from scratch and created to be used  and is actually a  real treat to use on your skin. Now to the preference of soap cake verses the cupcake. According to my sales, cupcakes rule!!! 

New Facebook store and new soaps

This is an awesome smelling soap cake scented in Mango Papaya

Now you can purchase my soaps (finally) on line through our
Hedgeway Cottage Soaps Face Book Page! Yay! I'm very
excited about it and got my first soap order within an hour of opening it.

Love Potion Cupcake soap (love spell dupe)

On the Hedgeway Cottage Facebook page, you can view videos
of me making or cutting the soaps. When I make a new soap, I
will post it on that page. I  will post where we'll be for craft shows, etc.
So, it is to your advantage to like our page for up dates and shopping. You'll also recieve
a discount on your purchase for liking our page.

LOVE IT!! Jasmine Grapefruit solid lotion bar with natural cocoa butter

You can buy everything on our facebook page. Easy, quick
and you can pay through paypal

Yeah for YUMMY soap cake smells amazing- a very large slice
You can purchase this soap on our facebook page.

For those of you who are local, we will be at the Warren Farmers Market  starting this Sunday.
Hope to see you there!!

Bernadette

Pigeon in the Parlour- Holly, MI

Love Affair (Love Spell dupe) Soap

Large slices of Mango Papaya soap cake

Sea Spray Soap

Smores soap for kids

cupcake soap with penguin finger puppet

Hi everyone!! It has been a while since my last blog. I have been working on some new soaps and adding some soaps for kids ( for 3 yrs. and up). The top picture is of  a store in Holly, MI  that has a beautiful display of our soaps. If you are local, you just have to check them out. Pigeon in the Parlour has gorgeous and unique products in their store. The owners are such wonderful people. They are right on the main road in Holly. On May 11th, Holly is having  Ladies Night out from 5pm-9pm. My cousin Marie and I will be at the Pigeon in the Parlour handing out some soap and solid lotion bar samples.
On the same night, my husband Duane will be selling our soaps at  Lakeside Assembly of God Church on Schoennher Rd, Shelby Twp. ( I believe it is from 6-9pm).  There will be plenty of wonderful soaps to purchase for Mother's Day!!

The website is still under construction and there has been some problems that my wonderful cousin is trying to resolve but it should be up and ready to go very soon. If there is anything that you would like to order, please don't hesitate to email me at hedgewaycottagesoaps@yahoo.com or call me at 248-525-4863.
Check us out on facebook and twitter
I hope I can see you soon and I will be posting wherever we will be
Have a great week!!
Bernadette

Spring is in the air... almost

Pink Sugar scented cupcake soaps- a very soft, sexy fragrance

Lavender soap made with lavender essential oil- a must have for spring

Sea Spray has a very clean scent-I love the look of this soap

Lemon & Brown Sugar for the citrus lover

Celebrate with fudgy bubbles with a cherry on top!

Spring is almost here and we'll be at our second Spring craft show this Saturday at the Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan. It's supposed to be a great show with around 150 vendors. People want to spruce up, clean up, and decorate for spring. Dress up your bath with the clean, floral scents of a spring garden....

Lavender, lily of the valley, Lilac, Lemon...... Give your spirit a lift and bathe with the scents of spring!

Hope to see you at the show. It goes from 10am-4pm. . Come to the show and mention this blog and get a free lilac or lily of the valley soap on us. Bernadette

Craft Show For February

Shea Cashmere with Silk cupcake soap will be available at the Henry Ford Craft Show 

Pink Sugar with Silk cupcake soap will be there too!

Peach & Oatmeal and Sea Spray cupcake soaps will be there too!

I'll be bringing my new soaps to the Henry Ford II High School craft show in Sterling Hts. tomorrow from 10am-4pm. You'll also be able to purchase at a deep discount my holiday soaps and others that I need to clear out to make room for the new. So if you like sales, you don't want to miss it. See you tomorrow!!!
Bernadette

Playing around with my handmade lightbox

My husband built me a light box out of a cardboard box and tissue paper.
So, I have been playing around with the best way to take pictures in it.

At first, I took pictures with just the soaps and a plain white background.
I didn't like that. It was bland and boring. So now, I am trying out different
props to compliment my picture and the soap.

This one is OK but it could be better. So I'll re- take these with a different look or prop

He got caught in the net!!!

I like this picture.

I could do more with this one.

My favorite, so far.
It's not easy trying to take pictures of a product and to make it look as good as you know it is! You want the person that is viewing the picture to feel, smell and touch your product through  their eyes when they look at it. That is very hard to do. I'll keep working at it. Let me know if  you can smell these ok? lol

The Fragrance Monster is attacking my Soaps!!!

I piped these in alternating colors of pink and white. The next day they were mustard color.

These are the same cupcakes turned a dark brown. I  scented these in Pink Sugar and didn't  check to see if it had  vanilla that might darken them. I added titanium dioxide (to whiten the soap) but as you can see, didn't make a difference.

Except for the melt and pour cherry, these turned a dark brown. Scented in Rich Dark Chocolate. It just irritates me when I take the time to use different colors and they all disappear into dark brown. My fault though!

I was so happy with the way these came out. They had a buttery yellow color with light green. I scented these in Shea Cashmere.

Except for the pink roses that I piped unscented, the rest is turning dark!

If someone can give me some advice on how to use these fragrances without them changing colors, please contact me. Am I not using enough titanium dioxide? What do you do to keep your true colors? I absolutely love the scent of Pink Sugar. I hate to think that everytime I use it the soap will have to be dark brown. I look forward to your advice. Have a great day everyone!!!

Website under Construction

Hi everyone! The new year brings new changes and Hedgeway Cottage  is going through some good changes too. It's time to grow up and clean up. A better website, more professional looking pictures, a new logo, and of course more beautiful soaps made with new and revised recipes that will be so nice to use for your skin. My new recipes include using Silk tussah which will give your soap a silky luxurious feel.I'm rethinking my packaging too. I'm not sure what I'm doing yet for that. Also, with the upcoming changes, come an increase in pricing. Just starting out, I knew that my prices were lower.Now, in order for my company to thrive, I must increase my prices (not much though) to keep up with the increased prices of supplies, etc. Lavender essential oil is getting quite pricey for example.
We will also be looking to doing more craft shows this Spring and Summer. We are confirmed for the Henry Ford II High School Clearance Craft Show on Feb. 11-12th. So, please come and check us out because we will have quite a bit of soap on sale. We will also have some new soaps. I have some new fragrances that I just love. You'll have to smell them for yourself.
I have some shower orders that I'm working on that is keeping me busy right now. I am always very honored to be able to make shower favors for your special day. I always put my best effort into doing soap favors.
While we are under construction on the website, please contact me by email which is: hedgewaycottagesoaps@yahoo.com or by phone: 248-525-4863.
Have a great week! Talk with you soon!

There are about 56 of these mini cupcakes which include the cream colored ones in the next picture. They are scented with cedarwood amber. If any one is looking for some shower favors, I will sell these for $70.00 for all of them. They are topped with a tiny butterfly bead in multiple colors. Just email me if you are interested.

My all natural moisturizing shampoo and vinegar & water  hair rinse. I'll be trying these today. The shampoo is not thick enough so next time I wont dilute the soap paste as much. I'm working on it so I can offer you a better alternative and a healthier one for your hair. I'll also be working on some laundry soap for you too.

Bernadette