New and New(s) from October 16, 2008
The cooler days of Autumn are upon us over here and HH Central — the leaves are turning, the weather’s getting grey, and the garden’s starting to quake in the face of the impending frost.
So it’s a PERFECT time to start doing something new (and hot)!
Introducing: New, hot-process soaps!
These soaps are exactly the same as the soaps you’ve been used to from us, made with exactly the same recipe, right down to the silk protein and fabulous scents. The difference is that they’re ready much, much faster (since they’re made with heat, which is NICE when it’s a crisp autumn morning outside, lemmetellya….), so you can have them shipped right away, rather than waiting for them to cure for four to six weeks. And they’ve got this great texture, too — a little more moisturizing than the others, and they last just marginally longer, with more scent.
Let’s just say we love them. A lot. We’re adding them slowly to the site, and I’ll let you know when the first round is up.
THAT SAID….
WE HAVE AN UPDATE! (*cue crowd cheer*)
There are six (count ‘em!) new scents going up today, mid-month. And another big push coming at the end of October or early November, when the Holiday ‘08 scents go live. (And let me just say — OMG. What we have planned for the Holiday, including not ONE, but TWO limited edition series, is freakin’ awesome. I’m just sayin’.)
What’s going up today (in about two minutes):
- SINFONIA - a tribute to autumn’s reflection of the changing seasons, with a base of greens and dragon’s blood resins, and a heart of lavender for memory.
- SYNESTHIA - A way to hear the color in your life, full of amber and metal, wood and citrus shine.
- HOT STUFF - A core of ancient resin, wrapped in a hot spike of cinnamon for kick.
- ARIA - gingery-warm spice with a bright, fleeting topnote that wavers like a High E
- FIRST KISS - green grass, clear and sweet, with a kiss of mint from the garden.
- A GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT - Resins and manly earth, shaking hands with deep cocoa and milk.
Cupcake Club members will receive most of these and the October Exclusive scent at the end of the month. And since these are General Catalog, cupcakes are available for any or all of the above.
Stay tuned for the new soaps AND the uber-cool Holiday ‘08 editions, coming very, very soon!
No commentsFirst Half of Autumn 08 is LIVE
It’s been a bit of a rough week over here at HH Central after the death of a friend, so only the first half of the Autumn LE ‘08 update has gone live today. More will be added around the time Bohemia goes up, so stay tuned for that — there’s some doozies in there that you won’t want to miss.
We got NEW BOTTLES, too! They’re a bit shorter than the other bottles, since the necks don’t have to accomodate reducer caps (those things leak like no tomorrow), and the glass is a bit thinner, but they are still a full 5 ml, and the nifty aluminum caps sold us on them. They don’t leak, and they’re really pretty. (And our new labels! I love kraft paper. :>)
IN THIS UPDATE:
- The Apple Barrel Collection - five variations on apple scents that are really fabulous, and a special deal if you buy all five….an exclusive cupcake of a never-seen-again fragrance, also apple themed.
- Spiked Cider LE - spicy, with just a touch of gin. Good for keeping warm.
- Roughly ten or so new soaps to choose from, in the soap section
- Two new general catalogue additions — Sail On Silvergirl, which is bright and watery and sparkling; and Freshman, which is deep green and bourbon-vanilla and very very unisex.
Coming soon: more soap (of course) in exclusive, unrepeatable scents, and a whole slew of Autumn fragrances, including more of the woodsy, chilled, leaf-turning variety, and more pumpkin than you can shake a jack o’ lantern at. I’m also working on a masquerade line that may or may not be with Bohemia, just in time for Halloween.
Bohemia is set to go up later this week or early next week (depending on when my friend’s funeral is scheduled — bummer, I know…), and is shaping up to be a HUGE line. The Age of Decadence was very, very fond of perfume, and despite being anti-appearance-oriented, the other bohemians had a very specific idea of what they should smell like through the ages. It’s going to be a *very* fun line.
The shop is here:
under Happy Housewife!
Thank you for all your support and well-wishes!
No commentsnot quite live: working on an idea
My minion, Adminnie (who is the greatest human ever to walk on two legs, lemmetellya…she keeps me sane. Ish. Sane-ish.), said once that the words that most strike fear into her heart are when I say, “So I had this idea…”
Sorry, Minnie.
She’s so going to beat me tomorrow.
Over on the Ravelry group for Happy Housewife, we were talking about the possibility of doing some kind of cupcake club for the perfume samples. People seem to really like the get-it-in-the-mail-regularly thing, and the possibility of trying new scents/things that they wouldn’t normally have picked if left to their own devices. The mechanics of the thing are still a little unformed in my head, but I figure we have three options, which we could either do separately or leave as options for you to choose from.
Here’s what they are:
THE CUPCAKE CLUB, cupcake edition, would run for six months. (At least at first — I’m still determining how much I can handle without turning into JelloEliza.)
Every month for six months, you’d get an envelope from us containing five cupcakes (sample-sized perfume vials, for those who might be happening in here from other places). One of those cupcakes would be an EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED EDITION scent that ONLY Cupcake Club members (of any level) would have access to, and the other four would be scents from that month that we’ve developed. (I’d pick my favorites from the month. Easier that way.)
In addition, there would be an emailed monthly newsletter, and you’d have the ability to buy a bottle of the scent, whereas the general public won’t have a shot at it for a year after the month it debuts on the club.
It’ll run $60USD domestic for the whole six months, which effectively gives you free shipping. (Can’t do that for you international folks, sadly, but we’ll figure that out when we get to it.)
In addition, there might be little prizes and/or giveaways/contests/fun stuff in the newsletter, if I’ve got the time to think ‘em up. Which I usually do. Ask poor Adminnie.
Then there’s the next level:
It’s just a *little* slice…. slightly more than a cupcake, but not enough to put you in sugar coma.
At the Small Slice level, you get one 5ml bottle of the exclusive club scent, plus five cupcakes, selected by us from the month’s new offerings. It’s a little more expensive ($120/6mos domestic, including all shipping), but comes with the same perks AND you get six exclusive bottles by the time it’s done (and 30!! cupcakes!)
There are a few other little gifties I have in mind for these folks, too, but I’m keeping ‘em secret until you get ‘em in the mail.
For my own sanity, I’m thinking of limiting memberships to this one. (And for Adminnie’s sanity, because she’s the one who will have to remind me who gets what. See what I mean? World’s. Greatest. Human.)
And for the really hardcore:
For the people who just can’t get enough sniffy goodness, there’s The Whole Cake level. For six months, you’ll get the newsletter and all the fun stuff, but you’ll also get a cupcake of every blessed thing we make that month.
On the 30th of each month, when we know how much we’ve made for the month prior, we’ll invoice you for $1.75 for each cupcake (just over 10% off the regular price), plus $2 shipping and handling. Some months, that might be 30 new cupcakes, some might only be 10. But you’re guaranteed to get everything we’ve made, including the club-exclusive scent, at the end of every month.
And I’m *really* thinking about limiting this one to around ten people or so, since the time it takes to invoice you and the potential number of part-way dropouts is higher. But the invoice-at-the-end option’s the only way I can think of to do it, since the number of scents created each month fluctuates. If you have any good ideas on how to revise that, I’m all ears. 
SPECIAL NOTE:
The first two clubs may or may not contain the Limited Edition scents. A whole lot of the oils we use to create those are seasonal and/or limited by the distributors, and depending on how many people sign up here, it *could* clear us out before we even *get* a Limited Edition. So those are excluded this first round — we’ll see what we can do, moving forward.
Feedback, anyone? Any fabulous ideas? Feel free to drop us a note, either here at soapAThappyhousewifesoapDOTcom, or in a comment. I’m open to ideas!
(If/when we move forward with this, registration for the clubs will start September 1st, when Bohemia should be just about ready to go live, and the first of the Autumn soaps and scents go up on the shop. Keep checking back to find out how to sign up, and when the new stuff is added.)
Squee!
7 commentsstatus update! 8/20/08
Hello, happy soap people!
Just wanted to drop a note to say that:
a) we’re still working through all the scent orders, and if you ordered soap with a scent, it’s just waiting for more bottles and a few more base oils to be delivered by the friendly UPS man this week. We weren’t quite expecting the giant rush, and I foolishly under-ordered on a few key notes. This is being fixed with some rush ordering and some crazy running around on my part, and shipping times should be way, way down after this first rush is over. (More like 7 - 10 days versus the 21+ that we’re running right now.)
and,
b) In the meantime, while I’m staring pitifully at the scent recipes for the ones I can’t whip up, I’ve been doing a WHOLE LOT of work on the Autumn line, set to debut here on the site in September. It’s called “Bohemia: aesthetes et magiciens” , and is based on the events and personalities of the artists and writers of The Decadence in fin-de-siecle Paris. Expect good things.
My soapmaking production has been way down, due to a faulty scale (which I actually threw ACROSS THE ROOM, and then beat soundly with an axe, in a weird Office Space type moment of frustration). I do expect to have more Dirty Jack in stock soon, along with a bunch of soaps for the Fall line, since the new scale will be here tomorrow. (Yay for a weekend of soapmaking this weekend!)
And with that, I leave you with a preview of the web page and bottle labels for the Boheme series:
p.s. There’s a Ravelry group for Happy Housewives now, too, if you are a fiberista and are so inclined.
soap o’ the day: Archaefructis
This one’s green and hot, boyhowdy.
The Archaefructus sinensis (”The Fruit of China”) is thought by paleobotanists to be the first flowering fruit plant — the mother of all fruits we now know.
We imagine this is what its scent was like: primordeal and verdant, like hardwoods and tibetan juniper, with a musky amber at its base to add a certain lustiness to its first fruit.
Typical soap base, darkened with chocolate and silk for the senses.
It’s *yummy*, and it’s up now. Will be shipped in the first part of September.
No commentstoday’s soap tried to eat my brains.
Or my foot, as the case may be.
I was working on it very late at night (first mistake) without all the proper safety gear (like pants and shoes), and ended up with a nasty chemical burn on my foot.
At least people can’t say I’m not committed. Or shouldn’t *be* committed, as the case may be.
Today’s new one: The Ivory Merchant (no foot included)
All dark wood and rattan, The Ivory Merchant is a heady mix of black and rooiboos teas, a mug of spiced chai, cakes and sweet breads. Orange blossoms flit through the breeze and beyond, the exotic jungle awaits. It’s sweet without being foody, and green-citrus without being leafy.
The soap is our typical blend with powdered cocoa mixed throughout and dusted lightly over the top.
I’ve been wearing the perfume oil of this one all day, because it’s *good*. I know, I’m biased. But really…it’s GOOD.
Popping it up over at the shop here shortly for preorder. Mmm.
No commentsA couple of important things
First of all, thank you guys. All of you. Anyone who ever said “Ooooh, that’s pretty” or bought soap and oils. You people *rule*.
Second, the shop’s open, but not here on-site. The Zen Cart installation here was giving me twitches, and I put them on the L&V Store instead. They’ll eventually be here; I just need to learn a few more things, apparently.
Third, today’s new soap!
Is there anything so comforting as the fresh scent of new linens on the line, drying in the summer sunshine? Crisp white flowers, linen and cotton and a touch of clean, green grass infused by a hot sun, returning a just-new innocence to long-stored heirlooms.
I have it both as a soap (shipping 8/31) and perfume oil. I kinda like it.
Thank you again, y’all. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support.
Hello world!
testing…testing…
is this thing on?
blog coming soon, including a scentlist and some pictures. ooOOOOoooh….
No comments