SFIC Soap Base – changes

Just when you think things are rolling along smoothly…. LOL

We love SFIC to death around here. Their melt and pour soap bases are excellent quality, affordable, and they offer a large selection of different varieties. They’re pleasant people to deal with, and ship quickly. BUT, we really do wish they’d make up their minds on how they want to package the bases! (vbg)

When we first started offering their products, they shipped them as two-pound shrinkwrapped logs. Then they switched to one-pound shrinkwrapped blocks. The best change yet (in our opinion, anyway) was when they changed to two-pound resealable, microwaveable, reusable, recyclable plastic tubs with snap-on lids.

We found out recently that they are switching yet again, back to one-pound shrinkwrapped blocks. Apparently plastic resin has gone way up in price, so the price of the tubs has, too. They had a choice – increase their wholesale prices slightly, to cover the cost of the labor to shrinkwrap the blocks, or increase them significantly, to cover the higher price of the tubs. They chose to increase their prices as little as possible, a decision which we respect, because it means we won’t have to raise OUR prices very much, either. We will miss the plastic tubs, as they are very handy – but the shrinkwrapped blocks also mean smaller case sizes, which are easier to handle, and are also easier to ship. They take up less room in the box, and also eliminate any chance of the tubs being damaged if UPS drops a 100-lb. box on top of them. LOL

So we apologize for the inconvenience, but while they are changing over, when you order two pounds of base from us, it may come in the form of either one two-pound tub or two one-pound blocks. Once everything is changed over, we will update the website and change the pricing accordingly. We’ll post again here on the blog to let everyone know about the change – we sure don’t want anyone to order their “usual” number of tubs, only to get half as many pounds of soap base as they were expecting to!

Also, just a reminder…. in case you haven’t looked at all of the varieties lately, we now also have the Organic Oil White and Organic Oil Clear in stock. If you are looking to purchase full case quantities (50 lbs.) of cut-ups of any of their bases, please let us know. At this time, we don’t stock them, but would be happy to special order them for you. With our next order, we will be adding the regular White and Clear soap bases to our product line, in response to customer requests. Our goal for 2011 is to have some custom varieties made exclusively for us…. so we also would like to hear your suggestions for what kinds you’d like to see us offer.

Thanks, as always, for your business and support!

Tags: melt and pour, SFIC, soap base

Website issues today

You may experience difficulty in accessing pages with products and the shopping cart today. Our web host is having some technical issues, and as a result, they are moving the database that powers our shopping cart to a different server. While they are moving the database, you may not be able to access some pages, or the pages may load much more slowly than usual.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, but it can’t be helped, and moving the site should make the performance much better in the long term. Thanks for your understanding!

Lots of new air freshener shapes!

I am so excited…. we got the first batch in of new air freshener shapes!   Now I’ve got to get them all photographed and up on the website.   (That’s the not-so-exciting part.  LOL)  We’ve actually had a couple of these for a few months because they were created in response to special requests, and we had to have more cut before having sufficient stock to put them in the cart.

Here are the new shapes that are not on the site yet – if you want any of these in 10-packs before they’re up on the site, just call us…. if you’re ordering a 100-pack, you can just include them in your list of what shapes you want and how many in the shopping cart.

Airplane
Baby Bottle
Baseball Cap – and the season just started!
Double Heart
Foot
Frog
Hand
Primitive Heart
Primitive Star
Square (rounded corners like our rectangle – can also be used as a diamond!)
Top Hat (think Uncle Sam, Leprechauns, Pilgrims, Prom, etc.)
Tulip

We also have dies in house for a bunch more shapes that will be released in batches of three or four every few months.  Budget restrictions prevented us from having them all cut at once, and anyway, where’s the fun in that?!?  I also didn’t think there would be a whole lot of interest in, say, acorns in April.   LOL   Here are some of the ones that are coming for summer and fall:

Acorn
Candy Corn
Cat
Dog
Fire Hydrant
Football Helmet
Hat (Ladies’ Red-Hat type!)
Horse’s Head
Ladybug
Lighthouse
Scalloped-Edge Circle
Scalloped-Edge Square
Tree #2 (more rounded and Christmas-y than our current tree, which will be renamed Tree #1)

We take your shape suggestions very seriously, and many (if not most!) of the shapes listed above were developed in response to customer requests.  Sometimes it takes a long time to make them a reality – those of you who’ve been waiting for the cat, the dog, and the horse’s head will know what I’m talking about! – but we don’t want to put out an inferior product, and I know you’ll think they were worth the wait!

Tags: air freshener shapes, air fresheners, AromaArt

Trade show

I got a last-minute invitation to attend a trade show this past week, and things fell into place so I could get away for a day.  YAY!

It was a very interesting show…. and it was really nice to be able to say hello to representatives from two of the fragrance houses we do business with and sniff some of their new offerings.  (And yes, they are sending samples for me to test!  LOL)  Would you believe one of the perfumers saw my name badge and remembered having done some custom formulating for me when we were first getting started selling supplies – 7 or 8 years ago??  I was really impressed that he not only remembered our company, but also exactly what fragrances he had created for me.

I walked the show floor for about 5 hours, at which time I’d visited all of the booths that were on my “must-see” list marked in my show program.   Much as I would have loved to browse a bit more and return to a couple of booths that looked interesting but were jammed with people when I approached them, by that point in time my bad back and bad ankle were protesting the abuse I’d been giving them, so it was time to call it a day.

I have a small rolling suitcase full of brochures, business cards, line cards, etc. to go through, and when we are ready, now have sources for a wide variety of items (many of which are warehoused locally in the Chicago area, so we can pick up orders and save on freight!).  These include, but are not limited to, botanical extracts, pigments and micas, exotic oils and butters, silicone derivatives like cyclomethicone and dimethicone, and additives like exfoliants and herbs.   Let’s just say I won’t have ANY problems at all spending our buying budget for the rest of the year….. LOL

I’m eager to hear from all of you as to what you’d like us to purchase first.  Please add comments to this post and share your “wish list” with us!  We always welcome your feedback, but especially in terms of what you want us to add to our product line.

Update on products from the Synergy

Some of you have e-mailed to ask when these items will be available.   The best way for me to address this is probably on a product-by-product basis, so here goes:

IPM (Isopropyl Myristate) – This should be on the site in the next week or two.  We just need to work out pricing and package sizes (we’ve already found a local source to restock it), and research a bit more to provide you with info on how to use it effectively.

99% Isopropyl Alcohol – This one is  not going to happen.  Not only was the container damaged in transit, but I was told that we cannot ship it by UPS in any significant quantity without hazmat charges, due to it’s flammability, so I am not going to pursue it.

Perfumer’s Base – This was also damaged beyond salvageability in transit.  UPS tells me that we can ship in containers of 32 oz. or less, with multiple containers allowed in the same box, without a hazmat charge.  Sheila did point me to the supplier for this item, so I will be contacting them to find out how much we have to purchase at a time and to get pricing.   I want to bring this in ASAP, but much as I would love to have an unlimited buying budget, we don’t.   (sigh)

Bath Bomb Molds – I was able to find a source to reorder these, so they should be up on the site in the next week or two.

Green Tea and Chamomile Extracts – Sheila shared the company name that they were purchased from, but no other specifics.  Upon looking into it, I found that this company carries many different variations of each botanical extract, in different strengths and different solubilities (oil-soluble vs. water soluble).  So it’s impossible to order the exact same one from them without the specific item number, which I haven’t been able to get from her.  I will probably put these on our clearance page and try to find a reliable local source to carry them on a regular basis.

Exfoliating Beads – Sheila says she purchased these as a closeout, and they were 1) only available in blue and 2) are no longer available.  Again, I’ll take the loss and put them on the clearance page, and do my best to find a source to carry them on a regular basis – I may have already found a source for jojoba spheres, which are an even better alternative!

Fragrance Oils – Sheila told me that they were all purchased as closeouts, and did not share vendor information for them, even though she assured me before I ordered that she would provide the info for anything that I wanted to purchase.  These will probably end up on our clearance page.

Powdered Dead Sea Mud – The vendor info was on a label on the bucket, so we should be able to reorder!   I need to contact them to get pricing and lead time, and then will get it on the website (probably 1-2 weeks).

That should be everything – sorry the news wasn’t better.  I’m especially disappointed about the fragrance oils… the time to tell me that they were all closeouts and NOT available regularly should have been BEFORE I ordered them, not after the fact.   (I asked before placing my order if vendor info would be provided so I could reorder, and was assured in writing that it would be).  I e-mailed several weeks ago to ask her who she purchased them from as closeouts, since many fragrance houses will sell even “closeout” fragrances as a special-order item at a higher price, but never heard back from her.  If I ever do, I will definitely pursue them!

New computer is here!

FINALLY…. I didn’t think we’d ever get it! Dell has a THREE MONTH backlog on computer orders right now (custom-built ones, anyway), so we ordered one from their outlet store and are adding some upgrades to it as soon as we can spare it for a day, to make it as close as possible to the one we’d wanted to have built.  Definitely do NOT order a Dell if you’re in a hurry for it – or even for spare parts, as some of those are also out of stock for who knows how long.

I went shopping over the weekend and picked up an external DVD burner and camera card reader, since those parts are not in stock.  Honestly, it’s dangerous to let me browse in MicroCenter (my favorite “geek” store in the area)…. I can find all sorts of gadgets and gizmos that I would love to have.   LOL

And would you believe, we’ve already had to call for a service technician to come out – one of the USB ports on the front is not working. (sigh)

But we’re caught up now, so if you are expecting an e-mailed invoice from us for an order placed in the past three weeks, check your e-mail inbox – they were sent out earlier this afternoon.  Halleluejah!

Thanks, everyone, for your patience and encouragement during the three weeks we were without a primary computer and were working from a borrowed laptop. We wouldn’t have made it through without it!