Well, the racks are all overflowing again with new soaps and the stick blender has begged for mercy. All possible soaping pots came out for work this week and I was caught cackling and dancing more than once over a bubbling stock pot. Love my job! Most of this week’s soaps were heavily olive oil based so expect them to be very mild, smooth, and creamy when you get your hands on them! Thanks again to cute Baby Lex for inspiring some new soaps.
As promised, here is the in-stock update. The website is still in progress (one of the hazards of being a chronic do-it-yourself-er who has a habit of researching things almost to death) so I apologize that we haven’t gotten a shopping cart set up yet or launched the site. If required, I’ll go stand in the corner once I finish this post 🙂 All bar soaps are currently priced at $4.25 each, plus any shipping costs or sales tax if you are in Texas. If you are local to the Cypress, TX area, we can be caught at Donna’s Market in October or arrange a pickup to save you shipping costs. All others can order by emailing us directly at txpioneercreations@yahoo.com or contacting us thru this blog and Facebook. And yes, we can always create a gift set for you- just drop us a line and let’s brainstorm!
Ready to ship/pick up: Chocolate (both Vegan and Old Fashioned), Sage & Citrus with Shea Butter, Rain, and our regular Sage & Citrus.
Ready by Sept 30th (currently preorder only): Moroccan Mint, Indonesian Teakwood, Unscented Olive Oil, a vegan Sage and Citrus , and a vegan Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey Scrub Bar. The Green Tea Sand Scrub will also be ready by then but was made in oversized bars so they have a separate price of $5.25 each.
Samples: Ginger Peach Tea, Texas Suds (the beer soap), Vanilla, Chocolate (both kinds), Olive Oil, and Moroccan Mint are currently ready to go home with someone. We will have a few of the Moroccan Mint, Unscented Olive Oil, Indonesian Teakwood, and the Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey Scrub at the end of September also.
I do get the question about letting people have soaps before they are done “curing”, also known around here as “their month on the rack.” The short answer is no, we can not let you have any cold processed soaps until they are done. They need that time to mellow out and we need some time to make sure they pass our quality control testing. Yes, we check our soaps by the batch, even if it’s a recipe I’ve made so often I can make it in my sleep. Never know when a scale will be off in measuring or the mad scientist soaper will get so into the song playing that she forgets to add the fragrance so we make it a policy to double check each batch. Please help me practice being patient and I will gladly keep you updated on your soaps.
Also asked is about our samples since we don’t always have samples on hand for every soap on display. There are a few reasons for that. First, there are only a limited amount of samples so when they’re gone, they’re gone. I don’t make soap specifically for samples; they come from any extras leftover from the larger batch. It is one way I have found to help keep our costs down which allows us to keep our prices lower for you. Secondly, Texas considers samples to be sales taxable which means we have to decide between charging customers for them or we pay it. Currently, we do not charge anything for samples and we try to include a few samples with shipments whenever possible. If you are interested in having only samples mailed directly to you, please contact me directly so we can find a cost-effective way for both of us. I realize that not everyone is interested in the motives behind why a company charges for things, but I believe some are and I try to be completely honest about how we calculate the prices as we do.
Over the next few weeks, I will post some of the pictures of the new soaps along with information about each so everyone can see. Hope all of you have a great weekend in your neck of the woods and I will now step out to clean out my cauldron for the last time this week. Oh yeah, then I guess I might be off to stand in the corner for not finishing our website……
Happy Washing!
Dorothy