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Product Monday – Annie’s Facial Soap Doing Double Duty

Posted in Products, Skin and Hair Care, tagged geranium rose, natural soap, shampoo bar, shampoo with goat milk, ylang ylang on April 11, 2011| 6 Comments »

One of the joys of being a soap-maker is trying out the soaps that we make. If I had no restraint at all I would have 50 bars of soap in my bathroom, seriously! But, being that I/we try to keep costs down we use one bar at a time, down to the sliver.

Six months ago I announced the Geranium Rose Ylang Ylang goat milk facial soap here. Recently the soap was tried as both as an all-over bath bar, and a shampoo bar. The results were – wow! Kaolin rose clay seems to work wonderfully in the hair. It lathered so beautifully, and left the hair with bounce. That is what I love about natural shampoo bars, they do not add ingredients that coat the hair shaft. Lather, rinse, lather again…get the deep clean, with nothing left behind but hair (especially great for fine/thin hair).

Thumbs up once more for this lightly scented bar. It smells clean but doesn’t overly scent the hair, nor the skin. Gentle…multi purposed! Now it needs a new description, soon to come.

Enjoy!

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Product Monday – Goat Milk and Oatmeal Shampoo Bar

Posted in Products, tagged goat milk shampoo, oatmeal for the hair on March 7, 2011| 7 Comments »

Milk and oatmeal as a shampoo bar? Yes!

So, it started as a fun idea, one that had to be tested. We didn’t want folks packing their hair with whole grain oatmeal.

So good for you – oatmeal is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and essential nutrients which – excellent for skin and hair care.

In soaps and personal care products, oatmeal really can be soothing, especially for sensitive or irritated skin.

If you have ever done an online search for a natural scrub or mask recipe, you might already know that oatmeal is right at the top of the list. Normally, the cooked oatmeal is allowed to cool and the “milk” or liquid part of the oatmeal is applied to the skin. With that in mind, we developed the Goat Milk and Oatmeal shampoo bar – containing all of the benefits of oatmeal, including the milk and liquids from the oatmeal, filtering out the “scrubbies” that might be left behind in hair.

We added a light touch of Geranium Rose (known to be good for sebum balance) and Ylang Ylang (soothing) essential oils to this shampoo bar just for a beneficial, very soft and beautiful scent.

Annie’s Goat Milk and Oatmeal shampoo bar can now be found in our online soap shop.

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Price Changes in 2011

Posted in AGH Business News, Products, tagged economical impact on pricing, increase in product prices, product pricing on February 24, 2011| 8 Comments »

We have been working on several activities this year to ensure we keep our product prices as low as possible.

We have conciously focused on purchasing supplies in as much bulk as possible, truly short of needing a fork-lift. By buying in bulk, we keep the bottom-line cost of base butters and oils, fragrance and essential oils, and even caps and bottles, to a minimum.

The cost of shipping fees, ingredients, utilities, and even fuel costs have increased rapidly over the past 2 – 3 years. We shielded our customers from the increased costs by running bulk promotions such as The Brown Bag Special, The 5-Bar Special, and Soap Logs. We did not increase the retail price of most of our products.

There comes a time when a company needs to increase product prices to stay afloat. With that in mind, Annie’s Goat Hill Handrafted Soaps plans to head back off of the slippery slope by scrutinizing the manufacturing cost of each of our products.

Our pricing will no longer be based on an average cost of ingredients, instead, each product price will be based on what it costs to produce the actual item.

So, to bundle this up, some of our prices will decrease, such as the 4 oz goat milk lotions, and some of the unscented goat milk soaps. Some of our prices will increase, such as our pure Patchouli Goat Milk soap. If the cost of patchouli essential oil suddenly drops in the future, so will our pricing.

Our promise to our customers is to continue providing quality, good-for-your-skin products. Our quality will not, and has not, changed. A bar of our soap weighs just as much, if not more, than it did in past years. You can count on it!

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Product Tuesday – Goat Milk Soap with Cocoa Butter

Posted in Products, tagged goat milk soap with cocoa butter, handcrafted soap with cocoa butter, soap for dry skin on January 17, 2011| 3 Comments »

We were not sure what to expect when we added cocoa butter to our goat milk soap formula. When a soap-maker experiments with a formula, she/he knows they will produce a product that either passes or flops. Flops aren’t so bad, a person just never does it again (in theory)!

We were looking for a hard, long-lasting bar of soap with the cocoa butter, but did not expect the wonderful lather and creaminess, nor the emollient qualities. It definitely is not a flop!

For a limited time only we are offering Goat Milk Soap with Cocoa Butter, in Unscented and Sandalwood Lime.

The Sandalwood Lime is deliberately scented lightly. We had a masculine scent in mind, but also wanted the soap to reflect mildness. Women will like the scent as well as men.

I have been using shampoo bars for many months now. I often end up testing regular soap bars as shampoo, like I did this one. Loved it!

Waiting for the bars to cure and harden is now a thing of the past, Annie’s Goat Milk Soap with Cocoa Butter was added to our online store today.

Enjoy!

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Rosemary – Not Just For Cooking

Posted in In The Soap Shop, Products, Skin and Hair Care, tagged Goat Milk Lotion, natural lip preparations, rosemary essential oil on January 13, 2011| 2 Comments »

Being a farmer, I am used to working outdoors, year-round. This winter, with making preparations at the new farm, we are working outside a lot more than normal.

Working outside in the cold and wind has left me looking like I am competing at a seaside lobster-fest, uncomfortable and a bit red in the face for January, especially after I forgot to stop and treat my face while working outdoors all day.

One morning, my lips felt extra chapped before I headed out the door to feed the goats. I eyed the bottle of goat milk lotion containing rosemary essential oil sitting next to the supplies I was taking out the door with me. The rosemary lotion was something I made at one point but didn’t like as a skin lotion, too herbal (like something to be cooked). As I headed out the door that morning, in a pinch, I decided to apply a drop of the lotion to my lips. Surprise! It felt wonderful. It was cooling and my lips felt better conditioned and really did feel more protected as I worked in the cold.

The next morning I deliberately applied the rosemary goat milk lotion to both my lips and my chin area. A girl needs all of the protection she can get from the nasty outdoor elements. It worked again. Now the rosemary lotion application is a ritual before I head out the door. Funny how the store-bought lip ointment no longer seems to do the trick. Toss it too? Probably. Just like I did the store-bought face cream.

Perhaps it is the aloe vera, or the jojoba, or the shea butter, or a combination of everything in the lotion formula that works. I know the rosemary is doing a great job.

The fun of discovery…the almost…not quite. With it being personally helpful to the body. I like it.

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Still Waters Goat Milk Soap

Posted in In The Soap Shop, Products, tagged Goat Milk Soap on January 11, 2011| 9 Comments »

Since our Ocean Breeze goat milk soap is being discontinued, I want to point out that our Still Waters goat milk soap is a close follow up if you are looking for something similar. It has a fresh clean scent, not overpowering, with a silky lather.

Still Waters is a good soap to hi-lite this week since it is a year old, first introduced to our online soap store last January, with a theme in mind – calm after the holidays.

I hope you are experiencing peace and calm this new year!

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Product Monday – Goat Milk Soap Updates

Posted in In The Soap Shop, Products, tagged Goat Milk Soap on January 10, 2011| 4 Comments »

After nearly a year, we are putting our Ocean Breeze goat milk soap to rest. It started out as a beautiful blue/green soap with white chips – representing the waves of the ocean, white sea foam, and white sand. Even the change to the Ocean Breeze edition (pictured above) was pretty. But we found the blend to be an incredibly difficult fragrance to work with. The soap batches often seized, or at times did not “take” at all. Goodbye Ocean Breeze, with your clean fresh scent, you will definitely be missed!

On the curing racks are goat milk soaps with cocoa butter. We are going to call them For Limited Time Only, but who knows, we (and you) may love them so much we will keep them in production. We shall see. How about a Sandalwood Lime fragrance blend? I find the aroma to be light, warm, and soft. Masculine, but not so much.

Enjoy your soap – we enjoy knowing you are happy!

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Selling Products Online Without Product Images

Posted in AGH Business News, In The Soap Shop, Products, tagged business integrity, goat milk soaps, trust on January 4, 2011| 3 Comments »

Recently we experienced the disappearance of all of our product images from our online store.

All of the images have since been restored. The job was made easier by the fact that we have less soaps to display until we rebuild our soap stock, following a wonderful holiday season.

As orders began to trickle in, despite the absence of photographs, it became obvious to us that our “regular” customers do trust our integrity. They know we are going to deliver the same quality soaps and lotions, pictures provided or not.

Thank you to everyone!

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The Choice Is What We Are About

Posted in AGH Business News, Products on December 14, 2010| 2 Comments »

At Annie’s Goat Hill we offer a choice in products – from natural to nearly natural (products made from a natural base with man-made ingredients added).

When we started our soap business in 2003 we focused on 100% natural products. Since that time our customers have requested products that contain fragrance oils, such as our very popular Cherries and Berries goat milk soap and lotion.

What you can be sure of is, when we describe a product to you on our website, or in a discussion, we are going to tell you the product contains either an essential oil (100% natural) or a fragrance (man-made). We tell it like it is. If you prefer 100% natural, you can choose a soap that has no fragrance added or essential oils only.

We like it that way – your choice!

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Musings – Christmas Soap and Lotion Business

Posted in AGH Business News, All In A Day's Time, Products, tagged Goat Milk Lotion, Goat Milk Soap, holiday handcrafted soap, small business musings on December 5, 2010| 5 Comments »

My husband and I have been tag-teaming in the soap shop. He has taken over many animal duties to ensure we are able to stick with our one to two-day turnaround with retail orders. He has also done an excellent job of boxing soaps and labeling lotions and packages. I am blessed to have a wonderful partner, my best friend, who brings the extra gift of a lot of laughter to the soap studio!

Despite the busyness, I have done a lot of thinking. The big broom came out and swept away my idea that we should never run out of any particular type of soap. My new philosophy, the early bird gets the worm. I had to beat it into myself, seriously! But…the fact is, if I were to shop at a big-name department store very late in the season, I may not find everything that I want, but if I shop early enough, I will find full shelves, with a huge selection!

With that being said, and without sounding like a running advertisement, we do still have a bounty of holiday soaps available. Also fully stocked are the favorites, such as Cherries and Berries goat milk soap.

My parting words (also derived from the big sweep that I did on myself), remember to take a break and enjoy the season! I strongly believe a person accomplishes much more by resting appropriately. Nobody can enjoy life itself while feeling stretched and stressed!

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