New Felice

New Felice - Glycerin with milk and honey. 4 oz bars. Floral with musk.

Breeza

New Breeza, Glycerin with shea butter and goat milk, smells like the ocean. Minimum 4 oz.

Patchouli Goodness

Groovy Patchouli

Patchouli Soap - Ready Nov 25

New Soaps: Icy Lime, Cinque, and Viola

New Soaps - It's been fun making new soaps but not so much taking pictures. It's a challenge to get the pictures just right. Take a look at what is in Bollandi's Curing House:

Viola - Emollient-rich glycerin soap with lavender essential oils - Ready now.

New Icy Lime Shaving Soap - Cold process soap with french green clay- Ready November 20, 2009.

New batch of Arancia - the same lovely cold process soap with pink kaolin clay for nice slip when shaving and sweet orange, pink grapefruit, and patchouli essential oils. A best seller! Ready November 20, 2009.

Cinque - Five in Italian, pronounced Cheen-quay. An emollient rich glycerin soap with Bollandi's own blend of high quality fragrance oils to arrive at a rich and sensual scent. Ready now.

The Lightbox

I built a lightbox today. It was a success! My first victim was Coconilla, a hybrid soap made from emollient-rich glycerin topped off with a generous amount of olive oil-heavy cold process shavings. Guess what it smells like? It's divine. On sale soon at Etsy and Artfire.

New picture... I think I am liking the background on this one, rather than the palm trees. Less busy, plus look how fabulous the soap looks. I'm in love!

Happy Father's Day Sale

Bollandi is holding two sales this weekend, one on Etsy, the other on Artfire, both offering 20 percent off of all products in the store.

Etsy Store

Artfire Store

Happy Father's Day!

Brand New Soap Pics

I held a photo shoot to bring some new life to my soaps. I am not a photographer and don't know a thing about proper lighting when shooting indoors, etc. But I am happy to say that I am thrilled with how this new set turned out. Turns out that natural light is your best friend when taking these kinds of pictures...so outside we went! My friend, Chris, was instrumental in lay out and composition. You can view more at my Flickr account. I am not done uploading all of them yet, but I will be by tomorrow.

New Soaps - No Names Yet, Ready June 15

These soaps are a mixture of cold process soap and glycerin soap. I think they turned out awesome. The blue one is a creamy mixture of coconut and musk. The pink/orange one is sweet orange and jasmine.

Vacation and New Soaps

I'm heading out on vacation for a few days but I wanted to post pics of my two newest soaps that currently reside in the Curing House and an experiment that I think will turn out pretty groovy.

The oatmeal soap is called Avena, which means oatmeal in Italian. And the plain, white-ish one is named Bianca, which means white in Italian. Both soaps are vegan - made with all vegetable oils and no animal products. The only addition is the oatmeal in Avena. Bianca is uncolored and unscented.

I had some Bianca left over so I poured the remainder into a slab-type mold and let it set up a bit, then poured hot, scented, and colored glycerin. It's scented with jasmine and sweet orange eo. It looks really cool and I can't wait to experiment more with this. I will when I get back from vacation.

Love the New Labels

The new labels arrived and they sure are pretty and shiny! I just need to learn to put them on straight. I think this is *one* of the best investments I have made so far. In about three weeks, these labels will have paid for themselves.

I got them from Lightning Labels and I plan to use them again.

New Labels

My new labels are being created as I type this. There is no turning back now! I should have the new look no later than May 15.

Lots Going On: New Studio, New Listings

First, here are the new listings on Etsy and Artfire:

Etsy - The featured listings are the new items.

Artfire - Same as above. One of the many things I like about Artfire is that the customer does not have to sign up for Artfire in order to purchase something from there. Customers can also buy right from my blog by clicking the Artfire listing.

I also moved into a new studio, but this is a temporary location in the same building complex. The tenants are still in the unit that I really want and they should be finishing their construction job soon. Then I will be able to really move in and make it my own. Having all of my equipment and supplies in one spot is the greatest thing ever.

Test

Fiore: Orange Blossoms and Jasmine

The two below soaps will be up for sale soon on Etsy and Artfire.

A Cool Breeze

New Pics

New pictures using different backgrounds.

New Lavanda - Ready May 2, 2009

Ready just in time for Mother's Day... New lavender essential oil and cocoa butter recipe. Delicious and super moisturizing. Ships May 2, 2009. Choose from 7 ounce or 4.5 ounce bar. This new soap will be posted to my on-line shops at Etsy and Artfire on April 27, 2009.


Free Shipping if ordered before May 2, 2009!

7 Ounce Bar





4.5 Ounce Bar - Limited Quantities




Vanilla Sugar - Shea Butter Recipe

Ready May 2.

Sweet Orange and Ginger Essential Oils

Made some yummy shea butter, sweet orange and fresh ginger essential oil soap today.

Yumma! The left overs I put into silicon cupcake molds. They turned out cute!

Another Pic of Bianca

I really like this pic with the turquoise blue plate, white soap, and black background. The pics, along with my photoshop skills, are improving but still aren't where I would like them to be. I have a vision of how I want my pics to look but I don't have the skill yet to pull it off. I'm slowly getting there. I actually would like to hire a professional photographer - and I might just do that. I would rather make soap than mess around with the pics.

Bianca - Very Mild and Unscented

Freshly cut Bianca per custom order. Uncolored, unscented - Shea butter and goat milk soap at its finest.

Samples Sent With Each Order

Little sample bars I send with each order. These are fun and customers love love love them.

Stacked Soap

I love stacked soap.

Better Pic of Arancia (Orange Patch)

I'm learning how to take better product photographs. I'm not saying they are great yet, but I definitely see an improvement over the last batch. Here is a better one of Arancia (Sweet Orange, Pink Grapefruit, and Patchouli essential oils), a yummy shea butter and goat milks soap.

Muscle Rub and Lip Scrub Update

The lip scrub is great. The muscle rub is really great! Last night I had an ache in my arm from throwing the ball for the dogs and I rubbed my Batch #1 over the ache. It literally worked within minutes. I am very pleased. I want it a little harder though so I will work on that this week. I'm still working on the packaging, especially for the lip scrub. A little goes a long way and the lip tubs are small. Still trying to find small labeling or some other alternative...maybe go with a larger tub, etc. Thinking about it.

Muscle Rub and Lip Scrubbie - Testing Phase

A few days ago, I reformulated my muscle rub and lip scrubbie recipes and they are now being tested by my fabulous testers. I made three different concoctions for each product with varying strengths of ingredients.

The lip scrubbie is always lots of fun to make and to test. The purpose of a lip scrub is to gently exfoliate the dead cells from your lips, leaving them smooth and soft from the high-quality oil ingredients. The muscle rub is made with olive oil infused with arnica flowers and is said to relieve muscle aches and pains.

Testing should be done in about three weeks or so. In the meantime, I'll be developing the packaging.

Muscle Rub and Other Stuff

About 7 weeks ago, I put together a cold infusion of olive oil and arnica flowers. It's ready now so today I will be making my test batches of muscle rub.

Menta - Shea Butter and Goat Milk Soap

Menta - Up Close

Apartment Therapy

So, Apartment Therapy is one of my most favorite sites ever. Today they posted several rooms decorated in pinks and reds in honor of St. Valentine's Day. One room in particular caught my eye and I decided that I would copy that room nearly to the T for Bollandi's waiting room/lobby. Please don't ask me, "WHAT waiting room/lobby?" A girl can dream, can't she?

I love love love this. I just would lighten the walls a touch.

New labels: I think I love these and I am getting great feedback. I'm going to live with them for a bit then put in an order with a professional printer.

New Etsy Shop is Open

The Etsy shop is open for business! I only have two kinds up so far. Will post more soon.

Ciao!

Possible New Soap Studio

So, an exciting opportunity just presented itself to me this weekend. There is space available in a location that houses several small business including two fine art studios. Rent and utilities would total less than $500 per month. Financially, I can handle this...but barely, squeakin' by barely! I would have to cut back on a few things but I am willing to make those sacrifices. I am of the opinion that if I don't commit my all to this new business, then why do it. So, I have promised myself one year's time - also because the lease on the new space is for a year. If it doesn't prove cost effective, then it doesn't - and I will move back into my home studio. But I have a feeling it will. I am having very good feelings about this, positive vibes...not feelings of dread and mistakes. I'm not opening a retail store...this will just be my studio.

So, now the fun part! Why would this space be so great? Well, I'll blog about the benefits of being close to those art studios in another post (I have to save stuff to blog about!). This space would be great because:

• It's close to my home
• It's affordable
• There are benefits to the location, which I will blog about in another post
  
• It's big enough for ALL of my stuff and more
• I can keep all of my supplies and inventory in one space (right now, some things I keep in my home studio, some in the main kitchen in the pantry, etc.)
  
• The front door happens to be very close to where my mom has her gallery. Someone needs to keep an eye on that Italian woman!
• It's not at my house - When I come home, maybe my dogs will have missed me.
  
• It's a great reason to go shopping at Ikea.

Ciao!

Olive Oil, Shea Butter, and Goat Milk Soaps

Pics of my cold process soaps made with high quality ingredients such as olive oil, shea butter, goat milk, and essential oils. I'm still trying to get some good shots of them individually.

Top and Bottom: Arancia: Sweet orange, pink grapefruit, and patchouli essential oils
Second: Dolce: Luscious and sweet brown sugar fragrance oil
Third: Lavanda: Lavender and peppermint essential oils

Bella and Menta - Temporary Labels

Still waiting on my labels but here is Bella and Menta with a temp label. High quality glycerin with shea butter and goat milk, scented with jasmine and a touch of musk (Bella) and mint with a bit of rosemary (Menta). These are two of my best sellers.

Soap in the Likeness of Fine Art Paintings

Ok, so doing this isn't on today's agenda. Who cares!

Several of my soaps are for sale to the public at The Studio Experience, the fine art studio where my mother is a partner. For about a year, we have been batting around ideas about how to bring her paintings to life in my soap. I'm still working out the details, but I should be ready to start testing after I move into my new studio. We are still picking out some pieces that would be good starting points, but the below painting is one I would like to try after I get better at it. I'll post pics on this over the next few months. How cool would that be to have this in your bathroom or to give away as gifts or party favors? By the way, this picture doesn't do the original painting justice. In person, it's vibrant and has great energy. I hope she never sells this one. I want it in my house!

From Ciao Bolla to Bollandi

Before we really started selling and putting our name out there, we wanted to change our company name because we discovered Ciao Bolla was similar to another company that makes similar products. We loved the name Ciao Bolla but when we found out about the other company, we had this nagging doubt that we might run into trademarking issues in the future. Obviously, we didn't want any part of that, so we changed to Bollandi.

How did we come up with Bollandi? It took weeks to decide. We literally searched for weeks for names that we liked. It seemed everything was taken. It seems nowadays the only names that aren't already taken are completely made up names. So we made up a bunch of names - didn't like them, went back to the drawing board, thought up more names, liked some, took a poll, more names, another poll, sigh, and so on. To make a long story short, Bollandi won the polls.

Bollandi is:

Bolla (Bolla di sapone, Italian for soap bubble) + Andie (my daughter) = Bollandi

Why the Italian spin? Easy, because we are a large Italian family.

Currently, I'm in the process of switching everything over to Bollandi and waiting on my labels, which should be coming any day now. Then pics, then posting back to Etsy, then open again. Folks can still email me if they want soap before I am up again.

I have three types of silk, shea butter, and goat milk soaps in the curing house - and these were made with the new molds that you see below in a previous post. That reminds me, when that mold company is open again on March 1, I need to order two more.

1. Lavanda: Lavender and Peppermint Essential Oils - Ready 2/13
2. Arancia: Sweet Orange, Pink Grapefruit, and Patchouli Essential Oils - Ready 2/25
3. Dolce: Brown Sugar Fragrance Oil - Ready 2/25

I also have ready the giant (8-9 ounce) glycerin chunks with shea butter and goat milk that you all love so much:

1. Bella - Jasmine with a hint of musk
2. Menta - Mint with a touch of rosemary
3. Oceano - Salty ocean breeze - I should have named this one Breezy...hmmm
4. Felice - Floral with undertones of musk
5. Amore - Pink cotton candy with hints of musk and citrus

Next Up: Bath Fizzies, Muscle Rubs, and Lip Balms. I dug out my old recipes from my old soaping life (The Smelly Soap Company! Good times!) and plan to rework them a little bit, then order containers, etc.

Ciao!

New Molds

New Digital Camera

I bought a new Nikon camera the other day. I love it! I'm still learning how to use it to its full potential so more pictures to come!

Edit: New photos on Flickr - just click the Villa pic and that will take you to Flickr.

Villa - Nice Accident

This one was really an accident. I pulled out a little bit of unscented soap to swirl it but the main portion traced super fast after putting in the sandalwood. I ended up smashing in the unscented soap to the main pot and this is what I came up with. It's a lovely olive, palm, coconut, and canola oil recipe with goat milk and silk. Also sandalwood fragrance. The color and texture reminds me of a picture I saw of an old villa in the hills of Tuscany.

The Three Lavenders

Soap Collage, originally uploaded by Ciao Bolla.

I found a new photo editing program/site that is associated with Flickr. I am spending way too much time here having fun. Now I'm off to make four batches of soap!

Goat's Milk and Bentonite Clay - New Shaving Soap

Cocamint Goat's Milk and Bentonite Clay, originally uploaded by Ciao Bolla.

Hi ~ Just testing out this linked blog thing from flickr. Here's a pic of some new shaving soap I made the other day.