After our twins were born and we finally had them at home we started to become much more aware of the cleaning products that we were using around our house. One of the products that we became acutely aware of was the soap that we use when bathing ourselves and our baby girls. So instead of buying commercially made soap, we looked for a source for hand-made soap.
And that is the why soapmaker Betty Jane Ware, owner of Goddess Blends Soaps of Kingston, Ontario came onto our radar.
Before buying any soap from Goddess Blends I decided to ask Ware some questions about her soap. She happily agreed to answer any questions as well as send me a free sampler of her soaps. Within a couple of days of her dropping them in the post we had an envelope in our mailbox with four 113 gram bars of soap: lavender soap, mojito soap, cucumber aloe soap and raspberry mint. Each bar had such incredibly delicious scents that I was almost tempted to bite into the soap. I resisted.
First thing I wanted to know was what got her into the soap making business in the first place. She told me that her journey into soapmaking began from a rather different perspective than most; she is a practicing witch.Yes, a witch. And one of the things a witch does to prepare for ritual is a bath or cleansing for the particular ritual. She notes “I wanted to use something specifically for me that brought in the elements of whatever I was working on, this led me to soap making.”
Okay, now that is definitely unique! So what made you want to start a business of selling soap? She says that selling happened more by accident than design. While making soap for herself one time she made more soap than she could personally use. The first recipient loved her handmade soap and there it was, her business was started. It has continued to grow from that point.
The best thing she’s learned as a soapmaker is that there is always more to learn and finds within the Handcrafted Soap-makers Guild, of which Betty Jane is a member, a willingness to share information and experience. She found the Guild while searching online and she joined right away. As well as being a soap-maker, she is also a certified herbalist.
Betty Jane’s advice for new soapers: “Join the Guild for the information and expertise that comes at so low a cost and GO TO CONFERENCE!”
Last year she attended the conference and says that she had a blast as well as learned many new things. She emphasizes, “You cannot put a price tag on what you learn at Conference. You will meet suppliers, fellow soapers, and business mentors. There is no way that you should miss out on this opportunity.”
To help you, our reader get an idea of just how luxurious these handmade soaps actually are, Betty Jane has very generously offered to be part of our second giveaway. To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is add a comment to this blog post describing your favourite soapy-sudsy memory AND post the web address for Goddess Blends Soap into your comment.
To give you a hint about the type of comments, here is mine; when I was about 10 years old I discovered that whenever I dropped the F-bomb I got a wild reaction. This continued until my older cousin Clayton and my Dad held me down and washed my mouth out with soap. My first word post-sudsing? The F-bomb.
What is your favourite memory? Remember to keep it clean (until you get your soap). Add your comments up until one minute before midnight on Friday, August 27th and at one minute after midnight I will randomly draw one winner from all the entrants.
I will then contact you via the email address you have provided and within 24 hours you respond, I email your mailing address to Goddess Blends Soaps and a short while after that you are bathing with the most delicious bar of soap. If you want the Skinny on Entering Contests (the rules, so to speak) click here.
Let’s have it people. Post your comments. And that link.
Comments
16 responses to “Goddess Blends Soap; Another Giveaway!!”
My favorite memory is when I was about 9 or 10 and I used to help my Grandmother take care of my younger brothers. When my first brother was about 2 or 3 I used to bath him in a bucket that he fit perfectly in! We always had so much fun at bathtime when he was in his bucket. http://www.goddessblendssoaps.com/
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I would love to win and experience “Goddess Blends Soaps” and here’s why. Quite a few years ago, I worked with a woman that had a second job making “homemade” soap. She would often mention the soap and try to encourage me to try it. When I found out the price I reacted, well let’s say I kinda freaked out and never bought any. Needless to say she never gave up on me and ended gifting me some. Well it only took using the soap once for me to “become a believer”. The price is not an issue when you are using such a divine product and since then I have sought after many different home based business soaps and look forward to trying the Goddess Blends Soap. http://www.goddessblendssoaps.com/
Whenever I think of soap, I always think of those wonderful bubble baths I had in my grandmothers tub. There was a wide array of products – English bath salts, various bubble bath products (no Mr. Bubble here) and a lavender soap that I still to this day buy. http://www.goddessblendssoaps.com/
I have a contest to give away $100 Canadian Tire gift card and get a couple comments. I have a giveaway of soap and WOW!! The comments roll in!! Please do not forget to add in the web link to the Goddess Blends Soap.
I remember being at my father-inlaw’s and my son decided he wanted to be batman so took a bath in “grandpa’s oil”. The whole time I had him in the metal tub trying to get it off, I kept thinking if only I had some real nice smelling soap to take this
away. To this day I still try to find some real nice smelling soaps as the smell of oil is still with me.
http://www.goddessblendssoaps.com/
I remember finding out that my grandfather didn’t actually smell like that. He was always musky, and I had grown up believing that this was just the way he smelled, secreting the musk into his clothes and even the coat in the hall closet. I was so disappointed when I realized the scent was really a combination of the hearty, super-strong soap he used to clean in the hard Saskatchewan water and his old spice aftershave – until I realized that this meant I could smell like Grandpa too!
http://www.goddessblendssoaps.com/
Wow reading these brought back an early memory of soap for me … when I was young, people only had a bath once a week .. no shower available either … I remember my Mom had a special soap that she reserved for herself , it was rose scented , the rest of us had to make do with Sunlight bar soap … WELL this one Saturday night after it was my turn to use the bath , I took my Mom’s soap , thinking how nice it would be to have that scent … oh I had the scent for sure and my little secret was discovered when my Mom came back into the room … and Stacey “rose scented soap” doesn’t taste good either.
http://www.goddessblendssoaps.com/
Who would have thought that soap would bring such a flood of memories! Wonderful stories being shared here. Thank you all!!
A memory of soap for me isnt that long ago. While being a janitor for the school district I had the honor of cleaning up a classroom of 1st graders after they made home-made soap for Mother’s Day. Needless to say they had soap everywhere. The Teacher didn’t get the correct combinations of ingreadience so the soap would not form correctly. The kids tried everything to get it to mold in the mold including glue! The mess they left me was a sight to be behold. Not only soap but soap mixed with glue. That was one clean classroom by the time I got all the soap off the entire clasroom.
One interesting bath I took was in an apartment in Albania. There was no tub or shower, just a drain in the floor. Weekly a metal drum of water was heated over a small camping stove. We would take turns pouring water on ourselves, soaping up and rinsing. It worked well. By then I had gotten used to the chickens crouching in the corner. The family had no refrigeration, and chicken dinner was always fresh.
Having hyper sensitive skin, I’d love to try something ‘homemade’..I do buy soap online, but it has a few, very few ingredients, and only mild natural scent..not from Canada though..so I’d love to have the opportunity to be PC abot it!
Okay..now I’ll actually follow the rules and post the website:
http://www.goddessblendssoaps.com/
My favourite memory? When I tried for the first time a super -expensive but absolutely luxurious French milled soap a friend gave me for Christmas one year..I’ll never forget it, but it came from a tiny store in Seattle, so…*sigh*
http://www.goddessblendssoaps.com/ My soap memory? Well, let’s just say that a group of 20-something camp counsellors breaking into the pool after the campers were in bed made some very slippery use of the soap … and resulted in no invitation to come back and work the next summer. (I think it was worth it….)
The winner of our soap giveaway is Marilyn W after her “rose-flavoured” soap story.
Thank you all for entering. Stay tuned for our next exciting give away…I’m working on getting two tix to the Travis Tritt concert at the Fraser Downs Raceway. Stay-tuned!!
Cograts to Marilyn W.
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