February 08, 2022
Day in the Life of an Irish Soap Maker - Sophie's Soaps
Hi... this is my first blog post on Sophie's Soaps. I used to blog a lot in college. I ran a blog called The Daily Struggle back in 2016 as part of a college assignment so luckily I have some experience in it and hopefully won't make a massive mess of my first post on here... So basically I wanted to start blogging about my everyday life as a soap maker so maybe you can learn a little more about me :) Let me introduce myself, my name is Sophie Freeman and I am the owner and manufacturer at Sophie's Soaps. Well, I probably could have many more titles because I am the only worker behind the business - a one-woman-show some people would say. I won't bore you with my background just yet... instead I want to take you through my day!
So my alarm went off at 8:am.... I did what any normal person would do and turned it off - said to myself I'll just close my eyes for 5 minutes and BOOM suddenly it's 9am - I get up and get dressed for the day. I had an electrician due to come in and sort out my immersion. I haven't had any hot water in the taps for 2 weeks which makes soap making a complete nightmare. I decided to hoover the stairs out of pure shame in case he judged me for the small bits of straw that were there from filling gift boxes. I had a quick bowl of cornflakes and checked for any post. I ordered some photo prints last week and they arrived in today so I had a good look at them.
As I was sorting through the pictures the doorbell went and it was the electrician! Immersion was fixed fairly quickly and now I can go back to making soap again - delighted! I got an order in from my retailed Green Outlook so I decided to start packing that. The order was for 50 makeup brush cleaners, 20 of each bubble dough, and 30 lemon drop soap bars. While I was packing it I ran of brown paper (typical) so now I have to wait the brown paper I ordered last week arrives before I can ship her order. I'm raging because I hoped to get it out to her today. Anyway, what can you do? I keep in pretty regular contact with Niamh from Bare Blue so I ended up going on my phone for a little while listening to her voice notes that she left me and I responded back. We talk about everything business related and some personal life related stuff. It's lovely to have someone to talk to who also owns a small business and understands what it's life day to day!
I decided to put my immersion to use and put it on for a half hour so I could make two batches of bubble dough as I am nearly out of stock AGAIN :O I love making bubble dough it's so therapeutic I love smooshing things in my hands and this is the perfect product to do that with - with gloves on of course! I ended up making a big batch of Deep Sleep and Super Split. The smell in my house right now is unbelievable! A pro of making cosmetics I suppose is that my house always smells lovely. I did a little demo of the dough in my kitchen sink for my Instagram stories and then took a picture of each dough in front of the bubbles - with the intent of uploading these pics to my product page.... God knows when I'll actually do that...
After making those I popped the heating on, made some dinner, and lit a candle - my usual evening routine! I went online to write down my orders that need to be posted tomorrow. I absolutely love doing this! I get such a kick out of seeing orders coming in - it's so good to think that people like that products that I make. I have been thinking about improving the packaging and labelling of products lately (always looking to improve) so I went looking for some quotes for barcodes and waterproof labelling for products like the shampoo and conditioner bars, shaving soap, and bubble dough. While I am writing this I am realising how much work I got done today haha!
I got all the quotes I was looking for after 2 hours or so of research. Look at that price for waterproof labels.... gives me anxiety just thinking about it. I am going to try to wait it out until June to put through the order just because footing that much money at the minute would be a very bad idea with rent due in less than two weeks... I can't wait for the labels to be waterproof! I've wanted to do it for years but just didn't have the money and I didn't have enough sales coming in to justify such a big expense. Last year I invested most of my sales into buying more equipment so I could fill more orders and this year I am aiming to improve the packaging of all products. I actually can't wait for it. After finishing getting my quotes I decided to have a nice long shower and get into my comfy pyjamas. While I was in the shower I thought... maybe I start blogging again... my mind literally never rests I am always thinking of new things to do. I ended up making myself a lovely big mug of hot chocolate with two Viennese whirls (highly recommend) before I sat down to write this!
It is currently 10:30pm and I am exhausted.... I am going to finally log off and try to shut my brain off for the next hour before I go to sleep. I hope this wasn't painfully long of a blog post. Please let me know what you think of my painfully boring life haha!
Sophie xx
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