Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Does anyone use a really good moisturizing handmade body soap bar? Especially with goat milk and mango or shea butter. Essential oils no fragrance oils. Coconut dries my skin. If you do please share the link or brand.
I got on Etsy today to place a homemade soap order and their soap wasn’t listed, only download recipes. I sent a message asking were they not selling soap. No was the answer for several different reasons. She sent me a website post explaining why they were closing shop, it’s attached. The selfishness in me is upset because it took me over five years of buying soap, soap and more soap till I found the exact formula for my skin. So, back to searching. I really want to make my own soap. I don’t have room for supplies and I would need help. However I love supporting a small business. It used to be the backbone of America and we need it to be that way again.
Summary if you don’t want to dive into the website: I’m very happy for this couple to decide to close their shop. Obstacles with needing larger space, landlords, bigger equipment and hiring help helped them decide they started the business for fun and they don’t want it to be a burden. They are in their fifties and want to be able to spend time with children and family. They mentioned the business might be transformed into teaching to make soap classes online and books. I think this is fabulous they are willing to share experiences and knowledge.
https://muddymint.com/blogs/news/goodbye-my-love
I’m happy for them. It’s a tough decision to scale back, l have done it myself and never regretted the decision. Once you get to the size you need employees quite often your profit goes down abcs so does your quality of life.
Personally, l works have sold the business and still did everything. Still, great stuff.
I used to think I wanted to make stuff at home to sell. Thankfully I’m a bad procrastinator and didn’t get it going. I’m not the type to put up with demanding customers. I agree they did the right thing. Anytime we put family first is the right decision. Glad it worked out for you.
I learned how to make my own soap and it takes less supplies than you might think. Especially for a barebones operation. I get my supplies from Brambleberry but others use other suppliers. If you aren’t using lard or tallow, the soap lasts forever.
I built a soap rack to keep the cat from getting to it, but otherwise I store the supplies under the sink in a bathroom.
Wild Oak Farms (Missouri) has great body butter and @knsfarms makes goat milk products. Not sure if they use coconut oil. But lily hill farms makes the best tallow lotion! These are all Instagram accounts.