I had fun making these and spreading the love for Valentine’s Day. I met with Mazzi Peled of Latika Soap for happy hour early this week and was able to give her one. Â I accidentally spilled some of my pink sugar perfume on it, and she was asking me “What is that smell coming out of your purse!” so I ended up giving her a scented valentine! What a happy accident since she loves the smell. We have similar philosophies about formulating & designing, so I love getting to chat with her.
Another way I choose to spread love is through teaching. Each fall I take on an adult intern at feto soap. They usually are on their way to starting their own bath & body business, but want some help learning techniques and production from an established business.
Last year, Kelly Darby of Lucy Kat Soaps was my fall intern. I taught her how to make soap & bath bombs, and she helped me package my products during the fall of 2013. We worked out an arrangement of both in-studio and take-home tasks (like entering emails into a spreadsheet & some packaging duties) because she lives in N. Round Rock and has two young children at home. She was super-organized about her babysitting schedule, so would let me know a week ahead when her studio or take-home task availability was. She also helped me at shows when she was available!
Unbeknownst to us, we had a couple of interests and people in common, like Taylor from Nothing But a Pigeon, a love for yoga and NPR. When she’s not busy chasing after her little ones, she’s working at a yoga studio part-time (like I did!) while she makes her fabulous party favors.
I had the pleasure of having both of them over for a pre-Valentine’s Day
lunch complete with chocolates and champagne! Since I didn’t want us all getting tipsy, I made a variation of Profanity Salmon for us while we snacked on the goat cheese and noshes Kelly brought over. I was too busy eating them to get a picture!
2012’s intern was Andrea Lopez Di Nieri of The Beautiful Beetle. She has a day-job (for now, until her soapy empire takes off, of course!) , so she would come work for me a couple of nights a week in the evenings helping me package all the things I make. I loved her attention to detail and hard work and miss having her in the studio! I call on her when I need help with big events like Formula One last year. One of the first events she helped me at when she started was the Samsung Fall Festival back in 2012 where my Make Your Own Soap Booth was very popular! She got thrown into the fire helping kids make their own soaps! We were only booked there for a couple of hours, but in the first hour alone we made 100 soaps together.
We also had a common interest: swing dancing! Every week she helps out a dance studio owner I’ve known for over a decade now with running their business. She was doing this WHILE she was interning at my studio too!
I’m so grateful to that I was able to share my business tips with these ladies while they helped me grown mine with their hands and hard work. I love watching their businesses grow and evolve.
I’m currently looking for this year’s fall intern. If you are interested, please email me at lisa@fetosoap.com.
I also teach group classes on how to make your own beauty products. Just shoot me an email about what you’d like to make and I can give you a quote. lisa@fetosoap,com