Price list

I have decided to start accepting orders with cash or check until I can get the website up and going. Please email me at info@theepicbath.com for details or to place an order. Below is my product line and pricing.

Here are the available flavors:

Aether Escape - a fresh rain fragrance designed to refresh you!

Ahimsa - this blend of jasmine and honey is relaxing and rejuvinating

All Sorts - Available only in 4oz & 6oz bars, this has a little bit of something for everyone!

Butter Me Up - a mouth-watering blend that will have you craving fresh butter cookies!

Call Me - A seductive selection of lavender, vanilla & pikaki perfect for date night.

Carnival Candy - a fun, frisky apple & pear blend that will remind you of your favorite night at the carnival.

Clean Bee - Available only as 4oz or 6oz soap bars, this 'honey' of a soap will give you the best skin in the hive.

Day at the Beach - This will have you ready for a day of playing in the surf, searching for shells, and building sand castles. Perfect for the guys too!

Down Under - Down under the weather? Try this blend of eucalyptus, tea tree & arnica to help open up the sinuses and chase away the winter blues.

Hawaiian Goddess - Can't afford a trip the islands? Have your own hawaiian getaway with this mix of plumeria, pikaki and coconut. Pairs wonderfully with the Day at the Beach series.

Lemonade - a fun pairing of Lemon & Lime that will have you thirsty for a glass!

Pomander Faire - Orange, Clove & Pikaki will have you wondering through the trails at your favorite country fair in no time!

Summer Retreat - If you loved olde time cream soda, you'll love this orange and vanilla line.

When in Rome - Lavender, Vanilla and Honey where used to cure insomnia back in ancient times and it still works today. Forget the worries of the day and have lovely dreams with this series.

Except where noted above, all the flavors are available in these products:

4oz Soap Bar - $5.95 +tax

6oz Soap Bar - $7.95 +tax

2oz Bubble Bars - $6.95 +tax

These bubble bars are solid bubble bath, and are big enough to be used for 3 baths. Best used if crumbled into the tub before you turn on the water.

Bath Bombs - $7.95 +tax

Drop into the water to release the fizz and the oils into your bath

Fizzy Bath Salt 8oz - $7.95 +tax

Salt-n-Sugar Scrubs - $8.95 +tax

Bath Shots - $5.95 +tax

A smaller bath bomb wrapped in a 4oz soap shot glass. Drop into the bath for a quick get-away.

All products contain witch hazel and vitamin E. The soap bars are a vegetable glycerin base and contain no lye.

Please allow 12-14 days for delivery. Once I have your order, I will email you back and let you know what the total is (including shipping & tax), and where to mail the check.

Shipping will be as follows:

Under $30 order - $5

$30.01-$70 order - $11

$70.01 and above - I will have to calculate this and get back to you. It will depend on how many boxes it will fit into.

I am going to be using the flat rate boxes from the USPS, so make sure you get the most for your shipping cost!

Please see my facebook page for The Epic Bath to see pictures of the prodcuts, and email me at info@theepicbath.com to order.

Thanks!

~Mikki Kiger, Owner

The move and other business

So the move was hectic, but after 2 days, everything is in the new place and the old place has been cleaned and ready to be turned over. I am a little worried about getting back on track with the business, I have a payment gateway that is currently draining on the meager amount in the operations account, and a shopping cart that I haven't finished yet that I will need to use the main computer to figure out. I'm thinking of just launching the generic site for now, just to get some income going. I still don't have my logo, and I don't think I will have it in time for Cues & Tattoos. The other thing is that I need to get the tax stuff figured out and start book keeping. So far it's not that bad, because I haven't really had any income, it's mostly just been costs for set up and all that. But I need to get things on paper. I also am due a refund from my payment gateway because they charged me for equipment I didn't ask for.

I'm hoping to get a little relief on the money end of things soon, we need to get our taxes done and then I'm hoping we will get most of our deposit back. Our landlord has been acting a little weird ever since we told her we were moving out and she's been very cold and put out when talking to us, but we did a lot of work to restore the apartment to it's previous condition, and we even repaired a bunch of damage the people before us did, so I think she'll be pleased with the condition of the apartment and doesn't have a real reason to keep the deposit. it was $1600 all-together with the pet deposit, including $300 non-refundable, so that should more then enough to finish anything that may be needed.

The kids (kittens) seem to be adjusting well, Slinky is a new cat. He really likes the new place. They have their new fort (a 5-level cat tree) by the window, so they seem to be pretty content. I will be working on the website among job interviews, I have one on Friday and possibly one next week. I still haven't heard about the job that I will need to interview for in New Jersey. I really want to make that one work, of all the opportunities, I want that one, but I need to keep looking for my unemployment, but I need to keep my eyes open so I don't pass up a decent offer if it should come up.

I will continue to blog, and hope to be up and running website wise in a few days after more things get settled.

Stay tuned :)

~m

Some random bath facts

So ever wonder where some of those obscure sayings come from? Well, here's a few that I found out:

"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" refers to when people only took baths once a year or so. On "Bath Day" the head of the household would get to bathe with the clean water, then the sons (oldest to youngest) then the wife, and the daughters, and last of all, the babies. By that time, the water was so murky you could lose the little one in the water if you weren't careful!

Ever wonder why there are so many wedding in June? Or why the Bride carries a bouquet of flowers? With bathing only once a year, Bath Day was traditionally in May, so if you got married in June, you still smelled pretty good, as opposed to getting married after the summer swelter. But since it had been a month or so, the bride carried the bouquet of fragrant flowers to hide any odors from her intended.

Other amusing ones that don't really have anything to do with bathing are:

"Raining cats & dogs" is from the time when we used to thatch our houses with straw, and the animals would climb up into the roof to keep warm. When it rained, of course, the straw would get soft, and the animal's weight couldn't be supported, and the would fall through the roof, 'raining' into the house below.

Coincidently, that's why people had canopy beds, which were hard-topped to begin with. It kept the animals (and other various debris and bugs) from falling onto your head while you were sleeping.

And going a little morbid for a few minutes:

A 'Wake' comes from the times when lead cups were used in bars, and people occasionally succumbed to lead poisoning on their way home from the local pub, passing out "dead drunk" on the street and being mistaken for being dead. They would be brought home to their families, where they would be laid out on a table and the family would drink and eat and wait and see if the person woke up. If after 3 days they didn't, they were pronounced dead and buried.

Around this time, England was having a problem with overcrowding of cemeteries. They would dig up graves to bury more people in the same place. Because of the tendency to bury people who weren't actually dead, and because more then a few times when they dug someone up there were nail marks on the lid, they started to tie a string around the supposed deceased's wrist that was connected to a bell above ground. A person was stationed to sit in the graveyard all night and listen for the "dead ringers" to dig someone up should the need arise. That is where we get "Graveyard Shift" from.

Ok, that's enough. I hope you've enjoyed this random, yet semi-educational journey into the random facts in my mind, even if not totally bath-related. If you know any interesting facts, please comment with them because I just love this kind of stuff. It's very interesting.

Good Night Moon! (and everyone under it's gossamer glow)

~m

Snow in February

So I wonder why everyone in Seattle was so freaked out about the snow in February? Not like it's anything new. The winters here follow as such: Cold start, warm after the holidays and then one more arctic blast for good measure to send us into spring on the right foot. The snow came, actually stuck to the ground in a few places, but the roads were nice and clear by the time the day really got started. Sigh.

I have a job interview for a lighting manufacturing company coming up in the next couple of weeks, but not to worry sports fans, The Epic Bath WILL continue on as planned. I am still searching for the fix for the website, but I think I have stumbled upon a lead.....more on that later. I will, however, be taking a brief pause from soap making and the rest of the world at large while my husband and I prepare to move to Federal Way next weekend. In an effort to make things go more smoothly, we have already started the packing process and have a narrow path in the hallway between the packed and not yet built, ready to be packed, boxes. I'd say we are about 70% ready to go, because most of what's been packed were things that were in cupboards and the like. It's weird though, because if you look around our place, it doesn't look like we've hardly done anything!

But in order to make things go more smoothly, I will be packing up the lab either Friday or Saturday, and tucking the already made product into a box for safe keeping until the move is complete and I can again 'set up shop' in the new place. Moving is always such a stressful time, good thing I have plenty of Bath bombs to get me through! They are leftovers from the experimental days and since have changed in either color or composition (I've since added Jasmine tea to my Ahimsa Bombs and the Carnival Candy Bombs are now pink) and I cannot sell these ones, so I'll just have to use them myself! Darn!

Anyway, I will keep blogging through the next couple of weeks but I won't be able to create anything new until I get set up in the new place. So...until then, dear readers. Until then.

~m

Movie Star Bubbles!

I kid you not. My new recipe for the bubble bar literally makes bubbles that would make Mr. Bubble turn green with envy. I used a full bar (did I mention I'm totally in LOVE with product testing?) and I had to be careful not to spill over the sides! I had fun reliving bubble baths as a kid, where the bubbles clung to your arm and then fell with a plop on your belly and kind of stood there in a pile. And after they started to fade, because we all know the bubbles are finicky creatures and do not stay forever, I turned on the water and they came BACK! And not that wimpy second-wind type bubbles that barely cover the surface of the water, like normal bubble bath gives you, but the full on stackable, sculptable bubbles, like the kind that used to get you in trouble as a kid for taking too long in the bath because you weren't quite finished with your Eifle Tower of bubbles :)

In other news, the website has had a setback, not a major one, but a big enough one that I probably won't be launching for another few weeks. Until then, if you're dying to get some of my products, contact me on facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Epic-Bath/186764264671969 or email me at info@theepicbath.com and we can work something out. I will be making product and selling at Cues & Tattoos here in Seattle, March 25th-27th at the Seattle Center. Just look for me at the Skin Deep Studio table :) I am also returning to regular 40-hour-a-week land, and I have an interview tomorrow for a pretty kick-ass job actually :) I won't say much more because I don't want to jinx myself, I've probably already said too much, but it will be a welcome change if fortune smiles. I fully intend to charge forward with plans for The Epic Bath, and will be selling my lovely creations to the population at large. But more on that later.

Back to the topic at hand:

So if you've never seen a proper Silver Screen bubble bath, you can check out House on Haunted Hill, and Knocked Up. THOSE are bubbles. And I has them.

In short-

Best. Bubble. Bath. Ever.

Ever.

The Day is coming....

Very soon, I will launch my website and officially be open for business. It feels a lot longer then just 3 short months from first hatching the idea of my own business to actually having a tangible operating business. It feels a bit surreal, actually.

As I open this new chapter of my life, I look back at the last 3 months of my life and the changes that have happened and it is a bit aw-inspiring. I've lost my job, my dad and my home all within the last 3 months, but I've also found how resilient I can be in the face of adversity. I have goals for myself and my business, and they are high. They have to be. They are set such as to give me something to work towards that is my "ideal". If I settle for anything less, I fear that things I do will never be more then passing whims of fancy. This is really something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life, and while it's scary as hell, I am absolutely resolute in my path, and I know what I want and what I need to get there.

Anyway, dear readers, please check back soon for a special "Grand Opening" offer from me, for you, for reading my random musings and offering the support I needed to achieve what I have so far. Without it, I fear The Epic Bath would never have been born, and for that support, I am deeply grateful.

~m

Product Research

So I officially love my new job. Soap making is wonderfully creative, and it's really fulfilling to see people genuinely enjoy my creations. I'm making great progress on my website, and have found several new combinations of oils and scents that are lovely! And while I'm on track and have discovered a great recipe for bubble bath, I'm concerned that it doesn't appear to be as good as my competitors. I took a bath with my leftovers from my last Lush run, and one of them was the solid bubble bars that they have, and it makes a great amount of bubbles in the bath, and they are able to be brought back, and I'm just worried that my recipe won't hold up to that. I only made one batch, and that was for a friend, so I'll need to hit her up to see how she felt it worked.

I really want to figure out how to make the Hollywood style Bubble baths, where there are mountains and mountains of frothy bubbles to luxuriate in. However, I have a sneaky suspicion that those are the whole "movie magic" tricks, and bubblebaths like that don't really exist. Which gives me a sad.

But I do love the fact research for my work includes me sitting in a bath and relaxing ;)\

~m

Marketing & Advertising vs. the American Consumer

So the fact that I'm starting a business means that I've been paying more attention the marketing and advertising, like commercials. If you peel back the layers of music, lights and the Americanized standard of beauty actors, alot of the messages are mostly boiled down to this "Drink/eat/use ______, HOT women/men will have sex with you" Really? Is that really what drives the Amercian consumer? Sex? That's it? You would think, that for something that only lasts for a short while, that less people would fall for that. But I guess the old saying is right. Sex is like air. It's not important unless you're not getting any.

So what am I to do about marketing for my product? Do I follow suit? I would like to say that I'm above it all and that sometimes you just have to stick with what works. I'm hoping that since the mission of my store & it's products is to make your home your sanctuary, (not just smell good so you'll be attractive to the opposite sex enough so that they will take you home for a night), that I will have other marketing options.

Had a good talk with a friend who works for a marketing research company in Seattle, and we discussed some options for what I can do in the future, mailers and interactive type marketing, but for now, I'm going to use the tools that are available to me: the interwebs and social networks. Now I hope that people are reading this blog, and that if they like what they read they will tell their friends, but I need to figure out how to cast a wider net. So I'm going to try to go to some local Farmer's Markets during the summer, and try to hit some fairs and local town celebration days and get a booth and sell at the craft fairs. I hope that this will give me more exposure to a wider audience and that I will get some orders from that. I'll have to figure out if it's cost effective to do that, but we'll see. I hate the old adage of having to spend money to make money, because it seems to me the people who make the most money hardly spend any at all.

I'm thinking I'm just a few weeks from officially "opening my doors" for business, just need to get the merchant pay gateway set up, which I've found one and am working on that part of it, and after that, I'll be offering a special promotion code for my blog readers to use for their first order!

Stay tuned! Big things are just around the corner :)

Wishing you bubble-filled dreams tonight

~m

Bubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble.......

Bubble Bath success! (Finally!) Got a shipment of magic powder in and it is apparently the secret to a nice bubble for a bubble bath. Wish is wasn't so expensive though.....

Found a nice recipe for what is going to be the Butter Ball line.....has a nice aroma and the bubble bath looks like soft butter! Who doesn't love butter? and this kind won't make you gain weight, although you almost could from the smell.....mmmm....heavenly.

Also made some special items for Miss Jacqueline Hyde's Afternoon Teas Party which is happening this Sunday Feb 6th @ the Can Can 4pm here in Seattle :) She's officially my first customer! I made glitter soap, bath salt and a JUMBO bath bomb (seriously, it's like 4 of the my regular bombs) in two fragrances for the occasion :) It will get you in the mood for glitter, feathers, and fun!

I've also been thinking about setting up a site on Etsy, just to get started. I've heard a lot of positive feedback from people so I think I'm going to check it out. Brian just got all the camera equipment he ordered so we'll be able to do product shots here soon. I guess that means I'll have to make more stuff.... ;)

Pretty Pictures!

So I realize that I'm the only person that will get excited over this, but we are *almost* ready to launch the website! The hubby ordered the photog equipment we'll need to do proper product photos, and as soon as I have those done and figure out PayPal, we should be ready for business!

It's happening faster then I thought it would, and I don't know if I'm entirely prepared for it! BUT, I just have to trust that this is going to be something good for me, and good for us, and that if I just stay the course it will happen. I have a pretty solid idea, and it should be doable along with a regular job, for now. My hopes is that this will be wildly successful, of course, and then I wouldn't have to return to life at a regular job. But that is still aways away, and for now I just need to trust myself and what feels right.

Few Steps Closer

So the main obstacles that were left to me were finding out the rules of unemployment when it comes to self employment, mainly because I didn't want to run the risk of screwing up my benefits (again) while I work on this little project of mine :)

With a clearer understanding of that, I now need to secure my merchant services and payment gateways so I can accept credit cards, and then I can update my website and I think we will be ready to roll! What a weird feeling this is....I'm on the verge of doing something huge, but I have no idea where this road will lead, I just know it feels like I'm doing the right thing and I'm a step closer to leading the life I want.

I have a goal in mind for this place, well, this virtual place to start with, and that is that I will eventually be a full-fledged store with a store front. In an ideal world, there would be a 3-bedroom living space on top where I live so that there's no commute, and I could walk down the stairs to work. That would be fabulous. I know there are places like that around town, I just have to find them. And find them at a time when I can afford the rents. But for now I will start out online, working out of our little apartment tucked away in the Rainer Valley. OH! And I have a logo in the works, should have that up and ready to show to people soon. I'm very excited. So far the product testing guinea pigs have come back and said they like everything, so I'm pretty confident that I've hit the right mix of things.

I will keep you readers updated on what's happening, the small handful of you that there are. I'm not sure how many people read me, but I'm glad you're here for the ride :)

~m

Developing Stages......

Product development is an interesting process. Not knowing where to start, I looked up things on the great wide web, and then from there, things have developed, reactions varied, and now, I think I have a pretty solid idea of what I need to do for certain products. The creative side of this business is very appealing, and the business side of things is very daunting. I need to get some ducks in line about exactly how does unemployment work for someone who is on it and trying to start a business, and then from there, I need to figure out a merchant account and then we *might* be ready for launch! Launching the website and starting to take orders might be the next logical step, because I'm to a point where I've made most of the products I would like to sell, successfully, I might add, and I'll just be wasting money if I sit and wait until the "opportune" moment. I may be upon my moment and just don't realize it yet. But I can't be afraid of what lies ahead. I know what I want and I have to just reach out and grab it. Even if it means taking a few steps in the dark before I find what I'm reaching out too. Just need to believe it's there.

On the product development note, I did have one failure this week. The sugar lip scrub. I think I will have to find a different way to do the flavors, because the ones that I found seem to be a bit on the way too strong side, the passionfruit and cherry both have a faint reminiscent flavor of cough syrup. bleh. I did however, have a successful try for a salt scrub, which means that I have one complete line of product done and ready to be photographed for the website! My plan is to go live with photos of examples of the different products I have, and then add photos of new products as they are ordered. It will save me a little bit of start-up money I think. All of the different kinds will be available and listed on the site, but just not all the pictures.

The last part of this whole product development thing is that I need to finish coming up with names for everything. So far I have nothing for my Jasmine line, and I'm going back and forth on a few of the names for other things. I also am back to searching for a solid bubble bath bar recipe. I would love to find something I can mold and shape like my soaps so I can make fun combinations :)

~m

More Bombs......

So just made a new batch of bath bombs, eucalyptus this time, with real eucalyptus leaves inside!

Also made a larger batch of the eucalyptus soap (also with leaves) and a new blue soap that I haven't quite named yet, but it has a lovely ocean-y type scent to it. I created a face mask that has tea tree in it...very good for the skin.....left my face VERY soft indeed! I think I'm going to call it "Sea Monster Mud". Because you look like a sea monster with it on! But it's a quick one, 15 minutes on, rinse off, probably just once a week.

That's all for now. Just been creating and playing all morning, can't wait for the stuff to dry so I can clear out the molds and make more! Oh, and another trip to the supply store is in order....I'm out of base already.......and if I want to make more then one batch of bombs at a time, I'm going to need more molds.

Feels like I've opened a very large can of worms, but now that I know I can do this, I just need to sit down and work out things on the financial side, with the packaging, and the shipping, and all that stuff. Plus what it actually costs to make the product. I love this new adventure I'm on, and I know that my creative side can handle this, I just hope my business side can.

~m

Bath Bombs....bombed?

So having a really productive day today! We got the overload of crap out of our corridor (which makes me happy) and it really opens up the space when you don't have piles and piles of stuff on either side! Started our new filing system, donated a car load of stuff to Goodwill, reorganized the storage closet, went and renewed gym membership, so now it's time for dinner....and soap :)

Thought I would try my hand at the bath bombs. Followed a recipe I found online, and everything was going ok....or so I thought....until I went to put it into the molds. I put the mixture in the same molds that I use for the 4oz soap blocks and now I'm looking over into the kitchen at my worktable at what looks like 4 light purple (it's the lavendar, honey and chamomile bombs, still need a name....something relaxing, to do with sleep....any suggestions?) expanding cupcakes! They are coming out of their molds! I think I may have used too much water or something! HOLY CRAP!

I'm going to let them dry, if they dry (here's prayin') and see how they turn out. If they are ok, I think I can use half as much in the molds and still get pretty decent sized bath bombs....if not, back to good ol' square 1.

Wish me luck! I'm going in!

~m

Great Success!

So now I have a confession to make. I really didn't know much of anything about how to make soap when I got this idea and started developing this business. My first batch of soap however, proves that once you set your mind to something, you can accomplish anything.

I used the soap the other night when I took a shower and it seems to be everything that my sensitive skin needs....gentle, doesn't dry my skin out (good for winter!!), and it doesn't leave that weird film on the skin like a lot of store brands tend too. I think this is an excellent test, because my skin seems to be more sensitive then most people's, so if my skin can take it without falling off, it will work wonderfully for the general population.

The scent and color was heavenly, I think I've figured out the right amount of coloring, and at least the right amount of scent for at least one type of soap. The scent was strong enough so that while you are in the shower or bath, you get the benefits of the aromatherapy without the scent being overpowering when you get out. I have always hated having to use unscented, white soap because it's the only thing that doesn't make my skin break out. Does anyone else have that same problem? WELL, I think I am on the path to finding a permanent solution for anyone who feels, like me, that just because you have an intolerance to something, be it chemicals in soap, or different types of foods, that you still deserve to have choices, and good choices at that, of the products that you buy.

That's all for now, I will be attempting to make Lemon soap, and *hopefully* lavender soap that should be ready for use tomorrow or later this week :)

1st Batch!

I am very excited to announce that I have just made my first batch of soap! It is vitamin E, Eucalyptus and Tea Tree infused! It should be perfect for those chilly winter nights when you just want to take a hot bath and warm up! Eucalyptus is also great for opening up the sinuses when you have a cold, and the vitamin E and tea tree will keep your skin looking radiant!

The soap is in the process of curing, and will be ready to be tested in the next day or so....Stay tuned!

My kitchen has a lovely aroma just now...........