June 2017 – Coastal Carolina Soap Blog

Ingredient Spotlight: Manoi de Tahiti

A few years ago I introduced Tahiti Kiss Face Crème, a custom formulated crème for all skin types. The initial reviews for it were brilliant, with everyone who tried it loving it. As I played around with formulas for this crème, I thought about what sort of scent to add, because plain, unscented lotion really doesn’t smell that great.

Tahiti Kiss face creme — Tahiti Kiss, a luxuriously extraordinary face crème, will treat your skin to a taste of the South Pacific

Should it be floral? Herbal? Fruity? Earthy? Oceany? None of these spoke to me, because each individual person has his or her preferred scents, and how horrible it’d be to have a gorgeous oceanic fragrance clashing all day with the classic aroma of Chanel No. 5! This isn’t like soaps or lotions, which are designed to layer scent and be the primary for the day. No, face crème should be alone, a silent participant in the wearer’s day, not getting in the way of whatever else she’d like to wear.

Face crème should be alone, a silent participant in the wearer’s day. #tahitikiss #coastalcarolinasoap

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It was around this time that I discovered Manoi de Tahiti as I was shopping for the ingredients I would need for this extraordinary face crème. Done correctly, Manoi de Tahiti is an infusion of the gorgeous tiare flower, a varietal of gardenia, in virgin coconut oil.

Tiare flower picture — Beautiful, milky white tiare flower

The native Tahitians infuse the flowers in the oil, then change out the flowers for fresh ones – up to twelve times! The result is a lightly floral-fragrant oil that is truly a head-to-toe delight. The Tahitian people use Manoi de Tahiti as a hair treatment, after-sun balm, and a treatment for many different skin conditions. I also read that they use it as a sunscreen, too, which I do not recommend. However one uses this glorious Tiare infusion, it promises to be a delightful skin treat.

As my formulation called for coconut oil already, I decided to exchange Manoi de Tahiti for the coconut oil, and that lends its beautiful fragrance in this crème. There are other ingredients to this crème, both all natural and purely synthetic, all granting a specific and significant contribution to the whole. They please me, as does the crème itself. But the Manoi de Tahiti is the piece de resistance of this crème and what keeps me coming back to it every day as my facial moisturizer of choice.

Not Going to be All Things

It’s a brilliant reality for both business and life: You’re not going to be all things to all people. I’m not going to be all things to all people. We can read that in two ways: One is the simple reality that it’s not possible to be all things to all people, and a second is that I refuse to try to be.

I would like to get into a local shop, one in particular. As I met with the store owner, some of her preferences emerged. One, because this friend of hers makes soap without palm oil, then that’s apparently best. (I’ll dig more into the palm oil issue in another blog post.) Using lard or tallow was out, because some of her customers are vegans. Alright… Not my thing, but I can respect folks for whom it is. In a follow-up email, she didn’t care for the exfoliant in one of the free, full-size samples I’d sent her. So here it is – three strikes against my soaps.

I addressed the palm oil issue with her and how I handle that myself. I began to think of ways to get around the palm oil while keeping it vegan (shortening works with the same properties) and even went so far as to reformulate the soap recipe in order to avoid the palm and owing to the fact that my stock is hydrogenated soybean oil-free at the moment. I graciously suggested a way to use the scrubby remnants of the soap, based on a question I fielded at Spring Fest.

Then it hit me. Where does it stop? So I reformulate this one soap, changing up the oils and leaving out the exfoliant. But then I’d have to change all my wholesale-offered soaps when I have dozens of them ready to go to appreciative customers now. For fun, I did make the reformulated soap; check out the video of my swirling work!

As I say here, I will not be all things to all people, and I declared that on Friday. My older daughter in all her teen wisdom said, “I thought it’d be a bad idea for you to do that.” And so it goes. I went down that road before, and I ended up stressed out, disheartened, and frustrated. Lesson learned! Here are my tips for avoiding the trap of trying to be all things to all people:

Declare now that you’re happy with YOU, however this manifests itself. Is it in who you are, what you have, where you live, what you make? Whatever it is, find a way to be happy with it.
Internalize that happiness to find peace with yourself. It’s one thing to declare something is true, but it’s another thing to feel it. Geraldine in The Very Fairy Princess declares, “I know I’m a fairy princess, because I feel it inside.” Maybe you’re not feeling fairy princess-y, but feel who you are deep down.
Be prepared to let opportunities go in exchange for your integrity. I’m not vegan. I don’t co-opt to the “organic” label. I use both essential oils and fragrance oils. If I co-opt my integrity to any of these trends or preferences just in order to attract customers, then I will no longer be selling me. I would be inauthentic in my business, which in itself would suck my soul dry.
Always be honest about your you-ness. Yes, I’m willing to pass up opportunities in order to hold on to my integrity, but I also refuse to sink to dishonesty in order to grow my business. We prefer to run a fully transparent business, holding secret only those things which are proprietary, like our fragrance blends. I can say with pride, “This is who I am, and these are my products. Let’s find the most perfect fit for you.”

Embrace you. I bet you are pretty wonderful, though not everyone will appreciate your unique wonderfulness. Be you, anyway.

Starting with the Finish in View

No secret… I walk a few times a week. I’ve walked in pretty-chilly temps and I’ve walked in weather where I begin pouring sweat as soon as I step out of the house – like walking through the sauna that is North Carolina in the summer. I don’t walk because I like freezing my butt off or sweating out two pounds of liquid in under an hour. In fact, if I could get the same benefits from not-walking, I would in a heartbeat, but the truth is, I can’t, and walking really does have a whole lot of benefits – psychological, holistically physical, emotional, and even spiritual.

When I start my walks, within the first quarter mile, I mentally plan my route and start thinking of the very end – that last quarter mile when I can start slowing it down, check my pulse, log in the time and calorie burn, and get more comfortable. I think about which route I’ll follow. It’s always the same four streets, but depending on how I walk them, it can be 2.5 miles or 2.8 miles. It may seem silly to think about finishing my walk before I have barely begun, but envisioning the end helps motivate me through every step and prevents me from taking short-cuts – skipping that little bit of .2 mile or not going down that short street.

Similarly, thinking about the end of a business venture from the outset helps a business owner work towards that goal, that completion, that teleos. As we celebrate 15 years of soapy business, I reflect back on those early days, and I did not have an end-game in sight. It wasn’t until several – SEVERAL! – years down the road that I began to think about things like having a brick-and-mortar store and passing my business down to my children. That particular route requires certain steps and a certain amount of time, just like when I opt for “route A” of my walking choices. Going the B&M route means striving to build up the revenue to sustain such a venture, taking into account overhead, staffing needs, retail traffic ebbs and flows, and so forth. Passing the business down to my daughters requires teaching them every aspect of the business, not just the technical aspects, but also the passion and the why.

Last year in the midst of the rebrand, the brick-and-mortar suddenly became less important to me, and the girls have no desire to run a soapmaking business, though they love making soap. They love the creativity and the design aspects, and the chemistry of it fascinates them, but that’s as far as their enthusiasm goes. So, it’s become time to work with another end-game in mind.

To be honest, I haven’t entirely worked that out, yet. Part of the rebrand involved an increased focus on wholesale and private label, though retail is still a very strong part of my business. At this point, though, I’d more love to have a separate work shop than a full-blown B&M. I’d enjoy the space separate from the house to make, wrap, and store my products. The completion of my business now would be having a strong business to sell off in – ideally – one huge chunk to someone who’d love and nurture it as I do. Again, this route requires a certain path, a certain set of steps, a particular journey to traverse.

Without the finish in sight, I could just meander along, making this product or that product, selling whenever, pushing for sales when I felt like it and ignoring my business when I didn’t. Similarly, when I walk for my health, having a defined time frame and route ensures I do at least as much as I need to, and it also restricts me from following whims that could take me on long treks – not that that would necessarily be a bad thing, but when the family is expecting me to be gone a certain amount of time, being gone for 2-3 times that would cause them to worry.

Goals are essential, but goals without a defined end are just nebulous scratchings on a dry-erase board, the result of moments or hours of brainstorming. As you set your goals, whether fitness, business, or lifestyle, determine to look at the end. It’s likely not the end, but it is an end, often that of a chapter before the next beginning.