New Items at Otion!

We are so excited to introduce some fantastic new fragrances, oils and and the long-awaited pink stick blender. Here are some brand new items you can find in store:

Perfect Pink Stick Blender: The cold process soapmakers must have tool! Trace is reached in just minutes. Also great for lotion making – the stainless steel shaft is easy to sterilize. Our Perfect Pink color goes just right with our Pink Soap Making Goggles.

  • Powerful 200-watt motor handles more blending tasks
  • Stick design reaches into pots, pitchers, and bowls to extend blending options
  • Ergonomically designed grip offers comfortable hold and more control while blending
  • Operates with a one-touch control for easy, one-handed blending
  • Dishwasher-safe blending shaft and beaker make cleanup effortless

Made by Cuisinart.

Pure Olive Oil  – Great for advanced recipes such as 6 – 12 color swirls because it allows more time to work with the batter vs. using Pomace Olive Oil. Pure Olive Oil is a blend of extra virgin and refined grade “A” olive oil. Olive oil gives a rich feel and helps to create a very hard bar once fully cured. Used in the making of Castile soap (both liquid and bar).
INCI: Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil

Lavender Green Tea Fragrance Oil: One of the winners from the Summer 2012 S.O.A.P. panel fragrance testing. Lavender Green Tea was frequently describes as being fresh and clean smelling, almost like a linen scent. It reminded one of our panelists of an Aveda blend with its natural lavender notes. Discolors to a slight yellow in Cold Process soap.

Honey Beeswax Fragrance Oil: One of 3 winning fragrances in our Summer S.O.A.P. fragrance testing group. Honey Beeswax is sultry and rich with notes of floral blossoms and almonds. Discolors to a dark brown, even went a little greenish for a few testers in cold process soap.

Pikake Flower Fragrance Oil: Pikake flowers are the traditional blossoms used for making Leis in Hawaii. This fragrance evokes that sweet welcome as you step off the plane and begin a relaxing, fun-filled vacation.

It reminded one of the testers of carnation flowers and another tester picked out the jasmine notes. Many noted that this was a deep floral as opposed to a light floral and it stuck in Cold Process soap nicely. Slight yellow discoloration in CP.

Downtown Bellingham Art Walk

Otion is located in the hub of Bellingham’s art scene, with the largest art gallery in town just down the hall. Every first Friday of the month is the downtown Art Walk from 6pm to 9pm. It’s a special night for mingling with artists,  stopping in at local shops and restaurants that display new art for the month, listening to great live music, and now you can make soap! Kat, Otion’s manager, is also an artist and set some of her art up for the big event.

We had a ton of free samples of our luxurious handmade bar soap.

We were totally out by the end of the night!

Overall, we had a great time and introduced many newcomers to the Soap Bar. Hope to see you next month!

Renovations Update: The Good and the Bad

Renovations are winding down and we’ve had such a blast updated the store. One of the biggest changes that was made recently was tearing out the old flooring on the stairs and in the loft and bringing in some fresh, new carpet and vinyl.

Take a look a the stairs before…

… and after!

The floor upstairs before…

… and after!

With the good comes the bad. We had a disaster occur when two shelves of fragrances came crashing down. What a mess! Luckily, we were able to salvage a number of unharmed bottles, but still, this was definitely a tough day.

Still to come are new wooden signs for the various categories of products in the store. Stop by and see our fresh layout and new colors!

Renovations: Back of Store Update

As you know, we’re changing things up in the soap store. Renovations are under way and we’re so excited each step of the way. Above is what the back of the store looked like before. Soap molds were displayed on the wall, essential oils and soap base were on the shelf to the right and the Soap Bar table on the left.

We cleared off the molds from the wall and moved them to the front of the store and were left with this shelf in the back. We got rid of this shelf and replaced it with these snazzy new ones in the photo below. Now all of our bulk oils, butters, and soap base is in one easy-to-grab spot.

Then, we moved all the essential oils off the shelf on the right and moved the Soap Bar table to the window. Look at how much more light we’re getting!


This Sunday we are finishing up the painting and will put up new pictures soon. Say goodbye to the red!

Let the Renovations Begin!


The staff at Otion are super excited about giving the store a fun new look! We have big plans and want to share our progress with you as they unfold. Notice the colors in the photo above (that’s Anne-Marie and Congressman Larsen). That’s what we’re starting with. Now take a look at the first coat of our new color scheme!

We also added four big lanterns upstairs in our teaching and party loft for additional light and ambiance. Love!

We are painting the wall green up to the red stripe, which is being painted maroon. The front door went from white to deep purple. These are the results from our first day of renovating. Much more to come!

Starting the Year Off Right

I had the pleasure of teaching a really fun group of students in the basic cold process class last Saturday. They all took to soapmaking like pros. Some made really simple bars and others got really creative with our dried botanicals and additives provided.

I highly recommend our cold process classes because, well, you’ll have a blast.  The basic class is loooong. Three hours long and jam packed with information.  The first half is spent talking about soap. You learn everything from how to use a lye calculator to designing a recipe, what color and fragrances work best, what supplies you need and tons more. Then we make lots of soap! Each student leaves with four bars, each scented and colored to your liking (and with scrubby additives if you like!).

I will be teaching advanced swirling in cold process at this year’s Soap Weekend Intensive again, and I will also be teaching at the Handcrafted Soapmaker’s Guild annual conference, which is in Portland this year. My classes are every Saturday morning at 10am and I’d love to meet you! Sign up online or give me a call at Otion (360) 675-1030.


Soapy Celebration

Birthday parties are one of our favorite things we offer at Otion, and we had the pleasure of hosting a party for a great group of nine year-old girls last weekend. Most of them were already experienced soaperstars from using our walk-in Soap Bar before. Everyone made two bars of personalized soap!

There was plenty of time for cake and presents while the soap hardened in the freezer.

In addition to fun shapes, we made what’s called a “party loaf.” Everyone pours different colors and scents into one big soap and then it’s cut up and shared at the end.

Thanks for a great time and enjoy the beautiful soap you made!

Craftiness at Otion

We love this time of year! Lot’s of people had snow in Washington and Oregon today except for us in Bellingham, so we made our own. Melissa is our new fabulous staff member at Otion (far left) and she is a paper snowflake-maker extraordinaire. Selena is in the middle with her perfect snowflake and that’s me (Kat) on the far right with my square-ish one.

Below is Melissa hanging them on our front window. Yay! Up next, more Christmas displays!



Fun Class Soap

Kat taught a private melt-and-pour and cold process class about a week ago and made lots of fun projects. First up is a five-pound Oatmeal, Milk and Honey cold process swirl loaf with scrubby oats on top.


Then our new 2.5 pound silicone loaf mold was used for another cold process batch, this time split into three colorful layers with a swirl on top. I can’t say enough great things about this mold! The walls are reinforced so it doesn’t bow out when filled, the sides are perfectly smooth, the soap comes right out because it’s flexible, you don’t have to line it, and it’s affordable. Love it!


After making soap from scratch using lye, they jumped into the pre-made base projects using melt-and-pour soap. You can easily create detailed, themed bars like the Halloween soap or a luxurious massage bar. Embeds, layering, and swirling were all covered and the soap came out great!

Ask and You Shall Receive!


I’m SO excited to reveal our brand new “Self-Serve Pump Station” at Otion!
With six different items to choose from, including Liquid Concentrate Soap, Goatsmilk Liquid Soap, Castile Liquid Soap, Lotion Base, Beeswax Lotion Base, and Shampoo Base. Pay for the product by the ounce and fill your choice of 2 oz, 4 oz or 8 oz plastic bottles. Bring your own bottle to avoid paying for packaging. Personalize each product by adding scent and your gift giving tasks just got a whole lot easier this year!


Need labels? We’ve got you covered there, too. Bramble Berry has a free Shampoo, Conditioner and Lotion Label Template (downloadable PDF)

Plus, we have a great video on how to make shampoo and conditioner (also free!)

How to Make Shampoo and Conditioner from Soap Queen on Vimeo.