If you have a minute, please leave your comments too!
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | NEW FOR 2008:
Look for new precision soapmaking molds and soap cutters soon.... Precision Production Molds and Cutters for for soap business owners or for soapmakers needing larger batches and Affordable Basic Molds for small batch or beginning soapmakers - perfect for soap business test batches, too. We are also revising and improving our Soap Starter Mold for new soapmakers. Test models are being made now. New items will be posted for sale at our website soon. Spread the word! |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | NEW FOR 2008:
Every purchaser in 2008 wil receive a unique SBM Savings Certificate Code worth 5% of the purchase amount. Each additional purchase made from the same email address will add 5% of each purchase to the accumulated Savings Certificate credit balance. SBM Savings Certificates can be used as payment in our order checkout process. Buy more, save more in 2008! |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | We've just introduced new DISCOUNTED GIFT CERTIFICATES!
Buy them at 10% less than their face value - Give them as gifts or save now & buy later, yourself! ALSO: Look for new precision soapmaking molds and soap cutters soon.... -Steve |
| How did you find our website?: | Site Owner |
| Name: | Linda |
| E-mail address: | mannadreem@yahoo.com |
| Comments: | I Love your website. It is the one site that I have come across that makes me feel very comfortable. It's not like the other websites that are just about big business, it's more of an at home feeling. I love it keep up the good work. I also would like to commend you on your resizing calculator fantastic! |
| How did you find our website?: | Search engine (Alta Vista, etc) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | We have left Ebay and moved our online auctions listings and associated store to Wagglepop!
Ebay long ago became unprofitable for us due to unrelenting fee increases there. This, plus the overall increasing contentiousness of the Ebay marketplace and total lack of support for sellers there were more than enough, but a $700 fraudulent purchase with our private information hijacked from Ebay was the final straw and we were well ready to leave Ebay... After some research, we decided to move our online auction listings and associated store to the Wagglepop marketplace. Please come visit us and support Wagglepop! You'll find their site presentation familiar and its functioning pleasingly simpler than at Ebay. Visit us at www.wagglepop.com |
| How did you find our website?: | Site Owner |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | Our new SBM Liquid Soap Bases are now available!
Detailed directions are available at our "Ready To Use Liquid Soap Bases" page (look for the button link in "Soap Making Supplies"). Our new Liquid Soap Bases are now available for liquid soiap crafters or experimenters. Visit back soon, as more to come! -Steve M |
| How did you find our website?: | Site Owner |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | We are in production now for our soon-to-be released SBM Liquid Soap Base products.
We will initially offer for purchase single-oil liquid soap bases in 8 oz, 16 oz and 24 oz resealable tubs. To make a liquid soap of your own formula, measure out proportionate weights of each oil's SBM LS Base, combine them in a container and add boiling water in the amount specified by our own Dilution Chart to arrive at the formula and concentration you want in your finished liquid soaps. More to come shortly! |
| How did you find our website?: | Site Owner |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | We've been doing more work and testing with liquid soapmaking...
Another "nudge" to our online SBM Soapmaking Calculator's liquid soap calculations now allows us to produce our own SBM Liquid Soap Base in various varieties while allowing others to use the calculator with their own oils supplies and retain a decent margin of error in the alkali calculations. Since the sap values of the same oil from different sources can vary somewhat, we settled on setting our SBM Soapmaking Calculator to produce a liquid soap base of about 10 PH when using our own SBM oils products (the stuff we sell). We found that cutting the PH margin lower resulted in a chance that the same formula producing separated soaps when using some other suppliers' oils. Our own SBM Liquid Soap Bases can be further 'neutralized' with our SBM Borax or Boric Acid Neutralizer solutions. The finished soap should test clear with Phenol P test solution while remaining clear and unseparated. |
| How did you find our website?: | Site Owner |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | We have adjusted our SBM Soap Calculator to reflect the usual true purity percentage of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide supplies used in handcrafted soapmaking. This will provide a more accurate "superfat" percentage for solid soaps.
In the case of liquid soapmaking. our SBM Soap Calculator now accounts for the considerable percentage of potassium hydroxide flakes' weight that is always water content when set at zero percent "superfat". We are still in process of verifying by experimentation, but we can so far verify that the liquid soap bases we've made with our calculator will produce clear diluted soaps ready for use at 9.7 PH ( +/- 0.2 ) without further 'neutralization'. The resulting soap base can be further 'neutralized' for maximum mildness after dilution to as low as 9.2 PH without breaking down and separating with use of boric acid or borax (or with citric acid for large batches). We will provide recommended amounts per pound for neutralization as soon as we have verified same through experimentation. We are also researching and experimenting with the use of small amounts of natural cellulosic gums (Xanthan Gum, Locust Bean Gum and Carrageenan Gum) to produce thickened or gelled soaps without loading the soap with excess borax, glycerin or alcohol. The chemistry of how these work is fascinating and has some interesting "tricks" involved. Results so far are encouraging and I have the support of some suppliers of these gums in this project. I will post results and directions as well as resulting and supporting products at our website when I have this down pat. (As a side, I did discover how to make a remarkably life-like clear, artificial "snot" guaranteed to make any small child say "gross"... Recipe on request if your really curious :) As usual, my progress depends in part on my health as I have a chronic endochrine illness that occasionally rears its ugly head and puts me "offline" for a while when it does. Pardon my "wordiness", but I wanted you all to know that there is progress happening in the "background" that might make liquid soapmaking easier for all, if it all works out well. -Steve Mushynsky Summer Bee Meadow |
| How did you find our website?: | Site Owner |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | AN IMPORTANT NOTE TO OUR CUSTOMERS:
When placing an order with us, please be SURE that you type your email address correctly. Please also be sure to add Websales@summerbeemeadow.com to your email system's address book. This will ensure that necessary order status update emails from us to you are not "trashed" by your email spam filtering system. We are finding that a number of our customers are not able to receive our emails as their spam filter blocks our emails. This then becomes frustrating, to say the very least. For this reason, we will henceforth adopt the following policy: If it becomes obvious that a customer is not receiving our emails and that same customer then adopts a pattern of multiple emails without acknowledging our replies, we will immediately cancel and refund the order involved with advice of this being the cause for same This is unfortunately necessary to avoid the sometimes extreme situations that can otherwise result. |
| How did you find our website?: | Site Owner |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | We've added some new informational pages to our website to help beginning soapmakers. Look for these new 'blue buttons' to the left:
"3-Oils Soap Recipe For Beginners" gives our 3-Oils formula, which is an average of fifty 3-oils recipes that we surveyed on the net. As such, it is literally an average soap recipe formula and is a great place to start your soapmaking hobby experience. It goes on to explain how one can use our SBM Soap Calculator and Recipe Resizer to use our 3-Oils formula for your own mold size and how to move on from there to experiment with new formula recipes. "Properties of Soapmaking Oils" gives lots of useful information on the many oils that are available for use in soapmaking and the qualities that they can impart to your resulting soaps. Also given is information in massage oils and lotions applications. Lots of interesting information here! (If you wish to contribute to this info compilation, please email me). . |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | We've made some small adjustments to our SBM Soap Calculator...
We've adjusted alkali computations to reflect the fact that neither sodium hydroxide (NaOH) nor Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) are 100% pure. For NaOH, we've adjusted to a 99% expected purity of NaOH used. You'll see a little more NaOH required for a given soap formula at a given superfat percentage. This more accurately reflects reality. For KOH, we've adjusted to reflect the fact that KOH flakes always contain a significant proportion of water bound up in its crystal structure (that's why liquid soap recipes are so tricky to handle - more on this later...). We've assumed 1% impurities and 9% water content for KOH to make liquid soap calculations more accurate. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions. . |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | I'm back after two months off on disability (complications of diabetes), just in time for the holiday season...
We've instituted a new "shipping guarantee". We expect that most orders will ship in about three days from order payment or from receipt of required "lye release" form, if applicable. Heavy order periods, etc may involve extra time to get orders out, sometimes. If this is the case, we will refund shipping costs for your order upon request if we have not gotten it out for UPS pickup within five business days. "Stuff happens" sometimes (like my having to spend time with doctors now and then) but if so, we want to make it right with you. All in all, the enormous rush of orders experienced earlier this year has calmed down as other sellers of sodium hydroxide have come online since Red Devil became unavailable nationwide, so we can now spend some time and attention on new things..... See further notes here for "what's new" at SBM! |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Summer Bee Meadow |
| E-mail address: | summerbeemeadow@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | A note to our customers:
When ordering from us, please be sure that the email address that you enter in your order is capable of receiving email from us, as we may need further information from you (ie: 'lye release' form, if needed & not submitted with order). Inability to receive emails from us due to an overactive spam filter can result in customer consternation or even order cancellation if needed information is not received. Thank you |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Alissa |
| E-mail address: | countrythyme@zoomshare.com |
| Comments: | I like your website! I also love your idea for "Soapmaking Starter Kits". Great for beginners! Your information about "making your own soap" was very helpful. Thanks! |
| How did you find our website?: | Search engine (Alta Vista, etc) |
| Name: | Georgia Browne |
| E-mail address: | browne_georgia@hotmail.com |
| Comments: | Thanks so much for including your soap calculator. I have been making soap for 4 years and have lots of oils from previous recipes on hand. This calculator helps me to 'lighten the load' on my shelves and experiment with different combinations of oils that I may have not thought of. I'm beginning to work with goat-milk instead of using water and it is my impression, that I can substitute (almost frozen) goat-milk for water in a one-to-one ratio.
It's always nice to find out new things about something you love to do. Georgia |
| How did you find our website?: | I'm a prior visitor to this website |
| Name: | Soapbuddy |
| E-mail address: | marchu2@earthlink.net |
| Comments: | Love your soap calculator!
Irena from Ginger's Garden |
| How did you find our website?: | I'm a prior visitor to this website |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | We had to curtail our soap offerings due to Steve's health situation after having had a growth removed some time ago.
Although this has cost us the ability to make and offer our soaps for now, we have concentrated on offering supplies for others to be able to make soaps themselves. We are presently working on setting up a much easier to use shop cart and checkout system for our customers' convenience. This should be ready quite soon as this is written (3/3/06) |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | To our customers:
As you know, Red Devil has withdrawn their lye product from the retail market. This has increased our own volume of orders for lye (sodium hydroxide) nearly eightfold, causing some delays in order shipment while we adjust our business to handle the larger volume. Your patience and understanding is greatly appreciated. |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | A note to our customers: Please be sure that you provide us a correct, working email address at the time of placing your order. If the email address you give us does not work, you will not receive any order status emails. |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Joann |
| E-mail address: | GloFan@centralpets.com |
| Comments: | Love your site :-) I added it to my bookmarks can't wait to get the coconut & palm oil so I can try my hand at making soaps! |
| How did you find our website?: | Auction website (eBay, etc) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | Ready for something new?
We've added a new section to our "soapmaking supplies" offerings for Liquid Soap Making Supplies! Look for an update to our online soapmaking calculators soon to help you make liquid soaps that really work! |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Rimi |
| E-mail address: | Imready1@aol.com |
| Comments: | Thanks! This is a great site! I have been looking around at other sites and this site made me feel very comfortable when ordering. As a new soap crafter this site is in- valuable.
thanks again! |
| How did you find our website?: | Link from another web page |
| Name: | ROB LADELY |
| E-mail address: | immrrob@earthlink.net |
| Comments: | This is a great site! I really like your recipe resizer - now that I have an actual wooden mold, I use it a lot! Thank you for going to the trouble of creating it and posting it to your web site! |
| How did you find our website?: | I'm a prior visitor to this website |
| Name: | Barbara Poole |
| E-mail address: | turtlecreek@bellsouth.net |
| Comments: | I love your site, especially the resizing feature on the lye calculator. I have recommended it to several folks on my group list!
Best wishes for health and prosperity for the new year. |
| How did you find our website?: | Search engine (Alta Vista, etc) |
| Name: | Steve & Gina Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | summerbeemeadow@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | Well, we've made it to year's end.....
- A year of considerable expansion of our business - A year of fighting illness on Steve's part - A debilitating endocrine imbalance after thyroid surgery a year ago. - Facing an upcoming holiday season beyond our means (& health) to keep up with, we decided to temporarily suspend our own soapmaking and soap sales in order to be able to provide soapmaking supplies for as many other soapers as we could. - We learned a lot this season: We learned that our suppliers can get overwhelmed too..... - Our packaging supplier left us high and dry for almost a month, forcing us to use up our reserve stock and causing some order delays. - Our chemicals supplier decided to stop selling caustics to soapmakers in mid-December, making us switch to another source over a hundred miles away. Lower prices makes up for extra transport cost and much friendlier people, but causing a logistics delay right at the wrong time. - Incoming orders came so fast and furious through our website and through Ebay that we couldn't respond to any but the most dire emails for the last week or so before Christmas, for which we truly apologise. We had a choice of answering emails or getting orders out. As it was, some orders that were affected by supplier issues were delayed. - As we look forward to 2004, we anticipate taking stock of where we are and where we will take our business in the future. Look for Summer Bee Meadow soaps to return to our website, along with our long awaited Soap Starter mold and bar cutter and an all-in-one soapmaking kit like none other for sale online. - We will continue and expand our soapmaking supplies offerings in 2004. Look for some new directions here, too. THANK YOU TO OUR THOUSANDS OF CUSTOMERS - ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO HAVE STUCK WITH US DURING OUR OCCASIONAL "GROWING PAINS" AND DURING TIMES MADE DIFFICULT BY STEVE'S ILLNESS. BLESS YOU ALL! HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! -- STEVE & GINA MUSHYNSKY Owners & Partners Summer Bee Meadow |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Kayleen |
| Comments: | Hi there! I just wanted to thank you for posting your calculator and resizer onto your website. I'm new at soapmaking and have been frustrated trying to figure out which recipes would fit into my husband's newly built mold! As I was figuring it up on paper, I got onto ebay, saw your auctions and your link to the website. Of course, I've been researching and pagemarking every site that sells supplies and coming across your calculator and resizer was a WONDERFULLY timed solution. I've used it 14 times already! And...can't wait to use it on ANY other mold I acquire. Thanks again, Kayleen |
| How did you find our website?: | Auction website (eBay, etc) |
| Name: | Carol |
| E-mail address: | caroljune13@aol.com |
| Comments: | Steve and Gina-you have a great website full of very nice items! I am new to the world of soapmaking, and your site seems like a great place to get good info and supplies! I plan on using your calculator to help with the success of my recipes! Do you sell molds? Thank you for your quick response to my last inquiry! Carol |
| How did you find our website?: | I'm a prior visitor to this website |
| Name: | sammi blane |
| E-mail address: | lrdnos@bellsouth.net |
| Comments: | just browsing came across your site ,love your calculator learning to make soap hope to get better and your calculator is the best I've seen yet, thank you. |
| How did you find our website?: | Link from another web page |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | Our Lye Calculator and Recipe Resizer are now fully functional.
Please try them and be sure to use the Please Tell A Friend" feature option, too! We're still working on our new upcoming "Soap Starter " mold system and expect to release it in upcoming weeks. Check back with us soon for new developments! -Steve & Gina |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Patti Gaboury |
| E-mail address: | berretta95@earthlink.net |
| Comments: | I love your web site and love your products,
I will be back to buy more, Thank you Patti |
| How did you find our website?: | Auction website (eBay, etc) |
| Name: | Tracy |
| E-mail address: | tsvette31@aol.com |
| Comments: | i really loved how fast you guys reply to emails .. was
wonderful doing business with you .. and ill be doing more .. thank you and good luck!!! the Belle |
| How did you find our website?: | Auction website (eBay, etc) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@Summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | To VeggieLover: Thank you for your Guest Book entry
(below). The base oils (fats) used in the manufacture of our soaps are all vegetable oils: Coconut, Palm, Olive, Canola, Cottonseed and Palm Christie (Castor Bean). No animal oils or fats are used to make our soaps. To these base oils, we add an additional vegetable oil, Cocoa Butter, for its emolient properties. We also add a small percentage (1% to be exact) of natural beeswax to act as an emulsifier wax to help the oils mixture and the lye & water solution to intermix smoothly and thoroughly in the initial part of the soap making process. For this reason, we make no claim that are soaps are a "Vegan" product. We may in the future choose to introduce some "Vegan" soaps substituting candillela wax instead of beeswax, if there is customer interest in having us do so. Regards, Steve M. |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | VeggieLover |
| E-mail address: | VeggieLover@nomail,com |
| Comments: | Your contains bees wax and is not all veggie |
| How did you find our website?: | Auction website (eBay, etc) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | Hi
We hope that you'll take a moment and join our Summer Bee Mailing list, too. Get extra savings on Special Savings items reserved for mailing list members only! --Steve Mushynsky Summer Bee Meadow |
| How did you find our website?: | No Response (default) |
| Name: | Steve Mushynsky |
| E-mail address: | Steve@summerbeemeadow.com |
| Comments: | Hi!
Welcome to our new Guestbook, sponsored by "Dreambook". Please feel free to sign our guestbook to let us know that you were here and to leave any feedback/comments that you might wish..... Have fun, but please "keep it clean and polite" :) |
[ Leave comments here | Back to Summer Bee Meadow Handcrafted Soaps & Sundries ]
Our guestbook is provided by Dreambook