First SkinTastic Video

Renae Christine at Rich Mom Business motivated me to make a product video. I wanted to be part of her new, exciting project. That's all I can say, but if you want to know more, here her big plan revealed.

I happened to have my Cotton Candy Lotion ready to photograph. It had taken some preparation, because I wanted some pink cotton candy for the videos. But with three hungry teenage boys here, even if I got ahold of cotton candy it would never last long enough to get my pictures. So I dyed some stuffing pink. Can you tell?

And then then I used Renae Christine's suggestions to make a video. I ended up using different tools though. I used the video on my Samsung Galaxy 3 for the the video and then added sound and pieced it together on Windows Live Movie Maker and converted it to an mp4 for viewing. Here it is.

Does that look like cotton candy?

Lotion Making Day

I have seven new varieties of lotion on my SkinTastic shelf. Here you see the seven batches at the cooling phase. At this point I am stirring and using the stick blender to work them into that perfect consistency as the emulsion sets and becomes stable.

What are the new fragances?

Drumroll please...

Red Roses

Juniper Breeze

Cotton Candy

Ocean Breeze

Huckleberry

Moonlight Path

Pear

My husband and kids all have their favorite of the new batches. My sixteen year old son loves the Red Roses and Pear. My seventeen year old son likes the Juniper Breeze and my husband always loves Huckleberry.

Which is my favorite?

Oh! That is so hard. Kind of like choosing a favorite child, which my children always try to get me to do, but I never could. The Cotton Candy is fun. The Red Roses really do smell like roses. And the Moonlight path is surprisingly sensual and soft. But if I absolutely had to start choosing favorites, I might be able to narrow it down to Juniper Breeze, Huckleberry and Pear.

Which one would you love to try?

SkinTastic Giveaway

It's a SkinTastic Giveaway with Rafflecopter. I'm excited to sponsor our first giveaway. Pictured above are the handcrafted soap, lotion and lip balm we are awarding to the winners. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to get the big value points. Also, you can get daily points by tweeting about the giveaway.

It ends March 31. Product will be shipped only within the continental US.

Looking forward to your comments below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Photographing White Lotion Bottles

This morning's project was a new picture for my Etsy banner and Facebook page. The struggle has been that I usually photograph on a white background. That worked well for my other Etsy shop, Mulberry Junction, but not so well with my white lotion bottles.

In the picture below you can see how I do my photography for most of my products. I built this light box with some carboard boxes, white fabric, white paint and spray on glue. I use it next to the window you can see in the picture and then add light with my halogen work lights. 

Today, as you can see in this picture, I pinned green fabric to the backdrop to make my white jars and bottles stand out more. I added some color with calendula flowers and threw in some peppermint and a comfrey leaf, all herbs I use in my lotions and balms.

Any thoughts on improving the picture? How do you make your online pictures stand out? Do you have any photography tips to share?