Friday Friends - Empire of Delight - Australian Etsy Seller

Welcome my lovely readers to a new edition of Friday Friends ! Autumn is upon us in the Southern Hemisphere while Spring has Sprung in the Northern Hemisphere. I am loving the crispy mornings although it does make it a little teensy bit harder to drag myself out of my warm bed in the mornings ........

This week I am happy to introduce a fellow West Australian Artisan who specialises in making gorgeous bath and body products. I am very partial to handmade soap and buy this over commercial soap any day, the same can be said for body butters and body scrubs. Meet Jacquie
of Empire of Delight and Delight Society.

Jacquie's website tells a little of the Empire of Delight story :

Empire of Delight was born from a love of yummy scents. While studying at University in an effort to tear myself away from the computer as a digital artist I began making soaps so I could spend more time with my two daughters. Based in Byford, Western Australia we are a small bath product manufacturing company.

Empire of Delight began in early 2009 in the family kitchen where a love of soap was discovered. I spent hours and thousands of dollars mixing oils to make perfect soap blends, playing with colour and experimenting with the art of cold-process soap making. Our first foray into selling cold-processed soaps proved so popular we threw ourselves into soap making, converting the family garage into a workshop.

Business growth has mainly been through word of mouth recommendations. Customers love the nutrient-rich oils such as olive oil, Shea butter, jojoba oil and cocoa butters. We make our soap in small batches by hand. They are hand cut, wrapped, labelled and carefully stored until bought to prolong their life.

I love Jacquie's descriptions and can almost smell ( I sometimes wish you could have scratch and sniff blog posts ) these particular offerings :

1. Energy Soap. I reckon this would be worth getting out of bed for !

"A truly luxurious soap which is made with lashings of Shea Butter, Jojoba Oil and Silk. Energy soap smells of Citrus, including Grapefruit, Lemon and Lime, with hints of fresh Cucumber and Jasmine, and a touch of Pineapple, Blackberry and Champagne. Energy is an exciting mix that’s perfect for spring and summer."


2. Perfect companion to the Energy Soap - Energy Body Butter

"A luxurious, thick body cream with a whipped texture that resembles buttercream frosting! Rich in tropical oils and butters, this body treat contains nourishing Jojoba oil, Shea Butter and Macadamia oil and is rich in skin loving vitamin E."


3. Exfoliating Salt Scrub :

A refreshing blend of coffee, salt and nourishing oils make this the perfect pick-me-up for tired and dry skin. Contains green tea and nettle extracts, powerful anti-oxidants with stimulating and cleansing properties.

4. Miss Behaviour - White Tea & Ginger scented soap. Yum !


5. Wilfully Wicked - Japanese Cherry Blossom scented soap with added bamboo powder giving it a delicate polishing effect. The bamboo powder is a natural extract which acts as an exfoliant on the skin. Courser than the salt bar and gentler than Secret Devilry it will smooth and polish your skin to perfection. A light Oriental and sensual scent, Wilfully Wicked is a well-rounded blend of pink Japanese cherry blossoms and fragrant mimosa flower petals, with warm base notes of vanilla, tonka bean, and oriental woods.



I hope that has tantalised your taste buds so to speak, I must admit these goodies do sound good enough to eat don't they ? Dear readers, I invite you now to sit back and indulge yourself for a short while, to read Jacquie's story.



The Deliciously Devilish Tale of Empire of Delight

There are a few things about me that are worth knowing...

1. I will always bite off more than I can chew
2. I have more ideas than I can handle
3. And sometimes those ideas come at me in the middle of the night and I can’t sleep.

I’m sure there’s more, such as I’m a busy mum of two who dreams about there being an extra five hours in every day. And I like to do things the hard way; such as going to university as a mature student and having my youngest during the crucial third year, thereby turning my final year into three.

Growing up I was one of those kids who knew they were going to do something creative as a career. If I’m not doing something arty or creative then I’m dreaming up new designs and ideas. This isn’t as cool as it seems because it means I must always be doing something or a new idea will pop into my head and then that’s one more item on the to-do list.

Right now I’ve got a packaging company, dessert/chocolate events line of business, a million drawings and paintings, two blogs and a book sitting in my head dying to be started but there is simply not enough time to even begin.

Starting a bath and body business was really easy, the ideas just jumped out of me and I discovered to my delight that I had a knack for formulations. Getting a recipe exactly right is a passion of mine. I’ll keep trying and trying new ideas until it works for me.

Bath bombs have been a particularly taxing part of the business; I applaud anyone who makes them for a living and know just how hard they’ve worked.

The best advice I can give anyone who wants to start their own creative business is to not do it alone. Get a business partner (my business partner is an accountant, he doesn’t make soaps but will do our yearly taxes), join a local artists group (Etsy teams have proven invaluable to me) or even just a sympathetic friend or husband who is willing to listen to you talk and talk and talk.

And don’t give up, ever. Disappointments and problems will throw themselves at you on a daily basis but the rewards granted to your self esteem and confidence every time you overcome a problem will be worth it, a thousand times over.

Want to see more ? You can connect with Jacquie through her

Website :

http://empireofdelight.com.au

Blog :

http://jacquieramsden.typepad.com/ramsdendesigns/

or buy her goodies at :

Etsy :

http://www.etsy.com/shop/delightsociety

or through her online store :

http://empireofdelight.com.au/shop/