Why are you still paying so much money for those aromatherapy products you see in the stores? Everywhere you go there is another new scented candle, some body lotions and even soaps that all claim to be an aromatherapy product. But how much of that advertising is just hype?

People are moving away from pharmaceutical companies and moving towards holistic medicines. However, sometimes the products marketed as aromatherapy are really nothing more than hype. The best bet is to make it yourself and then you know what is inside the bottle.

Most bath salts, lotions and candles all start off with a base, plus aromatherapy essential oils. It is the oils, of course, that give the product its scent. Different scents will illicit a different response from your body. Some people find lavender to be very effective in calming their mood and producing a feeling of tranquility.

Peppermint oil is used to boost energy levels and give the body a wake-up call. Knowing which scent does what is essential information to have and will determine how you make your body lotions, pillar candles and body massage oils.

Aromatherapy products, besides the essential oil, have a base in which they are mixed. Soap would have a glycerin base whereas a lotion would have neutral scented base so that you could add whatever scents appeal to you, and bath salts have a neutral smelling special salt that dissolves in water better. There are two things to watch out for when making your own aromatic products.

The first is that you never use the wrong kind of essential oil for your skin. There are some types of oils that can irritate skin so you cannot use fragrant oil meant for an oil burner on your skin. It may be too overpowering.

The second thing to keep in mind is that not all bases are alike. Take for example the bath salts. You do not want to use table salt instead of Epsom salt. Some finely ground sea salts work wonders. The best purchase you can make before you start whipping out batches of body lotions, bath salts and candles are aromatherapy books.

There are some great home kits on the market that can help you by providing the basics and giving you step by step directions on how to make your own aromatherapy products. If everything turns out well, then you may find a way to make extra money by selling these homemade delights.

A whole world of information about aromatherapy products eagerly awaits you from Mike Selvon portal. We appreciate your feedback at our massage blog.

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Wouldn’t you like to add some easy extra profit onto your soap and candle business? If you act on the advice in this article, you can regularly turn $6 soap purchases into $30 transactions.

There are specific items that you should add onto your existing soap or candle line, even if you’re just a hobby seller. They take little time, money, and skill to make, but have high value to your customers. Your regulars will be delighted to find that you offer these items in their favorite scents – the scents they keep coming back for – and the products will almost sell themselves. (You still have to do a little work, but not much.)

These products sell! Here’s how I know…

For over two years, I was a sales rep for a bath and body boutique. We had a target amount of $30 per transaction; whenever a customer came into the store, we did our best to get her sale amount up to $30 or more. We didn’t succeed every time, but our weekly "average daily transactions" usually hit the mark.

Our most popular products were bath bombs and both glycerin and cold processed soap bars. When someone came in to buy a bath bombs or bar of soap, expecting to only spend $4 – $8, we were instructed to point out any other products in the same fragrances. With only this gentle suggestion, a full 25% of customers bought additional scrubs, lotions, or massage bars.

They had come in expecting to spend less than $10, and they ended up spending $30 or more and being totally happy about it. No manipulation, hard selling, or obnoxious pitching was necessary; just asking "Did you see that we had this or that?" was enough.

More points of entry into your line of toiletries.

Our line was designed to have easy up-sells (those extra items you tack on at the last minute) and multiple points of entry to get and keep customers. Each product had different "use up" rates. You should do the same thing as well; you can have one-use items that introduce customers to the line, two-week products, and monthly products. You can try sample sizes to up-sell; perhaps customers don’t want the full tub of scrub with their bar of soap, but they might want a 3-day trial size for a few dollars.

Best products.

These are products that were best-sellers for us. Whip up some small batches and test their desirability with your regular customers. Not all of them may be hits, but one or two will be. Make sure to only use the most popular scents in your line; don’t create any new fragrances. Why mess with success?

1) Lotion or body cream. Many people already may have lotion, but a thick, luxurious body cream in a tub is an entirely different experience. Don’t do a whipped butter; in my experience, people love the idea but find them way too greasy for practical use.

2) Single-use bath salt envelopes or bath bombs, especially ones that produce bubbles and foam. Bath salts and fizzies hardly cost anything to make; they just take a bit of practice.

3) Oil-based body scrub, like the first Origins scrub. Pure oils, sugar, and salt is unbeatable for a skin exfoliating experience. The simple 3-ingredient formula is still used in fancy spas. Be sure to use a shrinkwrap band to reduce container leakage.

4) Spritzers and body mists, with or without alcohol. If you don’t want to use alcohol, put them in opaque containers and say "Shake Well Before Use." Burt’s Bees and Aura Cacia do it with their herbal mists, and so can you. Brushed aluminum works well because of its high-quality natural look.

The "secret" of using bases.

If you don’t know how to make lotion, don’t worry. There is no need to learn how to make it from scratch. Instead, you can choose from the many high-quality lotion and cream bases available for just this purpose. Simply add your fragrances to the lotion base, and you have a nearly instant high-quality product.

Is it cheating to use bases?

If you’re a CP soapmaker, you are probably attached to the idea of craftsmanship or being an artisan. It feels romantic to do things the pioneer way, but you’re in business, not art. In my experience, customers don’t care how much time or love you put into the products. All they care about is getting a high-quality product in the scent they adore.

Using bases is a form of leverage; you are leveraging other people’s high-quality work. It’s no different than if you hired a friend to make the bases for you while you do the scenting, bottling, and selling. The bases usually come from small farms and crafters who are as dedicated as you are to making great personal care products. If you’re in business, your main concern should be providing customers with what they want at a profit.

Tell people about your products.

Once you have made your first batches, contact all your regulars and tell them! Don’t wait for them to contact you. Look up all their emails and let them know that you’re now offering more products to fall in love with. Not all of them will buy, of course. Some of your products may flop, but this is an easy, low-risk test. You’ll be out a little time and money, but you have a good chance of gaining a big profit booster.

Better yet, pre-sell your customers by asking them what products they’d like to see next. Then, you can make them and be sure of your sales!

Katherine Durkes has written 3 ebooks on how to make bath & body, perfume, and home fragrance products. She runs a website, a newsletter, and a Yahoo Group for aspiring craft business owners. Visit http://www.excellentlivingguide.com for more creative bath and beauty projects.

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The minute you walk into a bath and body store (such as Bath and Body Works, The Body Shop, or Origins), you are being mind controlled. If you set foot in these territories, you will walk out with way more products than you intended to buy in the first place… and way less money.

photo credit: Crystalwood Naturals

Does this sound overly dramatic? It’s nothing more than the truth. In fact, large companies are so intent on making you buy that they have special classes for it. They run their employees through these workshops and basically teach them how to trick you into buying more.

There is the fine art of making displays which encourage you to pick items up and not put them down. There is also the sales script that every employee knows when you’re about to check out. With this script, sales people can rush you into making extra last-minute purchases at the register, sometimes doubling your total order! And then there is the opening line, “Here, have a basket.” Ever heard that? This ‘basket trap’ is a proven technique that makes people buy more, according to “Why We Buy” by Paco Underhill.

“Why did I spend so much?”

There is nothing wrong with a company wanting more sales, but often these stores’ tactics result in buyer’s regret. After the fog clears and you’re heading down to your car, you start kicking yourself for spending so much of your hard-earned money. What made you buy so much, when you didn’t need it, or even want it? Was it worth it? You feel uneasy because your natural sense of economy told you that you made a mistake.

Natural ingredients only available in high-end products are yours for just a few dollars.

But learn to make your own bath and body products and escape that corporate mind control. Instead of feeling guilty, you’ll feel great about using natural ingredients and fine fragrances to create the highest quality bath and body products. Use exciting and exotic ingredients such as shea butter, mango butter, and botanical extracts, and use more of them in your own products. When companies claim that their lotion contains shea butter, it’s often just a tiny percentage.

You’ll be able to experiment with ingredients such as cucumber, horse chestnut, green tea and sea kelp extracts. These are ingredients that hike the price of commercial products sky-high, but you can get the same things for only a few dollars. Some of these ingredients are only available in extremely expensive, high-end spa lines, but you can use them at home.

Any fragrance you want.

And you’re no longer dependent on the fragrances of the month; you can make your toiletries in any scent you want. Just like how an artist’s palette has unlimited colors, you have an infinite selection of scents to use. Want aromatherapy products with essential oils? They are simple to make! Do you have a fragrance that you can’t find anywhere but keep wishing companies would make? Now you can make all the products you want in that fragrance. And if you’re absolutely addicted to scents such as Moonlight Path, Cherry Blossom, and Warm Vanilla Sugar, you can also make your lotions, shower gels, and bath salts smell like those fragrances.

Making bath and body products is easier than you think.

But can you do it? Absolutely, you can! Even if you’re not a typical crafter or “do it yourselfer,” you can get started easily. You don’t have to make everything “from scratch” if that sounds like too much work; there are other methods that don’t need chemistry knowledge, just some basic kitchen skills.

There are many resources dedicated to helping the beginner get started – websites, books, ebooks, and even the public library. Many people have learned to do this, and you can too!

Katherine Durkes has written 4 ebooks on how to make bath & body, perfume, and home fragrance products. She runs a website, a newsletter, and a Yahoo Group for aspiring craft business owners. Visit http://www.excellentlivingguide.com/easyway_workshop.html to learn more.

Article Source: ArticleSpan