Daily Plunk

To date, Plunk Soap has 128 item listings on our Etsy shop. That’s about 108 individual items if you subtract out the Survival kits and gift sets. To be honest – it was WAY more than we planned to offer. But life has a funny way of creating opportunities. I wanted to take this entry to share with you how some of our products came to be and how we, Jen and I, use Plunk products on a daily basis.

Making soap was our original plan. Multiple internet “shopping” trips showed us the infinite possibilities and we were psyched to get started. We both like to create just about anything. Jen is an avid scrap booker and one of those people who just “knows” how to cook. I have watched her whip up a cake from scratch – with numerous kids running in and out of her house– while taking both cell and land line calls and texts - as we were holding a planning meeting – all in time for her daughter’s after school birthday celebration. Not just adding the eggs, oil and milk to the mix nor cracking open a plastic can of frosting but actually compiling ALL of the real ingredients, baking cooling, frosting (with homemade frosting) and decorating.

As you may surmise – cooking and baking are not my thing. Bertolli is my new best friend. And if you add seasonal veggies to them – sandwiches are a perfect dinner food. On the other hand – I get excited about designing labels for a new line of products and will stay up until the wee hours to complete them. Photographing, photo editing and posting that new line to our site will give me a high that lasts for days.

But I digress…back to our product development story. So the soaps were in. But just think about when and how you use soap. Morning showers inspired our confidence inducing BELIEF bar along with memory enhancing OH! and cheerful FLOWER BOX. Evening tub soaks brought about RELAX, LA LA LAND, anxiety reducing ASIA and MOUNTAN MAN for the guys. Daily utilitarian hand washing spawned SECOND WIN, odor eliminating FISH SOAP and with the outbreak of H1N1 – GERM STUFF was born. Romantic FOREVER and GIRLIE DRINK kinda speak for themselves. HUGGIE and BOO BUNNY were for the kids. Actually, LA LA LAND has proven to be a bit of miracle soap with my kids at bath time. The lavender, chamomile and vanilla make them downright drowsy.

We loved our scents so much that we wanted them around us more frequently. It seems that every room in Jen’s house has a candle. (Yes – the bathrooms too. I forgot to check her laundry room though. I’ll get back to you on that.) I have traditionally run right out on the first brisk day of the year and bought some autumnally scented candle. So candles were our next step. Even good quality paraffin wax seemed to be a contradiction to our use of natural scents and colors so all natural soy wax and chemical free cotton wicks were our choice. (I think it might be appropriate for Jen to put SECOND WIND in her laundry room.)

Lotions and body sprays allowed us to travel with around with our favorites. Our spray lotions have become a real keyboard saver for me. I previously refrained from relieving my dry feeling hands until after I had completed my laptop work. The spray lotion is so light that it is perfect for working on a key board, crocheting (my other passion) and unloading the glasses from the dish washer. (You know what I mean.)

The more we researched essential oils and their aromatic properties, the more ideas we had. A friend really wanted a bug repellant that she could safely use on her then 6 month old daughter. We hit the books and the internet. In all of our specialty sprays, we strive to make them as effective as we can – and we want them to smell good too. (Certain types of animal urine may very well repel bugs or heal burns but their scents weren’t quite what we were going for.) We even put our BUG OFF in a spray lotion form to make it stick and make it easier for her to use one handed.

Another friend repeatedly gets poison ivy while trying to create a backyard garden. By her own admission, she knows where it is but can’t seem to avoid it. (I blame her dogs.) In July we celebrated the birth of IVY AID.

Yet more friends were building a deck on the back of their house by themselves. We have had a very mellow, rainy summer here in CT so the sunburns they got were not anticipated. They sent one of their kids over to get a bottle of our EVENTIDE After Sun spray. We are happy to relay that it does everything we made it to do.

I sent my college aged daughter to school with nearly our entire line of PMS easing WITCH’S BREW. (You really have to live it to understand it.) One day while sitting at an especially slow show, my mood, and apparently my dialog, reflected my discontent. Jen threatened to spritz me with our WITCH’S BREW body spray every time I said something derogatory. A neighbor asked if she could drink it. (She can’t.)

Wonder if our friends and families are getting tired of being our guinea pigs yet?