This weekend marked the beginning of my 5th year of attending markets and festivals. After the Christmas rush, craft markets and festivals are few and far between. But once the warm weather hits, it’s on. Going to markets can be a lot of work, from a week of advanced prep-work to travel and being up before dawn. And of course being “mentally on” all day and sharing my love of natural skincare and the beauty of handmade herbal soaps. At the end of the day it’s both tiring and so rewarding.

bar soap lined up on a table with price signs

Going to markets and festivals is a great way to really learn who your customers are and who they definitely aren’t.

It’s also a great way to harden your skin a little to criticism. In the beginning it was very tough for me to see some one smell one of my soaps and realize they ”hate” the smell of lavender and make a terrible face and put the soap down in distain. Or as recently happened smell every single bar of soap and then proclaim “Why are these so expensive?” and walk way.

Those comments don’t bug me anymore because I understand that those people aren’t my wonderful customers. My people are the people who get my mission to make incredible sustainable herbal soaps. And they want clean skincare in their lives and they appreciate handcrafted items that take longer to make and cost a little more because the ingredients are high quality and care is taken in every step of the process from purchasing ingredients to crafting the soap and labeling it and caring for it properly until it finds a home in their bathroom or kitchen.

Today was one of the smallest markets I’ve done yet. However it was awesome because it only local business who are members of Utah’s Own. If you are looking to support local in Utah this a great resource for grassfed meat, eggs, farm CSA’s, skincare and so much more.

Having only my 6’ foot table to work with instead of my normal 10x10’ booth with two tables and corner stand and my checkout station was a challenge. But I made it work. And it gave me a great opportunity to figure out different items I should get incase this ever happens again. For one, I have no where to hang my sign with the new Nettlesome Pantry logo. In the future something that can stand behind me or a table cloth with my logo might be a great idea for times where I don’t have a wall behind me.

I took a short video incase you are curious to know what it’s like to visit my booth. Can you smell the soap through the screen?

People will often ask me what is your favorite? Goodness, it changes all the time depending on the season. My soaps are all so different, I can’t choose between them!

The other thing I really enjoy seeing is what customer favorites are at each event. This time it was “Sunny Meadow” and surprisingly the lavender tea tree foot soak. Last year at a festival in October I completely sold out of “The Nettlesome”. So it’s always different.

If you are local and want to come smell soap in person, the next market will be June 7th in Lehi. Sign up for my newsletter so you’ll get a reminder right in your inbox!