And she's back! Where have you been? Part 1 of probably a dozen posts

Why, hello! It’s with such pleasure that I can officially announce that Sailor Mouth Soaps is returning in 2018!

I’m sure many of you are like…”wuuuurt, you disappeared in 2013 and we’ve not heard a thing from you since!”.

Yes, that is true. Some of you may know but I began working for Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics in 2010, around a year after I had started Sailor Mouth Soaps. It was just a retail job I told myself, not actually intending to get involved for too long because I hadn’t actually settled on a career path yet. Prior to that I’d been a Hairdresser but after breaking my ankle pretty badly playing Roller Derby (Brisbane City Rollers forever!) I just couldn’t do the 12 hour days on my feet and playing with bath bombs all day and pampering people on short shifts during the Christmas rush seemed like a good temporary option and I needed a job so…that’s how it happened.

But, different opportunities kept coming up and I kept applying for them and getting them. Eventually, I was promoted to Head Office to start their Customer Care Department. With Lush being based in Sydney and me living in Brisbane, I had no choice but to move because I had to be there physically to work with the Mail Order team and rest of the Head Office people while this new department was set up.

I was given two weeks to pack up my life and move states. In hindsight, it was an absurd expectation of me and I should have negotiated something more manageable, especially since I was already Managing the Indooroopilly Lush store and it was Christmas. I was trying to finish training my replacements, get the team ready for me going and also had to make the incredibly hard decision to wind up my beloved Sailor Mouth Soaps. With only two weeks, I knew that I could only reasonably make and ship the orders I already had, notify my (crushed) wholesale clients and sell off as much holding stock as I could.

It was SUCH a stressful time. I’d be up at 5am or earlier, making soap, racing off to open the shop, working a full day, shipping orders at lunch or after work, coming home to wrap what I’d made that day and doing it all again. For two weeks, I worked from 5am to 10pm (at least) to meet demand. And that hadn’t even begun to include what I needed to do to pack! I was only allowed to take three suitcases with me (that was all they’d pay for my relocation costs…I’ll just let that sink in for a moment) so I guess I couldn’t spend much time packaing anyway.

That was Part 1 with another instalment coming soon.