[A purple mat covers most of the surface of a wooden table. On it sits a big glass measuring bowl full of white, large-grain salt, a couple of small brown glass bottles, a scattering of metal measuring spoons, a black pen, and a small black notebook.]
I’ve had the Design It Yourself listings up for a while — ugh, years, I think, some of em, the soap I’ve had for AGES — & I knew when I posted them that I’d want to do something special for the listing photos. Which I immediately failed to do, & just used a couple of pictures from the standard listings of each type, for years. Look, executive function is a Thing, is what.
The last time I did a couple batches of bath salts was one of those days where I post to a twitter thread as I work — some days it helps keep me on track, plus I guess people think I’m funny sometimes — & I got a couple really nice pictures while I was at it. So I thought, what the heck, why not clean these up nice & use em for the DIY salts?
Some days, my friends, I am a GENIUS.
… okay, not so much, really, but sometimes I DO have good ideas.
I’m nnnnot an expert in setting up really beautiful layout photos like SOME folks I could mention — check out this classic by my friend Kathryn (& buy her books while you’re at it) & there’s a lot I coulda done to make the one at the top of the post pop a lot more, but that one’ll do.
I couldn’t resist this shot, especially given all the boring steel bowls I usually use for this part were dirty & I grabbed one I traded Ivar for instead. LOVE. IT.
[A pottery bowl, red shading up to purple around the top rim, seen from above. Inside is white powdered clay, scattered with bright blue cobalt powder. A wire whisk sits ready to mix the powder together.]
A bit later in the process …
[ Pale blue, large-grained salt drains into a glass jar from a metal funnel. Seen behind is a much larger glass jar filled with red rose petals.]
That felt like enough shots of the process, but I figured people would want to see the jars their DIY bath salts will come in, too. It was easy enough to take pics of a couple filled jars before I got the labels on. Pretty colors, too.
[This photo is divided in half; the left half shows a glass jar filled with pale blue bath salts, while the right half has an identical jar with yellow salts. Both are sitting on pale brown concrete blocks.]
There’s more to come; I’ve taken process pics of the soap, salves, & oils, too, & they all look pretty good!
