By Karen W of Ellie Marie Designs

Our featured artists this week are Garreth and Carla from Scentcosmetics  They have generously offered a giveaway this adorable Irish Sheep! 



To enter, go to their shop and pick your favorite item out of all their items, then come back here and comment to let them know. Regular comments don't get you entered, so don't forget to name your favorite item(s). Please leave your email address so that we can get in contact with you too! 

Introduction-

I'm Garreth, the social entrepreneur, coach, facilitator, one time television presenter, pastor, chief home-maker/child-carer, baker and occasional soap-maker.  I come up with ideas but Carla makes it happen; I try to serve in any way in order to help her achieve the success she deserves.

Carla is the Soap Artist.  One time Hospital manager, scrap-booker & make-up artist she came over to Ireland as a missionary to work in a meat factory with other foreign nationals!  Having stayed just 7 months and on the verge of returning to Brazil she was introduced to a local church leader at the time.  Me.   With a heart for prayer and for young people it seemed God had given us the same vision for the town in which we lived.



18months later we were working together on a church plant, community/voluntary project.  Our focus was specifically the most marginalized young people in our community, began fostering etc, all as a means to blessing the local community.

Funding dried up and as a social entrepreneur we needed to look at tent-making as an alternative lifestyle choice in order to make a living and live according to our calling.  Scent was born.

She has the skill and creative genius that makes what you see in the shop.


How did you get your start on Etsy?

It was a friend who suggested it to us.  Initially I was very skeptical.  Who wants to pay $5.00 postage on a bar of soap that costs 6$?  It was only when we started to focus in on Soap Art that we felt we had a niche which might work on a site such as ETSY.  Within a few days we started getting noticed, some work establishing ourselves in the forums led to some opportunities and got us to an established foot on the first rung of the Etsy ladder.

                          Calla Lilly Soap                        
                                                                   
How did you choose your shop name?

ScENT as the name for the business was my idea.  We all know that soap smells good and I had the idea that as we wanted to grow into a social business we could carry the “fragrance of heaven” through the soap business into the community.  This also sat with our fundamental belief that we are “one’s who are SENT”.  There is an apostolic call of mission on our lives – the business is secondary.  To highlight the SENT in ScENT demonstrated our calling, our vision and the very product we wanted to sell.  ScENT wasn’t available so we opted for ScENTcosmetics.


What does a typical day look like for you?

Usually up at 6am with one of the two children and I find an hour or two on the computer in the morning.  Carla usually heads over to the lab (which overlooks the sea) at about 10am-11am.  We join as a family at about 12.30, 3.00pm for coffee & we all have tea at the table.  I might get another hour at the computer during the day in the midst of child-care, cooking and cleaning – but generally that is left for the evenings.  Children go to bed at about 6.30 and 8pm respectively and we gen continue working to 10 -11pm.

We Structure the week so that Wednesday evenings we look at some bible teaching, we keep a Sabbath meal on the Friday night and don’t work at all on Saturdays.  I lead Church on the Sunday and usually we socialise Sunday afternoon/evenings.

The joy of being self-employed is that we can drop this routine like a hat,  people visit, have tea with us, perhaps need someone to talk to – so key for us is be flexible at the same time as be committed.  It is the first year of a business after all.  We need to make it work.


If you could be anywhere in the world for one day, where would it be?

Carla really wants to be back home at the minute to meet her new niece.  She is a twin and so desperately wants to see the new addition to the family.

What is your favorite Bible verse?

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are a temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you.  If anyone destroys that temple God will destroy them for Gods temple is sacred and you are that temple” (My translation)

This was the first and most current verse of the bible for me at the moment.  


What is your favorite Etsy item listing to feature?

The pear wasn’t my favorite fruit to be honest when Carla first showed it to me – but as she has practiced this one I have to say it has grown on me somewhat and smells simply divine!  A real favorite!     


Where else can we find you on the internet? (Facebook fan page, Twitter, your own dot.com, your blog, etc)


Thank you for agreeing to be featured Garreth and Carla! Everyone please go check out their shop and even the links that and show them some CAST love! Winner of her giveaway will be announced next week! Last week's winner for a prize from First Light Glass  is Anna Marie aka Vintage Junkie!  Congratulations!

Comments (12)

On October 31, 2012 at 2:09 PM , pfd said...

Very nice meeting Garreth and Carla! I love your shop... you have brought soap to an artistic level! My favorite is the stone soap just because I have a weakness for stones!
Thanks for sharing.

 
On October 31, 2012 at 3:00 PM , Unknown said...

Thank you so much. Look forward to letting you know who gets the sheep.

 
On October 31, 2012 at 10:49 PM , Jennifer Hine said...

How cute are those sheep!? They are definitely my favorite followed by the calla lilies. So creative!
Nice to get to know a little bit more about the shop and the owners. :)

Jennifermhine @ gmail.com

 
On November 1, 2012 at 7:52 AM , bananaorangeapple said...

Well I pretty much love everything, especially the apples, but I would have to say the hand salve would be very useful. With all the weeding I have been doing lately my hands are getting quite messed up!

 
On November 1, 2012 at 8:03 AM , Unknown said...

Wow, what pretty soaps. Almost too pretty to use. I love the Calla Lily soaps but also thought those Lego and puzzle soaps were great for kids. Thanks for introducing me to this great shop!

lovelucy@frontiernet.net

 
On November 1, 2012 at 8:19 AM , Julia Badgley said...

The sheep or the apple sphere soap, would be my favourites... But really, it was so hard to choose since they all look so awesome.
Great teamwork, you two:)

 
On November 1, 2012 at 1:00 PM , sammysgrammy said...

The pear is my favorite. I collect pears because my maiden name is translated "pear" in Italian. All in all - the soaps are too beautiful to use as soap. I would treat it as a tiny sculpture.

 
On November 1, 2012 at 5:22 PM , Donna said...

G is for Gingerbread.... I love that little gingerbread man soap! I collect gingerbread people and display them at Christmas. Your little ginger-man soap is cute!!

 
On November 1, 2012 at 9:32 PM , The REAL EverSewSweet said...

My favorite is the carrot and sandalwood hand salve http://www.etsy.com/listing/108083377/hand-salve-carrot-seed-sandalwood?ga_search_query=sandalwood

I bet it smells relish!

 
On November 1, 2012 at 9:34 PM , The REAL EverSewSweet said...

I meant delicious! Darn auto-correct made it relish!

 
On November 2, 2012 at 2:22 AM , Deb (Two Cheeky Monkeys) said...

Oh wow, I can't believe how realistic your food soaps look - fantastic! Actually, all your soaps are AMAZING, the birds egg ones are my favourites. :)

 
On November 2, 2012 at 6:38 AM , Mathilda said...

Hallo Garreth and Carla,

I like the domino soap, it makes me remembering my dear grandma and the domino game we did play together. She did'nt like to loose ;-)

Mathilda