# Hand Milled Glycerin Soap



## eam (Aug 22, 2010)

I was at the local touristy country store yesterday and saw a soap labelled 'Hand Milled Glycerin Soap'. No ingredients. Packaged in a regular sandwich bag with a ribbon. What is this? My first thought was melt and pour but the hand milled glycerin bit threw me. It looks like translucent glycerin soap....

Ideas?

Thanks.
Elizabeth


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

It's most likely melt and pour. Hand milled just means that she shredded it herself to melt it.  (I mean, it's possible to make transparent soaps from scratch, but most people don't.)


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## tmfinley (Feb 21, 2008)

I saw the same label wording on some soaps at Whole Foods this weekend. I didn't really investigate the package to see if they listed ingredients or not but I thought that was really weird too.


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## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

There is a great deal of mis-information about the use of soap terms. Someone sells "French Milled Soap" that she makes at the market and I know that it really isn't French Milled and cannot be done at home, but most of the world is ignorant of these things. The use of the words sell soap and some will do anything to make a sale, even mis-representing their product. Produce an excellent bar of soap and make no claims. It will sell and you won't get into trouble.


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## eam (Aug 22, 2010)

Jennifer - in most cases I'd fully agree with you; make a good bar and they will come. The problem with this venue, though, is that it's tourists who are the buyers. You don't get a second chance. Either they choose your product or they don't. They aren't typically repeat buyers. So, they'll go with the mis-information because it's pretty, and smells good (it's not colored, just scented), and believe they're buying something hand made from Vermont.

Having said all this, should I try to educate the shop owner in the difference between soaps and the labelling? I'm inclined to just let it go; I'm not sure I could have that conversation without it sounding too negative to the other soaper.

Elizabeth


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## tlcnubians (Jan 21, 2011)

Elizabeth - it's usually not worth it and a lot of melt-and-pour soapmakers will get up in arms when you try to say they're not "real" soapmakers . . . we had this discussion many times on the Texas Soapmakers Association forum when I was a member. You can talk to the shop owner about your own soaps but try not to disparage anyone else's;-) Caroline


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

And even when you don't disparage them, they will think you are, anyway. I was at a market recently and there was an M&P soapmaker there, but I didn't know it until the end because I got there kind of late and had no helper, so I didn't walk around at all. I thought I was the only soaper there. Someone came up to me at the beginning and asked if my soap was CP. I said, most of it, some of it's HP, but none of it is M&P. That was all I said. I never mentioned M&P soap the entire rest of the day and no one else asked about it, or any other soap, for that matter. At the end of the market, another woman came up to my table and said, "I'm a M&P soaper and we've gotten NUMEROUS reports throughout the day that you've been slamming M&P soap." I was like, HUH???? Turns out, the person who came up earlier was her sister and they make the soap together because the sister "can't handle lye." I still can't figure out how saying "None of it is M&P" to one person turns into "Numerous reports of slamming" but whatever. :shrug


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## eam (Aug 22, 2010)

Thanks - you're right of course. And, I do believe many M&P soapers are true artists with far more talent than I. Just not this one. Her soaps are pretty enough, but look like they've been poured into an ice cube tray, put in a baggy, and labelled. Not very artistic. 

I guess the most difficult thing for me is that people will clearly think they're buying artisan craftwork - which is primarily what this store carries - and it's not. But, I guess that's a choice the store owner makes, knowingly or unknowingly.

On the other hand, I'd LOVE to be able to make (from scratch) a translucent soap!

Thanks for keeping me on the straight and narrow!
Elizabeth


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

It's not disparaging to take a bottle of lotion that a store is carrying and show it to customers and compare labels/ingredients to your own....nor the organic/natural M&P bar at a health food store that the buyer has been marketed into thinking that because you can see-through it, it must be good. Buy a pound of the nasty stuff the next time you order scent just so you can have the label/ingredients.


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