# Best Sellers? & newbie question



## faithfarm (May 10, 2010)

I am pretty new to soaping as I have only made about 6 batches now and each one has been different so that I could gauge which one's work well for what be it sensitive skin, dry skin, shampoo, shaving etc. So now I am moving on to experimenting with scenting and wondering which I should start with that would most likely be good sellers. We have 2 festivals lined up for the fall and 1 right before Christmas so I am trying to get stock together now for all of those events. So far I have made chocolate mint (for my husband), cinnamon spice (with orange, cinnamon, orange & nutmeg EO's plus ground spices) and lavender mint w/oatmeal, unscented neem soap, avacado shave soap scented with sandalwoods, and lemon lime shampoo bars. I only want to use EO's and need to stick with those that are not terribly expensive like the sandalwoods, chamomiles etc. are. Any suggestions?

Also, palm oil is quite difficult for me to get ahold of (shipping is killer!) so what would be a good replacement for it that I could get in stores locally? I was thinking crisco w/palm? Oh and I noticed the "walmart" recipe and wondered why it says not to sell it to anyone? 

Blessings,
Hope


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Hi Hope - many soapers would consider you not ready to be selling with only 6 batches under your belt. It takes time to figure out how your soap is going to behave over time. You can give yourself and the rest of us a bed reputation by selling a soap that in six months will be covered with DOS or have no scent whatsoever. I have had people refuse to take a sample from me because they once bought soap from a handmade soaper and it was so bad, they would never try it again. So please be careful. 

As far as scents, I have found that top sellers vary from region to region and even show to show within regions. The best sellers for me may not be the best sellers for you - the only way to figure it out is to test, test test! That being said, if you want to stick to cheap essential oils - lavender and peppermint are a must. A eucalyptus blend would be good too. We do mostly fo's, so I can't help you with my top sellers.

Sandalwood and chamomile essential oils are ridiculously expensive, so you may need to rethink that. (or whatever you're looking at is not a true eo)

Hope that helps some,

PJ


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

What PJ said. Cart. Horse. Why not try something smaller scale than a festival this early in the game? How many people have tried your soap? Gifting soaps to your friends and family is a good way to get feedback on it. I'm not one who thinks that you need to have been making soaps for years and years before you can sell it, but I think it's a big jump from six probably small batches of soap to 3 festivals in such a short time, especially if you still aren't sure of what your basic recipe is going to be. Crisco with palm can be used to make soap (as can any fat) but it is not a substitute for palm, as there is more soybean oil in it than palm oil. It will not give you the hardness that palm oil will. 

If you are wanting to make good soap, you can expect that you are going to have to spend some money up front for good ingredients, and if you are planning to do festivals, that's a lot of soap. You might find it cost effective to buy larger quantities of your most used oils. Rather than a pound here and a pound there, more like 50 pounds or more at a time. Buying crisco with palm at Walmart may seem less expensive now, but when you are making larger quantities of soap, buying the 50 pound block (or even larger volumes than that), even with shipping, is going to ultimately cost less.

Ridiculously expensive is an understatement. Real chamomile EO is close to $1000 per pound for the cheap stuff and sandalwood is more expensive than that.


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## faithfarm (May 10, 2010)

I have made more than 6 batches of soap. What I meant was 6 batches of different recipes! I have been making & selling herbal products (I am a certified herbalist) for quite a while now so I am pretty sure I won't do anything to harm the rep of soap makers. 

I do also buy in bulk from Columbus Foods but the shipping is quite expensive! The festivals are also where I sell my herbal products so the soap is just an add on for this year. My main recipe is one that was given to me by a soaper who has been doing this for many years & she also gave me tons of tips & advice and my soaps have been "tested" by several of my herbal customers & family and friends for several months. As a responsible person I would never sell anything that has not been tested. I leave that up to the government.


As for the palm oil. I will stick with getting that from Columbus Foods since my main recipe uses that and not Crisco. I hate using products with soybean in them anyway. 

Blessings,
Hope


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Ok, that makes more sense!


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Big sigh of relief... 

My peppermint eo with dried peppermint leaves does very well around the holidays!
PJ


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## Faye Farms (Sep 14, 2009)

jimandpj said:


> Big sigh of relief...
> 
> My peppermint eo with dried peppermint leaves does very well around the holidays!
> PJ


I make this same soap and it sells like hot cakes during hot weather. Well, any mint for that matter. I tell folks how refreshing it is bathing with mints on really hot days.


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## cariboujaguar (Feb 9, 2009)

faithfarm said:


> As a responsible person I would never sell anything that has not been tested. I leave that up to the government.


H-AH! hahahahahahahaha!


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

Well, I guess we misunderstood when you said you were new and had only made 6 batches of soap as meaning you were new and had only made 6 batches of soap. 
EO best sellers
Tea Tree
Patchouli
Patchouli and Mint
Peppermint
Lavender
Lavender and Mint
Rosemary
Rosemary and Mint

Everything else that is a best seller is a FO.
Tallow makes a lovely soap as well as lard.


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

The wallmart recipe is the recipe I teach. It is an excellent bar of soap that can be made with all local supplies, if you can't get sunflower oil, than use safflower oil or olive oil, or soybean oils, it is a small amount per bar. I can't sell lard soaps because I sell to stores, you can sell lard soap, just do a vegan line perhaps olive and coconut oil for those who balk. And there isn't any lard or Shea or palm left in the bar when it's done, it's just soap, why you don't have to put anything on the label if you don't want to other than your contact info and the weight of the soap.

I would also limit the amount of ground spices, they can be very irritating to eyes and genitals.


And although I started with all EO's all clays and natural micas etc....don't limit yourself to just them...soap selling is about scent, it goes from your shelf to their nose, if they don't respond to the scent, they won't buy it. And although folks love handcrafted soaps, rarely is anyone selling as much essential oil soaps as they are fragrance oils, especially dupes of perfumes. My line is only made up of 5 or 6 essential oil bars now, the rest making up 31 scents is fragrance oils. There are companies out there that are making phelate free etc...fragrance oils.

And I sold some ugly soap and sold my first batch...so go for it  Vicki


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## Jenny M (Nov 21, 2009)

Hi Hope,

Eucalyptus Mint (half euca/ half spearmint) is a best seller for me. Lavender (40/42 from New Directions is a less expensive option than the Bulgarian). A combo of 4 parts Clary Sage, 2 parts cedarwood, 2 parts sweet orange is a good seller. 2 Lavender, 1 patchouli & 1 oak moss is pretty rich but a lot of people like it. There are more but just can't think of them right this minute.

I started off just doing EOs but eventually started adding some FOs & they are some of my best sellers now. I'm in this to make a living & customers want a variety that I can't give them at a good value with just EOs. There are great FOs on the market that you can be comfortable using. But I tell my customers what they are getting in case they have issues. Most do not.

Jenny


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

I started with FO's and added the EO's due to requests but I only make a limited number of EO soaps and they are selling quite well which surprised me. BUT FO soaps are the bulk of my business. 

A agree with Vickie about scent. I have people ask for the mildest most natural soap I have and I show them the unscented ones and they invariably buy a FO soap. They want scent. And they buy lotion based on scent also. They will pay double for the emu and goat milk lotion over my other formula if they like that scent better. Customers are fun.


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Same here, we've got a few eo's now - but just because we get a couple of requests a week. It's almost all fo's.

I still think that selling your first batch of soap is risky to your personal business. Not saying it doesn't work out for some people (Vicki obviously being one of the. . But I know that I've gained business b/c customers have bought soap from so-and-so (who I know has only been making soap a few weeks) and it was terrible and they tell me they'll never buy from them again - they're only going to buy from me. Works for me!  But if I'm advising new soapers, I think your reputation is too important to rush into selling with some of the first soaps you make.

Just my 2 cents...
PJ


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

I made my friends and family be my guniea pigs for the first couple of batches. I did wind up selling some of them from the responses. I am glad I did because I still have those customers. But I also have gone mostly FO's but still make my "as natural as can be" soaps, such as "My Knotty Pine". 
Tam


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

I love essential oils soaps and use them over FO soaps most of the time. Just preference. I gave a ton of soap away when I first started soaping...and I made a bunch of bad batches..yep I knew they were bad when I made them...none sat on a shelf and went bad, just didn't turn out from the get go. The money I invested was a lot! I still have boxes of soap that I won't sell waiting to be made into laundry detergent for home use only. This forum was my only teacher. And trial and error. And giving away soap, and using what I made on myself. I wish EO's were not so expensive. But yep, it's all about scent. I would not waste my time on various recipe's with different oils in the beginning. It's the scent that will sell your soap every time. People don't really care if your soap has mango butter or southeastern mushi mushi oil, if it doesn't smell great to them they won't buy it. Get a great recipe going that works every time and then just add an oil or another exotic ingredient here or there, for label appeal. I separate my soaps by types. I got that recommendation here. FO on one set of shelves, EO on another set, salt and kefir bars in another area, and shea butters, and lotions on a separate table. Honestly, the oils are not going to matter that much, except that a lot of people don't want to use lard or tallow soaps. And people don't want weak smelling soaps either. All those crazy recipe's in my soap books that call for "drops" of essential oils...good grief, no one could smell a "drop" of an oil added to a soap. So, be careful where you get your recipe. Most of the one's I found in books made a soft, yukky bar of soap, and were too expensive to make with all their fancy, high priced oils. 
It sounds like you're on the right track!


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## Lauralynn (Mar 19, 2009)

. It's the scent that will sell your soap every time. People don't really care if your soap has mango butter or southeastern mushi mushi oil, if it doesn't 

You crack me up!!! Mushi mushi oil LOL


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Excellent post Anita. How long did it take you to learn that  Or maybe a better question is how much did it cost you to learn that  It's one of my little peeves when someone thinks I am going to share my recipe with them that I soap, it cost me alot of time and money to figure it out...and each time I change molds it has to be tweaked again! With so few using large molds it's not as if someone is going to just give you good information, even if it sounds plausable, you have to soap it to see if it really is real info. IF I was able to sell the walmart recipe (because of the lard I can't) it would never have become a public recipe I teach and give to everyone to try, it is that good. But having to have mushi mushi butter in the soap for label appeal  LOL!


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

LOL. I did not even keep track of the money I lost. But, I can tell you, it was alot! And I still goof up batches every now and then...like just last month. Took some oil out BEFORE I added the lye, (idiot that i am) and colored it, then poured my soap and swirled my colored pot of oil over the top....you can just guess the outcome! It wasn't pretty. I was whistling the whole time, oblivious to the error I was making. Did a WHOLE mold of bay rum...I was completely out of bay rum....and was befuddled when the next day my soap had "separated" and had oil running off of it! 

Making soap is simple, but by goodness, for the few minutes it takes you better not be thinking about ANYTHING else. At least I can't. No chewing gum, no watching TV. Nothing. 

So, since I refuse to re-batch after having several of those turn out looking like something out of a horror show, now I have a 5 gallon bucket full of bay rum scented laundry soap to use up!


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

Oh, Anita! I have to turn the music off and eliminate any distractions when I am measuring my oils out, melting, and combining, etc. Once I've got that done then the music goes on and nothing bothers me much. I have a routine down and it generally goes like clockwork. Now if for some reason I deviate from my routine or change the way I lay things out, then I'm constantly second guessing myself. LOL


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## Jenny M (Nov 21, 2009)

Ok, so how many of you use an oil just for label appeal? I've been wanting to ask this question. I know I don't need to use olive but I still do (a token amount, tho) just because the people I'm selling to like to hear that in my spiel. It sells some soap. I use a lot of shea butter. I live in the desert. We all have creepy dry skin. It might help. But the tourists that buy from me at the Sat market order more when they get back home so I'm thinking they find something beneficial (or maybe just want to remember their vaca). 

Anyway, I'm thinking label appeal is a consideration. But definitely no mushi mushi butter, mango/avacado/hemp, etc. At $8 or more a lb for that exotic stuff. You'd have to sell a bar for $10 to make a profit. And it's just soap after all.

Jenny


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## Becky-DixieDoesAlpines (Oct 26, 2007)

I prefer EO soaps for my own use too, and my best selling bar is an EO blend I came up with. But I sell a lot of FO bars!


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## faithfarm (May 10, 2010)

Thanks All! I have found a few recipes that will be just for the family because the costs to "mass" produce would not be very cost effective. My best, tried and true, recipe uses all pretty inexpensive oils and no butters so I think for right now I will stick with just scenting that various ways. The lather is amazing & it is hard without being too hard. 

As for the scents...well I may have to compromise on my herbalist convictions with that one to sell some soap . I just can't get the scents I want with EO's and not break the bank! I will keep a few though since not all of the EO's are out of this world expensive.

Now I just have to start making some soap!

BTW Vicki I won't be adding ground spices such as cinnamon to soaps that I sell because they are very staining (shower stalls etc) as well as irritating to some people. We use the first batch of Cinnamon Spice soap I made for hand soap only by the sinks since it makes the room smell so darn nice!

Blessings,
Hope


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