# Wacko Customers (Or Potential Ones)



## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

Had a woman come to my booth this week, smelling all the samples I have laid out. She loved them. But she didn't understand what the sodium hydroxide was. She stated she only buys soap that is "natural". I told her that sodium hydroxide is lye and you can't have soap without lye. While she was very nice, she "informed" me that she uses soap without lye. I finally got it out of her that she is using African Black Soap. I then tried to explain that, assuming she is buying "real" African Black Soap, that it still has sodium hydroxide, although not a chemically-made sodium hydroxide. She wasn't getting it. I could tell by the look on her face.

Then she went on to ask if I had a soap made with kelp. I said no, I don't, but I've thought about it at times. She stated that she really needed a soap made with kelp because it will melt all the cellulite off her body. :rofl :rofl :rofl

I tried not to laugh. I said, well, "soap cleans" and I really don't think soap will melt fat off your body. For a single second, I think she got it, but then, nope! I needed to put a kelp soap in my line-up. :sigh


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## IndyGardenGal (Jun 11, 2009)

Maybe I will bathe in kelp, after I have my baby. :rofl


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## Jo~* (Oct 26, 2007)

Well I live 3 miles from the ocean I Guess its time to start wading in the tidepool at low tide.


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

I still have you beat, Cindy. I had a potential customer once tell me that she couldn't use my soaps because they have oil in them (on the ingredients list, anyway) and she was on a diet. Didn't want to get fat from the soap. I told her that you can't make soap without some fat or oil to start with and she said, no, she'd found one at Trader Joe's that didn't have any oils in it. (Probably said sodium cocoate or something like that on the label, I'm guessing, instead of lye and coconut oil, etc.)


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## 2Sticks (Dec 13, 2007)

Stacey,
I think that has got to be the Whackist thing I've heard. It's hard to believe someone could really think something like that!


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Real african black soap is made from real lye, hardwood ash.....why not change your name of lye to hardwood ash? Or don't put it on the label at all, who has time to educate about every single thing, and there is no rule that you have to put it on the label. Vicki


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## Trysta (Apr 5, 2011)

Vicki McGaugh Tx Nubians said:


> Real african black soap is made from real lye, hardwood ash.....why not change your name of lye to hardwood ash? Or don't put it on the label at all, who has time to educate about every single thing, and there is no rule that you have to put it on the label. Vicki


I thought the label had to include everything? I am struggling with that anyway, because since saponification is a chemical process, really nothing I put in is actually still in there as such once it's soap. So I don't know how to deal with that on the label. Sure, I put in Shea butter but there actually is no shea butter in that bar of soap after the reaction with lye. There's no lye either. Baffled, I guess. I've seen people who put 'saponified oils of...' on the label, but I wonder if anyone knows what that means. So what do you put on your labels, Vicki?


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

Sometimes I put "saponified oils of..." on the label. Usually I forget and I've never once listed lye. Technically, I suppose, lye is used as a tool to change the oils into soap, and since everything I've read says it is no longer in the soap as lye, I don't feel bad not including it.


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## jdranch (Jan 31, 2010)

From my understanding, soap just needs to be labeled as soap, have the weight on it, and an identifier as to whom is selling it (your co name or who ever is selling your soap private label).


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

It does just need to be labeled as soap (assuming no cosmetic claims, like "moisturizing"), with name and weight, BUT if you are going to list some ingredients, you are supposed to list them all and in the proper order. Of course, there are plenty of people, including Zum, who put "saponified oils of..." on the labels, so I don't know that you necessarily need to list lye as lye. Soap labeling is one of those controversial things and some of the rules are subject to interpretation (ie, can you list saponified oils of... or must you list oil X and lye...or should you list sodium X-inate?). 

I know some people who list "goat milk" as the first ingredient, on the reasoning that they think that's the most important ingredient in their soap and since they don't have to list ingredients, they figure that they can list whichever ones they want and in whatever order. But I think that's misleading, because the average person, reading the ingredients of something, will reasonably assume 1) that those are ALL the ingredients and 2) the ingredients are in descending order by weight, since that's how ingredients are listed on everything else. And people will point out that when you buy a cake, it's got an ingredients list on it: "flour, sugar, milk, oil, eggs, etc," not "cake" even though the baking caused a chemical reaction and you can't reverse it.


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## mamatomany (Aug 7, 2008)

You end product does not contain lye so you should not put it on your label  Lye is just the catalist for change


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## kuwaha (Aug 22, 2009)

Saponified Goat milk? 

BTW I love dropping in here for a quick visit occasionally even though I don't soap.... you have some interesting conversations!


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Linda, I think it could be argued that you might not be absolutely _required_ to list it, but that's entirely different from saying that you "should not." Truthfully, you don't know _exactly_ what your end product contains. Sodium cocoate, sure, if you had coconut oil to start with, but are there also some free fatty acids floating around in there? Do you list the glycerin that is a by-product and where on the list should it go? Etc, etc. Hence the frequent listing of all the ingredients that went into it, because you DO know what they are and what order they were in.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

hsmomof4 said:


> Linda, I think it could be argued that you might not be absolutely _required_ to list it, but that's entirely different from saying that you "should not." Truthfully, you don't know _exactly_ what your end product contains. Sodium cocoate, sure, if you had coconut oil to start with, but are there also some free fatty acids floating around in there? Do you list the glycerin that is a by-product and where on the list should it go? Etc, etc. Hence the frequent listing of all the ingredients that went into it, because you DO know what they are and what order they were in.


 :yeahthat


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