# soap preservatives???



## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

Do soaps made with beer or fruit juice need a preservative added to it? I'm having a blast experimenting but just read something about alcohol possibly breaking down soap.....
Mom is so happy I made her soap with CocaCola. She's such an addict! But I dont want her soap to grow mold. cringe.

Sorry such a newbie,
Joy


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I make soap with all sorts of fruit and aloe juice...lye is as much of a perservative as you can get  Vicki


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## Sondra (Oct 25, 2007)

:yeahthat


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## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! I've been feeling so much better because I've gotten my creative back (I havent written a single story or done a single piece of art in the last six years) and have just been having a BLAST making up all kinds of soap and after reading that post I could just see all my soap growing.........giggle. I think I may have spazed. giggle. 

You know.....when you add lye to soda, it does weird things.....but it seems to all work out in the end. Its a nice creamy brown anyway.......ohhhh......I wonder if it'll smell like a vinilla coke if I add vanilla.....ponder.... SEE????!!!!!???? This is a POSITIVE thing.

I also read that no one makes money selling soap. I'm never gonna be as awesome as Vicki, but Vicki you are pretty practical and I dont see you subsidizing other peoples cleanliness. nod. Ummmmm.......... I think I'm gonna stop lurking at soap making forums. giggle. Bad for the moral! grin. Pics soon!

Joy


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Yep the one thing forums have in common be it goats or soap or alot of other things, they want you to fail, they want you to believe there is no money in it...so you quit, you don't try to get stores, you don't succeed which makes more room for them. And you know what, most sit and do nothing, they talk and talk and that's it. If nobody sees your soap, your goats etc...of course you can't sell. They make the process so hard, with hundreds of dollars in products you can't do it right without them...and then wonder why folks are in and out of goats, or in and out of most crafts before they even realize how good they reall are at it. I have always crafted, I have always sewn, somehow soap has simply taken the place of everything like that, I enjoy it even thought I soap the same thing over and over and over  Vicki


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## Guest (Feb 12, 2010)

Yep, just like Vicki says, they want you to fail and so they say.. many do not even make real goat milk soap, they make melt and pour and add to it.. some of them downright evil too.. I had one gal march up to me and demand to know if I even milked my own goats.. she then stated that she made goat milk soap with goat milk powder because no one would have time to milk their own goats and make soap.. I wished her a nice day.. 
You do have to work at it and get your marketing skills down.. but once you do.. it takes off on its own.. there are days I really work hard making soap and selling soap and I still love doing it... I don't make the same thing over and over.. I make it all different.. 
Have fun with it.. 
Barb


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

Well, I work fulltime and my goal was to make my goats self sufficient. Last year they paid for themselves with my soap and lotion sales. Course I work for them so who is the dumb one here? The money goes back into buying supplies and lots of alfalfa hay for the girls. 

There are two of us soapers at my monthly market and we have been going for 3 years. There are always a few soapers that show up for one month and don't make a killing and never come back. We have repeat customers and have spent a lot of time sitting at that market rain or shine to build our business.

Plus I enjoy making soap and have finally made peace with making lotion. I actually sell more goat milk lotion than I do goat milk soap. 

I too enjoy experimenting. Sometimes I just have to try something once. I have gotten a lot of that out of my system and am concentrating on perfecting just goat milk soap.

Good luck with your experiments.


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## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

"Course I work for them so who is the dumb one here?" *giggle* I think you have a point there! grin. I STILL cant figure out how Babe can jump over a 4' fence from standing with all four feet on the ground!! Somedays I think cows would be easier! giggle

I did notice a lady who continually complained because a show "only" netted her $200.00 "profit". $200.00 would pay my feed bill. $200.00 would pay most of my electric bill. $200.00 would buy a LOT of lumber. I think there are people who expect to make $3000.00 a month doing this and that's just not practical (except for Vicki there *grin*). I'm having a blast being creative, and very excited by the thought of making that $200.00 while staying home with my kids. 

Yeah milking takes time........but soaping doesn't! At least not compared to milking. Takes about the same amount of time as it does to feed the animals everyday. The hardest part of soaping is getting time away from the baby to do it!!! grin. If Maddy was older I'd have a lot more soap curing! I cant IMAGINE that woman yelling at you! What a silly strumpet! giggle. 

-Joy


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Of course you can make money making *good* soap. But it does take lots of time. Jim and I have built our soap business to the point that it supports a family of 10. But that's with the whole family pitching in and working and Jim and I working 80-100 hours per week during the holiday season. But we just took a 10 day vacation (and made money while we were doing it) so it all balances out. Different businesses will grow at different rates, but they can all grow. 

PJ


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## SherrieC (Oct 26, 2007)

You know I was just looking at your web site the other day PJ, as I've been meaning to email you. You have really grown your business fast. Wasn't it at the 2006 National goat show, where I had brought you down a batch of lavender soap at cost, so you could try it at the locals farmers market. Well I think we all can see How that went for you : ) thats Not even 3 1/2 years to a mega business. wow and I don't think Becky was making soap at the time yet, and now she's gung ho too. 
There are folks up by me in my county, that sell 20000 lbs of soap a year to all the bed and breakfast's that they can. and its not even good goat milk soap, just distilled water. So I would say you can find your niche. I am currently re-working my niche hoping to get back up to the almost 20,000 I sold in 2008.


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Hi Sherrie - yes, it was 2006. And the farmer's market experience was a disaster. LOL Definitely not our niche. I didn't try selling any soap again until summer 2008. Spent holiday 2008 learning what scents were popular and how to sell soap. Gave away LOTS of soap for free.

We did 50 shows in 2009 to get as much of our soap out there as we possibly could. And the results have been truly amazing. It wasn't a restful year, but Jim was able to leave his job and work full time on the soap business - and that was the goal. The goal in 2010 is to bring balance back to our lives and still grow the business. So far we're off to a good start. 

I've said it before, so many people out there have never even heard of goat milk soap - there is still a market. Do what you do well and don't try to be everything. I still think we have too many scents and am trying to bring the number down (despite all the children's complaints). We've been to a couple of shows with a lady that has almost 200 scents. I told her I thought she was crazy. You can't make a profit like that b/c you simply can't buy in bulk. Buying in bulk is the name of the game. You've got to do it if you want to make a profit and stay in business.

I think what Barb says is crucial - you've got to get your marketing skills down. The first time people buy your soap they are in large part buying it because of you. You've got to interact with your customers. After they try the soap, they will either get hooked on it or they won't. But you as the soapmaker are the most essential ingredient.

PJ


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## SherrieC (Oct 26, 2007)

PJ
I know, I need to pare down my scents too. I have 50 + Bad Bad idea, I call it research though, now I know what I like and I am ruling out scents and getting it pared down. : )
Sherrie


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## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

In marketing I'm REALLY very lucky in that I worked several years for Sherri Phillips at Wonderous Works of Wood at TRF. There's nothing like checking out 20,000 people a day to get a girl over being scared of people, and Sherrie had the fore sight to stick me out on the porch. She said I drew people in with my smile and happy energy. It's something I really enjoy doing. I'm gonna practice by having a booth at SCA events as soon as I can. Every weekend crown is SOMEWHERE and that's the place to be for a merchant, and I never saw a soap maker so I wont be edging in on anyone else's business. One niche seems to be making soap for brewers from their beer/wine/loki. I doubt it'll be a lasting niche, but it'll help make ends meet while I practice making GOAT MILK soap, and relearning my sales technique. I want to have everything down before doing actual craft shows. I dont want to sell crap. I have too good a reputation for me to screw it up by fosting a crapproduct off on the public. Once you become known for crap its hard to come back from that.

I have come to the decision that 3 3/4" X 2 1/2" X 1" is a MASSIVELY HUGE bar!!!!! I think I'm gonna switch to 3" X 2". I want it to be usable by all members of the family! giggle.

You ladies rock!!!! 

Joy


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## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

PJ I love your sig line. My dad always said he had us kids so he'd never have to get the gate again! grin

Joy


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

PJ is one of our true wonder stories, someone who did, and just didn't talk...in fact she is so busy she rarely has time to post! We are so proud of her and her family.

So....who are you buying in bulk from  Scent and are you using colombus foods, have you thought about having your oils premixed from him? Vicki


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

Vicki - what a wonderfully kind thing to say.  I just read your post to Brett (my 13 year old daughter) who thinks you are the best and she got this huge grin on her face.

We do buy from Columbus - get things delivered by a carrier service (18 wheeeler) instead of UPS. We're still not premixing our oils b/c we're not using drums yet. To make the switch to drums would require some major changes in our space and process. We just haven't gone there yet. Maybe 2011.

We get our lye from Boyer or The chemistry Store - also delivered on a pallet by carrier service.

As for fragrance, we get 4 directly from Agilex (25 pounds), 1 directly from Trilogy (10 pounds). The rest I get from either Candle Science or Alabaster in 5 pound minimums. Alabaster used to have a warehouse right near me here in Louisville (which is why I started using them), but they've closed that down, so now I have to ship from the Alabama warehouse.

If I want to test a new scent, I buy 1 oz of it. If I like it and think it is marketable, I buy 5 pounds. If I can't sell at least 500 bars of that scent a year it doesn't stay. Extra bars are given away (and considered by me to be an advertising expense). This also causes me to be extra picky about what I try to offer, b/c I know I'm going to be stuck with a lot of it if it doesn't sell. 

Sherrie - a lot of it is research. We had a wonderful lemon that we used in the beginning - people would pick it up and say, "yummmm". Then they would buy the oatmeal milk & honey.  Same thing with the fruits - right now we're testing a black cherry. Lots of people pick it up and love it, but then they buy the black raspberry.

I want to cut down scents, b/c I want to get to the point where I can justify buying all my scents in 10 pound minimums - and then 25 pound minimums. A lot of that will occur as the business grows, but there are also stragglers that I can just cut out. My main problem is the bottom dwellers are some of the children's "favorites" and how can I cut those! LOL

Another point is that buying in bulk not only saves you money b/c of the economies of scale, but it saves you a huge amount of time. If I only have to order fragrance once every year - that saves me a ton of time. Plus it keeps me from trying new scents. 

Our biggest thing we're doing in 2010 is having our cotton bags screen printed. Up to now, I've been buying them 5000 at a time and we've been hand stamping each bag. We'll still stamp the scent on each bag, but I'm having them screen printed front and back in 2 colors on each side for cheaper than what I am currently paying for blank bags because I am buying 50,000 of them. This is our single biggest purchase we've made for the business and it's rather scary, though. I keep trying to back down to 25,000 b/c I'm worried about cash flow, but Jim won't let me. LOL

Joy -my tag line is very true. A lot of our rapid success has been because of our children. They do a tremendous amount of work (and they get paid a nice salary for it). They are bright and articulate and draw people in. But that being said, there are times where Jim will be at a show by himself doing most of the selling, and he still does well - so it isn't like cute kids are a prerequisite. 

We're also redoing our website. The one that is currently there is one that I did myself with frontpage and using mals free shopping cart. While it's been great, we now need something more robust because we've really outgrown this one. But it is very nerve wracking to give up control and not know what the new site will do to my google ranking. But we're working with great people (red lime), so I'm going to have to get better at trusting them to do the job right. 

PJ


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Wow, PJ. I must say that the news video of your family was inspiring and my hubbie is in awe of what you guys have done. We were just talking about it the other night and who knows, maybe one day we will be able to live off of his military retirement plus our soap income! Now that would be cool.


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## midkiffsjoy (Feb 27, 2008)

jimandpj said:


> Vicki - what a wonderfully kind thing to say.  I just read your post to Brett (my 13 year old daughter) who thinks you are the best and she got this huge grin on her face.
> 
> We do buy from Columbus - get things delivered by a carrier service (18 wheeeler) instead of UPS. We're still not premixing our oils b/c we're not using drums yet. To make the switch to drums would require some major changes in our space and process. We just haven't gone there yet. Maybe 2011.
> 
> ...


*bows down* WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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