# OK I cave



## cariboujaguar (Feb 9, 2009)

So my husband and friends have been egging me on, telling me I should make soaps/lotions etc... I've always wanted to but I'm not the best with following specific directions and it seems like a very precise art... I am going to sell it at my in-laws feed/tack/pet supply store so I was thinking about focusing on that demographic making pain relieving lotions/linements for horses, hoof moisturizers, dog/horse shampoos, coat conditioners etc 

I have heard soap can 'blow up' how true is that? Cuz I'm accident prone and if there's the chance it can blow up I WILL manage to blow it up! Anyone have any sound advice to get me started? 
Should I start with a small inventory of specific products or a broad range and try to cover the market? 
Where do you guys buy bottles and other packaging?
Any ideas for animal related goat-milk products?

thanks!


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Well, if you aren't good with precisely following specific directions, don't make lotion, at least. (More seems to be able to go wrong with the finished product without being immediately obvious.) Read the recipe section and look for the "Walmart Recipe" that Vicki has there. Start with that but run it through a lye calculator sized down so that it's not so big. Then measure everything by weight with a good digital scale. Do everything in the right order (lye added to the liquid and not the other way around, then add that to the oils after the lye is dissolved) and it should be ok. Yes, you have to follow the directions but it's not rocket science. (It's chemistry, ha!)


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Soap is soap, if you follow the directions and understand the dangers of lye, soap can't blow up at you...unless you try to scent with perfume or alcohol etc....when you do this by the seat of your pants make sure you have lots of batches of soap under your belt. Like right now on FB is someone selling soap who doesn't even know that cucumber esential oil, well there is no such thing...so what else doesn't she know?

Tolietries, when you want to sell them you have to be clean, sterile clean. You will be going by a cosmetic label even if for pets, so it's tons of learning and nobody is going to share their best recipes with you. I am on the lap top and not my computer, but thesoapdishforum.com has a new url, it is worth to join there and read read read, you have to join to get into the archives, where are all the super good info is, by the old broads who used to be on there. Vicki


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## cariboujaguar (Feb 9, 2009)

Thanks for all the advice ladies!


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

I think that everything I make requires following specific instructions. Weight must be perfect, ingredients the same each time. Plus I spent many months studying ingredients and what they do. I am talking about oils for soap as well as lotion ingredients. Herbal remedies are still beyond me.
Start with one product, perfect it and then add on. It is a long process to develop a product line. I make goat milk soaps, lotions and scrubs. I am still learning new things to do. You can't do everything so start small and go from there. 
Even with making soap, weighing ingredients is super important as well as following directions on putting the raw ingredients together. It isn't something you can just slap together. Not hard but then there are always the difficult FO's or the batch that separates for no apparant reason and the batch that overheats or partially gells and so on.
You can only learn by doing so pick something ang go for it.


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## cariboujaguar (Feb 9, 2009)

I watched my mother start a cheesecake business and run it for 21 years, so I know starting this up isn't some 'hobby' thing I can just jump into... I am just now considering doing it, which means studying, which means at least a year before I can have a demo product up to pass out to friends and family... but I already have two retail outlets offering me a good size space for consignment on top of my in-laws store, so I think once I perfect everything I should have a successful little venture... Thanks for all the comments, suggestions and advice, I take it to heart!


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I sold my first bars of soap. Most do. Most sell milk when they are still asking very basic questions on the main forum. I would never want to make anyone think they can't do something, but I do think there is a learning curve for toletries. Those of us selling soap can make sure you don't waste your money on butters/oils/scents/techniques/molds etc. I can tell you that I would never consign anything. Othesr have had really good success with consignment. Once soaping, I honestly think the first step is to buy bases newdirectionsaromatics.com has good ones and green ones, pump and shake and scent, or melt and scent and pour...see if you have a customer base, then start making your own do a green line to make it different. This way you are going with a tested product until you learn the ropes. Vicki


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## Fiberaddict (Jun 4, 2009)

Vicki, I want to hijack this a minute to say THANK YOU for saying "I sold my first bars of soap. Most do. ". I've been hanging out on TheDish, and they are SO HARD on newbies.....

I haven't sold anything *yet*. I'm being pushed to by my Sister-in-Law...and I am making good soap. Is it great? Probably not - but it's good, usable soap. I don't see why I should *have* to wait a year (or more) to "get better" if people want to buy my soap now. So, to me, having a Real Soaper say that you *can* sell your first soaps - THANK YOU.

/hijack


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

True. If you read over there enough, you will be convinced that it is impossible to sell soap unless you have been making a batch a week for the past 2 years (minimum) and have sent it out to be tested by a lab.


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## cariboujaguar (Feb 9, 2009)

That's funny, we sold our first years crop of hay! Some bales were a little lose, funky or light, but our price reflected that! I don't see why soap wouldn't be the same way! And soap can get away with being a little 'funky' it adds to the character! I think people buy soap from personal crafters because it's actually a very expressive item for your home, and if you can support handmade American prouducts then why not? It's safer, better quality and you get a feel for who you're supporting. I'm all into the idea, the passion is there, I just worry my absent-minded accident-prone side will errupt and flatten the city! Yeah, well, I don't worry _quite _ that much, but I do see some momentus failures resulting from this venture... Everythings a learning curve, it's about time I adopted a new hobby, I have so few already! (Goats, horses, dogs, art, music, coffee LOL) So if you gals are up for this then I am, but don't say I didn't warn you!


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## hsmomof4 (Oct 31, 2008)

Well, the issue with soap wouldn't be appearance. If you mess up soap (say it has too much lye in it) it might hurt somebody. And in our lawsuit happy society, that's probably not a good thing. So it's good to know enough about making soap to know when something has gone wrong. The other consideration is that if you make soap that is really not that great and sell it, when you do finally make good soap, no one is going to want to buy it from you because you will have established a reputation for poor quality soap. So, while I don't think that you need to have a PhD in Saponification, you don't do yourself any favors selling crappy soap. Rustic looking (cut unevenly, say) fine, but soap that doesn't lather or smells bad or looks like something that the cat threw up, well, save it for laundry soap and try again!  And if it takes off your skin when you use it, throw it away.


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## cariboujaguar (Feb 9, 2009)

Awe, I think there's a big market for cat puke soap that removes that pesky first layer of skin!

ETcorrect spelling of 'removes' lol


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

I just know how they feel because my milk customers begged me to make soap. Some have seen my first bars because I keep one of the brown blobs next to my sink  The next batches I made they saw bars, I never would have thought to put them into MOLDS! Then thanks to the dish I found out about swirling....but thankfully I learned the basics from my grandmother than labrat, because if I went on there now, I would think them gals are way smarter than me...when in reality few are even soaping letting alone selling anything! One gal who has thousands of posts over there was talking about a very popular scent I use that I am going to have to spend the money on to dupe...I was praying with as much soap as she acts like she makes that she would give me the name of who she bought it from....she buys an essential oil and fragrance oil from Micheals....Michales, sorry but the amounts they sell isn't even enough if I combined the two together to scent one batch! I wouldn't be going to farmers markets with my first batch or selling into stores  but I certainly would sell it to milk customers. I was lucky in that my sister worked for a large company and I was able to use all the girls she worked with as guinea pigs. Both for my soap but also lotion etc..

Don't even bother with candle forums, they want you candle making for a year!!! Vicki


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## Fiberaddict (Jun 4, 2009)

I'm sorry, but if you follow the recipe, and are precise with your weights, you'll get soap. It might be ugly (my first bars are UGLY - but MAN! Do they ever suds up!), but it's still *soap* and cleans.

I...wasn't aware that a lot of the dishers are more smoke than soap. onders: That...explains a lot. :lol

I'm playing with swirls now, for eye-appeal. I have a batch of green-and-brown GM soap, scented with Daystar's "Rainforest" (a Lush dup) that I have had to whap people's hands away from. It's not pretty-pretty, but it's.......attractive. I've got a waiting list for guinea pigs..:lol


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

More bubble than soap  Look at their advice logically, how much could they really have soaped to think that? Or is it that they are just trying to decieve new folks into not soaping cause it's so darn hard  Vicki


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## Aja-Sammati (Oct 26, 2007)

_Michaels?_ OMG! :rofl I dropped off of soooo many soap lists/forums because frankly I didn't have time to read through all of the discouragement handed out to new soapers. BUT on the other hand, there is a new soaper selling soap in the town next to mine that is 1- telling people that they are the only ones around that make GM soap, and 2- giving all of us a bad name by making soap that causes lye burns...those kind of new soapers shouldn't sell!


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## Fiberaddict (Jun 4, 2009)

That, I would NEVER do! You don't diss the competition, because you'll end up driving off all your customers with your attitude. :sigh Some people......


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## Nana (May 12, 2010)

What I do is buy what oils I want to use and then go to a lye calculator and figure out the amounts I want for the amount of lye I want to use. I always use the entire bottle of lye at once. I adjust as needed to use the entire bottle so I don't have to weigh the lye and have it blowing around when I weigh it. I usually get about 48 bars from that. I line a plastic container that is a media box with parchment paper making sure there are no wrinkles (size is 9 3/4" wide by 17 length and 7 deep. This make pretty good size bars. I think the pvc tubing would be nicer though. The lye calculator lets me know how much liquid and I use goat milk for that. I am new to this and it has worked for me every time without problems. I use a lot of olive oil with a little palm oil and grape-seed oil. You will have fun but do get a stick blender.


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## jimandpj (Mar 11, 2008)

I don't think you need to make soap for two years, but I do think that you need to have an idea of how your soap will be 4-6 months from now before you sell it. I say that because several times we have had people refuse to take a free sample from us b/c they had such a bad experience with homemade soap from someone else. And this was different people in different states, so it wasn't the same soaper. 

I don't have a problem with selling ugly soap, but you're going to give yourself a bad reputation if your soap isn't very good and people buy it. You should have a recipe you personally love and know that your scent will still be there strong in 4-6 months before you start selling. I have a lady by me that saw us selling soap, thought she could do that too, and started selling her first several batches. I keep hearing over and over again, "her soap is nowhere near as good as your soap, and it doesn't smell good, I won't ever buy from her again." Don't get me wrong - I like to hear that - it benefits my business. But if this lady had waited til she had a great recipe with good scents, she would be doing much better than she is. She's really shot her business in the foot because she was in a rush to start selling.

Just my 2 cents...

PJ


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