A fresh slate…

[Green Mountain Farm]

I just introduced myself in another thread, but I said on there that I’ve recently found a place where I can pay rent to supply my soaps and have cashiers sell them.

Recently I’ve been focusing on the “artistic” area of soap rather than health benefits.

I want to start afresh with this new opportunity…

My goal is to sell my soaps I have now at local markets and then make a whole new category of soaps for this new place (as well as for markets).

I want to have 5 soaps focused on the given audience/skin problem. Of course I won’t claim anything, but I want to make recipes that will help my customers with certain things. They can research the ingredients to figure out which would suit their needs.

1. Acne/oily skin - teenage skin
2. Eczema/dry skin - mature skin
3. Combination skin - teen/young adult
4. Razor burns/dry skin - shaving soap (feminine and masculine scent option)
5. Dry/cracked skin - hand soap (feminine and masculine scent option)

So, 7 soaps in total (with the feminine and masculine scent options added).

Im doing a LOT of research into base oils, liquids, additives, and EOs. All natural ingredients. I want to get an order in as soon as possible to have soap ready to sell by end of March.

I would love to get yalls opinionsMaybe we could just go from top to bottom of the list of soaps and I could ask questions and y’all can spill your soap making knowledge?

For the acne soap, I was researching noncomedogenic oils but then found that the saponification process pretty much makes all oils noncomedogenic. Is that true?

How then should I decide on the oils to use?

I think for additives I want to go with these (most likely not all, but give me your thoughts):

Egg white
Activated charcoal
Tea tree and/or lavender EO
Kaolin clay
Honey
Aloe Vera gel
Baking soda (ive heard it’s good as a gentle exfoliant)
Coconut and/or goat milk

Thoughts? I know that was a big question so thank you to anyone who makes it this far, haha!

Also, one more question lol, could I make hot process batches of these soaps to test on myself (and family members) before making big cold process batches for selling? Will the properties be somewhat the same so I can’t tell if something is working or not?

 

[artemis]

First, you will get your answers much faster if you search the forum. Questions about these topics come up quite often, so there is a lot of information readily available.

Second, I don't understand why you would want to make HP to test and CP to sell. What's the goal there?

 

[Green Mountain Farm]

First, you will get your answers much faster if you search the forum. Questions about these topics come up quite often, so there is a lot of information readily available.

Second, I don't understand why you would want to make HP to test and CP to sell. What's the goal there?

I could use the HP immediately to test, I want to sell CP because it’s prettier as well as other reasons! I don’t want to make soap and wait the 6 weeks to test it and then find something I want to tweak and then have to wait another 6 weeks before I know it worked.

 

[AliOop]

Agreed with @artemis. Whatever you plan to sell, that's what you should make for testing. Otherwise, how would you know that what you are selling will have the same qualities as what you are testing? It won't, because the production process includes differing amounts of liquid and heat, to begin with.

If your thought was that HP soap does not need to cure, that's not correct. HP soap is "safe" to use when the cook is done; CP soap is usually "safe" to use within 24-72 hours, when saponification is complete. But neither will be ideal to use until they are cured for at least a few weeks. Curing includes water loss and other chemical processes that make the soap milder, and often create better lather, as well.

Regarding the oils, you do have to think about their comedogenic properties if you will be using a significant superfat, meaning that some unsaponified oils remain in the soap. There are lots of other good threads here on SMF that can answer other questions about additives, as well.

 

[Green Mountain Farm]

Agreed with @artemis. Whatever you plan to sell, that's what you should make for testing. Otherwise, how would you know that what you are selling will have the same qualities as what you are testing? It won't, because the production process includes differing amounts of liquid and heat, to begin with.

If your thought was that HP soap does not need to cure, that's not correct. HP soap is "safe" to use when the cook is done; CP soap is usually "safe" to use within 24-72 hours, when saponification is complete. But neither will be ideal to use until they are cured for at least a few weeks. Curing includes water loss and other chemical processes that make the soap milder, and often create better lather, as well.

Regarding the oils, you do have to think about their comedogenic properties if you will be using a significant superfat, meaning that some unsaponified oils remain in the soap. There are lots of other good threads here on SMF that can answer other questions about additives, as well.

If I were to make a soap with say coconut oil and olive oil. And so I mixed the lye water with the oils and let it come to trace, and then I added in 5% of the oils in a noncomedogenic oil such as hemp seed oil. Would the only super fat be the hemp seed oil or would some of the comedogenic oils show up in the super fat? I hope that made sense!

 

[lenarenee]

If I were to make a soap with say coconut oil and olive oil. And so I mixed the lye water with the oils and let it come to trace, and then I added in 5% of the oils in a noncomedogenic oil such as hemp seed oil. Would the only super fat be the hemp seed oil or would some of the comedogenic oils show up in the super fat? I hope that made sense!

In cold process, right? Then no, adding oil at trace or beyond trace doesn't control which oils are saponified first. Only in a cooked hp soap would the oil remain unchanged....IF the recipe had exactly the right amount of lye and recipe oils.

Is there any information about the tiny amount of oil left from a super fat having any comedogenic affect? Soap is a wash off product and spend very little time on the skin. The very action of cleansing involves the combined hydrophobic and hydrophillic of soap molecules - one attracts water, the other oil and lifts them from the skin. I've always wondered if the superfat simply gets lost in the action and washed down the drain. After all, the true purpose of a superset is to protect against excess lye.

One thing you can consider for your "acne" soap, is to offer a low cleansing bar, with a 2% superset....to reduce the amount of any comedogenic superfat.

Personally, I don't give much credence to all of the comedogenic concern because every person is different. I've known so many teens and adults with acne, all with different positive/negative reactions to non-comedogenic products. There are many things that affect acne; water conditions, environment, genes, air quality in the home..etc. I have my own sensitivities (which is why I make my own), and found that I had to create my own rules that work for my skin.

 

[TheGecko]

I could use the HP immediately to test

Uh...the ONLY real difference between HP and CP is the amount of time it takes to saponify the soap. Elsewise you STILL have to cure your soaps at least four to six weeks to properly test them.

I want to have 5 soaps focused on the given audience/skin problem. Of course I won’t claim anything, but I want to make recipes that will help my customers with certain things. They can research the ingredients to figure out which would suit their needs.

And how exactly are you going to sell those soaps to your target audience without making any claims?

 

[AliOop]

I have my own sensitivities (which is why I make my own), and found that I had to create my own rules that work for my skin.

Ditto! For instance, so many people adore raw coconut oil on their skin and hair; for me, it's a greasy-yet-also-drying, pimple- causing disaster. My skin unfortunately tends to prefer the most expensive oils, like argan and meadowfoam and jojoba.

 

[cmzaha]

Soap is for cleansing our skin by washing dirt and bacteria down the drain, not a cure-all for skin conditions. The best we can hope for is it does not aggravate skin adverse skin conditions. Harsh stripping soaps will usually worsen acne and are almost guaranteed to irritate eczema. Your best plan would be to design a nice gentle soap that lathers well and lasts at least 30 days. That is what folks like to buy. At least that is what I found in my 10+ yrs of selling.