Beginner Soap Business Questions

[Jamitea]

I’ve been soaping for a little while now and I want to start a little soap biz. My mom passed away last year and her and I have always been into handmade goods especially soap so it feels like a tribute to her in a way. Plus I love it!! But I’m also trying not to rush the process and make sure I know what I’m doing and do it right.

Anyways, I have a few general questions (hope that’s allowed).

1. Is it best to come up with one main soap recipe and use it for all the soaps but change the colours, EO, etc. or should they all be different? I know this might be personal preference but curious for perspectives!

2.What is the best eco-friendly stamp material?

3. What is the best way to make eco-friendly labels? I have a company I am going to contact once I’m a little more far along but just curious on eco-friendly options and any tips when it comes to labelling. I made my own at Christmas time with eco-friendly paper, paper tape and twine - it was quite time consuming!

Thanks so much it advance! I love this forum. It’s been so helpful in navigating this exciting but overwhelming world of soaping!

 

[artemis]

Have you visited the business section of the forum? I think that would be a good place to start. There is even a thread about how to know when to start:

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/are-you-ready-to-sell-your-soap.16002/

 

[KiwiMoose]

One of the admins might move it to the business section if it's where it should be - if so you will get an alert that it's happened.

I can only answer your first question:
I use one base recipe for most of my soaps, but have a couple of 'specialty' recipes that I also make. It's good to stick with what you know works. Mine are all vegan and palm-free recipes, but you might want to do a lard/tallow recipe and maybe include one vegan recipe for those that want it, for example .

 

[TheGecko]

1. Is it best to come up with one main soap recipe and use it for all the soaps but change the colours, EO, etc. or should they all be different? I know this might be personal preference but curious for perspectives!

This is just my humble opinion based on my personal experience...your mileage may vary.

I started selling not even six months after I started making soap...local craft fair. I had several different kinds of soap, some bath salts and some lotion bars. I did fairly fairly well for a first time seller and was invited to be a vender at several upcoming fairs. I said, thank you, but no thank you, I don’t have enough stock...next year for sure.

I lied. I had a ton of soap. It was good soap. But it wasn’t GOOD soap. And I realized that I really didn’t know all that much about any of my soap. So I decided that it would be a good idea to take a year off and make soap. Sitting on my desk are two bars a soap...plain soap...make a year apart. The first one is good...the second one...it’s really GOOD...and it shows. It’s one of two soaps that I make regularly...the other is goat milk soap.

Taking a year is something that I highly recommend. Develop a good solid recipe and get to know it. What’s your ‘play’ time? Emulsion. Light trace. Layers, swirls, single color, multi color, soap cool, soap hot...learn what kind of soap maker you are. Make a GOOD soap.

2.What is the best eco-friendly stamp material?

Not sure what you mean by ‘stamp material’...are you talking about imprinting your name or a design?

3. What is the best way to make eco-friendly labels? I have a company I am going to contact once I’m a little more far along but just curious on eco-friendly options and any tips when it comes to labelling. I made my own at Christmas time with eco-friendly paper, paper tape and twine - it was quite time consuming!

I just get mine printed with everything but the name of the soap and add that later.

 

[amd]

You don't say how long you've been making soap, so I answer with caution. Once you've met the time on the forum requirement you'll be able to post and ask questions in the correct forum.

1. Is it best to come up with one main soap recipe and use it for all the soaps but change the colours, EO, etc. or should they all be different? I know this might be personal preference but curious for perspectives!

Yes, use one base recipe of oils, you can change up additives such as aloe, coconut milk, etc to create product lineups - that's how I run my soap lineups. When I first started I had one base recipe that I had been making for 9 months (soaping for around 15 months), but I had no experience with fragrances and colors. So my advice is to make sure you know how fragrances and colors behave in your soap recipe, having one base recipe helps this a lot. I learned a lot at the expense of my customers.

2.What is the best eco-friendly stamp material?

I'm not sure what this means.

3. What is the best way to make eco-friendly labels? I have a company I am going to contact once I’m a little more far along but just curious on eco-friendly options and any tips when it comes to labelling. I made my own at Christmas time with eco-friendly paper, paper tape and twine - it was quite time consuming!

I use recycled paper labels that I order from onlinelabels.com. I use shrinkwrap bands, I figure it's still less plastic than a body wash bottle. There are biodegradable options out there, but last time I looked it was expensive. It's been a few years, so a search might be worth your time. There are some paper folding tools on Etsy if you search for soap wrapping tool you should find it if it's still available, if you want to go a paper wrapped route. Keep in mind that the paper wrapping may not be able to be recycled on the customer end anyways if it has any kind of soap residue on it. That was my determining factor for not persuing more green packaging options.

It sounds like you are narrowing your target market to the earth conscious individuals, in which case you may consider just using a simple paper band as a label.

 

[stanekster]

Hi,
1. That is what I do.... have 1-2 basic soaps and then make many variations with the fragrances and additive. I would suggest that you give our samples to friends and family (if you don't already) and see how they like your basic soap recipe.... then try to tweak it if you get negative feedback. Once you get locked into your basic soap, then you can experiment with other recipes in future.

2. I am thinking you mean soap stamp. I just have a wooden handled stamp with some hard black material on bottom (Sorry don;t konw what it is). But it has my logo and I stamp all the soap with it.

3. I would go simple.... use recycled paper bands that wrap around the bars). You can start with your printer at home to begin with and then when you expand world-wide you can get them printed at professional place. That way you can tweak your label how you want it without having 200 already existing ones that are obsoleted but paid for... But this would require you to get paper cutter (or access to one). I found that each time I made a batch of the same soaps, I would slightly tweak the label until I got it just how I wanted it.....

Just my two cents...hope it helps.