Curious - Why the general negative impressions for ED?

[not_ally]

That makes sense. I wish I had enough money to buy all the molds I want to!

 

[maya]

I don't purchase from them, the lye issue did it. And how they advertise their hydrosols and double concentrated or something, which I don't believe.

 

[LBussy]

I don't purchase from them, the lye issue did it. And how they advertise their hydrosols and double concentrated or something, which I don't believe.

I think I hear more tall tales about the health benefits of their product from soapers than I ever do about products from ED.

 

[pamielynn]

I've never purchased from them, but I got my general impression about them from the Alabama woman, too. I'd never heard of ED until I ran across her. Her claims make people so angry that there was a group of them with a website and FB page trying to get rid of her. They weren't right, in the way the went about it, but they WERE right in what they were saying. She makes the most outrageous claims about her soap and her videos make me cringe - especially the one of the class she taught.
So, unfortunately, I've just felt that if ED is allowing her to be their spokesperson - they must not be a trustworthy or quality company . But many DO shop with them and are perfectly happy.

 

[shunt2011]

I've only purchased my lye from them and that was because my parents were in Florida and were able to pick it up on their way back here. I had them get 64 pounds NAOH and 6 lbs KOH last year . I still have 32 and have not had any issues. Saved me a bunch of money.

 

[SomethingGoodAustin]

When we're talking about the "lady with the grating voice," we're talking about the Soapmaking 101 YouTube lady, right? I feel as though I've learned a lot watching her videos, even though I end up fast-forwarding frequently--she takes soooooo loooooong.

I've never ordered from Essential Depot. Haven't got any plans to start. I recently compiled a spreadsheet of online carrier oil/essential oil/etc suppliers and their general prices for the items I use most. Consistently, every product I looked at buying through ED was exponentially more expensive, especially once shipping was figured in. No bueno.

 

[DeeAnna]

Cathy McGinnis (Soaping 101) is not the same as the "lady with a grating voice". While Cathy has her critics -- and I will say I've not always agreed with her point of view -- she knows how to create a decent video tutorial and really tries hard to do a good job of educating beginning soapers. It's very easy to critique and find fault with work that is put out in the public eye, as Cathy has done, but I know darn well I couldn't do as good a job as Cathy has done in her videos. I focus on at the overall picture of the good job she has done to challenge people to do better and to dispel common soapmaking myths.

The other person people are talking about here is Kimberly McNutt (Essential Soap), https://www.youtube.com/user/EssentialSoap. I don't have the bandwidth (nor the patience) to watch her hour+ videos, but I've watched enough to understand why people are uncomfortable with her methods of soaping and her style of presentation.

 

[LBussy]

Kimberly McNutt is the one that does the HP stuff right? Yeah I ended up making horrible bar soap my first time because I told myself to just follow the advice of an expert. Or, I fell asleep during the important parts, hard to say.

 

[SomethingGoodAustin]

Oh, that one! I didn't know there were two women making vids with a connection to ED. Live and learn. I only connected Cathy McGinnis to the grating voice because my boyfriend's younger daughter has commented on her voice. She tends to leave the room when I start a Soapmaking 101 video.

I tried to visit McNutt's site. The web editor in me couldn't get past that crazy layout, and the proofer/writer in me quailed at all. those. misspellings. Jebus.

And (to quote Forrest Gump) that's all I have to say about that. Ducking out now before I get myself (deservedly, probably) in trouble for being negative.

 

[dixiedragon]

I've never ordered from them, but their perpetual "sale" bothers me. Don't say something is "half off" forever - just say the price is whatever. That's a bit sketchy and makes me uncomfortable ordering from them. I also feel like they have all of these "freebies" but when you do the actual math their stuff is often twice as expensive as someplace like Brambleberry.

 

[LBussy]

I've never ordered from them, but their perpetual "sale" bothers me. Don't say something is "half off" forever - just say the price is whatever. That's a bit sketchy and makes me uncomfortable ordering from them.

Sort of like how The Lye Guy has a perpetual "Introductory Offer" for 6# of lye for the price of 5? That's like calling someone out for saying $12.99 instead of $13.00.

 

[new12soap]

I am not certain, but I believe that Kimberly McNutt is just a devotee of ED and is NOT officially associated with ED in any way. Cathy McGinnis of Soaping 101 started out listing her suppliers and ED has put endorsements on her site.

As I say, that is my impression but don't quote me.

 

[SomethingGoodAustin]

Sort of like how The Lye Guy has a perpetual "Introductory Offer" for 6# of lye for the price of 5? That's like calling someone out for saying $12.99 instead of $13.00.

FWIW/FYI, I compared lye prices from several suppliers when I was spreadsheeting my material costs. The Lye Guy had the best price even with shipping, at least for the amount that I have room to store currently. I've been buying from him for a couple of years now. Consistent quality, fast shipping, never had a problem.

 

[LBussy]

FWIW/FYI, I compared lye prices from several suppliers when I was spreadsheeting my material costs. The Lye Guy had the best price even with shipping, at least for the amount that I have room to store currently. I've been buying from him for a couple of years now. Consistent quality, fast shipping, never had a problem.

I am going to compare all the different suppliers in this thread:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?t=53198&goto=newpost

That thread was specifically about lye, we seem to be having the same conversations in two threads . Should be interesting if nothing else.

 

[houseofwool]

When I price out ED versus the lye guy, ED is 50¢ a pound cheaper. We buy 64 pounds at a time, so that may be where the break is.

 

[LBussy]

Maybe, ED goes from 32 to 64# I think in the purchasable quantities so I just extrapolated the 50# value. I had to pick something.

 

[Mildreds.naturals]

There was a problem some time back with their lye. Many, many soapers were having issues, the soap just stayed soft and oily, same recipes and same oils. The only variable was the lye. These were experienced soapmakers. Some of the soapers said they had the lye tested and it was only 48-52% pure.

As more and more people had problems, and more and more people contacted ED, the customer service and eventually the public relations got worse and worse. First the company said there was nothing wrong with the lye, the soapmaker must have made a mistake. Then when so many complained, they said send us the batch numbers we will look into it. When some people demanded that ED replace the lye, they refused. They have never admitted any fault as far as I know.

That is the BIG reason I have heard that a lot of people refuse to do business with them. There have always been issues with sometimes the customer service is good, sometimes it isn't. Some of their prices are excellent, but beware of ordering essential oils from them, they have started selling dilutions so make sure you know what you are ordering. If they get your order right, great. If there is a problem, they are not the easiest company to deal with getting it resolved.

Beware of the shipping charges, you can look at the website and see "FREE SHIPPING!" but the exact same item costs 3 times what the not-free shipping product on their own site costs.

I would love to know more about this because, on another thread, I was talking about having problems with my KOH within the Glycerine method turning brown. Also a batch I just did today from an unopened KOH container just turned into crap. Never saponified properly. These containers were from 2 years ago and I left them in the containers I BOUGHT them in, unopened.

If you could help me pinpoint a timeframe, I'd love to see if I fell in that time so I can bring it to their attention. I just finished emailing them about it but I doubt I'll get a response. When I got these bottles (5, two pound bottles) of KOH Flakes, it said SODIUM Hydroxide on all the labels. Kitten Love? I emailed them about it and asked them to please identify what they sent me before I waste product. Crickets. They never cared to reply. I mentioned that. I don't see how sealed containers of Lye would go bad if they are stored properly.

 

[soapmage]

When I first started doing CP in early 2014 I ordered lye from ED since that's what the pro's in their YT videos were using, so there ya go... I did fine for the first 2 big bottles I bought from them, then BAM, got a shipment of the affected lye and lost several good batches. I thought it was me, my recipes, since I was still new. I was in S101 and some other FB groups and started hearing the stories. It was then I knew I was one of the affected soapers. I ran my recipes by some very experienced soapers and they all came back saying my recipes were very good. So I felt better knowing it wasn't my fault. I was ticked off to no end though that I lost money and supplies in those failed batches though! I called and emailed ED and was told that their lye had been tested and that it must have been my water, or temps, or yada yada yada. Needless to say, I will never order from them again. For a company to actually blame the customer and take zero responsibility is abhorrent. At least they could have offered store credit, a nice % off my next order, a freebie, anything to keep their customers happy. They wouldn't even do that. So yeah, there ya go.

 

[reinbeau]

They have done serious damage to their reputation, however, when you've got soapers like Cathy McInnis (of S101 fame) on their side, they have instant loyalty. She makes money from shilling for them. I lost all respect for her when I saw that. The other one was Kimberly McNutt, who I had no respect for anyways - she lost her YouTube channel for a bit because of her shilling. Yes, I use names. These people make money on public soaping, so they can deal with the outfall.

 

[shunt2011]

I bought 64lbs in early 2014 and have been using it with no problem. I'm down to the last 10 lbs. I've been using them for several years. I've also been purchasing my KOH with no problems. I know some did have trouble back in 2014 but I'm betting they've fixed any issues they had if admitted or not. They are still the best price for me.