Favourite Packaging Method?

[craftykelly]

I am trying to figure out how I want to package/present my soaps. So I thought I should ask everyone here, see if there are any great ideas I haven't thought of yet.

 

[beachgurl]

I use cigar bands .. some people use wax paper with a cigar band over it .. some just use a sticker on the face of the soap .. it's really all dependent upon your personal preference and creative skills

 

[Cattleyabubbles]

I've received soap in one of those little brown paper sacks thats small enough for you can stick candy inside kinda like the kind you would get from a mom & pop convenience store. Here's a site that sells variety of shipping bags & boxes http://www.papermart.com How would soap or B&B product do (e.g. sweat, leak) if you shipped it in fabric bag (e.g. cotton, burlap or muslin)? Anybody know or ever done this before?

 

[Lil Outlaws]

kraft paper bags, unbleached coffee filters (for round soap especially!).. depends on my mood LOL

 

[honor435]

I use organza bags, with drawstring, they come in tons of colors, you can see through them and smell. Buy them online, not at Joanns, unless you dont need many and have cupon!

 

[kellistarr]

I've received soap in one of those little brown paper sacks thats small enough for you can stick candy inside kinda like the kind you would get from a mom & pop convenience store. Here's a site that sells variety of shipping bags & boxes http://www.papermart.com How would soap or B&B product do (e.g. sweat, leak) if you shipped it in fabric bag (e.g. cotton, burlap or muslin)? Anybody know or ever done this before?

Thank You for making this site available to us. It is exactly what I've been looking for.

 

[Lindy]

Depending on the soap I use kraft soap boxes, coffee filters and clear cello bags.....

 

[xyxoxy]

Brown coffee filters with brown kraft labels... or shrink wrap bags with complementary labels.

 

[carebear]

I haven't settled yet. Don't like soap boxes, don't like shrink wrap bands, some papers are lovely but very time intensive and can be very costly. I have some boxes from Sunshine I'm playing with (clear tops and such) but my soaps don't fit perfectly and I'm anal about that kind of thing (especially cause they ain't cheap). Bailey's boxes are too flimsy and expensive. Naked lets my soap get dinged up too much.

I've done a lot of work with glassine paper which looks great, but doesn't hold up well enough. Glassine bags are great for soap samples or hotel sized bars though. I don't like the organza bags - except for special occasions like wedding favors - they don't protect my soap well enough either unless I wrap and then drop into the bags.

I may end up with kraft paper with with a deli wrap.

 

[starduster]

Good question

I am finding that my packaging is still evolving.
It truly is a limitless feild as is soaping.
Where you will sell will call for certain packaging.
I think as time goes on we find what style is easiest for our own personal dexterity.
So keep on experimenting. It is soo good to ask these sort of questions of the forum because new oportunities will be coming up all the time and this way we get to share them. New materials, new techniques.

 

[mandolyn]

Are you wrapping M&P or CP soaps? CP soaps need to breathe, even after they've cured.

My cp soaps are oval, so I use unbleached coffee filters & add a round label. The unbleached coffee filters fit into my business concept of leaving as small a footprint as possible on the planet.

 

[TheGardener]

I used to shrink wrap my soaps but that was very labour intensive and the soaps did sometimes deteriorate. Now I use kraft boxes and I love them.

 

[IrishLass]

My wrapping is evolving, too. At first I wrapped them rice paper, then soap boxes with a little window cut-out. The soap boxes were working fine until I started making my bars bigger and the soaps wouldn't fit anymore.

I then started using French-fry bags which worked much better fit-wise, but people complained that they couldn't see or smell my soap because it was completely surrounded by the bag, as pretty as the bag looked with the ribbon enclosure and all. (Seen here at the last picture on the very bottom of the page: http://members.cox.net/ssfkjfalf/AllMySoap/Start.htm)

Then I got a brainstorm to fix that problem by punching a small window out in the French-fry bag with a scalloped-edged, oval scrapbook punch. It worked wonderful and the packaging looked great, but it was so time-consuming for me to package my soaps this way.

Nowadays I still use the French-fry bags, but in a totally different way. I do an origami-type folding method with them and it takes much less time for me to do them this way, as well as less materials (no ribbons or decorative punch). Here is a link to a pictoral tutorial that I found of how to do it (just scroll down to post #7):

http://www.thedishforum.com/forum/index ... =86584&hl=


In the tutorial, it looks like they are using thick paper. I tried it with thicker paper and also with my French-fry bags sliced open and cut out to a generic size of roughly 10" x 5", and I must say that I like how the French-fry bags 'lay' on my soap much better. It fits more glove-like than the thicker paper does. The size I trim my bags to is very forgiving, too. My soaps can be slightly bigger or smaller, but they all fold up nice and tight within that 10" x 5" frame.

It looks like it might be difficult and very time consuming from the tutorial, but once you get the hang of it, it's truly a breeze.


IrishLass

 

[craftykelly]

Are you wrapping M&P or CP soaps? CP soaps need to breathe, even after they've cured.

My cp soaps are oval, so I use unbleached coffee filters & add a round label. The unbleached coffee filters fit into my business concept of leaving as small a footprint as possible on the planet.

CP soaps. I would like to use little packaging as possible, nothing thats gonna take 5 minutes to wrap up iykwim. Plus I agree about the footprint thing, so I think plastic is a no no.

Great ideas everyone, its good to see what everyone does. Keep em coming