Good Evening All!

[OrchardPrincess]

Hello, I've been lurking for a bit now and decided I would introduce myself. My name is Amy and I have been soaping for about a month now, after researching quite a bit. At first it was just going to be something I did for myself and my family, but once other people got to know I was doing it, the orders just haven't stopped. I'm thinking about taking my wares to Etsy and the local farmer's market at some point. I live in Los Angeles and we are blessed with many of them, every day of the week. I was laid off a few months ago, so the extra income will be nice, once everything cures.

I am addicted to using only natural ingredients and colorants. Addicted I say! I keep talking about it to everyone, and most people are bored with the facts, they just want the end product. I really love all the great tips and advice on this forum and now I finally can share my experiences. Yay

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Relle]

Welcome Amy.

Please read this before even contemplating to sell. After only one month soaping you are not nearly ready to sell. Why are you taking orders so soon. We are here to help and give guidance to new soapers, you won't know how your soap behaves after 2 months let alone a year. You say the extra income will be nice after everything cures, which would be 4 - 6 weeks, that is not enough time or experience up your sleeve to be selling. Please take your time and maybe after a year or so you will be confident in your product to be able to market it and answer any questions that might arise to potential customers, I wouldn't rush things just to make money.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=17621

 

[OrchardPrincess]

I'm pretty sure I said I was going to take my soaps to Etsy and the Farmer's Market.....at some point. That doesn't mean anytime soon. Insightful reply but as for now, I'm not selling to anyone that I don't personally know, because people are testing my soaps out and giving me feedback on them (although I'm using the same formula for just about all of them, and I started making it months ago). I am in the process of purchasing everything to make myself legal, and I have been reading quite a lot on just about everything for over a year now. It's not as if I just decided I'm going to start and then decided to play around with a dangerous chemical immediately. I'm sure some people start out that way, but I'm pretty cautious about everything.

I'm actually selling to people that are my friends and family now, because they WANT to buy my soap and I would like to use that money to get established and buy more supplies to gain more experience. My friends all know I'm just starting out and I'm still learning about natural colorants and working with certain Essential Oils. If they are okay with it, I don't see a problem with it.

 

[Hazel]

(although I'm using the same formula for just about all of them, and I started making it months ago).

Hi Amy,

Welcome to the forum!

You did say in your first post you'd been soaping about a month and then stated " At first it was just going to be something I did for myself and my family, but once other people got to know I was doing it, the orders just haven't stopped". This gave the impression you were selling to people who weren't personally known by you but found out about you through family members. Relle's response is understandable because I thought the same thing when I read your post.

Now you say in your second post, you've been making soap for months but that's still not long enough to know how your soaps will fair over time. Will scents fade? Essential oils can be tricky in soap due to their volatility. Will colorants fade? Will the soap develop DOS? There's a huge difference between research and actually making soap.

My friends and family told me I should start selling about a year after I started making soap but I knew my soap wasn't good enough...yet. In fact, I look back on my batches in my first 9 months of making soap and I cringe at how I enthusiastically pushed soap onto family and friends. It took me awhile before I realized my beginning batches were not all that great. If I had tried to sell soap early on, I would have ruined any chance of building a business because other people are not going to be as supportive as friends and family. They may try a bar, find it's not what they expected, won't buy again and it will be extremely difficult, if not almost impossible to get them to try another bar in the future.

Another concern is people selling unproven soaps and disappointing customers. Then the customers assume all handmade soap isn't good which is detrimental to the handmade industry. It gives handmade soap a bad reputation. Plus starting to legally set up your business now is putting the cart before the horse.

My friends all know I'm just starting out and I'm still learning about natural colorants and working with certain Essential Oils. If they are okay with it, I don't see a problem with it.

Unfortunately, your last sentence is an indicator that any advice I could offer will be disregarded.