Introducing myself

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Earthen_Step

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2014
Messages
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Location
New Hampshire
I just wanted to introduce myself. I have been lurking for a while and just recently created an account and started posting a little bit.

I am fairly new to soap making. I love cooking and had fun in high school / college science (especially biology and chemistry.) I found soap making easy to merge into from my other hobbies and fell in love instantly. Since starting out I have made hundreds of bars of soap before trying to sell it. I gave them out as gifts and asked for feedback, I'm sure many of you did the same thing. This all happened last year.

This year I built a website, with no prior web development skills. Started a business, with no prior business training. Refined all the bars that are now up for sale. Set up a display in town and started selling online and at this local shop. If any of you are confused on where to start on any of this I will do my best to assist you on what I can. Each state will be different, but I have figured out a good portion of the federal level. My website is not amazing, but I can also help you get started on all of that. I'm sure many others here can help out as well! I'm not saying this to try and boast. If I can do it, so can you!

This has been a blast so far and I am glad this community is around for help and for me to attempt to help others. I don't have a ton of time, I take care of 2 kids and have a lot to do around the house. On top of this I'm trying to build this soap/cosmetic business. But, I will attempt to help when I can.

If any of you are interested you can check out the functional, but not quite finished site on my signature. We have huge goals, and hope they can blossom in time! The main goal is as much unrefined, organic, sustainable practices and ingredients that we can realistically afford and sell. So far we have bar soaps. We are fine tuning a body butter and shampoo bar to put up when it's ready. After this we will figure out some lip balm and pet bars. The goal is a good amount of high quality soaps and cosmetics.

Most of the bars we sell are very similar. The main difference is scent and exfoliation additives. We plan to drop some less loved bars and replace them with a "bar of the month" with a very different base. The bar of the month idea will probably start next year, and any loved ones will be added to the main lineup. Some will also just be a seasonal thing, based on some ideas that I'll share later on.

I thank you all for contributing to this great forum! I have learned a lot here and I have a lot more to learn here and elsewhere. I hope to become an active part of this community.
 
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Welcome to the forum! :) From the looks of things, you are far ahead of me in the soap-making department. I'm sure I can learn quite a bit from you as well.

I check out your website and I like what I see so far. I particularly like how you explained that lye is one of the ingredients. My only suggestion so far is to make another page to explain the saponification process in your own words. Wikipedia is a good source and would make a great external source page, but some customers may not have the time &/or patience to read the entire page. This is only my opinion and I hope I didn't offend you.

Going on to what I really love, your soaps rock! :) I actually want to try out a few of them, if not just for the experience, for the knowledge of how a clay soap would feel on my skin. I hope your business continues to grow! :D
 
Hello from AZ! I'm happy to meet you and welcome to the forum!:wave:

Hello KristaY in Arizona! I have not been out west for a while, and even longer since I've seen Arizona. I love the northern mountains out there.

Welcome to the forum! :) From the looks of things, you are far ahead of me in the soap-making department. I'm sure I can learn quite a bit from you as well.

I check out your website and I like what I see so far. I particularly like how you explained that lye is one of the ingredients. My only suggestion so far is to make another page to explain the saponification process in your own words. Wikipedia is a good source and would make a great external source page, but some customers may not have the time &/or patience to read the entire page. This is only my opinion and I hope I didn't offend you.

Going on to what I really love, your soaps rock! :) I actually want to try out a few of them, if not just for the experience, for the knowledge of how a clay soap would feel on my skin. I hope your business continues to grow! :D

No offense at all taken. Thanks for the feedback. If you click on the "About Us" at the top I go into more details. I did lay it all out on the homepage, but I felt it was too wordy. I still think the homepage could use some tweaking, but I'm not sure exactly what yet.

"About Us": "We use 100% natural earth-made ingredients where we can, the one and only exception is sodium hydroxide (lye) where we use a food grade product. In the process of creating soap the sodium hydroxide is entirely saponified, leaving you with a product suitible for a baby."

I have fallen in love with putting clay in soap. We might tweak each recipe to include clay or mud. I think within soap market there can be many niches and this could be ours. It is very fitting for the company name.

Check back from time to time, we put up weekly sales, one just ended yesterday. One will be up either this weekend or next week on at least 2 bars.

Good night everyone, sleep well whenever you do!
 
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