Hello. So Ive made a couple of batches of CP soaps this year and sold quite a few.
Oh no no no. I know from first hand experience (I started selling at six months), that you
need at least a good year of solid soap making before you are ready to sell soap to the public. I am fortunate that my first selling experience was positive, but it taught me that I really don't know anything about my soap other than my ingredients. How could I? My soaps were at best, just a couple of months old. And looking back...OMG those puppies looked 'homemade'. Sure, some folks are into that, but that wasn't the image I wanted to project...especially since I was asking folks to pay good money for.
I'm into my third year of soap making and will be officially selling soap come Spring. Now I don't expect anyone to wait as long as I have...there have been some extenuating circumstances (Covid, health issues), but I have taken advantage of the extra time to know my recipe inside out and upside down. I know that my recipe is best with a minimum eight week cure. I know how much weight a bar will lose over a year's time (not that I want to hold onto inventory for that long). This is crucial since it's illegal to sell a product that is less than its stated weight. I know the best temperature to soap at to get the longest working time, not just for designs, but because I will often make really large batch and split them into different soaps. It's also allowed me time to find the right colorants and scents since not all are created equal. Like I've tested Black Raspberry Vanilla from five different companies until I found one that worked with my recipe to give me the scent retention that I was looking for.
Not to mention that you are in the UK/EU and they are very strict laws, which include having pretty much every single soap you properly 'assessed'. If you haven't, then the power-that-be will not only shut you down, but you will face huge fines and possibly jail time.
I'm happy with their scent and appearance however I feel that sometimes they don't feel like a Dove or Supermarket bar of soap. I use only oils and butters (Olive, Coconut, Shea, Cocoa, Avocado, Castor) but wondered if there is any room for improvement to get it to feel like luxury soap. when lathering it creates what feels like a suction to the skin so have to give the bar a good tug to move it on skin.
As noted by
@DeeAnna...Dove is NOT "soap", it's why it says "beauty bar" on the label. And commercial soaps aren't made the same way that artisan soap is made. First, huge tanker cars/trucks of two of the four most commonly used fats are brought in...Palm Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Tallow or Coconut Oil. Then using the Continuous Process, steam is injected to separate the glycerin from the fats. The fats are then mixed with Lye in a boiler and then poured into huge slab molds that are then refrigerated, cut into chunks, fed into a noodle machine, the noodles then go through a mill where all kinds of chemicals and stuff is added to get you that lather and slickness and then the sheets are put into another machine that extrudes the soap into bars and then bars go into a press to get you that nice shape with the imprinted logo.
Many artisan soap makers use some Kaolin Clay to give their soap a little more 'slip'; it's a natural alternative to chemicals. If you want more 'lather', some folks add powdered milks (again, a natural alternative to chemicals).
CP vs HP. I do find myself being unpatient so HP seems like a better option for me, are there any major pros/cons to this method.
There are Pros and Cons to both methods so it's a matter of personal preference. The only real Pro I see with HP is that it speeds up the saponification process allowing you to make more soap in less time, but you STILL have to cure the soap for a minimum of four to six weeks (depending on your recipe). The Cons...HP soap batter has a much thicker texture and so you really can't do swirls and layering the way you can with CP. You have to be careful with the flashpoints of your scents as the higher temps can cause them to burn off. While not impossible, it's difficult to add fresh ingredients like milk and purees because again...the higher temps can cause them to burn. And the thicker texture lead to bars with a more 'rustic' appearance. You also have to keep an eye on your batter while it's cooking.
So what I have to wait 24 to 48 hours to unmold my soap with CP...if I need to make more soap, I'll just buy more molds. I like being able to just mix my batter, do my Drop/Chopstick Swirl and put it to bed; takes me about 30 minutes from start (weighing) to finish (clean up). In the same time it would take me to process a single HP soap, I can process several batches of CP. Of course, I could have multiple slow-cookers going at the same time...great if you can do that, but that's a lot more work than I want to do.
