*New Member* and new to the art of soap making

[Jshep1984]

Hello! My name is Jenn! I'm from Southern California. I am a mom to two awesome kiddos, Owen age 10 and Addalyn age 3 months. I've recently become a stay at home mom and am looking into soap making not only as a hobby, but a way to contribute financially as well. Any tips to starting out, recipes and ideas you're willing to share are welcome and very much appreciated!! I look forward to getting the ball rolling with this new endeavor and sharing it with all of you in this community!

:wave:

 

[shunt2011]

Hello and welcome! The first thing I recommend is reading the forum rules in each section and then read the beginners forum.

You will glean lots of helpful information. It takes a lot of formulating and testing, it’s suggested to make and test formulas for at least a year so you know your recipes inside and out in regards to performance and whether they are prone to going rancid.

We have a lot of very helpful members here to help you one your journey.

 

[Susie]

Hey and welcome!

We were all new once, so you are in good company! Lots of helpful folks here, some have more time than others to help, so if your question takes a bit to get answered, please be patient with us.

There are loads of awesome information in the Beginner Forum (start with the stickies!) that will save you lots of mistakes. I would suggest that you read at least 5 pages of threads. Some say 10, but 5 are enough to get started on, IMHO. Read also 5 pages of threads in the Lye Based Forum.

I agree with Shari's assessment of how long it will take before you have a good consistent set of recipes to start considering selling when talking about soap. However, there are products that don't take nearly so long to perfect. Bath bombs are a really hot trend right now, and your child would love to help you test the recipes/methods at home. You can also buy lotion base that already has preservatives and such in it, add some fragrance, and then bottle. Lip balms are super easy to make and you could sell those immediately. Candles are another idea. Melt and pour soap is something you could melt, add color and scent, wrap and sell. So, there are a lot of products that you could get to market quickly while working on developing yourself as a soapmaker.

 

[Cellador]

Hello & welcome! I'm also a SAHM with 2 kids- my girl is 5 and my boy is 3. It's hard to find soap making time with the little ones around, but so worth it!

 

[lsg]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[earlene]

Welcome, Jshep1984! Soap making can be a very expensive hobby, so watch out! I love it and hope you will, too. But with a 3-month-old, finding enough dedicated time to make soap can be difficult. Of course I am much older now, but when my granddaughter was a baby and she would stay with us for a weekend, I could barely find time to sleep, let alone wash a full sink of dishes in one session. Soap making would have been out of the question for me. But as a grandmother, I just didn't have the stamina of a young mother. That's what amazed me about all that. The realization that the stamina required of a mother is so great and that when my kids were young I simply took it for granted.

 

[toxikon]

Welcome welcome! You're in the right spot. There is a WEALTH of great info here.

I'd recommend starting with the Soaping 101 videos, familiarize yourself with lye calculators (my fave is Soapee) and just sit down with a glass of wine and read through the forum.

My favourite way of searching for particular topics is using Google like this:

site:soapmakingforum.com search term

Just replace search term with whatever you're looking for. Like "salt bar recipes", "castille", "lye calculators", "superfat", etc etc.

 

[Millie]

Welcome Jenn :wave:

 

[cmzaha]

Welcome to the world of soapmaking Jshep1984 Soapmaking is a great hobby not so much a moneymaker at least in Southern California. As Earline mentioned it is an expensive hobby so take the time to plan and think out what you are getting into. In order to get into selling it is a lot of money, time and work especially in an area as So Cal where every market has a new or long time soapmaker. For instance the very large market in Palm Springs has up to 10 new soapmakers at any given time with one long time soapmaker that makes most of the sales. I do not even do that market because I know who's market it basically is as far as soap sellers, just like Monrovia in it's prime days was mine. It is now a trashed market under a terrible market owner. Just saying this not to discourage but so you think about investing a lot of money and not being able to make it back. Sales this year have been down 30-40% and this is for us established sellers. I will take $500-1k to set up a good booth

Also trying to get the time with a toddler is very difficult. CP is dangerous and children need to be out of harms way at all times. My daugher, when she was still doing her huge amounts of m&p and marshmallow soap could not do it with a toddler, I always had to take care of her then I could not get cp done. By the time she was 2.5 yrs I could sit her on a stool in the middle of the living room so she could watch me in the kitchen, but she learned early on the kitchen was totally off limits when I was making soap, which was only when I had to get something poured asap. At 9 she is still not allowed to get to close. Spill and accidents happen.

While I am not trying to discourage I just think you know what you are getting into, especially if you do not have the disposable income to spend on a hobby like this. You have the next year or so to work out recipes in order to produce a good product, then a few years to build up clientele that are faithful to you and many times you will pray to make back your booth space. Average booth space is $50 for weekly small markets. I would not have mentioned this if you had not mentioned selling...