Welcome to the SMF Family!! Please read this first :)

[ladydiana]

Thank you Hazel for the link. That was really helpful and believe me I have alot more learning and experimenting to do before I start selling. That is a long range goal for me.

 

[Winterwood]

greetings folks, I'm Daniel hailing from a small town in Central Wisconsin called Hamburg. I'm definitely a newbie, been making soap for about 6 months and giving out to neighbors and family. I find that I have many questions of the whole soap making process like "is it suppose to look that way" or "now why did it shrink that much?" are always popping up, so I'm hoping many of my questions are already answered in the forum. Having looked over the forum, I think I will like it here, as I see a great deal of friendly folks

 

[Hazel]

Hi Daniel,

Welcome to the forum!

 

[Winterwood]

Thank you for the welcome Hazel

 

[huganho]

Hello everyone!

I am new to soapmaking, my first batch was last week, a honey and chocolate CP soap from olive oil and coconut oil. Already feels nice, and is going to sot for another month now.

My dream is to get an extra income from my hobby; probably from a webshop If anyone have nice tips how to run a webshop, please do share...

 

[Clemmey]

Newbie to Soap Making and Forum

Good Morning! I am Sarah, a teacher from Washington State. I love to cook, and have challenged myself with the task of learning to make soap CP style. I hope to find a way to make yummy smelling, moisture filled soaps for me and my family! Also, having a community that you can ask questions in is such a wonderful thing! I am so glad that I found you all!

 

[Hazel]

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to the forum!

 

[SudzySeeker]

DD started it, now I am hooked

My very crafty daughter was looking for something new to try over the holidays and she found the soap making aisle in our local craft store. Wow, had no idea how addicting soap making can be! Melt & pour only at this point, and having a lot of fun with ingredients and different types of bases. I am now looking up every ingredient on the melt & pour by "Life of the Party" to see what these ingredients are!

 

[Hazel]

Welcome to the forum!

That's great that you and your daughter have a new hobby to have fun together.

 

[MICHELLE]

hello from ohio

I am new and new to soap making I haven't even made any yet. I am doing some reading as well as gathering up supplies first I have 2 girls and a boy that are interested in making it as well so it may turn into a family thing if they really like it and they want to keep going.

I have a little 2 year old girl that has alergies to different things in detergents and soaps I have had to make laundry soap to help her and I would like to see her use something other than baby wash so that is what made me think about making my own soap for our house at least.

My name is michelle I am married and have 7 children 13 year old boy soon to be 12 year old girl 8 year old girl 5 year old girl 3 year old girl 2 year old girl and a 4 month old boy. I have been married sense 12/16/2005 to my wonderful husband (younger 4 are his)

 

[Hazel]

Hi Michelle,

Welcome to the forum!

 

[AriaGirl77]

Hi All!

I'm Amy, and I'm brand new to soap making. I've been looking for a craft that suited me for a long time and up until recently the only thing I was a natural at was cooking. It's been my passion now for 10 years and I was hoping to start a business related to cooking - until I discovered how difficult that would be with food regulations as complicated and expensive as they are!

Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks - soap making! It's kind of like cooking, but doesn't involve pages and pages of government red tape! Plus, I can do it from home! SCORE!

Last month I checked out about 20 books from the library about soap making, plus I have more on hold that I have yet to pick up. I've been collecting supplies for a week, and I'm planning my first trip to a soap/candle supplier in town tomorrow. I'm SO excited! My husband says if he has to hear one more comment about soap he's going to scream.

In other parts of my life, I'm a homeschooling mom of twin 5 year olds.

Headed off to read more of the forum!

Amy

 

[ScarletFaeRiley]

Hi

I'm new here. I am also new to soapmaking but got my self into a situation where I need to learn and produce lots fast lol I have made two batches of 8-10 bars. Now I need to find somewhere to buy bulk organic and natural ingredients. my friend wants to pay me to make soap for his winery shop. if anyone here can recommend A canadian supplier that has natural organic oils and essential oils that would be great! i have found some and now it's pricing and comparing prices but also figuring out how to convert the amounts from lbs into kg and so on. All new to me! :S a little overwhelming! Also I want to try to make chai scented soap. I also want to try to swirl.....If anyone has any suggestions for me I would be very grateful to them!

 

[IrishLass]

Hi All!

I'm Amy, and I'm brand new to soap making. I've been looking for a craft that suited me for a long time and up until recently the only thing I was a natural at was cooking. It's been my passion now for 10 years and I was hoping to start a business related to cooking - until I discovered how difficult that would be with food regulations as complicated and expensive as they are!

Suddenly it hit me like a ton of bricks - soap making! It's kind of like cooking, but doesn't involve pages and pages of government red tape! Plus, I can do it from home! SCORE!

Last month I checked out about 20 books from the library about soap making, plus I have more on hold that I have yet to pick up. I've been collecting supplies for a week, and I'm planning my first trip to a soap/candle supplier in town tomorrow. I'm SO excited! My husband says if he has to hear one more comment about soap he's going to scream.

In other parts of my life, I'm a homeschooling mom of twin 5 year olds.

Headed off to read more of the forum!

Amy

Hello Amy, and welcome to the forum!

What kind of soap are you interested in making? Melt & Pour (MP), or lye-based (CP or HP, or Liquid)?

MP is fairly straightforward, easy and quick to make, while lye-based soaps are a different animal altogether. CP, HP and Liquid soap take much more thought, research, planning, testing, safety precautions...and time. Lots of time. There are lots more quality control issues to deal with, too, as several things can and do go wrong with soap made from scratch. It's definitey something that does not take well to being rushed, that's for sure. I invite you to pull up a chair and read all you can in our CP forum and take lots of notes.

We like to direct our new members who are new to the craft and who are thinking of eventually turning their soap hobby into a business to this thread: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=17621 Reading it will it will not only help you to determine if you are ready to sell your soap, but it contains pertinent info regarding legalities and regs, etc...


IrishLass

 

[IrishLass]

Re: Hi

I'm new here. I am also new to soapmaking but got my self into a situation where I need to learn and produce lots fast lol I have made two batches of 8-10 bars. Now I need to find somewhere to buy bulk organic and natural ingredients. my friend wants to pay me to make soap for his winery shop. if anyone here can recommend A canadian supplier that has natural organic oils and essential oils that would be great! i have found some and now it's pricing and comparing prices but also figuring out how to convert the amounts from lbs into kg and so on. All new to me! :S a little overwhelming! Also I want to try to make chai scented soap. I also want to try to swirl.....If anyone has any suggestions for me I would be very grateful to them!

Welcome ScarletFae!

I admire your enthusiasm. As with Amy (above), though, I encourage you to read the following thread before becoming entangled into any commitments:

http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=17621

Lye-based soap is a lot like wine in that it takes lots of research, time and patience to hone/perfect your formula and to work out the bugs, so to speak. It also takes a bit of monetary investment as well. Not to mention the time to cure and time to test so that you know the soap you are offering will stand up to time and not go rancid two months down the road (and thereby have all the money you put into it go to waste). I would take things easy at this stage and not hastily jump into anything that you'll regret later. Like I told Amy (above) please feel free to pull up a chair read through our CP section from front to back and takes lots of notes so that you'll know what you're getting into and the pitfalls to watch out for (which are many). Although the mechanics of making soap are pretty easy, i.e., lye + water + oils = soap, it's the particulars that will come back to bite you in the fanny if you haven't done your groundwork first.


IrishLass

 

[Relle]

All of the above as Irish Lass has said. If you need answers the search engine is your friend, as it has usually been talked about before.

 

[AriaGirl77]

Hello Amy, and welcome to the forum!

What kind of soap are you interested in making? Melt & Pour (MP), or lye-based (CP or HP, or Liquid)?

MP is fairly straightforward, easy and quick to make, while lye-based soaps are a different animal altogether. CP, HP and Liquid soap take much more thought, research, planning, testing, safety precautions...and time. Lots of time. There are lots more quality control issues to deal with, too, as several things can and do go wrong with soap made from scratch. It's definitey something that does not take well to being rushed, that's for sure. I invite you to pull up a chair and read all you can in our CP forum and take lots of notes.

We like to direct our new members who are new to the craft and who are thinking of eventually turning their soap hobby into a business to this thread: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=17621 Reading it will it will not only help you to determine if you are ready to sell your soap, but it contains pertinent info regarding legalities and regs, etc...


IrishLass

Because I have small kids at home I was thinking that I would start out with Melt & Pour and then if that goes well I'll move on to cold process. I'm planning on this year being a "learning year" for me, maybe by Christmas I'll be ready to sell, but I'm not going to rush it. After looking at the books from the library my favorites have become Soapmaking the Natural Way and The Everything Soapmaking Book. I'm keeping track of all my expenses and saving receipts. I used to be a small business owner of a different sort, so I'm pretty well versed on local laws regarding them. Hopefully that will help me later on.

 

[IrishLass]

Cool beans! 8)

I have the Everything Soapmaking Book, too. She has a lot of great ideas in there.

Happy soaping!

IrishLass

 

[ShirleyTemple]

Hi!
I'm new to soap making, and I've only made my first batch (of which I'm very proud of) but I hope there will be many more to come
I'm 23, a graphic designer and a dog owner. I live in Zagreb, Croatia with my fiance. I practice yoga and paint in my free time.
I've decide to start soaping because deep down in my heart I'm a chemistry junkie and I love experimenting and measuring things.

 

[lch/soaps]

Hello.This is lch(aka:emily),i lost my password so now i am lch/soaps ,lol.Have a great day everyone!