Where to put coffee on my ingredients list

[Servant4Christ]

I used brewed coffee as an ingredient to color some sections of a batch of soap. I know to separate it into two ingredients (water and coffee), but where do I list the coffee? Before or after the other colorants (cocoa powder and activated charcoal)?

 

[Ekuzo]

Depends on the amount you used, the list should be in descending order. If the cocoa powder, the AC and the coffee are all the same weight, you can play with their order a little, according to your taste and what effect you want the label to have on the person who reads it. If you are not sure how much coffee there was when you brewed, just make sure to measure it next time to be exact. HTH

 

[AliOop]

@Servant4Christ You can sign up to receive free email tips from US labeling guru Marie Gale. Here is a somewhat longer quote from one of those; the very bottom paragraph addresses your question.

When you have very small amounts of some ingredients, it can be a challenge to figure out the order of predominance of the ingredients (for your ingredient declaration).

What’s Required? You must include all the ingredients of your cosmetic product in your ingredient declaration. They go in “descending order of predominance” … in other words, the ingredient used the most goes first, then the one with the next biggest amount, and so forth. When you have a blended ingredient such as a preservative, the individual components of it must be included in the ingredient declaration, based on their percentage of the whole (not how much was in the blended ingredient). Those can be some very small percentages. Color additives, especially if you use “colored mica” (which is a blend of mica and other color components), also tend to be tiny amounts. Putting all those little bits in the right order can be a challenge. Thankfully, an alternate order is allowed to simplify this process.

Label Design Tip # 3:​ List your ingredients using the alternate order:​ First, all ingredients present at more than 1%, listed in descending order of predominance. Second, any ingredient present at 1% or less, listed in any order Third, color additives, regardless of the amount. Using the alternate order will make it much easier to figure out the right order for your ingredients.

Bonus Tip: For extracts, infusions or teas, list the liquid based on the amount in the product, and the “extracted material” as “[plant name] extract” (e.g. “calendula extract”) and put it with the ingredients present at 1% or less.

 

[paradisi]

If you are labeling and selling not as a cosmetic (no cosmetic claims), but just as soap, you can list it however you like, as the Consumer Product Safety Commission is who regulates it, and they have no label requirements for soap.

Soap | CPSC.gov
https://www.cpsc.gov/FAQ/Soap


Marie Gail is directing her information more at soapers who make cosmetic claims and thus must follow FDA guidelines.

If it were me, I'd still put the name of the product, the ingredients in an easy to read list in descending order, and contact information.

You could list the brewed coffee as that, where water would have gone if no coffee was involved.

 

[Servant4Christ]

If you are labeling and selling not as a cosmetic (no cosmetic claims), but just as soap, you can list it however you like, as the Consumer Product Safety Commission is who regulates it, and they have no label requirements for soap.

Soap | CPSC.gov
https://www.cpsc.gov/FAQ/Soap


Marie Gail is directing her information more at soapers who make cosmetic claims and thus must follow FDA guidelines.

If it were me, I'd still put the name of the product, the ingredients in an easy to read list in descending order, and contact information.

You could list the brewed coffee as that, where water would have gone if no coffee was involved.

I have 2 different soap batches with brewed coffee. One batch has 100% brewed coffee as the liquid, but the other batch only has brewed coffee as 3/4 of the total liquid. I used 4 separate lye solutions so I guess I could list the brewed coffee and distilled water as separate ingredients since I do know the exact amounts. Thanks!

 

[bookworm42]

I've seen some labels do something like brewed coffee (water, coffee) on them.

 

[paradisi]

I have 2 different soap batches with brewed coffee. One batch has 100% brewed coffee as the liquid, but the other batch only has brewed coffee as 3/4 of the total liquid. I used 4 separate lye solutions so I guess I could list the brewed coffee and distilled water as separate ingredients since I do know the exact amounts. Thanks!

Yes, you could. But if you're selling it as soap, not a cosmetic, you don't have to even have an ingredient list.

And while we sometimes sweat blood over labels, the reason for ingredients lists is so the end user can tell what's in it for allergy type reasons. Not for exact chemical assay.

You may be overthinking it.

 

[Servant4Christ]

Yes, you could. But if you're selling it as soap, not a cosmetic, you don't have to even have an ingredient list.

And while we sometimes sweat blood over labels, the reason for ingredients lists is so the end user can tell what's in it for allergy type reasons. Not for exact chemical assay.

You may be overthinking it.

I'm definitely overthinking it, no question. I'll label brewed coffee in the one that has coffee as the full liquid replacement. The other will have brewed coffee and distilled water as separate ingredients just because I already have the amounts I used written down so there really isn't a reason not to. Keeping it simple but also transparent.