Your Thoughts on my Commercial Soap Biz

[Maria]

If you are confident about your ability to run a business, go for it. Check out who you feel your competition is and be better.
I got a chance to sell my soaps at the local green market this year. Not much volume or many vendors. I spoke with another local soap maker who works a busier market north of me. She said if I enjoy making soap and don't mind working for 4 hours on Saturday mornings I would probably build up a following if I had a quality line.
I would have been happy to pick up a few extra dollars for Christmas but the demand for natural soap way exceeded my expectations. I had to switch to hot process instead of cold process to keep up with the demand. All the time I wasted on cold process trying to achieve perfectly smooth bars went out the window. Turns out people like the marbled look of the hot processed soap better. A local newspaper wants to come over and take pictures in my kitchen while I make the soap. Several other cities are trying to recruit me for their green markets. 2 people have offered to back me in a larger commercial soap making business and 2 companies have contacted me about extremely large orders that I doubt I could fill within a reasonable time frame.
Every week we top the previous week in sales and I am struggling to keep up with the demand. I was thinking things would slow down after Christmas but today was told the traffic is expected to increase.
Follow your instincts. If you know you have it in you to succeed, you can do it.

 

[welder]

i stand with egg on my face! i've been making soap on and off for 10+ years and just reached the conclusion from reading all the threads about it, that i have been using too much water in my soap!

Well, if you like the end results I would say your recipe is just right :wink: .

That's just what I was going to say.

After all, as the saying goes, "If it aint broke, don't fix it"!!!

 

[starduster]

Bubbling along

If you are confident about your ability to run a business, go for it. Check out who you feel your competition is and be better.
I got a chance to sell my soaps at the local green market this year. Not much volume or many vendors. I spoke with another local soap maker who works a busier market north of me. She said if I enjoy making soap and don't mind working for 4 hours on Saturday mornings I would probably build up a following if I had a quality line.
I would have been happy to pick up a few extra dollars for Christmas but the demand for natural soap way exceeded my expectations. I had to switch to hot process instead of cold process to keep up with the demand. All the time I wasted on cold process trying to achieve perfectly smooth bars went out the window. Turns out people like the marbled look of the hot processed soap better. A local newspaper wants to come over and take pictures in my kitchen while I make the soap. Several other cities are trying to recruit me for their green markets. 2 people have offered to back me in a larger commercial soap making business and 2 companies have contacted me about extremely large orders that I doubt I could fill within a reasonable time frame.
Every week we top the previous week in sales and I am struggling to keep up with the demand. I was thinking things would slow down after Christmas but today was told the traffic is expected to increase.
Follow your instincts. If you know you have it in you to succeed, you can do it.

First of all, you are a stayer not a player.
Congrats.That is mighty.
I am with you all the way.
Now a glass or two of champagne is in order.
:wink: Keep it simple and have fun along the way.You don't want your headstone to read ."She Soaped herself to death"
May I have your signature now.

 

[donniej]

Thanks everyone!

Let me clarify a few points that came up (in no particular order )

I don't plan on cold processing, only hot process. CP is just way too slow for curing.

Used cooking oil is very hit-or-miss... some is very nice, some isn't... but keep in mind that I have several years experience purifying it. If there is any part of this that I'm already an expert at, this is it. I don't want to get into "proprietary" techniques but there are many tried and true methods of purifying it. These include caustic wash with a precise measured mixture of water & lye as well as filtering via centrifuge.

As for making soap, I do expect there to be some trial and error. I've done this in my garage but of course there will be challanges scaling it up. Fortunately I have a few chemists willing to help me out, as well as my Dad who is an expert on industrial machinery. I also plan to start with only liquid soaps, which of course are a lot easier to make. I do have the space, so if I can find a market for it, bar soap will follow.

BTW, I picked up my first real piece of equipment yesterday. A 180 gallon stainless steel mixing tank 8)

 

[starduster]

Thanks everyone!

Let me clarify a few points that came up (in no particular order )

I don't plan on cold processing, only hot process. CP is just way too slow for curing.

Used cooking oil is very hit-or-miss... some is very nice, some isn't... but keep in mind that I have several years experience purifying it. If there is any part of this that I'm already an expert at, this is it. I don't want to get into "proprietary" techniques but there are many tried and true methods of purifying it. These include caustic wash with a precise measured mixture of water & lye as well as filtering via centrifuge.

As for making soap, I do expect there to be some trial and error. I've done this in my garage but of course there will be challanges scaling it up. Fortunately I have a few chemists willing to help me out, as well as my Dad who is an expert on industrial machinery. I also plan to start with only liquid soaps, which of course are a lot easier to make. I do have the space, so if I can find a market for it, bar soap will follow.

BTW, I picked up my first real piece of equipment yesterday. A 180 gallon stainless steel mixing tank 8)

Now tht puts you in a league of your own and very blessed.
A few fairy Godperson's lurking around also.
Write that buisness plan, then rewrite it.
I know nothing about liquid soap.If you believe in it you will do it.
But somehow me thinks the romance is in the back to the good ole soap bar like Grannies granny used to use in those mythical good old days.
Go on, do it.
We want the usual photo reports.Just like the above.
By the way ,thankyou for that cool photo of your newly adopted treasure.

 

[clearhearts]

What method of liquid soapmaking do you plan to use?

Only the tutorials and instructions I've read seem a lot more complex that CP...

I'd like to know of an easier way!

Also, good luck in your new venture!!

 

[donniej]

What method of liquid soapmaking do you plan to use?

KOH (Potassium Hydroxide, AKA Potash) will only make liquid soap, not solid. It, liquid oils and water.

NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide, AKA Lye) will also make a liquid soap if you use a lot of water. If the water evaporates however, it will turn solid.

How are you doing it now?

 

[clearhearts]

I'm not tried it, I've only read articles on how to do it but it just seems so time consuming

I'm gonna try it soon though. One of my soaping resolutions.

 

[Deda]

I would love to learn an easier way to make liquid soap, other than buying a base.

When I make do set aside some time to make it I always spend all day. I've narrowed my time down, but I still clock about 5 hours a batch. The cook time is just so long and labor involved, like making transparent soap. Very pretty, but time consuming.

 

[donniej]

I suppose "time consuming" is a relative term. The amount of time it takes to make a batch of soap seems like nothing comapred to what it takes to cook up a batch of BioDiesel

 

[clearhearts]

That's a fair point like. Was it just natural progression to go onto soap making? (I know nothing about Bio Diesel )

 

[donniej]

I make 30 gallon batches of BioDiesel (about one per month). This leaves me with ~5 gallons of raw glycerin per batch. This is too much to dump down the drain, I have to do something with it.... so I started making soap.

Then I found out that you can make more than BioDiesel out of vegetable oil, you can also make soap out of it!

So I suppose it was a bit of a progression of processing oil. 8)

 

[freesoul]

Bio soap is a novelty & I do think there is a market for it. It's not your run of the mill soap the market is already swamped with . Bio soap should stand out.

I have enjoyed bio soap in for personal use. My husband is very fond of the bio-shea soaps from The Brown Soap Co. We have 1/2 doz bars under the sink now.

Different strokes for diffferent folks. Bio soap does fill a need in the market place.

It won't be a get rich quick endeavor though. It take most soapers years to make it an income out of it.

Thanks for the shout out Tabitha
My wife and her best friend and partner now run the soap company and we've changed the name to Wash Tyme. I only help with the heavy lifting part. They are experimenting with some old tyme recipes ie salt & beeswax. Our soaps are really getting better as we keep making them.

I've heard all the concerns about 'what is in the glycerin'. Here's a quick rundown on our whole process: We collect the oil from various restaurants. We settle it, heat to 212 and filter it to 5 microns before going into the reactor. At this point the oil looks clear enough to fry up some shrimp in! Its reacted with methanol and caustic (KOH or NAOH) at 135F for 2 hours and then settles overnight. We drain off the glycerin and distill the methanol out at temps up to 260F over the course of 24-48 hours.

Then we make our soap. We use a recipe developed by a fellow up in Canada that works very well and we allow out soap to cure at least 3-4 weeks. We've been adding either shea butter or olive oil and scents. Tabitha- I don't know when you last ordered but our new bar soap is turning out even better than before. We use the liquid version all around the house for kitchen, bath, shampoo, laundry- even the dog. It does sting if you get it in your eyes so be careful with the dog.

We get great feedback from everyone who tries it, anyone who has skin issues with commercial soaps say ours is better and it doesn't dry out your skin. There's more info on our website at www.washtyme.com

We're working on the marketing now- packaging and labelling and then visit some local stores to get our product to market. We're not here to compete with traditional soaps just offer an alternative for folks who see the value of recycling and reuse. Plus it takes grease off your hands in cold water 8)

 

[Tabitha]

Thanks for that info! Maybe if I place an order the hubby will get off my back, he has been fussing about running low .

(...runs off to order more warm vanilla Sugar soap w/ shea...)

 

[carebear]

NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide, AKA Lye) will also make a liquid soap if you use a lot of water. If the water evaporates however, it will turn solid.

actually what it will make is a very thick and slimy goop. you may THINK you have liquid soap but give it 24 hours and it'll be the slimy goop. dilute with MORE water and 24 hours later... goop.

I'm sure you can EVENTUALLY reach the point of liquid but it won't have much soap in it at that point.

for liquid soap: KOH

 

[carebear]

Freesoul - thanks for the great explanation. But mostly I want to thank you for the statement on your web site regarding nut allergies. My children are allergic to nuts and peanuts as well and I think it's great that you call out the potential danger.

You may want to expand that statement to include peanuts since they are not actually nuts. Just a suggestion though.

Bravo.

 

[freesoul]

You're welcome. I'll pass along the idea on peanuts to the brains of the operation my wife

We talked about it before and her partner has kids that have allergies. The burden should always be on parents to make sure their kids are not exposed to anything that could harm them, and we need to help by identifying the source of our ingrediants.

We seem to be doing an even better job of removing methanol because the resulting glycerin becomes very solid when it cools down.

Thanks for your support!
Andrew

 

[donniej]

Glycerin byproduct from BioDiesel is typically around 85% glycerin... the rest is fatty acids and caustic. The caustic will be either potassium or sodium hydroxide, depending on which was used to make the fuel. The caustic is not used up in the process, it drops out with the glycerin. There may also be trace amounts of methanol but it evaporates easily if you air it out properly.

This raw glycerin is dark brown and can be easily purified with phosphoric acid. Mixed with water, the acid will nuetralize the fatty acids and caustic... this leaves the glycerin a clear amber color. I've read that the glycerin is 90 to 95% pure at this stage. To get it any more pure requires fancy distillation at extremnely high temperatures.