[escapedtothecountry]

Thinking of having a go at making soap. Any tips, advice or must reads as to what I may need?

[plumseverywhere]

   loads of books on Amazon that I can recommend, Melinda Cross has written some especially good ones.

Tips? be brave and just give it a go. Start basic and build your self up.   Make sure you have long sleeves and goggles on, see what you can find on ebay equipment wise (there are hundreds of small soap making businesses selling up currently and they are putting their equipment on there - its sad but EU regulations are putting a lot of strain onto us but it does mean new soap makers can find lots of supplies online fairly cheap)

Have a look at Fresholi website too, the forum is good for those just starting out - loads of tips and its very friendly!

[escapedtothecountry]

Brill.... Thanks.....may start with some of the melt and pou varieties... Which I suspect is cheating really.

[plumseverywhere]

I don't see it as cheating - I see it as gaining confidence and building up to any other process you may choose. I wish I'd tried m&p first! I remember being terrified of a 'volcanic reaction' between slushy milk and lye (which didn't happen by the way!)
If you go onto ebay and put 'soap making lot/bundle' into the search you are likely to find a bundle of things including melt and pour base, colourants, fragrance oils, herbs etc etc oh and moulds! or you can use upcycled things like pringles tubes, jelly moulds etc to save pennies to start.

Whilst you are making for hobby/fun its great as you can try so many different things! the politics and stressors only come when you are making soap for small business (we have to have assessments/insurance/EU recognition etc in order to sell)

[escapedtothecountry]

Think I will have a go..... Do some Gardeners hand soap.... Will let you know how it turns out! Already have some of my own calendula petals drying which I believe keep their colour for use in soap.

[plumseverywhere]

Yes, they do. Not many petals will, they tend to go black and yuk but calendula is wonderful - we had a soap called 'calendula girls' last year in our summer range

[escapedtothecountry]

Sound cool.


Bet you've had some red tape to deal with as you are a seller rather than doing it just for fun.

[plumseverywhere]

Believe me, you don't want to get me started on that little saga    All worth it though.

[escapedtothecountry]

Used to work in head office of a large high street pharmacy..... You know the one. Had to go to Brussels to try to influence on some of the directives that's were impacting in a huge company so totally empathise with impacts of smaller organisations. 

[JulieWall]

I've done a few how-tos on our forum if you're interested, here's a couple of links that might be helpful or give you ideas. I think there's a full how to on cold process soap but you may have to hunt round for it. If I find it I will add it here.

http://theroundhouse.freeforums.org/frankincense-soap-t1069.html
http://theroundhouse.freeforums.org/various-stages-of-liquid-soap-t1229.html

[escapedtothecountry]

Thanks for that. Now I'm not intending...but say I wanted to do some soap for a friend who sells to the public...me hat hoops do I need to jump through to ensure that I tick all the right boxes?

[JulieWall]

Can't help you there, I've never sold my soaps I just give them away so I can make more, lol. Sounds as if plumseverywhere could help you with advice there though.
Tell you what will be useful to you to make sure your soap is safe, a couple of links to good lye calculators. Feel free to use any of my recipes though, they are all tried and tested and I'm not precious about ownership of them.
https://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
http://www.brambleberry.com/pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx
You type in the weight of each oil you want to use and then it will tell you how much sodium hydroxide to use and how much water. If you select the superfat range between 4 and 8 your soap will be safe. Superfat just means left over fats because there isn't enough caustic soda to saponify all of the fat, therefore there is no caustic soda left after the six week curing period ... hope that made sense.

[plumseverywhere]

For selling, even via third party, you will need a cosmetic safety assessment. I use Scott Grainger (google cosmetic safety assessments and his name will be up top!)   In order to have the necessary insurance to sell products you would need the safety assessment too.
Be wary of online recipes, double check with the soap calc as Julie says. When I first contacted Scott I told him that one of my recipes was in a book so "must be safe, right?" and he said "no!!! just because its on a book, online whatever by NO means ensures its safe at all..."

For selling, I have - 1) cosmetic safety assessments (its cost in total about £600 but thats soap, lip balms, bath bombs, baby soap...etc )  2) insurance (about £71 per year)  3) membership of the soap guild   4) registered on the EU portal CPNP  5) Regular contact with my local trading standards (eg. soaps that look like cakes can be seized by ts...you need scales that are recognized by ts and in some cases callibrated by them)
I know it sounds like a huge faff but tbh it didn't take long to get it all set up and its a lovely feeling knowing my products are 100% safe and legal. I do get the hump when i hear of people trying to sell at car boots etc and who are flouting all the laws that are there to protect the public     However the Guild are bringing out more ways to shop such crooks and pave the way for those of us with a conscience   

[plumseverywhere]

Just saw your link was for Frankincense soap, Julie! that's my new love    just made a goats milk version - we call it Frankincense, gold and Maaaaa

[JulieWall]

  Love the name. Frankincense resin seems to keep it's fragrance better then myrrh in soap but myrrh smells better if you burn it, I drop a tiny grain of it on the Rayburn hotplate and it fills the house.
Have you experts got any tips for helping soap keep it's fragrance as it cures? Some EOs are better than others but fragrance oils seem to be a waste of time for me.