Teach Soap

http://business.ftc.gov/advertising-and-marketing
This is just a heads up to those of you that might make medical claims for your handmade soaps.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I noticed on WSP that they use the word "Thought" a lot, e.g. "Thought to be good for skin cell regeneration." I wonder if that's their way around making health claims. Because they didn't present the information as factual.

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"Effective questioning brings insight which fuels curiosity which cultivates wisdom"

I only glanced at one of these... L'Occitane. They were "under the gun" for their body creams: Almond beautiful shape and Almond shaping delight. From the little I read they were making claims that use on the thighs could reduce them by a little more than an inch and a few other things. ??? The print on some of the documents was not real clear on my computer and since it is late I did not read all, but this is one that is very closely related to what we are. So I guess it pays to be careful in what we say and how we name\label our products. Thanks Irena for sharing this with us.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Thanks so much for sharing.
I found the Environmental Claims section very interesting. I can't tell you how many times I've seen soapers say their soaps are "Eco Friendly", "Biodegradable", or "Green". I always kind of found it annoying, but I didn't know that you're not allowed to make claims of "Eco Friendly" & "Green".
And if you're claiming your soap is Biodegradable, here's what they had to say about that:
"Marketers may make an unqualified degradable claim only if they can prove that the "entire product or package will completely break down and return to nature within a reasonably short period of time after customary disposal." The "reasonably short period of time" for complete decomposition of solid waste products? One year."

Even if you claim your soap is non-toxic, which I see a lot of soapers do as well, you need reliable evidence.

Learn something new every day

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Genny

I have 2 claims on my soap; 1) its soap, 2) it has ingredients. I'd love to claim that it will clean your skin, but it doesn't take off everything (engine grease, permanent marker, etc) so I don't even make that claim LOL

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

You're welcome everyone. I didn't know about the FTC site til yesterday. I always sent people to the FDA site.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

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Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Great info, thanks.

I'm really careful to make no claims. It gets you clean. You probably like the smell, since you bought it. The oils are all vegetable... That's it!

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Lesli Sagan
Avital's Apiaries
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