Teach Soap

Was reading another post and the topic of experience came up. Hoping to get some constructive advice. I have been soaping for a short time, since christmas, and so far have been giving away my soaps. So far everyone has been satisfied, some small criticisms, oatmeal too course, bars too big, all things I have changed. So my question is when do you know you have it down enough to sell? My thought right now is too sell those recipes I have tried and gotten feedback on and send out free samples of new recipes with orders for feedback. I already have a business license, and liability insurance(we run another retail business and was told it was covered) so that parts done. Any advice? I would like to at least make some money to be able to keep up with my hobby. Sorry for all the questions lately and the novel but I really getting into this bigtime

Since Christmas is not a long time. You need to know how the soap will hold up at least 6 months. What if the scent fades, what if it discolors, what if it gets DOS?

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

Soapbuddy I hate to admit everyone i gave soaps to used them right away(they had cured for 8 weeks and ph was good) so maybe I should have kept a bar to see how it would hold up after 6 months and yes i guess i need to wait and read more because i don't even know what DOS is. I am just like a kid in a candy store, in love with a new hobby. I've been keeping it simple no colors sticking to a couple recipes that turn out consistently. My only goof was as you read my attempt at replacing milk with water. Oh well I'll remember to keep a bar of every batch and record results every few weeks. Thank You for the help

DOS is Dreaded Orange Spots. It's when the oils in your soap oxidize and go rancid. It doesn't smell too good.

Here is a pic of what DOS looks like.

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

ahhhh, i see, well hopefully i will never see, just how long does soap last? there are 7 in my family so we go through ALOT of soap so unless i start making huge batches(2lbs right now) i don't forsee having soap around that long, plus you would be amazed at how many "friends" i found I had when they heard I was making soap On another note you will be happy to hear that I have checked every recipe I have on the the sage lye calc, glad I did, too! most had 0% superfatting, yup I'll keep practicing for now and leave the selling to the big girls and boys

The longer you can wait for the soap to cure, the more water will evaporate and the longer your soap will last.
For 7 people, if it's 7 showers per day, you can expect the soap to last a couple of weeks. Make sure that the soap is drained well and doesn't sit in a puddle of water. It needs to dry in a drained dish between uses.

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

hello..im interested in this topic too...I've made about 25 batches of soap in a relatively short amount of time. Most of my batches have come out great and my family likes them, but I have not yet seen any of my soaps at the 6 month point yet. I'm confused though because I thought most handmade soaps just naturally begin going rancid at 6mo- 1yr after you make them. I thought you were just supposed to use them up before 6 months ideally. If your soaps do develop DOS at around 6 months does that mean you are doing something wrong? Also, I'd love to hear from others on this forum about when they began selling their soaps....was it a certain number of batches or after a certain amount of time..? I'm learning new things everyday, but the soap is really starting to pile up around here..

If your soaps do develop DOS at around 6 months than you are doing something wrong. I have soaps from 10 years ago that I've kept as samples and they are fine. They might have lost their scent, but that's about it.

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

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http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com

10 years...wow.. Do you use preservatives in your soap? When I first started I bought Susan Cavitches "Natural Soap" book( i think thats what its called) and she was talking about the pros and cons of using her superfatted recipes. She was saying that there is a trade off because the soaps will be nicer on your skin but their shelf life will be shorter...I think she was just talking about a matter of months. That is so strange. I havent been adding any preservatives or anything because I thought there wasnt any point to it.
Do you know anything that may cause a standard veggie oil soap to go rancid early? I have not yet made it to 6 months so hopefully my recipes will hold up just fine. 10 yrs would be great!

No, no preservatives. To protect against rancidity, what you'd want is an antioxidant anyway.

I think what Cavitch is discussing is that some of her recipes use a very high superfat - 10% or more, if I recall correctly - and that means there are a lot more free oils, and a much higher chance of rancidity and therefore DOS. There are some oils with a much shorter shelf life, too, that will go bad quickly - I just don't formulate with those for bars I'm selling. I superfat more in the 5-7% range, too.

Some of the quicker-to-spoil oils make lovely soap, and high superfat can feel nice - but I'd save those for personal use.

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http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com

thank you magichands . i use a lot of shea butter in my soap and I usually superfat around 7- 8 %. Is shea butter usually pretty stable? Also, not that I would do this.(yuck)...but would anything bad happen if you were to use a bar with DOS? just out of curiousity..im weird i guess..lol
thank you for the helpful info..

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http://www.magichandsworkshop.com
http://www.magichands.etsy.com
http://www.magichandsworkshop.blogspot.com

I've never used preservatives either. I do use the freshest oils or butters as possible.

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

magichands...thats a good idea about abusing one for worst case scenario..So far I've just been putting little pieces of each batch in a little ziplock baggies and storing them in a box. So far everything looks good...thanks so much.

thank you soapbuddy...btw...I also checked out that link you listed for the fragrance finder on the other forum post. That is a pretty neat and helpful website. I'm always thinking about FO ideas so that is great! Thanks!