Teach Soap

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

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Sarah x

I'd be willing to bet that is a clear M&P suspension bar with fine flower petals or some other such fine plant matter.

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

I received a sample of this sellers soap with an order placed for another product at Etsy. I checked out her website and was intrigued. She was vague when I asked about ingredients and directed me to her Etsy store. She did say she has both cold press and glycerin. I ordered some.
What's interesting is the way they are wrapped. The obvious glycerin soaps were wrapped in tissue...no shrink wrap. The two I received weren't sweating at all, although they do on rainy days.
Another bar does look more like cold press, but not exactly. It doesn't sweat.

I did notice that she uses the term "nourishing coconut milk" in most of her descriptions. I see coconut oil, but rarely coconut milk in anyone's soap. Isn't coconut milk rarely seen as an
ingredient in soaps? After ordering soaps, receiving them and asking a couple of questions, it's still a bit of a mystery to me. I gave the soaps as gifts. They seemed nice enough, but I would like to know the ingredients before I would consider ordering again.

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

If I get my hands on the soaps, I'll give the lick test a try....

This is her statement
"All of my soaps are made from nourishing Coconut Milk, Herbs, Fruit & Vegetable based ingredients."

She also lists glycerine as an ingredient along with coconut milk. Again, it is an incomplete list of ingredients.

Thanks for the input...

She has a link for an etsy site where she sells whole 3 lb. loafs. There she does mention sodium hydroxide aka lye. Here is the ingredient list: coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil, peppermint leaves, tea tree oil, peppermint oil, grapeseed oil, sodium hydroxide.

Another one lists it like this, but I know the ingredients are not in order. eucalyptus, lavender, coconut milk, sodium hydroxide, vegetable glycerin, larkspur, coconut oil, palm oil, castor oil, sorbitan oleate, purified water, soy bean protein. To me this sounds like a mix of CP with MP, due to the sorbitan oleate and soybean protein, which are normally used in MP and sodium hydroxide which is used for CP.

And this list is completely screwed up. ginger oil, lemongrass oil, coconut milk, sodium hydroxide, vegetable glycerin, lemongrass, coconut oil.

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

Quote sb "It's still an incomplete ingredient list. She must be pretty paranoid that someone would "steal" her recipe if she lists her ingredients on her label. You can use coconut milk in cold process (not press or pressed) soap, but it's usually listed right on the label for it's value in soap".

Ah there was NO a label of ingredients on the soaps I purchased, thinking to give as gifts. Couldn't pass them on to anyone.

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~bytheSEAsoap~ Mella bythesea, bythesea, bythebeautiful sea

海の皂

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

hahaha So funny all of the assumptions you all make. Just so you know I knew about this convo within 30 minutes of it being posted, several other soap people emailed me about it right away. Just like real life it is not nice to talk behind peoples back and just like real life they usually find out when you do. If someone had a question they should have just come to me and ask. I find this way to be very unprofessional, judgmental and nothing is true that is answered with guess work and assumptions.

The explanation to everything that you all question here is that my soap started selling faster than I could get all the information up. Just like most of you.... my Etsy, website and soap are all constantly a work in progress. I'm sure when you first put up items on Etsy it wasn't perfect....well I'm not perfect either and I'm constantly working on improving. Not paranoid and not hiding anything...special recipe does not mean secret recipe. Just like anyone else making soap we all have our own techniques and recipes. I've been working on getting all of my information up, but I also have many other things I am doing in life too and can't always get everything up right away. Sorry I'm not perfect like all of you seem to be.

To answer a few more questions for your curious little minds, I use every kind of soap making technique. I use all of these techniques CP, HP, MP, RTP and yes I combine them some times. I consider myself to be more of an artist than just a soap maker but I certainly know what I'm doing when it comes to soap making. I've done this as my full time career for 12 years now and did it as a hobby 2 years prior to that. The other reason I do not have everything up is because I travel all over the world to collect my ingredients and my ingredients change a lot, they are not always the same. I'm working on trying to write more about that and have a more solid ingredient list for my customers. Bottom line though is it is not required when you sell it as soap only and that is why I have felt I will get to it when I get to it and eventually it will be how I would like it to be.

Well I hope this puts all of your minds to ease seeing that you all seemed to be so worried about what I am doing.
I only joined this forum to respond to all of this, you won't be seeing me here on a regular basis as I wouldn't want to be a part of a forum that condones this kind of behavior. I would rather boost and help my fellow soap maker than to drag them through the dirt without even knowing them or anything about their business.

Have a happy Mother's Day weekend.

Hello JustSoapy,

I am very sorry that we offended you as this was not my intention. I was really impressed with your work and as a newbie, I wanted to understand your soap technique because your ingredients list confused me. I guess I should have contacted you on Etsy but this forum is where I come to learn from great and talented people that are always williing to hel and share so I came back here instead. I did not post this thread to bash you because it is work like yours that inspire me and all the other soapers out there.

Please be proud about your accomplishments and work, because I consider it wonderful as I said before Lush and beyond (It was a genuine compliment).

My sincere apology.

Hello Soap STAR!
Thanks for the apology, I appreciate that. I know your intentions were never that and your question was very tactfully put. It's unfortunate the others on here took it down a bashing path. I wouldn't be where I am if I wasn't proud of my work and if I hadn't created something special and unique. I did take your comment about "lush and beyond" as quite a compliment. I've had a lot of people compare my work to their stuff. Thanks so much for that compliment it was well received despite all of this.

I wish you much success and happiness in your soap journey

If you are proud of your work JustSoapy, why didn't you put an ingredient list with the soap purchase? I'm sure it would have been quite easy to either print one out and enclose it with the soap order or write a note and send it along with it. I'm happy to hear that your soap is selling well, but what would happen if one of your customers developed a rash? They might be allergic to almond oil, for example, but since you don't list your ingrtedients, they would not have known.

I have been making soap since 1969 and selling online since 1991. I am quite proud of my soaps too and I list my ingredients. That way my clients with allergies would know which soap is safe for them to purchase.

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

Sorry but I do stand by what I say.

Your products look lovely like I said - but if I was a customer what I said was the impression I would be given.

Hence if you don't want this kind of impression being made, things need a little tweaking as you've explained you will do over time.

Oh I just wanted to add that I agree, my website etc are always work in progress with adding items but in the EU we legally have to list all ingredients before we can sell. Even if this was a choice decision I would still do it as to me, a persons health is more important than making money. I would feel very guilty if someone did have an allergic reaction when I could of stopped it happening.

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Sarah x