Teach Soap

I have a friend who would like me to ship some FOs to her in New Zealand, but I am clueless as to how to go about doing this! A USPS priority box is around $45 , so that's not a good option.
Can someone point me in the right direction??

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

You can't ship most FOs by USPS because of the flash point. The would need to go UPS or FedEx.

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Linda
I know the voices in my head aren't real, but they sure have some great ideas!

I agree. Look up the flash points of the FO's you plan to use. Shipping out of the US is not cheap.

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

I think all the flashpoints are over 200, but still.....USPS is probably not a good option .
I guess I can just go to the UPS and FedEx websites and find out prices, right? Silly question, I know.....just never done this before!
Will get to those sites tomorrow probably (winding down here for the night!)

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

I live in NZ and have had some FO's sent to me in the padded envelopes which has been very price effective.

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

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

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

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

I do understand the preference for a padded box (much safer), but did the postal worker actually say that the envelopes are illegal, or just try to steer you towards using the box instead?
I'm not trying to cut corners here and will more than likely go with a box one way or the other, I'm just trying to find out the legalities of sending them via envelope.

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

From the PO site:

3.4 Liquids

Mailers must mark the outer container of a mailpiece containing liquid to indicate the nature of the contents. Mailers must package and mail liquids under the following conditions:

a. Use screw-on caps, soldering, clips, or similar means to close mailpieces containing liquids. Do not use only friction-top closures (push-down types).

b. Liquids in steel pails and drums with positive closures, such as locking rings or recessed spouts under screw-cap closures, may be mailed without additional packaging.

c. Package glass and other breakable containers of liquid with a capacity of more than 4 fluid ounces according to the following requirements:

1. Cushion the primary container with material sufficient to absorb all leakage in case of breakage.

2. Place the primary container inside another sealed, leakproof container (secondary container), such as a can or plastic bag.

3. Use an outer mailing container that is strong enough to protect the contents.

d. As an alternative to 3.4c. above, mailers may use containers certified by the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) that passed ISTA's Test Procedure 3A. Mailers must provide their ISTA 3A Package-Product Certification Notice at the time of mailing as verification that the mailpieces they are submitting passed the required performance test.



I don't know what size bottles you are wanting to send, but if they are just the 1oz size you could get away with the padded envelope. First put the FO's in baggies in a small box with some type of cushion around them and then put that in the padded envelope. As someone who works for the PO and personally ships liquids all the time I wouldn't use just the envelope, I have seen the damage packages can get.

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~Michelle~

Butt's my big dog:)

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts

Shipping to Oz is spendy too, I sent Coolah a small "flat rate" box and it cost ~$20. Almost like they're on the other side of the world of something! Funny thing is she got the package faster than one I sent to Montreal, which is only a 6 hour drive from here. I'd mind paying such high rates less if the post office would stop losing all of my darned mail. NONE of the 15ish letters from my sisters' kids made it, nor did 9 of the 10 post cards Mom and Dad sent from England a couple years ago. Makes me wonder what else isn't getting here.. like bills or things that might cause issues with my slowly growing US credit rating.

Back to the point though, sorry for the micro rant. I'd use a box, put some packing paper inside it to make a shell, fill that with corn starch peanuts (packing peanuts marked as biodegradable) and put the bottles (inside baggies) in the middle. This way if one does break or leak you have triple protection; the baggie, the peanuts (they absorb) and the paper. This way you won't need to worry about anything leaking from the package!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist

Thanks, Hestey. I was thinking along those lines. I just wish it didn't cost so much . Although, I thought the prices for USPS were high....until I checked UPS. Wowza.....almost $200 for a box that was about 4 or 5 pounds!!!

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Carrie
Wife to my Best Friend and Homeschool mom to 7 beautiful gifts