Teach Soap

Found this article on another forum, eep! Goes to show FDA monitors and can crack down on even the smallest of companies!

FDA raps aloe vera company for violating regulatory Act
The US Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning letter to cosmetic company, ‘Set-N-Me-Free Aloe Vera’ after finding that its products were ultimately violating its regulation laws through misleading marketing claims.

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~*~ Jennifer ~*~

Check out the paragraph "how a product's use is established?"
Even making aromatherapy claims is a no-no

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Dawn

There's over 18,000 products that have "aromatherapy" in the product listing on etsy. All in handmade. I was just at a huge fair here in the east (it's here for 2 weeks) and all the soap venders I saw all had some kind of aromatherapy soap. One vender actually had a pet soap with huge 8x10 photos next to it with a before and after of this big dog that obviously had a skin condition because the before picture showed the poor dog had red blotches all over and no hair where the condition was. The after picture was a miracle picture! Red blotches all gone and hair grown back! I quickly looked at the ingredients and she listed about 6 essential oils. I'm not exactly sure what ones are harmful to dogs (lavender comes to mind). It's obviously normal practice for many many small soap businesses to makes claims about their soap. Anything to make a sale!

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~Kelly~

It's not all to make a sale. Ignorance is a big part of the issue too. People partially list ingredients or call their soap castille while telling you what other oils it has in it. They don't always know better. The internet often spreads ignorance as well as knowledge.

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Linda

I learn so much when I can't leave well enough alone!

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

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There are LOTS of things you can say about a soap besides medical claims!

- The lather
- The fragrance (Brings back evocative memories of fall, etc, etc)
- Design features (colors, patterns, etc)
- Technique used to make it
- Materials used (you can still list what's in it, in fact, you're encouraged to do so)
- You can still say moisturizing

Plus, you can talk about yourself, where it's made, why you're passionate about making it, what inspires you, etc.

Also, according to the Soap Queen, you can provide links to articles about ingredients you use or provide printed articles that are not by you.

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

OK, so I simply listed as such:

Line 1: Mocha Vanilla Oatmeal (or whatever EO/FO/etc.)
Line 2: Saradippity Soaps (TM)
Line 3: Glycerine Soap Base with mango and Shea Butters, Fragrance, and Colorants.

These are all holiday gifts that I am making, so I didn't put weight on them. But, in your esteemed opinions, are they ok otherwise for when I start selling them (down the road).

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Genny

And any other ingredients, like oatmeal, if you used it in the soap.

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

OK. I thought because they were gifts, these would be ok, but I guess not. So how do you list what's in MP when the package of MP simply says "Clear soap base"???? It's New Directions Clear Stephenson's MP. It only lists a lot number.

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Genny

Also, some suppliers will list their ingredients like this: Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil (Grade A Extra Virgin), Elaeis Guineensis (Palm) Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Seed Oil, Glycerin (Kosher of vegetable origin), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Soy bean protein (conditioner), Titanium Dioxide (mineral whitener used in opaque soaps)

When you go to sell your soap, you need to change the ingredient list. You would have to take out the "Grade A Extra Virgin", "Kosher of vegetable origin", "saponifying agent", "moisturizer", "emulsifier", "conditioner", "mineral whitener in opaque soaps".
Now if you want to explain on your site or in a pamphlet or something what those ingredients do, that's fine. But you can't put them on your ingredient labels.

Here's another example of another product that you would need to change the way the ingredients are listed: coconut oil, bees wax, organic shea butter, organic cocoa butter, tocopherol (vitamin e)

With this one you'd have to take out "organic" & "vitamin e". On your website if you want to say that you use organic ingredients when you can, that's fine. But unless your products have been certified to be organic, you can't put it on your labels.

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Genny

I could be wrong, but the way I understand it that you can say that some of your ingredients are organic or come from organic sources. You can't say the word "certified" though.

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