Where do you buy soap making supplies?

hi I'm a newbie here getting ready to make my first batch of soap! I only have 1 problem... Where in the world should I get my ingredients from??? :???: I know that there's a lot of suppliers out there but I keep hearing awful stories about people getting poor quality shipments which have petroleum jelly and the like mixed into the products they ordered. So who's reputable in selling soap making products?
Edit: oops! :mrgreen: I forgot to include the info that this batch of soap would be made with unrefined, organic butters and oils since its for a friend of my who has ichthyosis.

Thank you all for taking the time to look at this! It's truly appreciated :-D

Welcome to the forum. For olive oil, I go to Costco. For coconut oil, I go to Amazon and get Snappy White Popcorn Oil (they have an organic version also). I get my lard from the grocery store.

For everything else: I've been very pleased with the quality for general soaping supplies from Wholesale Supplies Plus ($40 minimum order), Brambleberry, and Nature's Garden. Fragrances and colorants come from several places. I get my butters and some other oils locally in Denver from Mile High Soaps to avoid shipping charges.

I should have mentioned... you can find equipment at hardware stores and dollar stores to save a bunch of money when getting started. Welcome to the addiction!

I got my first EOs, natural colorants and clays from Soap Making Resource, and I still buy from them, I like their prices, quality and service, but their shipping isn't really fast. I buy my lye from my local Ace hardware, olive oil from Cosco, lard and salt from the local market and coconut oil from Trader Joes. I get hemp oil from Amazon, and Palm oil, coconut, mango and shea butters from SMR, Amazon or whoever I'm purchasing from at the moment. Brambleberry is good, but rarely any screaming deals. Buy what you can locally at first, and have fun!

I'm new too

I'm new, too. So far I've bought Olive oil at Sam's Club. They have their own brand which is pretty cheap and make sure just to buy regular, not Virgin olive oil. I live right next door to a large mexican grocery store that sells lard @ $3 a pound. I'm struggling to get comfortable with cold process, but I'm very comfortable with melt and pour although its the most expensive way of making soap. I've ordered almost everything through brambleberry as far as molds. A lot of colorants and additives, I just find on ebay. A lot of ebay companies like Dr. Adorable have pretty good deals if you're looking to buy small quantities of additives to see how you feel about them. Then, if I want to buy bigger i look at brambleberry. But that's all I know so far. I'm new!

I would suggest looking for a company near you. If you are on the West coast, Brambleberry is a good choice. If you are in the Midwest, Nurture and Nature's Garden and Wholesale Supplies Plus are good choices. Near Florida Essential Depot and Mad Oils. This happy cut down on shipping cost and time. I've never heard of bad products from any of these companies.

Wow! Thank you guys for the advice! The prices on these sites are fantastic! XD
+ Ty for the tips on where to buy materials locally

Audrey said:

hi I'm a newbie here getting ready to make my first batch of soap! I only have 1 problem... Where in the world should I get my ingredients from??? :???: I know that there's a lot of suppliers out there but I keep hearing awful stories about people getting poor quality shipments which have petroleum jelly and the like mixed into the products they ordered. So who's reputable in selling soap making products?
Edit: oops! :mrgreen: I forgot to include the info that this batch of soap would be made with unrefined, organic butters and oils since its for a friend of my who has ichthyosis.

Thank you all for taking the time to look at this! It's truly appreciated :-D

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Hi Audrey!
I buy my butter, oil and lye products from Essential Depot. They have wonderful products and I have not been disappointed at all....quality and service is excellent. Their unrefined shea butter is wonderful! For body friendly scents Wholesale Supplies Plus, Brambleberry, Tennessee Candle Supply (check to make sure scent is body friendly), Peak (make sure scent is body friendly), Candle Science (make sure scent is body friendly). Welcome to the addiction....you will LOVE it!!

Keep it simple. Buy oils local in small amount till you know that you will stick with it. Also keep your formula simple till you have made a few batches.

I purchase my supplies from Bulk Apothecary. I haven't seen many people mention this site and it is really awesome for a large selection and great price. If you get to the point where you are ordering large quantities and want the best price, they offer a great deal of 15% off total order when you spend $250. I make sure to order that as a minimum and the discount is often greater than the shipping charge! As for tools, Big Lots, garage sales and dollar stores are great. For virgin organic coconut oil and olive oil, I get them at Costco, which is the best price I can find.

I agree with snappy llama on most everything. I find that some of the on line suppliers are actually cheaper than local sources, eg. the Snappy coconut oil, which works fine, is cheaper than Costco and got delivered to my door via Amazon Prime the very next day (love Prime.) On the other hand, some supplies are much cheaper close to home, I ordered tallow from Soaper's Choice - great source and relativelyl inexpensive - before I read posts about buying it at Smart and Final in 50 lb boxes for @$32, an unbeatable price.

General supplies: in order, I usually order basics (oils/butters/lye/additives) from Nature's Garden, WSP and Brambleberry. NG seems to deliver the best combo of customer service, speed of delivery and value. Brambleberry is fast and has great customer service but is a titch more spendy and I have experienced problems with packaging (spills/tears in almost every order.) WSP has a great range of products but has a $40 minimum (I just keep a running total in my cart an checkout when I get to that amount), also they are by far the slowest in shipping.

I don't find there is much of a difference in the quality of this basic stuff, some of it comes down to what you prefer to use. Eg, I like the lye beads from NG because the lye flakes from BB tend to get powderized and make me cough when I pour them once I get to the bottom of the bottle. Other folks prefer the flakes because they are easier to measure and have less static, it just depends on what you want.

FOs are way harder to recommend, I have favorites from about 10 places after testing hundreds of them. I think this is just a long journey that you have to undertake yourself depending on what you like. An invaluable resource in this respect is the Soap Scent Review Board, which concentrates on offering in-use reviews of FOs and EOs. This board is so awesome because there is a huge amount of information on how FOs react w/r/t acceleration/discoloration/ricing, etc. There are a few scents that I love but use only in BB/mp based on SSRB reviews, I like to swirl in CP so tend to use only FOs that I know will behave well, SSRB is hugely helpful in finding out that information.

Edited to add: If you join SSRB, please post as much as you can, it only works b/c folks are so good about doing that. I admit, I posted a bunch of reviews when I was only doing MP and am a bit embarrassed about them now, I suspect they were not that helpful and potentially a bit irritating to the mavens. But the posters here are so helpful, if you can join in, do. As Lilli, the board owner says, it is a "pay it forward site."

does anyone know of any stores out on the east coast? everyone mentions places more west of where I am

Amazon has been pretty good in finding supplies, the thrift store and also candora soap online!

If you want to make a small batch to see if you like it, I strongly recommend a kit. Brambleberry has them, and it has every thing - fragrance, lye, oils, etc, so that way you don't have to invest in a scale for your first batch.

Walmart carries lard, coconut oil, castor oil (in the pharmacy section with the laxatives). You can often find lye at hardware stores - not big box stores, but locally-owned.

Fragrance - NOT HOBBY LOBBY, MICHAEL's, etc. You can get small amounts of essential oils from health food stores. You can't just use any old thing - it needs to be skin safe and it needs to be safe to combine with lye. Good options for the first time are lavender, lemongrass, peppermint and cedar. NOT good options are clove, cinnamon. They cause soap to seize up.

Teahouse said:

does anyone know of any stores out on the east coast? everyone mentions places more west of where I am

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Where are you? Camden Grey is in Florida. They have good prices on natural stuff.

You may find somebody on this board who is local to you who'd be willing to sell you some supplies for cheap, or even let you come to their house and make a batch.

I don't know about East coast but Soaper's Choice, Nature's Garden and WSP are all in Ohio. They all ship relatively quickly (WSP a bit longer).

I am in Alabama and I've found delivery from WSP and NG to be fast. BB not so much. But I <3 BB so I forgive them!

I'm in California and I personally like Brambleberry. I usually get my shipments within 3-4 days from BB. For oils & butters, I buy them in bulk from Soapers's Choice(IL) even though shipping charges are killing me!

snappyllama said:

Welcome to the forum. For olive oil, I go to Costco. For coconut oil, I go to Amazon and get Snappy White Popcorn Oil (they have an organic version also).

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Oh wow! I've been soaping for many years but I didn't know Amazon sells a gallon size coconut oil! I just found out Snappy White Popcorn oil is 100% pure coconut oil(they even have organic CO too)!

Since there is no shipping charge for a prime member, man, this is cheaper than Soaper's Choice! Thank you Snappyllama for sharing this information :grin:!

I'm in PA and got my order from nature's garden (in Ohio) in 2 days. With regular shipping!

dixiedragon said:

Where are you? Camden Grey is in Florida. They have good prices on natural stuff.

You may find somebody on this board who is local to you who'd be willing to sell you some supplies for cheap, or even let you come to their house and make a batch.

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I live out in New York

any suggestions are appreciated

This page has soap and candle suppliers by state.
http://www.suppliersbystate.com/state-listings.php

Might be a place to start.

You could create a post looking for New York soapers, or see if your area has a soap making group.

Amazon took the Snappy CO off of Prime for me. I found ED to be cheapest with the $44.45/2 gallon with free shipping. I am about to order some. I need KOH anyway. Shame the shipping for the KOH is twice the price of the KOH.