Beta testing soaps (individual recipes) - when to pass to production?

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RogueRose

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Well I have put in a fair amount of time and effort into learning how my soaps will act as they age and mature (early issues with massive DOS attacks spurred my testing) and have 40 recipes (many are variations on a handful of recipes) I've tested and I have to say it is quite amazing how much different the soap can be by just changing the % of water in the initial recipe amount.

I've also found that I can use the same recipe with ingredients from the same batch/container with the only difference being scent and possibly coloring, and the soap can act noticeably different in its cure time, how quickly it needs to be processed (poured into molds) and aesthetically it can be significantly different due to reactions with what I am assuming are the fragrances.

So, I have kept all my recipes and notes on each batch and have bars from many. After making the same recipe a few times and knowing whether it is temperamental with fragrances or if it get's ashy after cure or knowing if it has to be refrigerated immediately after pouring so no volcano, etc - when should one feel ready that they are comfortable with selling the product?

I was reading one of my other forums and a huge thread was on Windows 10 Beta testing & official release and it seems like to be safe things would never really move out of the testing phase but accepting that there will be issues, how do you calculate the "break-even" or better, "time-for-profit" point where using the recipes for sales doesn't = more headaches. So, having done enough research and knowing what to expect during production and the life of the soap, what is the "right" amount of testing to negate future headaches while not burring yourself in pointless testing? (Sorry I couldn't explain that shorter but wanted the proper point coming across)
 
You have a good handle in how your soap is going to behave in your potential customer's bath as well as in your soap lab. It sounds like you're ready to go from beta testing to live operation any time.
 
I usually save myself an end piece of every batch and use it for a few days once it's cured to make sure it's wonderful before I sell it. The soap dish in my en suite has about 6 soap nubs on it, but I like to make sure. That's for my usual recipe though.
 

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