Wisconsin Bath Bomb news story

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Joined
Jul 30, 2015
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Location
Lake Mills, WI
I need to rant a bit. Last Saturday I was at a craft fair selling my soap and lotions. Directly behind me was a booth with hand knitted items and bath bombs. They were displayed in large glass jars. No packaging, vivid colors, and a not so pleasant smell when they opened the jars to sell. I am 99% sure that they did not make them. I am on a committee for a local market and when jurying this year, I attempted to tell the committee that many of the soap vendors were not making their own product. Got told what is the difference from cold processed soap that you make to these others. I finally said "Come out to my house and I will show you". There are commercial bath bombs all over the place but why is no one showing any interest in where they come from or who made them. I hope I don't start a war but this idea that you an sell something that you know nothing about is ridiculous.:headbanging::
 
I think now that dollar stores are selling bath bombs we may be seeing more of this from shady non B&B Vendors. I've seen a couple vendors selling non B&B but have bath bombs a time or two. Same kind of thing, no labels etc.
 
I think now that dollar stores are selling bath bombs we may be seeing more of this from shady non B&B Vendors. I've seen a couple vendors selling non B&B but have bath bombs a time or two. Same kind of thing, no labels etc.
Exactly why I do not make and sell bath bombs. I find them to be a bit expensive to make and cannot beat dollar store price. I finished up a 2 weekend craft fair last Sunday and there was a new person with unwrapped bath bombs, and I really wondered about them. They were all perfect and she had hundreds of them. I was going to get a couple for my granddaughter who has a few allergies and I never got a viable answer to the ingredients. I did not buy them and will end up making some for the imp, she just loves bath bombs at age 9
 
Not sure what the rules are in the US but here you can sell bath bombs or slices from a soap loaf without a label provding you have a list of ingrdients available at the point of purchase, a bit like how Lush get round it.

TBH its so common now that I dont even waste any time anymore - everywhere you look there is someone convinced its easy making and selling soap, candles or wax melts and this time of year brings everyone out for a quick buck.
 
In the US, for soap at any rate, you don't have to provide ingredient information at all.

I don't expect to ever get into trying to sell the soap and perfumes (and lotion bars and body butter that I'm starting to dabble with) that I make. Too much hassle, too much cut-rate competition and a population that for the most part looks at point of sale price over product quality. Between friends and family, I've got 12 or 15 people that are all absolutely thrilled to get the stuff I make, and that can be counted on to provide really good feedback. So this will remain purely a hobby for me for the foreseeable future. And I'll always have really nice gifts to give for Christmas and birthdays and such. :)
 
This post piqued my interest since I've been thinking about buying one-gallon glass jars with lids to display my bath bombs...and also leaving them 'naked' in the jars.
These are the jars I'm considering:
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/core-1-gallon-glass-jar-with-glass-lid/553100039.html
There are a couple of reasons why I'm leaning toward doing this instead of what I'm currently doing, which is packaging individual bath bombs in cellophane bags and folding the bag down to fit the bomb and securing with a product label.
1) They don't display well and look clumsy (to my eye, anyway) when there's more than one.
2) Customers often want to open the packages to get a better idea of the scent.
Of course I plan to have slips of paper (think fortune cookies) with my ingredients listed since I'm proud of my recipe and the skin loving ingredients I include that commercial bath bombs don't have! The ingredient slip will go into every bag with a bath bomb purchase.
While I generally don't do the 'naked' thing with my products, in this case I think it will be much more aesthetic and functional for customers.
 
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