Iris Reola said:
As far as color morphing goes, one of my soaps which used a fair amount of vanilla fragrance oil has already undergone a massive (but expected) change! It went from kind of a medium color to looking like brownies over the course of 24 hours.
I've had that happen several times. I keep praying that it will only discolor a teeny, teeny bit but nooo...it's double chocolate brownies!
You'll have to stop into your city's office and check on the requirements for operating a home business. There's been lots of discussions about opening a business. It does take a lot of planning and experimentation to get to this point.
Here's a great post about opening a business.
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17621
Plus just going through and reading the General Business forum (if you haven't already) will give you some help.
http://soapmakingforum.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=17
Have you talked to your parents about starting a business? They may have knowledge or know someone who can help you. You can also go onto score.org. There might even be a local office near you. They do free mentoring to help people start businesses.
However, the first and major item is to know your product. How is your soap going to hold up in a year's time? People do buy soaps and stick them in a cabinet or drawer and leave them for a long time. I do it myself. Your soap might be wonderful for a few months but the fragrance may fade or it could develop DOS. You really don't want to be selling soap that will turn bad. It will give your business a bad reputation and pretty much destroy any chance of having a soap business.
I say you need to start handing your soaps out and getting lots of feedback from friends and family. Find out what they like or don't like about your soaps. Constructive criticism is some of the best feedback you'll ever receive.
I know when I first started soaping I was very happy with my soaps. But now they've really gotten much nicer than what I made in the beginning or even what I made a year ago. IMO, it might be a little too soon to be planning on selling in a few months.
HTH