Went to a Festival This Weekend

[BrewerGeorge]

Saturday we helped my oldest daughter paint at her new house then went to a block party festival in her neighborhood. There were three separate soap vendors there and none of them impressed me.

The first one was all about the "natural" connection with all kinds of flower petals, seeds and stuff stuck to the bars. The guy is going on about how everything is vegan, GMO-free, and all-natural - then he hands me a coconut scented bar. All natural coconut, eh? Then as I'm walking around picking up bars and sniffing, just making conversation I ask if the obviously hot processed bars are hot processed. He isn't sure, then tells me they're cold processed. They're not. The worst part was one of the bars I picked up was soft! It felt a big gummy bear. Gah! Clearly brand-new. And as I'm walking out, I hear them talking about one scent that is so popular that they announce when they're going to cut it and people line up to buy it immediately! Days old, soft soap for $2 an ounce. Yeah, sign me up. :Kitten Love:

The other two weren't nearly as bad, just pedestrian. CP, single color and lightly scented. At least they seemed properly cured. No decoration, no swirls, just soap, at six bucks a bar. But the tragedy is that neither of these booths selling decent soap had any real traffic, but the "natural" amateurs with their unwrapped, soft bars had plenty of interested shoppers.

 

[toxikon]

Bleck!

My sweet mother gifted me a bar of soap she bought recently at a large music festival. Smells and looks fine, but when I went to search for an ingredient list there was none to be found. That one always bothers me!

 

[cmzaha]

I see this so much when out at markets I get Frustrated to the max. I looked at a soap a newbie was market and selling at a market I was selling in and I could poke my finger through the soap it was so soft, in fact it was so soft she should have just smushed it in a jar so a person could scoop it out. As much as I try to keep my mouth shut that time I just could not. At least when I can get to markets these days....

 

[SoapTrey]

I see this so much when out at markets I get Frustrated to the max. I looked at a soap a newbie was market and selling at a market I was selling in and I could poke my finger through the soap it was so soft, in fact it was so soft she should have just smushed it in a jar so a person could scoop it out. As much as I try to keep my mouth shut that time I just could not. At least when I can get to markets these days....

Wow... that's pretty bad. I would have said something too... and it probably wouldn't have come across so nice, although I wouldn't have been mean about it. That type of poor crafting skills and knowledge will give us all a bad name. I don't sell my soaps, but if I did... I would ensure my product is of the highest quality and standards, cured properly, thoroughly tested, labeled following legal guidelines, insured and I would be extremely knowledgeable about it and be very happy when someone offered me positive constructive criticism.

I'm not anywhere close to as knowledgeable (from a scientific standpoint) as a lot of you are, but I've been doing this long enough to know a good product vs a bad product.

 

[Millie]

Oops, I borrowed George's "Gah!" on another thread. But it feels great. Gah! Time is going by too fast. Gah! My neighbor wants to sell soap and she hasn't made her first batch yet. Gah! My aunt is selling soap that heals everything. Gah! Stop asking me when I'll start selling, it is okay to just have a hobby. Really. Hobbies are healthy. One of DH's cousins is getting a divorce, and one of the many criticisms the family is casting on his soon to be ex is that she spends money on useless hobbies. That one takes a big long sigh.

Sorry to rant on your thread, and thanks for the "gah!" I see lots of bad soap in my area too, and it is frustrating. All it would take to fix some of those soaps is cure time and honesty. I think. I have only bought one handmade soap since I started, and I got the coconut itch. But not everyone would.

 

[Kittish]

It's potentially going to be funny first time I go to any festival or market or anything and find someone selling soap. 'Cause, yea, I'm the sort that I'll poke and prod and ask all the questions. Though to be fair, if the soap seems decent quality and the person selling it can actually answer the questions reasonably sanely I'll probably buy some of it.

 

[FannieFinch]

It may behoove those that know to help guide those who don't, as every crafter benefits when the standards elevate the same way all are suspect when inferior product is sold to the unwitting. Perhaps it would be more beneficial to help address the labeling or characteristic issues of their product and site the responsibility and personal consequences, rather than to simply prove one's nescience of the craft. Lincoln said, “He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”

 

[Millie]

My nescience is tight 8)

 

[cmzaha]

It may behoove those that know to help guide those who don't, as every crafter benefits when the standards elevate the same way all are suspect when inferior product is sold to the unwitting. Perhaps it would be more beneficial to help address the labeling or characteristic issues of their product and site the responsibility and personal consequences, rather than to simply prove one's nescience of the craft. Lincoln said, “He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”

Trust me, most do no want to know, because they think their products are perfect. Even some that come to this forum do not like the answers they get so they leave

 

[Kamahido]

When browsing soap at fairs, festivals, Etsy... sometimes I fell like I am the only one trying their best to be in compliance.

 

[CaraBou]

I've not been very impressed with markets soaps here, either. Often the ingredients are lacking in palmitic and stearic FAs (it's hard to be palm free and animal free, people), or I'm left wondering how one really bathes with tops decorated like cupcake frosting or straws. I love looking at pretty soaps, but some only go so far in the shower.

 

[0115d8cf]

I've not been very impressed with markets soaps here, either. Often the ingredients are lacking in palmitic and stearic FAs (it's hard to be palm free and animal free, people), or I'm left wondering how one really bathes with tops decorated like cupcake frosting or straws. I love looking at pretty soaps, but some only go so far in the shower.

Re: cupcake soaps, the easiest way is to cut them in half vertically. Not that you probably honestly wanted to know.

 

[toxikon]

I'm left wondering how one really bathes with tops decorated like cupcake frosting or straws. I love looking at pretty soaps, but some only go so far in the shower.

I follow a lot of soapers on Instagram and I always wonder this! Why put a paper straw in a shower product? I find it baffling. I like to decorate my soap with soap clay, but I don't like using big lavender buds or other non-soapy stuff on my tops since they'd be a pain to use in the shower.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Those "natural" folks I mentioned above had TONS of crap in and on their soaps. I couldn't really imagine actually trying to wash with any of them. They would shed so much that they'd be a danger to the pipes.

Maybe that's the point. Maybe that's how they get away with selling such technically imperfect soap. Maybe nobody actually uses this stuff and it's ultimately just another form of potpourri.

 

[mommycarlson]

Those "natural" folks I mentioned above had TONS of crap in and on their soaps. I couldn't really imagine actually trying to wash with any of them. They would shed so much that they'd be a danger to the pipes.

Maybe that's the point. Maybe that's how they get away with selling such technically imperfect soap. Maybe nobody actually uses this stuff and it's ultimately just another form of potpourri.

BG, we were at a festival this weekend too (Iowa) and there was a soap maker there with the same type of soap you describe, "natural", no colors and only EO's for scents but there was so much "stuff" in her soap that I couldn't imagine showering with it. I am all for the rustic look, but her soaps were cut so crudely that I wondered if it was because she was trying to cut through all that stuff?

 

[DeeAnna]

There have been some people on facebook who say they want their soap to have a super rustic appearance -- uneven slices, rough edges, etc. (But I think you said it better, MommyCarlson, when you used the word crude!)

I got shot down pretty quickly by those folks for saying I preferred otherwise. I don't want my soap to look like it is mass produced by a machine, certainly, but I do want it to have a well groomed "spit 'n polish" look.

I do leather work for a living, and a tidy, professional look is what I also strive for in my leather products. I sometimes think the idea that "crude = handmade" is something that some folks adopt because they don't have the interest or skills or experience to work at a higher level. Practice makes better, as a friend says. I've practiced my leather work for 15 years. It annoys me to think I should do less than my best so others will perceive my products as "hand crafted." :-?

 

[earlene]

My husband & I wandered around a gift shop last week and I ran across the ugliest, most unacceptable soap I have ever seen for sale anywhere. There were two soap makers' products for sale there and one was on the nice and reasonably good looking & well packaged side. The other soaper, apparently adheres to the crude=homemade so-it's-better train of thought. I say that giving that person the benefit of the doubt about their attitude, but in reality, the 'Castile' soap was not fit for sale IMO. It was the ugliest Castile I'd ever seen, short, squat bars that looked like the soaper had not calculated the amount of batter needed to fill the mold; obviously HP and no added scent (or if so, it was gone) but pourly mixed batter because color was uneven and the soap was not white, which all my uncolored Castiles are, more of a mottled pale yellowish. No off smell of DOS, but it made me think of DOS when I saw the color. I wouldn't even consider giving that soap away, let alone fool myself into thinking it was okay to sell it. I was shocked to see several bars for sale. And the packaging was also odd. These bars and the others from that soap maker were inside stiff cellophane bags (like one uses to put around gift baskets) and loosley tied closed with a string at the top. The label only had the name of the soap and a price with no ingredients listed. The label doesn't really surprise me; I've seen plenty of labels that don't list ingredients, but I have not seen packaging in cellophane bags before.

 

[DunbarDesigned]

Advise the Unwise

Hello! I'm a brand spankin new soaper...if I'm even allowed to label myself as that yet lol I am extremely meticulous about starting a brand of B&B products eventually and I was curious to know what you would advise, stemming from your thread regarding soapers at the festival, on what would have been the ideal experience. In short, what do YOU consider to be the ideal experience when purchasing soap? And I'm talking every angle...displays, vendor interaction, etc.

I noted:
-Know your product to the 'T' (I LOVE how EVERY SINGLE person I've spoken to about soap making KNOWS THEIR ISH!) I figured that was an obvious concept but...

 

[Kittish]

There have been some people on facebook who say they want their soap to have a super rustic appearance -- uneven slices, rough edges, etc. (But I think you said it better, MommyCarlson, when you used the word crude!)

I got shot down pretty quickly by those folks for saying I preferred otherwise. I don't want my soap to look like it is mass produced by a machine, certainly, but I do want it to have a well groomed "spit 'n polish" look.

I do leather work for a living, and a tidy, professional look is what I also strive for in my leather products. I sometimes think the idea that "crude = handmade" is something that some folks adopt because they don't have the interest or skills or experience to work at a higher level. Practice makes better, as a friend says. I've practiced my leather work for 15 years. It annoys me to think I should do less than my best so others will perceive my products as "hand crafted." :-?

I'm with you! I want my soaps to look well groomed, with neat, clean edges and smooth faces. A similar principle applies when baking, I don't strive to make batch items identical, but they should be pretty uniform in size and appearance.

I'm a leather worker too, though not professionally. Been crafting leather goods for about half my life now, though, which works out to just over two decades. What sorts of items to you make?

 

[soapmaker]

Oh my. I've never seen such a negative post. I've never encountered anything like that at markets. But some people like all that stuff on top so be kind. My biggest complaint is not following the rules of the country you're in and the exorbitant price. After I went to all the work of INCI labeling as per rules in Canada and then I see others not bothering and also charging $7 a bar that looks to be about half the size of mine. I guess that's what you have to charge if you want to make a living but...