About qualities of soap

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Lbrown123

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For all of you long time soapers out there, do you always follow the same recipe for soap when making them for customers? The reason I ask is I started making soap for Christmas gifts in the beginning. I made a moisturizing bar because I am older and my sisters are as well. My SIL has oily skin and the extra oils in the soap were too much for her skin so I made a recent batches with a lower sfat at 5% for her recently. Her daughter also thought they were too moisturizing. I was wondering if you offer soaps for different skin types when you sell your soap?
 
i'm not a long term soaper, but i do make different recipes for different types of skin. i think it is a logical thing to do. for oily skin, i usually up the coconut a bit. and for a more moisturizing bar, i'll add an oil like avocado to the mix and bump the superfat a bit.
 
I started making soap because my aging skin was drying out too much.

I started at 5% superfat, and a basic Bastile recipe or two and found that was as drying as the store soaps.

So, I upped super fat to 8% and started adding other oils and butters. I did find that adding a whole lot of different skin wonderful oils and butters in small amounts was too much, I mean I was adding multiples in a batch. Too many oils to measure in small amounts and annoying, but too oily a result. I found a recipe that I like for my skin now, with fewer ingredients and 8% super fat, but others may not like it.

For those with normal or oily skin, a basic Bastile may be best, no butters or special oils added. It will still have the glycerin that store bought soaps remove for other products, it will be nicer on the skin, but will not leave the skin too oily. 5% super fat may be fine for them. They will notice a better feel from store bought, yet not feel oily. Keep the ingredients simple for them, not too many, not too rich. Oh, and they make like dupes of fragrance from their favorite store brand if they are not allergic to fragrance. That might help with the appeal. Say, Irish Spring {insert any brand name for Irish Spring} is their favorite bar, might help to buy an Irish Spring Dupe FO to scent what you give them.
 
I think a lot of soapers have a 'basic' bath soap recipe and then 'specialty' bars for different skin types and needs. I sell a variety of specialty soaps along with my basic bath soap; shaving soap, facial bars, salt bars, castile/bastile, acne soap, scrub/exfoliation soap, etc.

Whatever you decide to sell make sure it it the best. They are a ton of soapers out there and you have to have quality soap and great marketing and selling sense to do well. Good luck!
 
Hi Lbrown, I find that my soaps with 1 tbs Kaolin clay ppo is too drying for my dry skin. But might be just right for those with oily skin. Your SIL might like it. Roy
 
Thanks for all the great replies! I did not think of a lot of these things when making them as gifts. I was just trying to learn so I tried different teas and additives. Different scents. That's a great idea about the man and woman bars! Also I did not know about the Kaolin clay being drying, I read somewhere it helped anchor the scent of the FO so I have been using it for the last few batches.i have time to perfect my recipe by Christmas so help is appreciated!
 

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