Hi to everyone, and season's greeting. My newbie question is, are we allowed to mix glycerin with other ingredients to form a new soap blend for purposes starting a soap making business. All ingredients are natural and vegan with no chemicals. Any ideas? or thoughts?
Can i blend soap ingriedients together and make my own blend of soap?
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Obsidian
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Where is the soap in this formula? Glycerin + other ingredients don't make soap unless you add detergent or soap to the mix.
Short answer- yes, BUT if nobody else is doing it, there's usually a reason.
You say there aren't any chemicals, but I know people who would consider glycerin a chemical, since you're taking glycerin from the environment it was made in and placing it elsewhere. Which begs the question, what are you defining as a chemical? If your soap cleans, why does it clean?
You say there aren't any chemicals, but I know people who would consider glycerin a chemical, since you're taking glycerin from the environment it was made in and placing it elsewhere. Which begs the question, what are you defining as a chemical? If your soap cleans, why does it clean?
There aren't any soap police, so you are "allowed" to do anything within legal reason, I suppose. But I'm with Obsidian -- you're not providing enough information for anyone to give you a sensible answer.
But, honestly -- "no chemicals"? What do you think glycerin and other ingredients are?
On a related point -- Are you aware if you want to have a soap business in Canada that you need to have your products assessed before you offer them for sale?
But, honestly -- "no chemicals"? What do you think glycerin and other ingredients are?
On a related point -- Are you aware if you want to have a soap business in Canada that you need to have your products assessed before you offer them for sale?
Technically, your recipes need to be registered with Health Canada. It isn't an assessment, per se.
That’s not making soap. It’s diluting already made soap and adding glycerine. What purpose? Just curious.
80% water+20% glycerin= 100% not cleansing agent. Vitamin E isn't a surfactant either.
Unless you're using glycerin as a shorthand for someone else's soap, in which case a) that's inaccurate and you should use the right term, and b) that might not be legal without the soap manufacturer's permission, depending on copyright laws, labeling laws, etc. It's shady, at best, since you wouldn't have batch tracing, percentages, material sources, and so on for the vast majority of the ingredients in a product you claim as yours.
artemis
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Have you ever considered making your own liquid soap? I haven't done it yet, since I'm a fan of bar soap. But I hear it's a fun process and with a little practice, not as hard as it sounds.
do you mean Dr Bronners?
they have dilution rates here
https://www.drbronner.com/all-one-blog/2017/06/dilutions-cheat-sheet-dr-bronners-pure-castile-soap/and say the preservative gets diluted and the shelf life drops when you dilute their product
irishlass detailed instructions to make liquid soap
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/my-creamy-cocoa-shea-gls-tutorial.57974/
they have dilution rates here
https://www.drbronner.com/all-one-blog/2017/06/dilutions-cheat-sheet-dr-bronners-pure-castile-soap/and say the preservative gets diluted and the shelf life drops when you dilute their product
irishlass detailed instructions to make liquid soap
https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/my-creamy-cocoa-shea-gls-tutorial.57974/
@Hitman007 -- You're talking to people who make soap by hand from scratch. We pay a lot of attention to how our handcrafted soap looks, feels, and smells, and how it performs in the bath. Those of us who sell our soap are largely committed to providing an honest value to the consumer.
I suppose you could dilute Dr Bronners soap even more and try to sell that. But from my perspective as a soap maker, I can't fathom why a person would want to do that. I get the impression your goals may be less about learning to make handcrafted soap and more about wanting an easy "side hustle" to make a quick dollar.
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@Misschief -- Thanks for the correction. I know Canada has more restrictions than the US does about soap and other B&B products, but I should have looked up the specifics rather than speak from memory.
I suppose you could dilute Dr Bronners soap even more and try to sell that. But from my perspective as a soap maker, I can't fathom why a person would want to do that. I get the impression your goals may be less about learning to make handcrafted soap and more about wanting an easy "side hustle" to make a quick dollar.
***
@Misschief -- Thanks for the correction. I know Canada has more restrictions than the US does about soap and other B&B products, but I should have looked up the specifics rather than speak from memory.
Obsidian
Well-Known Member
There are products like this that are designed to be diluted and scented so you can customize your own line.
https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-b...00454.html?cgid=3-base_ing_pro#start=41&sz=12
https://www.brambleberry.com/shop-b...00454.html?cgid=3-base_ing_pro#start=41&sz=12
First of all, Dr Bronner's doesn't have a 'base glycerin'. And if you take 80% water, 20% glycerin, and a few drops of Vitamin E, what you have is a bunch of water with a little bit of glycerin with a few drops of Vitamin E...that's not soap.
Now if you are talking about taking Dr Bronner's Pure-Castile Liquid Soap, watering it down with 80% water and a few drops of Vitamin E and repackaging it as your own...you're going to be in a world of legal hurt, not to mention that your 'soap' will only get clean hands cleaner.
And have you look at the label? Water, Organic Coconut Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Organic Palm Kernel Oil, Organic Olive Oil, Mentha Arvensis, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Mentha Piperita, Citric Acid, Tocopherol
Potassium Hydroxide is a chemical. Citric Acid, while naturally occurring in fruits, is chemical produced. And Tocopherol is a chemical compound with Vitamin E activity.
So the short answer to your original question of "My newbie question is, are we allowed to mix glycerin with other ingredients to form a new soap blend for purposes starting a soap making business." Yes, you are allowed to make soap from scratch and sell it PROVIDING you follow all the law of your country. The long answer to taking someone's product, watering it down and adding a minuscule amount of a vitamin and selling it as your own is absolutely NOT!
Why not instead experiment with making CP soap and mix different oils?
What you do is what thousands of other soap makers do...you spend some time researching soap making. There is Melt & Pour and Rebatching if you don't want to make soap from scratch and there is Cold Process and Hot Process if you do. The advantages of M&P and Rebatching is once the soap is hard, you can sell it right away. This disadvantages are that you can't customize your base soap, you are fairly limited to colorants and scents. The advantages of CP and HP is full customization of your recipe...from oils and butters, Super Fat, Lye Concentration, Additives and of course, colorants and scents. The disadvantage...it takes, depending on your recipe, 4 to 8 weeks before you soap is ready to sell.
Start small...one pound batches of soap. I have a couple of 4" Silicone Loaf Molds and I just purchased a 6" Silicone Slab Molds; I know the Loaf Mold will give you 4-5 oz bars of soap and will allow you to get your feet wet without spending a lot of money if something goes wrong (it will).
A fairly easy recipe is Olive Oil (40.9%), Palm Oil (27.3%), Coconut Oil (27.3%) and Castor Oil (4.5%). 33% Lye Concentration, 5% Super Fat. You will find that many soap makers provide their recipes in percentages as it allow you to then enter those percentages in a soap calculator and adjust the quantities for the mold. As an example, I know the 4" Silicone Loaf Molds holds 20 oz total...14 oz of Oils. If I enter those percentages into SoapCalc, it will tell me that I need 5.73 oz of Olive Oil, 3.82 oz each of Palm and Coconut Oil, 0 .63 oz of Castor Oil, 4.05 oz of Water (distilled) and 1.99 oz of NaOh (Sodium Hydroxide aka Lye). And because I have done my research, I know that I need to first put on eye protection and gloves, measure my water and lye separately, pour my lye into my water, don't breathe in the fumes and mix until clear and then let cool down away from kids and pets. I also know that I have to melt my Palm and Coconut Oils first (hard oils), then add in my Olive and Castor Oils (soft oils). I then add in my lye solution, mix to a light trace and then pour into my mold. I then lightly cover my mold and let it sit for 24 hours, unmold, cut into four pieces, place on a paper-lined cutting board and let sit for six weeks.
Now say that I want to make a larger batch of soap...10" Silicone Loaf Mold for 10 bars of soap. Using those very same percentages, I know my mold holds 50% total weight or 34 oz of Oil and it will calculate new weights. And since I have a few batches of soap, maybe I'll add some color and scent.
Some absolutes and recommendations:
Absolutes -
Eye Protection
Gloves
Digital Scale
Stick Blender (except for M&P, you don't need one)
Reputable soap suppliers for colorants and scents.
Recommendations -
The "Dollar" store is your new best friend when it comes to mixing bowls and containers, measuring spoons, storage containers, spatulas, etc.
Costco & similar (olive, avocado, coconut oils to name a few). You can also shop Wal-Mart and other stores for Lard, Tallow, Palm-based Shortening and for the aforementioned, but always check you labels to make sure you aren't getting a 'blend'.
Set a budget. It is soooooooooo easy to go down the rabbit hole. Start with a couple of small molds and get some batches under your belt. You don't need a soap cutter, you can use a flat knife or even a cheese slicer. When it comes time to play with colors and scents...start with sample packs and trial sizes. They are a little more spendy, but you don't want to buy a pound of something that you end up not liking.
And of course, every soap maker wants to offer a unique product so you're going to want to modify your recipe. Argan Oil and Cranberry Butter sounds glorious in your soap, but in reality, it's a waste of money. 1) Soap is a wash on/rinse off product...the soap isn't going to stay on the skin long enough to reap any benefits from 90% of the stuff you put in it. 2) Lye will destroy the majority of the 'benefits' of anything you put in it so all that is left is 'label appeal'.
A note about starting a soaping business.
There is a crap load of competition out there. All those soap makers you see on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, they've been at it for years before "social media". And while people might be washing their hands more, it hasn't exactly created a overwhelming demand for artisan soaps. If I wasn't a soap maker and was still purchasing my GMS online...given that our household income as been reduced, I'd be back to shopping for Jergens (soap and lotion) at the Dollar Store.
The competition aside...you need at least a year of soap making before you start thinking of selling soap. It takes time to learn how to make soap, developing a recipe, testing, going back to the drawing board. I thought I was ready to sell after 6 months, then I did a craft fair and realized I wasn't. It's been over a year now and I have progressed so much as a soap maker and it shows in the quality of my soap.
