Clarification

[lizzysoap]

Ok, so this might be a silly question. For those who sell soap, and have been, when testing a new FO. Do you wait a year to see how it holds up, or do you know how your base recipe holds up and sell it?

I have been reading a huge ton of old posts on here, and it is very often repeated that you should have at least a year of experience before you start to sell. I get that, I have been making soap almost 6 years and have at least 1 bar from every batch I have made and haven't had any problems in the 1 year range. 2 of my batches have DOS now, but they are 4 years old and started turning about 3 months ago. But they don't smell like I have read people describe, they just kind of smell like old oil. Not bad, but not all that pleasant. But I am still learning all the time, and definitely did not know enough about making soap to sell with confidence in under a year.

Sorry I got off on my own question. I ask because I have not worked with FO very long, I am just now able to use soap from my first batch with FO. I have wanted to start a soap company for about 2 maybe 3 years. So I started a very long term plan, I would like to start selling at some point, but really want to trust my products. So back to my original question, say someone has been selling for a while, and BB comes put with a new FO. Do you make it in a small batch of soap test it once cured and if all is well make a batch to sell. Or do you keep testing that small batch for a year to see how that scent holds up.


P.S. I have been up for about 28 hours, I really hope my question makes since to others.

 

[shunt2011]

As long as you have tried and true recipes no, I don’t wait a year for each fragrance. However, I read reviews and go from there. I’ve had a few whose scent didn’t stand the test of time. Fortunately it’s not often

 

[lizzysoap]

I will keep that in mind. Thanks. I like my base recipe for the most part, I added VitE to it, when I added the FO, I had never used it before but read on many sites about it helping DOS, after looking it up on the forum..... I see I have wasted money there, luckily not too much. But I won't be adding it in the future.

 

[cmzaha]

I usually cure my soaps 2 months before taking to market. If the fragrance has faded they do not go or I label them light scent. Some people only like a hint of scent although most of my customers like strong. If they can't smell it they don't buy it. For new fragrances I usually do a small sample batch to see how it holds during cure time. If I have a batch that is faded and not selling well I pull the soaps and use them for confetti or rebatch

 

[jcandleattic]

I'm lucky as in I only sell at 4 markets a year, at the end of the year October-December. I make the majority of the soaps I'm going to sell well before August, so I basically know if a scent holds well or not. If a scent has faded by the time I wrap my soaps in late August early September, those soaps don't get wrapped or go to market (there are very few for me as I do the same as shunt, and now my recipe well, and read reviews for any scent I use (or combinations of scents I use in a blend)). Most of my soaps have cured for months by the time they get wrapped, so I will know by then whether or not it's a good scent.