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What's the best bit of the forum to go to for advice on what to use as colourants? I'm pretty sure I'm OKay with mica powders, but can I use ... food colouring, for example?
 
What's the best bit of the forum to go to for advice on what to use as colourants? I'm pretty sure I'm OKay with mica powders, but can I use ... food colouring, for example?

There are threads throughout the forums, and of course what you 'can' use and what is approved in your country are not necessarily the same.

First, look up the regulations for colorants in your country for the products you plan to make. In the UK, your regulations will differ from the regulations we have in the United States, and those differ from the regulations in Canada, and so on and so on.

As I understand it you have another layer of approval in the UK that we do not have here, call 'assessments' or CPSR or similar acronym prior to being able to sell (or give away?) your products.
Reference: https://www.soapmakingmagazine.co.u...3/rules-regulations-legally-selling-products/
 
As I understand it you have another layer of approval in the UK that we do not have here, call 'assessments' or CPSR or similar acronym prior to being able to sell (or give away?) your products.
Reference: https://www.soapmakingmagazine.co.u...3/rules-regulations-legally-selling-products/

As I understand it, you don't need a CSPR to give away soap to friends and family, who technically become testers.
You can't legally give it away to strangers or donate to charity without one though.
 
What's the best bit of the forum to go to for advice on what to use as colourants? I'm pretty sure I'm OKay with mica powders, but can I use ... food colouring, for example?
Although it's not recommended, I use food coloring in my liquid soaps.
Sadly, there's no forum dedicated to colorants. :( Here's my advice:

DYES, MICAS OR NATURAL COLORANTS

To avoid the most expensive rabbit hole you can fall into here, read this:

What advice would you give to your beginning soaping self?

Welcome.gif
 
There are threads throughout the forums, and of course what you 'can' use and what is approved in your country are not necessarily the same.
Don't give much of a care for legislation. It's generally created by "people" with lower moral standards than mine.
I don't agree with animal testing, so after I test it on my own scrotum, I'll try it on my family.
I have no plans for selling it.
 
As I understand it, you don't need a CSPR to give away soap to friends and family, who technically become testers.
You can't legally give it away to strangers or donate to charity without one though.
That's a useful point. On reflection, soap manufacture and the results can clearly be bloody dangerous, so I shouldn't really be surprised. Thanks.
 
Joking? Or serious?

Hominy is a food made from dried corn kernals, and yes it is a real word, as is nixtmalization, which is another word for how hominy is made. Hominy is a basic ingredient in menudo, which I no longer eat, but I still eat hominy and have done since I was a child. I love the taste of hominy with pepper.

Making hominy with NaOH:

Making hominy with lime:

Making hominy with wood ash:
 
As I understand it, you don't need a CSPR to give away soap to friends and family, who technically become testers.
You can't legally give it away to strangers or donate to charity without one though.

That is correct:)

I don't agree with animal testing, so after I test it on my own scrotum, I'll try it on my family.

That is a great way to get useful feedback! (and lol to the first part, that will indeed tell you something...😆)

Don`t forget you friends too. Especially if they are able to be honest about what they don`t like. I.e. this made me a bit dry after use, etc.

For me personally I noticed that in the very beginning they were a bit too kind. But I have been doing this since forever now, so they all know the drill by now! And I have my formula down now, so I know what every single family member prefer outside my approved recipe. No one likes Castile, except my sister, so she get some for her. And others like more coconut oil. That is the beauty of testing it on other people beside yourself!

And I am happy it is like that, because if I could not take advantage of get help from way to trusting helpfull family and friends that could give me usefull feedback, then, how would I know how different types of people would react to different properties of a soap?

And by the way, you say you don`t want to sell. That may be the case now, and I have been there myself. Just be aware, that if this new adventure should start to take you places you can`t see right now, that "not selling anything" may change in the future. Even if it take years. (I started making soap in late 2000)

I know, you are not me. And by the way, I am not going all in with a big website, huge batches and selling by the ton. But what I DO want is selling at smaller markets, have an Instagram to display batch of the month, and selling word by mouth. In short - have fun!

I didn`t think that would work actually, but I have had to say no to so many people now, that if I skipped the legalities I could have making some serious money by now. So I decided to get a CPSR just to have the freedom to sell whenever I feel like it. If people have to wait - I don`t care, I am doing this for me, not anyone else. I do this because I enjoy it.

I know, not the best business model! But after so may years, people will simply not let me off the hook, and get back to me all the time, and I have never sold them a single bar of soap! Even when I say I can not sell yet they ask. So when I am done with the registering I am all set, and can be free to do whatever I want. What ever that is...
 
For me personally I noticed that in the very beginning they were a bit too kind.
Same with craft gin. I say to people: if you don't like it, you HAVE to tell me, or else I keep making crap! I give you crap for presents, you thrown it away. YOU want crap for presents?
And others like more coconut oil. That is the beauty of testing it on other people beside yourself!
People ask me what is my soap made from. I'm an engineer. I say pig fat and drain cleaner. (Of course it's not drain cleaner, but people don't know what Sodium Hydroxide is!) It changed that. Now it's "Coconut Oil, Olive Oil and some other secret stuff."
And I am happy it is like that, because if I could not take advantage of get help from way to trusting helpfull family and friends that could give me usefull feedback, then, how would I know how different types of people would react to different properties of a soap?
:)
 
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