Hand-milled powdered goat's milk soap

[soap cakes]

Hi,

I am a new member and am excited about this forum. What a wonderful tool to learn, share, and connect.

I tried searching the forum, but am unable to find my answer. Do you need to preserve the powdered goat's milk in hand milled soap? Can I sell it, or would I run into any issues? What is the shelf life?

Thanks for your assistance. And hats off to making your family, friends, and customer's lives a little bit better.

Soap Cakes

 

[Deda]

Hmm, before you decide to sell your goat's milk soap I think some testing, beyond asking questions in a forum, would be in order.

Make soap everyday, or at least every week for a minimum of 6 months. Keep careful notes on all your batches. After the 6 months are up sit down with your notes and soaps and consider what you like and don't like about those 6 months worth of soap. How did they hold up? Any DOS? Did the scent fade? What about the color?

Now, go back and do it all again, at least 6 more months. During this second 6 months try replicating your batches EXACTLY. Can you make the same batch time after time and have it turn out exactly the same way?

Once you've mastered that, then you need to look into insurance, business licenses, local permits, building an inventory, how you'll store stock, how you'll set up you business? LLC or Corporation or Sole Proprietorship. Will you need to register a fictitious name? A DBA?

I'm not trying to be harsh, but to caution you not to set yourself up to fail. Soapmaking is a wonderful hobby, and with time can be a great business.

Don't put the goat before the soap, learn to make the soap. Then begin to think about selling.

 

[carebear]

Not sure how to answer the question: "Can I sell it, or would I run into any issues?"

There are no legal issues involved in selling milk soaps as such, but milk soaps can be a bear to make (as the 40 bars of tan buttermilk castile I have on my curing racks).

Shelf life isn't dependent on the milk. and I agree - you need to test your soap over time to see if your recipe is stable (doesn't go rancid/develop DOS) for what you consider an acceptable period of time (I aim for 2 years).

we can tell you the LIKELY answers, but each manufacturer (because as a soaper you ARE a manufacturer) needs to do their own testing and quality control.

good luck.