How strong is too strong? How fancy is too fancy?

[scott312]

I gave 1 to my neighbor and she yelled at me, lol.

In her travels she's run across soaps so overly scented they were obnoxious,
What's your idea of the perfect soap?

I just ordered my first handmade soap from a person and 4 of the bars made me want to throw up. The oat and honey was nice. The lavender bars I will throw away I guess. I kid you not, they smelled so bad my wife and I both gagged.
I gave 1 to my neighbor and she yelled at me, lol. It was so bad to her.
It got to thinking, maybe soap making is not for me. If the soaps smell this bad I want nothing to do with soap making.
Then I got to thinking, this is one persons taste in soaps.
But I have to say, I am thankful that I have experienced an over zealous soap maker.
So far I am getting my $$ worth out of this forum . Hec I might even make so friends
By the way the person I had watched make their soap online was a wonderful sweet person.

 

[penelopejane]

I just ordered my first handmade soap from a person and 4 of the bars made me want to throw up. The oat and honey was nice. The lavender bars I will throw away I guess. I kid you not, they smelled so bad my wife and I both gagged.
Then I got to thinking, this is one persons taste in soaps.
.

Buying stuff on the internet is so difficult. I think the shockingly bad handmade soap that is being sold out there is what inspires others to sell or make their own.

 

[cmzaha]

I like pretty swirled soaps with great smell. I dislike soap with anything botanicals on top or really high top soaps with imbeds. They are beautiful but I don't like stuff in my tub. What sells are my swirly soaps that are well scented. What doesn't sell is my poor plain unscented soap. I tried something at my last show. I had OMH that was just plain beige with a bit of really finely ground oats on top and then my cocoa poweder swirled OMH with a bit bigger grind of oats on top and the swirled did way better than the plain one. Go figure.

It is the same way for me. My plain soaps can sit forever to sell, but the same fragrance with a swirl will sell. Shows me people do buy for color as well as smell. My strongest scented outsell any of my lighter fragrance soaps, not lighter because I used less fo, just because they faded. A few oats on top is the only botanical I will use and only on a couple of soaps. I made the cutest Gingerbread, and Christmas tree soaps one year, that smelled delicious. The regular poured bars with the same fragrances sold but the bars with the standing up embeds did not sell. They were really cute.

Also mention, when I first started selling most of my soap had lots of nice big fat bubbles due to the 20% co, 7% castor and a superfat of 5-7%. People used to mention I made great soap. After a year or two I changed to low to very low superfatting below 5%, cut the coconut oil and cleansing factor. My men's soap have a cleansing factor of 15% and my women's designed soap carry a cleansing factor of approx 10. This does certainly affect lather and gives a more lotion creamy lather, but my customers now tell me it is awesome, so I guess the change is good.