irresponsible soapers?!!

[krissy]

i was at the beach with my family this past weekend and while there we saw a lady selling hand made soaps in her cottage. they were not her soaps, she just bought them from a vendor and was selling them.
seeing that they were hand made, i got to looking and can you believe nearly ALL of them were RANCID!! not a spot or two but COVERED in large chunks of DOS. i felt bad but i had to tell the lady that they were bad and she rolled her eyes and said that she would never buy hand made soaps again because of this. the store owner said that they were all sweating a lot and that they got slimy and sticky. then i tell her how rotten the soaps are and that is the last straw. the soaps were CP and i thought that CP didn't sweat?
anyways, i had been looking to see if there was a market down there for hand made soaps and i am just so mad that the one lady who was selling them, wont any more because of one very irresponsible soaper. :evil:

 

[NatureandNurture]

Is there any way to turn this to your advantage? If you were considering selling to her, why not go back with a few bars/batches of your soap and show her the difference. Maybe help educate her on what makes a good soap and offer to provide her with product. I dunno, perhaps it could all be in both of your best interest in the end.

 

[dagmar88]

The lady who selled the soaps at her cottage didn't know how to tell if soap's rancid...
And it would be possible the person who made them never had proper feedback. I think this case shows that if you are going to let someone else sell your handmade products, you should at least educate them a little.
Maybe you could give a couple of your soaps to the lady?

 

[carebear]

How sad.

Maybe the maker was a beginner who didn't yet know how her stuff would hold up.
Or maybe s/he was simply irresponsible.

Either way this sucks for everyone.

Send her some soap, and a bit of an educational letter perhaps.

 

[Guest]

That is awful , I can't imagine walking up and seeing all this rancid soap for sale. People that sell before they know what the soap is truly like or people that don't care, truly do make it bad for all soapmakers.

 

[soapbuddy]

That is awful , I can't imagine walking up and seeing all this rancid soap for sale. People that sell before they know what the soap is truly like or people that don't care, truly do make it bad for all soapmakers.

I agree.

 

[ChrissyB]

This is exactly why when a new soapmaker thinks they can start selling their soap one week after beginning to make it we all advise them against it.

 

[dagmar88]

You're right Chrissy; this does more wrong than right to the handmade soap market... Think of all those people who bought there and never want to try one of our soaps again.

 

[rupertspal42]

wow that really is sad... even though i'm just getting started with my soaps and I think they may look ok i'm not going to try to sell them!! They're my experimental soaps, the ones i'm learning with.. so that wouldn't make much sense to me to try to sell them. lol

 

[Tabitha]

This is exactly why when a new soapmaker thinks they can start selling their soap one week after beginning to make it we all advise them against it.

Amen!

OK, this is going to sound really mean, but I bet whomever it is that made/sold rancid soap was on this or another forum just last week whining that eveyone was picking on her cause she was trying to sell before she was ready...

 

[Guest]

This is exactly why when a new soapmaker thinks they can start selling their soap one week after beginning to make it we all advise them against it.

Amen!

OK, this is going to sound really mean, but I bet whomever it is that made/sold rancid soap was on this or another forum just last week whining hat eveyone was picking on her cause she was trying to sell before she was ready...

I believe that some people just start to make soap , love doing it, or think it is a way to make a fast buck and start selling it . Without thinking of what the soap might be like in 4wks, 8 wks , 12 wks , 6 months ,etc. They don't even have a tried and true recipe formulated .There are many people on the forums who have been advised not to sell ,right away . They take it personally , get peeved and ignore the advice , sell the soap and think everything is groovy, because people are buying it . BUT will these kind of soap sellers get much if any repeat business .I think NOT. It hurts them the most but also hurts the good soap makers.
There oughta be a law :wink:

Kitn

 

[angbaby4974]

I think I almost fell into that myself. I was sooooo excited when I first started that I thought....everyone should use my soap & I will sell it! OMG.. Looking back...I still have some of the first soap I made & while it's good soap, it's nothing that I would sell. I've just gotten things going & developed my OWN recipe, realized that great soap doesn't need to have 15 oils in it, & I'm still nervous about selling. And believe me I've had some stellar offers. As a matter of fact, right now I'm working out the details on a contract with a micro-brewery to make soaps for their gift shop made with their beer, that they provide me. That contract alone will keep me busier than I can imagine.

I think the best advice anyone can give is don't sell too soon. That said, I think that "too soon" is different for everyone. Some people learn & experiment at a faster rate than others & some people just need to work it out for themselves. I am one that ran headfirst into soaping ,& through many trials & a lot of errors, learned a LOT in a very short period of time. There are things that I would still like to learn how to do & there are things that I have gone out on a limb doing & succeeded.

It all depends on the soapmaker, and their ethics.

 

[gcfanca]

I'd never want to sell anything unless I'd test it like crazy first. I am not one to jump into things at all...I'VE seen a few people..just jump into it making lotions without preservatives or not doing it correctly..and well like I said I could never feel right about selling a product I am not sure about.

 

[Guest]

I think I almost fell into that myself. I was sooooo excited when I first started that I thought....everyone should use my soap & I will sell it! OMG.. Looking back...I still have some of the first soap I made & while it's good soap, it's nothing that I would sell. I've just gotten things going & developed my OWN recipe, realized that great soap doesn't need to have 15 oils in it, & I'm still nervous about selling. And believe me I've had some stellar offers. As a matter of fact, right now I'm working out the details on a contract with a micro-brewery to make soaps for their gift shop made with their beer, that they provide me. That contract alone will keep me busier than I can imagine.

I think the best advice anyone can give is don't sell too soon. That said, I think that "too soon" is different for everyone. Some people learn & experiment at a faster rate than others & some people just need to work it out for themselves. I am one that ran headfirst into soaping ,& through many trials & a lot of errors, learned a LOT in a very short period of time. There are things that I would still like to learn how to do & there are things that I have gone out on a limb doing & succeeded.

It all depends on the soapmaker, and their ethics.

I agree one hundred percent with all the posts. I don't agree with the name calling and bullying on the forums that goes along with the "advice" not to sell. I had the greatest emotional smack down yesterday. I sold out at the flea market, didn't go back today because...

no 1-the pressure of having to "produce" will make a new soaper like me do something stupid. I don't have enuf to sell...and people were so hyped to buy more...I felt sad and inadequate....

no 2- a guys came up to me raving about my soap, and we were talking and he didn't realize the soap had lard in it...I disclose on both paper and verbally...he was very upset...I felt like crap....

no 3-I don't want to lose the joy I get from making soap, I got a pocket full of money and seem to be creating a following...that I really CAN"T keep up with, so now I'll look like a fly by nighter cause I need at least two weeks off from the flea market...if not a lifetime :cry: :cry:

I'm being open and transparent for the next new soaper

 

[Guest]

Can't people tell if the soap that they're buying is rancid? I'm sure even if I wasn't a soap maker, I would look at DOS and think hmmm looks weird/iffy.

When I first heard about there being laws in the UK where you have to have your soap safety assessed before you sell it I was a but disappointed but now I think the whole world should have that law. Sure saftey assessments cost money but they are so worth it.

 

[ChrissyB]

The only difference between a good soaper and a bad soaper is experience.
We all get so excited when we make that first batch of soap, it actually cleans and bubbles, and we are so excited. Of course we give it to our family and friends, and their response is always the same - "You should sell this". Of course people think you should sell your soap right from the get go, because 1. you are giving it away, and 2. People are going to buy soap anyway, so they may as well buy it from you, right? Wrong!
A good soaper will learn masses from experience, yes at first we all will soap anything that sits still long enough to make it into the soap pot, some things work, some don't, but experience will give you the knowledge to learn the difference. It's not all about pretty colours, and nice fragrances, it's about how good the soap is without all the fancy decorations. Yes, that all adds to the beauty of it, but if it's not good soap to start with, what's the point.
Soaping for me is an exciting craft, but I want to give it the respect that it deserves. I've made some horrible batches, so horrible that they were thrown out. But I've learnt from those horrible batches and reformulated and made some wonderful soap since then. And I have the humility to know the difference. I love the soap that I make now, but I loved the soap that I was making 2 years ago, but experience has given me the insight to know the difference.

 

[kittywings]

One other point, that just occurred to me, and I'm not saying that I disagree with what you guys have been saying because I don't... BUT I've been at plenty of big stores and seen products from Revlon, etc. that have gone bad and they still sell them.

Anyway, thought I'd share that... conversely, I agree that people shouldn't go off half-cocked. I plan to start selling at some point... soon-ish, but not yet because I don't have everything set in stone. I'm still tweaking things. I tell all of my testers not to spare my feelings because them being nice isn't going to help me out in the long run.

I think I might have missed the original "discussion" that started all of this.

But I want to make sure I get in my: :shock:

 

[Tabitha]

Can't people tell if the soap that they're buying is rancid?

Most people can not tell. I am a traveling nurse. I go into patients home & care for them there. I can not tell you how many bottles of rancid lotion I have thrown out. The patient 'thinks' they are fine. Even after telling them the hows, whens & whys they are still upset about the 1/2 empty, 5 year old bottles of lotion going in the trash. I see make-up that 5-10 years old & all sorts of out of date meds that are so old they turn to dus when you touch them. The general population has no clue about cosmetics/soap spoiling.

 

[kittywings]

Eek, you just made me remember that I'm still using the same MAC powdered blush from about 1998... still going strong!

Also, I worked at the Revlon manufacturing plant for 2 summers (my grandmother was a big whig there- it was all nepotism), one summer, I was in the company store and I cannot tell you how much stuff there was rancid! they were selling it dirt cheap, but still... eew!

 

[artisan soaps]

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