Legal Requirements to sell handmade soap in South Africa

[JessicaVDW]

Hi there, my name is Jessica and really hope there is someone that can help me here today.
I would like to start selling my soaps and I would like to know what the legal requirements are to do so. I have not been doing this for a very long time, and for now I am only wanting to sell an all natural melt & pour soap bar. There are many variants and I only add oatmeal to the one variant. Is it sufficient that I list the ingredients that my supplier has on their ingredients list? What else should be on the label? Does anyone have a checklist for me please? LOL. In the meantime I will be trying my hand at cold process soap making and learning all about that, THERES SO MUCH TO LEARN, it's quite intimidating, but so much fun.

 

[AliOop]

Welcome! Hopefully another member from SA can help with the requirements. In the meantime, the rest of us will help with the making part of things.

 

[TheGecko]

Start here: Home - CTFA

Now this a company that is obviously promoting their services, but it does contain useful information. If you scroll down to the bottom on the left you’ll see mentioned the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), the Department of Health (DoH). On the right, it mentions “Certificates of Free Sale” and that there are guidelines for the “obligations of cosmetic companies under the South African Regulatory framework”.

Wish I could be more helpful

 

[Babyshoes]

Hi and welcome.

I'm no longer in SA but I do remember the bureaucracy! Hopefully things have improved in the past decade or so...

A thought - if your m&p base is imported, it may not have the correct labelling for SA, or it may fall into a different category as a craft supply/ingredient so may require different labelling to finished soap.

I'd personally go along to some of the lovely posh handmade markets that you get in most of the main cities, find someone selling handmade soaps and/or cosmetics, start chatting and see if they can point you in the right direction.