Newbie! UK rules

[roisin75]

Hey everyone,

Well the other day a friend saw the little toy M&P soaps me and my son made for his friends Christmas gifts. She loves them and has asked me to make her some and she will buy them off me.

Now I already run a full time business and know there are rules for EVERYTHING and wanted to know what should I do here? Are there rules I need to follow if I'm selling her soap I've made?

The thing is if she wants some and then she shows other and they want them I want to make sure I'm biding by rules, can anyone advise please

I'm in the UK

Many thanks Roisin

 

[christost7]

Hi.
As every country has different regulations/laws, I would suggest googling first and contacting the responsible offices for more details.
I am in the same spot as you are, hopefully the red tape, beurocracy and costs are better in the UK than in Greece...
Good luck!

 

[LilyJo]

If you sell any soap (or other cosmetic product) in the UK or in Europe each product will need to assessed by a qualified cosmetic chemist, the product and labels must then be registered on the EU portal.

Easiest place to start is to look for a cosmetic assessor and that will tell you what you need and what the costs would be.

Dont forget you would also need product liability insurance as well.

If you make something for you own use thats fine but if you sell anything you would be breaking the law without cosmetic assessments

 

[BrewerGeorge]

If you sell any soap (or other cosmetic product) in the UK or in Europe each product will need to assessed by a qualified cosmetic chemist, the product and labels must then be registered on the EU portal.
...

Is that also true with M&P soap? The original seller of the base doesn't bear that responsibility?

Are there generally-accepted workarounds at the friends level, such as she buys the ingredients and you "help her" make them herself?

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

She can give you a little something for them, like if you keep on making cakes for a friend and they give you something for it. It's a big difference from running a business- you won't be advertising, selling to the public and so on, rather just that your friend doesn't want to keep taking soaps from you at your cost all the time.

 

[LilyJo]

If you make M&P and make no changes whatsoever to the original base I believe that it doesn't need assessment - but I would check to be sure. If you add fragrance or colour or anything else it has to be assessed.

It might be technically correct to 'give' them to a friend with nominal payment but if she or anyone else developed any kind of reaction to anything contained within the soap you can bet your life that Trading Standards would take a pretty dim view of it. They would say you should have insurance and your products should be assessed.

They would also say that 'giving' one or two soaps occasionally is ok but more than that then it becomes some kind of trading arrangement and all the above applies.

 

[roisin75]

Thank you all for your time in replying.

So how am I standing with the ones me and my son have made for his friends for christmas?

I have used M&P, with mica for shimmer and chocolate orange scent, I am worried now about giving them out as christmas gifts :-(

I wanted to make little hampers for family to include one of these little soaps, a sugar scrub for my sister in law and some shower fizzie thingys.

Rx

 

[shunt2011]

You should be fine giving things as gifts.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

If we were to take another example:

Friend: "oooh, can you knit me two more of those little baby jumpers? Two people at work are preggers and I would love to give them these as gifts. I'll pay for the wool and a some extra for your effort."
You: "well I would need to register for VAT and make sure that the labels inside adhere to the EU standard for washing/care symbols......."

It just wouldn't happen.

When it comes to litigation, Great Britain is not the USA. If you get given a bar of soap and you use it without asking/checking if any of your known allergens are in there, you are to blame. If it's an unknown allergy then no one is to blame - that is assuming it is safely made and correctly labeled, of course.