Angie Gail
Well-Known Member
I use thin shrink wrap that you can smell through. So it's completely covered. I get it here: shrink wrap
The Importance of a Sniffy Spot
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Peachy Clean Soap
Well-Known Member
What I do w/ my wrapped soap' some I shrink, sample size too. I use a hole puncher & punch a few holes in it top & bottom before sealing, you really cant see the holes but you can smell the soap .
Very true' when shopping at a "Grocery Store" the chances of someone picking up a item sniffing it' laying it back down for the next person to do the same w/ in a few minutes are slim to none. unless it's a Body Product' Or Fruit' Ive seen ppl smell Cantaloupe. In any case we know to sanitize our hands' then wash once home. It's different at a open market. Youll get several ppl wanting to know what your looking at & do the same! Human Behavior looking for that next great item for a great price. Only Hope Ya'll have a flock of customers wanting to buy your product.
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No, it's pretty much always been my stance on unwrapped soaps. I believe I care more about the dust build-up and damage from being banged around or dropped on the floor (esthetics, in other words) than I do about if other people touched bare soap. Just as many people may have touched the wrapping on the soap, right?
My point is that it is not based on Infection Control beliefs because I know better than to believe that will make any difference in protecting me as a consumer from contaminants. What makes the difference is that I am responsible for washing my own hands.
And why do I feel that way? Does CoVid have anything to do with that? No. I am a nurse; handwashing and infection prevention is trained into nurses in a way that could border on making us OCD about it, and for good reason, of course. Ask any newly graduated or working hospital nurse, and even retired nurses, about how they set up their kitchen counters on either side of the kitchen sink and you may hear something like, "this is the clean side and this is the dirty side". Those things become a habit for nurses and can easily last a lifetime. (Of course, it can also drive their families nuts.)
So that's probably a good part of why I feel that for contaminant spread purposes, it doesn't matter as much if something is excessively packaged, minimally packaged or not packaged at all. As long as I follow proper hygiene measures, I won't be infected by whatever product I touch.
Peachy Clean Soap
Well-Known Member
One thing probably most of us would agree on Covid has changed our world in many ways. Some for the better some for the worse. We make necessary adjustment moving forward.
I have not sold since Covid but my method would not change. It was very seldom anyone touched my wrapped bars of soap since the samples sat on top, It was the nose touching a bar of soap that grossed people out. I have wrapped all my soaps since the first day I started selling soaps.
Touching a wrapper others touched was not the issue because they could go home and unwrap the soap. Ninety percent of my customers would not consider giving an unwrapped soap as a gift and at my holiday market, my customers purchased large amounts of soaps for gifts.
@earlene my youngest daughter is not a nurse but she is a germaphobe with good reason and basically sets her kitchen up the same way. After sanitizing her clean side she lays down fresh paper she uses to cover her counters then sanitizes her paper. She immune comprised due to some of her meds.
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Along with this conversation about soap, there is an excellent thread in the Craft Fairs & Shows Forum. I never plan to go back to lotion pumps for sampling after @Misschief posted her solution. Thank you @Misschief !
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07GNG1VD4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07GNG1VD4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
penelopejane
Well-Known Member
I don't touch my soap with my hands ever. I use gloves from the moment it comes out of the mold to when I wrap it in paper or real cellophane. I wouldn't buy unwrapped soap and I know that if I was to buy handmade soap I'd hope that the maker would be as hygienic as they could be. Maybe it's part of the reason why I make my own soap because I wouldn't like the thought of someone else touching my soap. It's also an effort to fight DOS for me.I sell bars with just a cigar band. Most of the batches have a sample end cut, (some get lost in my travels) LOL
I have sanitizer at my table and I keep alcohol in a spray bottle and spritz soaps that have been handled.
I don't really understand the theory that I have often seen that selling soaps unwrapped is reckless and/or irresponsible. The virus can live on shrink wrap as well.
I suppose everyone does what works for them and their tribe
I guess I want my customers to have soap as perfect as can be.
It has nothing to do with covid.
I agree with Earlene. I sanitise my hands and trolley before I go into the supermarket and after. Our check out people sanitise their hands between every customer and the shelf stackers regularly sanitise their hands. We don't even have covid in my area but I still do this and am grateful that the supermarket has safe policies that they follow.
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. There is definitely a market for naked soaps as well as wrapped. I guess I don't quite get the opinion that it's disgusting or unsanitary. It's soap. It can be rinsed. We don't really know how that wrapped soap was handled prior to being wrapped. Yet, we, as a society, will go out to eat or order takeout and eat food that was prepared by a stranger in who knows what kind of kitchen. We'll order a cocktail at a bar with an olive, lime, or cherry that most likely that bartender did not glove up before putting it in our drink. Things that make ya go hmmmm. Our uniqueness is what keeps our world interesting. It would be very boring if we were all identical
penelopejane
Well-Known Member
In Australia (and I’m sure you do in the US too) we have health and safety laws that ensure our food and drink served at a licensed restaurant or bar are hygienically prepared and served.Different strokes for different folks, I suppose. There is definitely a market for naked soaps as well as wrapped. I guess I don't quite get the opinion that it's disgusting or unsanitary. It's soap. It can be rinsed. We don't really know how that wrapped soap was handled prior to being wrapped. Yet, we, as a society, will go out to eat or order takeout and eat food that was prepared by a stranger in who knows what kind of kitchen. We'll order a cocktail at a bar with an olive, lime, or cherry that most likely that bartender did not glove up before putting it in our drink. Things that make ya go hmmmm. Our uniqueness is what keeps our world interesting. It would be very boring if we were all identical
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Yes, however, I think we all know that laws of any sort, are not always followed. Restaurants fail inspections all the time.
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I can attest. I still remember a college that was known for it's Culinary criteria was shut down for having more health code violations than most (if not any) of the immediate NYC boroughs restaurants ever had.
At the hospital, nothing grosses me out more (more so than covid) than nail fungus and pink eye. If I were ever at a market and somebody with nail fungus or gloopy eyes picked up one of my soaps wrapped or not, I'd probably be like "keep it" LOL.
@earlene not all nurses are created equal when it comes to germs.."scrub the hub" is almost non-existent anymore. And plugging a detached IV into an empty hub is common. I carry caps in my pocket just to put on after I have disconnected an iv. Everybody knows it was me that had to fiddle with a patient's iv because there is a red cap on the tubing. Also nothing urks me more than seeing somebody swab an iv site with alcohol, then feel for the vein with their finger after. Sure sometimes you need to feel it again, but then I swab it again.
A couple of years ago I started to get into the bad habit of not swabbing the iv connector, then one day the patient that I had yelled at me to "scrub the hub". I apologized for my bad habit, then she told me that she was our infection control nurse. Sure as day, I never neglected doing that again LOL.
@earlene not all nurses are created equal when it comes to germs.."scrub the hub" is almost non-existent anymore. And plugging a detached IV into an empty hub is common. I carry caps in my pocket just to put on after I have disconnected an iv. Everybody knows it was me that had to fiddle with a patient's iv because there is a red cap on the tubing. Also nothing urks me more than seeing somebody swab an iv site with alcohol, then feel for the vein with their finger after. Sure sometimes you need to feel it again, but then I swab it again.
A couple of years ago I started to get into the bad habit of not swabbing the iv connector, then one day the patient that I had yelled at me to "scrub the hub". I apologized for my bad habit, then she told me that she was our infection control nurse. Sure as day, I never neglected doing that again LOL.
Peachy Clean Soap
Well-Known Member
Love your explanation of unsanitary practices exist even at the front of Health Care Workers.
When I had my Recent "Covid Test" the nurse didnt change her cloves after the last PT, I asked her "Did you change your gloves?" I knew she didnt' her reply " no this "HAND SANITIZER" is all thats needed' as she proceded to rub it all over her Used Gloves! "she said we are instructed to do this to save on glove usage"!. Can you even imagine ?. I guess our county wanted to "Kill Off The Masses".
I instructed her to change her gloves or I'll leave. Then told her you are spreading God knows what between the Pt's hand sanitizer or not. She didn't like my opinion.
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I guess I have to admit you are both right, Kim & Peachy. I must admit, some nurses I worked with were more diligent at infection control than others, but all the others knew who was 'sloppy' and who was fastidious. Those things did not go unnoticed or undocumented, as I can attest to as someone who had to document &/or re-train nurses who broke protocol.
Peachy Clean Soap
Well-Known Member
The training stays for life W/ many health care workers. When I read your post your kitchen is set up one side is for clean the other for needs to be cleaned, makes me think of my own sanitary protocol especially while making soap' "no cross contamination"
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The only reason that I have seen anybody sanitize their gloves was to chsnge their gown/take off their gloves. And it's not a protocol, we just started doing it for extra protection for ourselves....not to touch a patient in between contact. That's disgusting. There has never been a shortage of gloves, I don't know why they were trying to conserve supplies.
edit...and we don't have a shortage of supplies anymore. I am glad you spoke up
Peachy Clean Soap
Well-Known Member
Right' and this was through the "COUNTY HEALTH DEPT" I spend close to $ 800.00 monthly for medical insh for hubby & I & my Dr. was instructed to have all his PT's go to County for Covid Test. To make matters worse' these ppl that were accepted for this covid test was potential covid positive PT's. I had to sign on line answer numerous questions & if my answers fell into so many red signs symptoms then I could get tested.
I dont have a problem w/ "County Health Care" its fantastic its available for those that dont have health coverage & need medical attention. But when I have medical insurance' It just seams like my PP should see his PT's.
Right, I need to be one of those watchers LOL. I was sitting in the ER one night and the designated watcher for hand sanitizing asked me if I sanitized my hands tonight. I'm like "only like 8,000 times, why?", and she marked off Radiology as being observed sanitizing their hands 8 times.
I unhooked an IV and realized that I didn't have any red caps in my pocket like I normally do. I said to the nurse taking care of the pt and sitting at the nurses station if she could toss me a red cap (which are literally located everywhere AND are literally called red caps on the package). She didn't know what I was talking about and threw me a stop cock. I grabbed a swab and stuffed the end of the tubing in the package, opened the drawer and grabbed a red cap..."see this cap, it's red. It's a red cap. Look, it screws on the tubing to keep it clean." I guess in hindsight as I am typing this I coulda just plugged the iv back in, lol. But I was annoyed and let my annoyed self do what my annoyed self is gonna do LOL.
