Thoughts on labels?

[FlybyStardancer]

First off, while I'm playing around with ideas for maybe selling in the future, these labels are for soaps that I'm giving away to friends/family/etc. They are not for sale, and thus technically do not fall under any legal guidelines.

That said... What do you think? I've been using Avery's online designer (though I'm going to need to get help printing them, because they will not line up with the labels on the @$#)* printer). Tried to keep the "brand" look simple. I originally was putting the name of the individual soap in Avery's "Segoe Print" font, but BFF didn't like it so I switched to Verdana (I kinda like the Segoe Print better myself).

The green background on most is because they are "naturally" colored (or at least what I count as natural). I'll probably end up with more yellow than green eventually, but I was trying to use up some infusions, and one was left uncolored.

The "CL" stands for "Cleaning Level". Soaps with a 1 generally will have no CO/PKO/Babassu. 2 is the standard level. 3 will be for the higher CO soaps and/or those with scrubby additives.

The V bubble stands for "vegetarian". When I get a soap that's vegan, it'll get a V+ in the bubble.

And as a note... I had to guess where the Alkanet/Annatto/Madder root went on the label, since I did oil infusions and you can't really know what the final amount of infused material is.

 

[lenarenee]

I love the fact you included a system for identifying the cleaning level!!!

I think the name of your (future) company should be bolder....as in more noticeable. When I look at the labels my attention is drawn more to the circle of ingredients.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Thanks! I thought it was a nice idea. And I also tend to use the abbreviation "CL" for "character level" when playing RPGs with my friends, so it made my inner gaming geek happy too.

I wish I could make it bolder too. Avery disables the bold and italics for that font, and going up a font size made it too big for the space. I tried underlining it, but the underline itself is too bold and distracts from the name. Maybe I should put color behind it?

 

[Lindy]

Look good and I agree about making your name more visible. I would like to point out (even though it's not for sale) that Sodium Hydroxide does not need to be on the label unless it is lye heavy there is no lye left in the soap

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Lindy, I was listing ingredients as they went in to the pot. I tried the other way (because I prefer out-of-pot, honestly), but it just got too long and complicated. The water should probably also be lower on the list if I were doing out-of-pot.

How does this look for emphasizing the "company" name? (I only changed one label on the set.)

 

[lenarenee]

Brilliant idea....my eyes focused right on it and the extra color brightens up the label too, yet it's still simple like you wanted.

 

[RhondaJ]

Look good and I agree about making your name more visible. I would like to point out (even though it's not for sale) that Sodium Hydroxide does not need to be on the label unless it is lye heavy there is no lye left in the soap

I was under the impression that in the US we always have to include sodium hydroxide. We label with the ingredients used to make the soap, not what's left in the soap when completed.

 

[Lindy]

Lindy, I was listing ingredients as they went in to the pot. I tried the other way (because I prefer out-of-pot, honestly), but it just got too long and complicated. The water should probably also be lower on the list if I were doing out-of-pot.

How does this look for emphasizing the "company" name? (I only changed one label on the set.)

The emphasis on the name with the splash of colour looks wonderful.

I was under the impression that in the US we always have to include sodium hydroxide. We label with the ingredients used to make the soap, not what's left in the soap when completed.

I think it is what is left in the soap once finished. In the US you can also put Saponified oils of --------

 

[cmzaha]

From what I have read on FDA's labeling information is you have two choices for labeling in the US, either what goes into the pot, this would include sodium hydroxide or what comes out, such as sodium olivate, sodium tallowate etc. From what I have read FDA does not recognize the term Saponified xxx. This could have changed since I last looked up labeling requirements

 

[RhondaJ]

Ahhh, ok, I've always been under the impression that we must use what goes IN the pot vs what comes out of it!

thank you both for clearing that up

 

[Lindy]

Carolyn -thanks for the clarification. I have just seen Saponified Oils of ----- so often I thought it was legal.

Here, since we have to use INCI, lye is not included on the label as we label what is in the end product and since that includes naturally occurring glycerin at 7% it does go on the label.

 

[FlybyStardancer]

Yeah, I was trying to follow what came out of the pot, but it just got to be too much, between the lengths of names, and including the leftover oils from the lye discounts. I would have had to go onto a third line for ingredients. (And I'm going to switch mica companies, because the ones I'm using right now just have waaaaaay too much in them. lol)

And here's another yellow label! I said I'd have more. lol And I decided to play around and see what it would look like to include all of the information needed to sell... It didn't come out as cluttered as I thought it would. (Obviously used an internet-friendly address, though I have a copy with my real one that I've shown to the BFF.)

 

[KristaY]

Those look terrific, FlyByStardancer! I agree with everyone else that the color behind the company name did the trick. Great work!

 

[ngian]

Nice work FlyByStardancer, but I would like to see them how they look on your bar soaps.

If someone would show me those labels printed on a paper, without explaining me at all for which product are these for, the first impression that would come in my mind (as these labels can speak for themselves), would be that these are intended to decorate the surface of some CDs/DVDs that has music compilations of great dancing music for some parties that will take place under a summer starry (k)night. And that is because you are obviously influenced by such artwork.

It's a nice game though that you use a template that is mostly seen in another product that has no association with keywords like soap, clean, bath, fragrance, and anything that comes into our minds that links to the soap, but it needs more work in order to link those two different worlds of music and soap.

If the soap bar had a circular shape (made from pringles packaging) and it had colors that reminds us of a vynil or a CD, then this label is more relative to soap. That's why I personally would like to see them on your final product.

Finally symbols like V for vegan and CL for cleaning, I think that they need to speak for themselves. I'm in favor of not explaining anything to others and let the labels/words/colors speak for themselves without the oral support of the creator. So I would use all the word (vegan) or an icon that is saying that word.

Friendly Nikos :smile:

 

[Lindy]

Love them

 

[lenarenee]

I think my favorite is your address!!! 111 Blahblah Place, Citycity CA