Where to start with selling soap?

Soapmaking Forum

Help Support Soapmaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SC0UT

New Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2019
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
New virginia, IA
Hello! My name is Beaux and I'm still a bit of a novice with making soap, but I'm hoping that I can start my own Etsy store by selling hot process soap (I'm a bit impatient with waiting on cold process to cure ;u;). However I've had some questions on my mind and figured that my first post on here should probably be questions to get to a handle on what I should know about selling things if anyone does answer.

  • How should I price my soap? Should I do it by weight or by ingredients used?
  • Do I absolutely need insurance when selling soap on Etsy? Do I need insurance if I decide instead to sell at farmers markets?
  • Do I need insurance even if I list all of the ingredients used?
  • Does my soap weight need to be consistent or can I have different weighted soaps even if the difference is just a tiny bit off?
  • Do I have to have my soap perfectly cut/leveled off? Can I sell more 'imperfect' soaps?
  • Can I make food themed soap to sell or will people try and eat it, even if there's a warning?
That's all the questions that I can think of currently, thank you if anyone does answer any of my questions :> If I think of anymore questions, I'll update this post
 
I would also recommend you take a look at that thread.

One thing I think I should mention though. Curing takes about the same amount of time whether it's cold process or hot process. Hot process can be used immediately but ideally you would wait just as long as you would with cold process before you used it/gave it away/ or sold it.
 
Hi Beaux! Welcome to SMF. I can guarantee that others will chime in but allow me to be one of the first.

First things first.
1. You should have at least a year of soap making under your belt before you even consider selling. Most of us who sell have been making soap for more than a few years. At this stage, you have no idea how your soaps will behave over time. Make soap, watch your soap, test your soap, take notes, make more soap, firm up a good recipe or two, make more notes, make more soap. Read the Beginners Forum; read it again.
2. Hot process can actually take longer to cure than cold process. There's a big difference between saponification and cure. There are many threads here about the differences between the two processes.
3. Insurance isn't optional. If you're selling, you need insurance. If you sell at a market, they will usually require you to have it, and prove you have it.
4. There are labelling guidelines you must follow, whether you have insurance or not. It will depend on where you live. Here, in Canada, we have to label as well as submit our recipes to Health Canada.
5. Weight of your soap should be as consistent as possible. When I label, I weigh each bar and put the lowest weight on the label. Be aware that as your soap cures, it loses weight (evaporation of the liquid used in the manufacturing process - HP uses more liquid than CP, generally speaking).
6. As for planing/cutting your soap, that's personal preference. I generally don't but I know others do.
7. Food themed soap is, again, up to you. Personally, I don't like food themed soap and avoid it like the plague. Soap is meant to be used to wash your hands and/or body, not to sit on a shelf looking like something you eat. I'm always afraid that someone WILL try to take a bite out of it, warning or not. Generally speaking, small children can't read and, if it looks like food, they'll try to eat it.
8. For pricing your soap, you need to know the cost of your soap. What's the cost of the ingredients you're using, per batch? What's your labour cost? Once you know your cost per batch, you can figure out your cost per bar. Once you know that, generally speaking, wholesale is twice the cost of your cost per bar; retail is twice the cost of your wholesale.
9. Finally, since you're new, please take the time to introduce yourself in the intro thread.

Don't be scared off by the above. You asked questions, you will get answers; they might not be the ones you want to hear but, believe me, we all want you to succeed in your soap making endeavours. There are years and years of experience in this forum and a lot of knowledge, too. If you're willing to learn, you'll find many teachers here.
 
Agree to above. Read the post can give you a good idea on your progress and please cure your HP soap as long as CP soaps.
Generally speaking, it's recommended that you know how your soaps will behave in different environment after curing for a year or so. At least one year of experience is minimum requirement.
I don't sell commercially or own a shop, only occasionally sell to my friends who I know understand how lye soap behaves. However, I keep track of all the materials I use for every batch and get a base cost for every bar. Then I calculate my price from their. Since my batches vary a lot, it helps me to get a general idea how I should price them.

Imma gonna say one thing about food soaps tho. All my soaps, even the not food-themed ones, people have said they look very edible and they were attempted to bite them. Even if it's just a plain bar of castile, they would say "ooh it looks a block of ice cream!".
I gave a popsicle-shaped MP soap to a friend of mine as gift. Even after telling me, yes, he is aware this is soap and he should not eat it, he took a bite right in front of me anyway. There is just no way to prevent that. I put an obvious warning on the label ever since then.
 
Thank you very much for the reply! I'll definitely get some more soap experience under my belt then before I begin to consider selling my soap again
 
Since I tend to be quite opinionated about this subject I will just say I totally agree with Misschief and not say anymore. :D I will mention it is a very very saturated market and hard work which takes years to build a loyal clientele. So do not plan on going into this and think you are going to make money. It just does not work that easy. Not on Etsy or in Farmer Markets.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top