Ohhh you sound like me! I'm a crazy perfectionist, I've cried over soap cos it didn't work out the way I wanted.  Even if the "mistake" looked great, it still drove me nutso cos it wasn't EXACTLY like I wanted.  You sound like you have a ton of experience dealing with the "authorities" even if it was in a different area. 

There is a ton of info on here and I've no doubt you'll probably be up to 3.00 am reading on here (I know I have!) .. when I found here, at first it felt like sitting down with a great book... great to have soooo much to read. 

I do MP soap and also make body butters and other things for myself.. I'm working on a BB formula at the mo along with a lip balm one I'm entirely happy with.  I think I might have cracked it with the Body Butter up not completely with the lip balm .. yet!

Sorry to hear about your other business though, the credit crunch is very tough indeed. 

Hello, and welcome aboard - good luck with your ideas.

Thanks Scott, I may pick your brains soon with regards to safety assesments etc.

Yep Honey I am exactly like that lol! The times I have been up til 4am moulding little bears (or some other tiny animal) for a cake and I can't walk away till it's perfect!!  I don't think MP will be a doddle by any means but it definitely seems like a quicker option for now, at least if I make a mistake I'm not waiting 4-6 weeks before I see it.  I'm going to need advice on fragrance and colour no doubt but I learn quick so hopefully I won't have too many disasters!

Your soaps do look fab, infact when I first saw them I thought they were CP ones, they aren't like any MP I had seen before and the fragrances sound lovely! x

Hi Simpsona,

Welcome to the forum! I look forward to talking to you and sharing information

I think what Eire was trying to say is that soap is a very complicated thing to make. There are lots and lots of people who wake up and think "I think I'll open a soap business today" and order in the materials to more or less start selling straight away. There are a whole host of things to learn about the process which you just can't do in a week - I've been making soap for a while now and I'm still learning with every new loaf I make. Yes, anyone can make soap in their kitchen by whacking together some M&P base and fragrance but that's unlikely to be a very good product. As a business woman, I have no doubt that you want to be as successful as you can be and the best way to do this is to make a brilliant product that the customers will love.

I'm sure you know all of this already and I'm certain you will be up all night reading this forum

Like Honey said, the more you post the more the boards will open up for you. There's a Legal board which is very useful for learning about the legislation in place and how to conform to it but I believe you need quite a few posts for that.

There is a post in there about the Food Imitations (Safety) Regulations 1989 but you won't be able to see that. The part of the regulation you may be interested in is:


In essence, this makes it illegal to make soap that looks, smells or is packaged like food items. Having said that, I know there are a huge amount of these types of soap on the market and people seem to love them. Trading Standards in some areas seem to have taken a blind eye to is so I would recommend you get in touch with your local council to find where they stand on the issue.

I hope that's been of some help. If there's anything at all we can help with please don't hesitate to post

Kevin x

Hi Kevin and thanks, will see what I can find out with regards to the food imitations, I was thinking of making a lot of it oversized but will see what I can find out.  I will have to get posting to open up those other boards lol!

Thanks again, Sharon.

Hi & Velcome,
It sounds like you have your hands well & truly full, and even more full with your plans - it won't be easy nor a cheap business venture, many think it is a quick way of making some £'s but it isn't - for me its  really a hobby (along with many others like Glass Works & pottery.    I hope that you have fully thought it through - best of luck for your plans - may the force be with you!

I think it depends on the time and money you can give it as to whether you can make a living out of it... I'm limited severally in both so don't propose to take over the cosmetics world as yet  :mwaha: but I can imagine it could prove a good form of income if you have it set up in the right way. 

Ohhh Lulu, didn't know you made glass things too? I love glass things, do you have piccies???

hi sharon