Fresholi | Melting Pot Café

I'm Sharon, new to these boards and starting up my own soap business in next few weeks.  I am a really busy mum of 3 (eldest has Aspergers Syndrome and ADHD so never a dull moment but really need to do something from home that fits around the kids.  I am taking a stall :Dn in a really busy market from beginning of February so really have some work to do from now til then! Going to do MP for quickness of set up but would love to try CP as I get up and running.  My soaps are going to be novelty ones based around food, deserts etc.  I will probably have loads of questions with being quite new to this so hoping all of your experience can help me along my journey. x  I was pointed to these boards by Soaperstar on Twitter and she highly recommended them so thank you. x  I am Angelonshoulder on twitter if anyone else is on there too. x

Thanks for reading and Hello.

Hello and welcome.

Honey (Soaperstar) was right in pointing you here, ther's loads of info and you'll find more boards open up when you've made some more posts.

Welcome  :buttrf:

You sound like a woman with a plan - that's fantastic. One of the reasons I started soaping was so by the time my son went to school, I would be able to work from home and be there for him in the holidays and after school, so I wish you the best of luck.

And once you make your soaps - post your piccys here please, please, please. We love to see new creations.

Polly

Hi Sharon

Nice to meet you, you will get loads of advice and enthusiasm from this forum, its very warm and friendly.  I look forward to hearing how you get on.  I would love to sell but have not the confidence at the moment, or the time.  I am full of admiration for the ladies here, their websites are amazing.  Let us know how you get on. :D

Welcome Sharon!!! :buttrf:

Hi and welcome.
Honey does amazing mp soaps, some of the best I've seen. They are a really friendly bunch here and will give you lots of support.
On the other hand, I'm pretty direct and have a hard time not saying what I think, so here goes...

Many people think mp is a sinch, you melt, add a few bits and bobs and bobs yer uncle. This is broad speaking of course and not directly at you. What is the same in mp and cp is, you still need to know how your bars perform over time, how your scent and colour holds, on average use how long you bar will last, how it stores wrapped in varying temps etc... You still need safety assessment and insurance and product and public liability.
I do cp and cphp, some that do this consider it more difficult than than mp. this is not quite right. Each has their own learning curve, trials and tribulations. It may be difficult to get a safety assessment on the basis of starting now and selling next month.
If you really want to sart a biz from home and be successful, there are no short cuts. It's learning, reading, trying, experimenting and on and on.

Please ask any qst.'s you need help with, there is tons of info on these boards and genuine help. I also have a child with add (grew out of the adhd). Good luck and welcome to the addiction. :D

Eire

Hello, and welcome!

hi simpsona  ;)

Ah, have I missed something? ;D

Eire

Welcome!  :buttrf:

Welcome! It really is a freindly place to be. Eire is right, you'll be kept out of mischief doing this  ;), but there's loads of info on here and feel free to fire away with any questions.  :buttrf:

Hey there Simpsona! Welcome and glad you made it here (did recommend someone else from Twitter who is interested in starting soaping but she's got issues, not unlike yours, with childcare and hasn't managed to make it here yet). 

You'll have tons of info from this site, I predict you'll be reading reading reading and gaining loads of experience from that alone.  Also. the more you post, the more boards will open up for you.  We also ADORE pics!!!

I'm not clear if you've got experience with making soaps already and gotten to the point where you're ready to sell.  I would point out that there are EU regs about making items that look like food but arent' food.. there are several posts about it on there (some are stickys I think too).  It'd be a good idea to read them also ... TS officers can be picky, but some seem to turn a blind eye.  I'm still not entirely sure what is the situation about it to be honest. 

Scott, a member on here, is also a qualified safety assessor just in case you haven't gone down that route already and there are recommendations for insurance people too.  Basically there is a huge amount of info and experience on here and everyone is really happy to share too.

PS thanks for the compliments re my soaps Eire... yer a doll!  ;)

Hello and welcome!

Hello and welcome  :)

It sounds like you have a great plan and hopefully it will work out brilliantly so that it fits in with your homelife (it is always difficult for us mums isn't it).  It sounds like you have a busy time ahead of you, preparing for the market and lots of red tape to get through but I am sure with dedication, you will achieve everything and do wonderfully.  The advice offered so far has perhaps added to everything else you need to think about but it is good advice  :)

Looking forward to chatting with you areound the forum and I hope you find it enjoyable and useful  :)

Hi everyone and many thanks for the welcome! x

First of all dont worry about being direct Eire, it's the way I prefer lol! I know it must sound like I've just had an idea an bam off I go to market and in some ways it is but I'm no stranger to starting up business as Hubby has launched 3 in the last 10 years and myself 1.  The one I had was a childrens softplay so as you can imagine the legislation and insurance was quite complicated.  We also did food so there was the Environmental Health visits to pass (gosh they are tough lol) That was going very well until the credit crunch hit and I guess people just tightened the purse strings and we couldn't keep it going through the slow spell.  This time I didn't want the overheads of premises to worry out about in the early stages so a stall was the answer and it had to be craft as I can turn my hand to anything like that and really enjoy it too. :-)  I created all the marketing materials for the soft play inc designing the shop front sign, I've made novelty birthday cakes for people for the last 15 years, I'm a hairdresser by trade and also made tons of costumes for children's plays and fancy dress.  Didn't mean that to sound like a CV lol but just trying to give some of you a feel for who I am. x  It's often said from people who know us as a family that they don't know how we keep doing what we do as life is always quite manic to say the least.

I am a perfectionist though and wouldn't sell anything that I didn't think was up to top standard and am aware that I still have a lot to learn.  So I'm hoping when I come up with many a question that there will be someone far more experianced than me on here who can help. x  I'm one of those people who will just research constantly into the early hours of the morning to make sure I get all the info before I jump.  Thanks so much for all the hello's and I'm looking forward to chatting with you all on here. xx :D

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 :D

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 :D

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 :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: