The regulations sometimes don't seem logical at all.

Take a look here (same login details as the Forum). There various documents regarding the legislations and articles by members - then if you want anything clarifying send me a PM.

Cheers, I've got a fair bit to go on now, just having a play with the soap spreadsheets/Soapcalc for some recipes and then we'll see what I can manage from there.

Hi and welcome. You certainly have a lot of enthusiasm!

I don't know how much research you did for your scrubs etc, but if you haven't done so already, you need to study the properties of all the different oils, essential oils, additives, botanicals etc which you might be thinking of using. If you are thinking about making CP soap, you would also         need to make a fair few batches, tweak and tweak, and see how your soaps behave over the months before you think about selling them. Most soapmakers I know spend at least a year developing their recipes and making many test batches before they venture into selling. Apart from the assessments you will also need insurance cover.

aye, ta, research is sort of the name of the game here.

The hope at the moment is to get a base soap assessed - I'll probably be doing CP but I'd like to experiment with HP at some point.  The same for the scrubs.  I've gone through all the property lists and buried myself most of the morning and last night in the various charts as well.  I made a test batch or two of scrub already at home to see if I could remember what I did ages ago with next to no resources, and it came out rather well, albeit a bit dry (more this, a bit of whipping, and should be good!).

I actually made little massage bars and cremes and scrubs and salts before, so nothing new there.  But my idea was if I register my base, get a few out of that which seem viable, give a few tweaks and decide whether I can actually do this, then well and good. 

I knew about the third party insurance as the plan was for me to sell these at market.  Just getting a few quotes now so I can get an idea.

Not diving in and thinking I'm going to sell next week (done that one before, older and wiser now!), but I'd like to get a prospective assess or three done so I have some leeway to put forth, and then have a play.  It's a fair bit of cash outlay to make a start and while I'm not destitute, I sure don't have the ability to get a small business loan either, so it's got to be out of pocket.  Hence, I don't want to make too many horrendous and preventable mistakes.

an assessment for soap can allow you quite a few variations regarding the use of oils, colours, additives, fragrances. You need to make a list of what you would like to use and hopefully your assessor will ok it

Bril, thanks so much!  And agreed, honestly, if I thought I'd be ready to release something by christmas, I'd kindly ask anyone on the forum to hit me with a cluebat....preferrably repeatedly

That is not impossible if you have plenty of time for research and developing products but do know a fair amount about your ingredients (I did it with a couple of mine - but then I'm "retired").

Well, I stay at home and work freelance, so I suppose not entirely impossible...it's a confidence call, really, and right now, nowhere near that yet!

Still stuck in reading....moving to blogs now!

How does frelance welding work - do you get taken on for a contract job or similar.

Most of the welders around here work for Ifor Williams trailers.

 :mwaha:  No, I'm not welding anymore, was too toxic and I now suffer from fibro/CFS.  I'm now a freelance transcriptionist.

That would be awesome though; have ARC welder, will travel!  I do miss it, actually, but I don't miss the lead-buildup in my bloodstream.

I gather that's the digital version of the old audio-typist.

Welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of legislation!  Good luck with your experiments, I'm sure you will enjoy this part of the process.

Chrissie & 6 Gorgeous Guineas

LOLOL, yep, I think so as well, mind you, it sounds so much better than audio typist, doesn't it? We seem to be getting a whole host of weird and wonderful names for all kinds of jobs these days. I wonder why companies do that?

Because "audio typist" actually tends to mean you're doing things solely by a tape, and therefore by rote.  Doing what I do, I have to download, usually have to do grammatical changes, keep everything private and confidential, and admittedly it's almost a specialisation.

It's sort of like calling a fabricator a welder....try it down at the yards, and see how out of joint those noses get!  Not sure why it is that way, but hey, companies like to hear things wot sound fancy.

oh I see, so you download voice files then