rebeccajo99

What scent and how much per pound did you use. I am not testing that wax, so I can't help you with that. You may be under or over wicked, but need some more information first.

wow, I need to go back to school and learn to read. I thought you said season instead of session. I was like... you have that many pot and enough storage to hold them all to wash them up every few months:) I hate wearing gloves too. They are on while I'm soaping, packaging and stuff, but they are off as soon as I can. Maybe if I get some dishwashing gloves that are not as tight and clamy feeling when they get wet and/or hot. I didn't make soap at all yesterday and washed my hands only with fully cured soap and they are looking and feeling a lot better. So, I think if I don't soap today, tomorrow they will be back to "normal", but I don't want to take another day off. I'm going through withdrawls:laugh2:

way to go!!!

Thanks for your reply. I'll try to make some batches this week or next:) Looking forward to this.

I was going to start testing lotions, but I don't have ewax or preservatives yet. In the effort to not buy something that I don't have the money for yet... I'm going to hold off for a little longer. In my process of looking for lotion recipes I found body butter recipes. So, I have a quick question. I have the ingrediants for a few recipes that I wrote down, but don't have preservatives yet. Does the preservative change the feel of the butter where I can make it for myself for testing. Once I find a recipe, purchase the preservative to make it for my testers. Thanks

Thanks, that makes me feel better. I do wash my hands a lot since I still have a child in diapers and I keep the small sample by my sink. The weather is changing here as well, so the air is a lot dryer on top of it.

I've been making and testing my favorite soap recipe of mine and my testers with scents and I'm starting to get bummed. For some reason the palms of my hands feel dry after washing my hands, but the rest of my body still feels soft and wonderful. My husband thinks its because my hands are touching the uncured soap and just getting a little "raw" from it (even though I'm doing cphp and there isn't a zap before I test a small sample) and my body is getting soap that has cured for at least a week or more. Would you agree with my husband and I don't have anything to be concerned about or do I need to start tweeking again. Thanks

that is cool. Do you mind sharing if you used a m&p base for that or were you able to do it cp or hp? (you don't have to tell if you don't want to )

I always start with the smallest bottle of fo to do my testing and then to get x number in stock once testing is complete (depending on what it is that I'm making and I would add an oz or two to account for testing not going the way I want). If I need to order more because I sold out, depending on how long ago I ordered, I would go up a size, stay the same or just not order again if it took too long to sell. It depends on how often you want to order, but I always try to keep the smallest amount needed in a certain time period. I usually do a 3 to 6 month range right now as money is still tight in the business area as I'm still in the early business stages. In my opinion, you are not going to get that many people who are going to want to order their stuff and then wait for it to come. You may be able to get people who want that if they know your stuff, but not everybody. Your going to want to

Thanks for your quick response. I just want to make sure we are talking the same cphp. I was wondering about crockpot hp. I will go to the store to pick up the other kind of salt. Thanks for letting me know about it not really being scrubby. She asked for a scrubby soap with salt... so I thought the salt made it scrubby:). Maybe she knows that already and just calls it a scrubby. I'll make up a batch and let her test it for me (after I test it for safety and feely goods obviously )

I have been doing a lot of research on making salt bars since my neighbor wants a srubby soap. There are just a few things that I just cannot find and was wondering if you could help me out. 1. Can iodize table salt be used. I read that dead sea salts and epsom salt cannot be used because of the minerals so didn't know if the iodine in that salt would interfere with the soap. 2. Can you make it using cphp or is it going to harden too quickly. 3. Do you use the same amount of fo as you would in a normal bar of soap, or do you need more/less. I was going to do 100% co since it sounds like that still makes a nice bar at 20% superfat and I don't want to deal with the oils going rancid with that much superfat. Thanks a bundle (and sorry if this info is really somewhere. I seem to be search challenged at times )

Yes, sounds like a scam. I teach piano lessons for a few hours a week (my "fun" job as I call it to my students) and I would get e-mails like that from my advertisments. I always had fun responding back and making it sound like I was serious and answered their questions, asked some questions myself and stuff. Sometimes you can have a serious customer that just doesn't know english that well, so broken english isn't a good indicator (imo). Once they start asking requests against your policies,asking you to send money back to them, getting account information (asking for nonpublic information) then just drop it because then you know 100% that it really is a scam and not somebody who just doesn't know english very well. It just takes your time to respond to them and doesn't cost anything since it is e-mail.

1. Palm 2. Tarts only right now 3. Obviously tarts since I don't carry candles yet 4. West Michigan 5. I would like to add more to my home scenting line. Going to start testing votives and armona beads soon. Also thinking about starting to test soy tealights again since I still have materials laying around. Took a break from wicked candles since my boys liked to blow them out or got to close to the flame to make me comfortable. Since i have my workroom now, I can test them and "lock" them out of the room.

You too. Mine will probably be a month or two yet as I want to get cp mastered first. Need to do a little more reading on cp before attempting my first batch and need to figure out when/how to cool the lye water with my children around.

Thank you very much!!! That blog is very helpful and detailed. I can't wait to try this now. Hopefully CP comes as quickly and naturally as what cphp seemed to do. The recipe I use for my cphp should work for cp too right? I thought I read that somewhere

Thanks!!! I have your directions and the blog link saved. I'm going to look for youtube video's now too:)

http://sironasprings.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/soap-design-class/ I saw these soaps online (the top one) and I want to know how to do them. I've done searches on here, youtube and google trying to find instructions, but just can't find them. What I did find that it is an advance technique, so I am going to have to practice CP soap first and get that master before attmepting this. (I have cphp mastered and just having a blast ) Thanks in advanced

Sorry about your show Luminous. Sounds like my show last week. First one I didn't make booth at. My show yesterday was much better than the previous one thankfully. I didn't sell as much as I wanted to, but I'm still happy with the results. There were at least 4 other soap makers at this show, but we all made different kinds/types of soap. I didn't know this, but one of the soap makers there was directing people to my booth because I was the only one that had goat milk soap. She came up to me towards the end of the show and we talked for a little while and she told me that. I was very impressed with her perfessionalism in helping the customer and not just trying to "make a buck." My biggest sellers were my discontinued scents actually. I have had them marked down for a few shows now, but only sold maybe 1 or 2 a show. This show I sold most of them. Of my current line, the biggest sellers were the florals and outdoor/guy scents, but I only sold 2 max of a current line scent. I think the reason my discontinued sold the best this show is because people were thinking stocking stuffers and gifts for people at their kids school. I don't know, it was just odd to me today:confused:

I was scared too when I signed up for my first show. then even more scared the day of the show (i don't think i slept a minute that night.) I still get nervous with every show, wondering if it is going to be good, bad. WHat if nobody buys anything. You just have to keep telling yourself... I can do it!!! As for your product selling. They are GREAT!!!! I want to buy one and I'm a tough one to sell too. Just take a step forward and do it. You will most likely make a mistake, but just shrug it off, correct the mistake and move forward. You will do great!!!

A few months ago I attended a show that was very slow. I almost did not make booth that day. I got an e-mail yesterday from a gentalmen that I met at the show and he placed a large order for some more of my soap. I didn't want to count my chickens before they hatched, so I was waiting for payment before getting excited. He just called me with his credit card number!!!! Goes to show that bad shows can turn out good

Thats what I do too, but didn't know if you would do the weight of the powder or weight of the "amount of milk it would make" Thanks

I'm going to be giving out some more of my honey soap that I made and LOVE, but I want to label it for those who are not my close friends and family. I used 1 scoop of powdered goat milk. When figuring out my label, do I weigh 1 scoop and put it in where approrate based on weight, or do I put it in around the 4 oz mark since 1 scoop makes 4 oz of milk. Thanks in advance

very cool. I want to try that someday.

Congrats. I too say thumbs up!!

Thanks Scented. I havn't heard of that book before, so I will check it out. I had the FDA website on labeling saved in my favorites and keep reading that and practicing it with my soaps. I also saved the links you gave and will read those as well. I've been trying to be careful with all my labeling on my soaps and how I word things when customers ask about them. I don't want to get in trouble. Sorry about all the questions with this. I want to add to my line with other products, so I'm trying to learn all the requirments.