RobinInOR

If it's truly a proprietary ingredient, then you label it 'and other ingredients'.

But just because our suppliers say it's proprietary doesn't make it so. The originators of the item have to petition the FDA for that classification, and it has to be approved.

Unless you mark the product as being "intended for use exclusively by adults", you need to mark it with:

"Caution —Use only as directed. Excessive use or prolonged exposure may cause irritation to skin and urinary tract. Discontinue use if rash, redness, or itching occurs. Consult your physician if irritation persists. Keep out of reach of children."

That's from 21 CFR 740.17

EOU is great, and I also like Liberty Natural, but that's further from you. You can start out with EOs that are in the price range of FOs and do wonderful things with blends.

Cedarwood is nice - it's a base note. Patch is getting so darned expensive, and I expect the FOs will increase in price as well. I've heard that many of the FOs have the EO in them, so they will have to follow along. I should auction off my 5#s of EO - what I paid $150 for is now worth about $500 Better than a fine wine!

Lemongrass and Litsea are usually pretty reasonable as well. The 5x orange, or even the sweet orange in a blend.

The nice thing is with a good selection of 10 EOs you can make lots of different blends.

Can you believe how close it is to the holidays? Any one have any last minute shows?

I'm not going to be making anything for the rest of the year, I'm fulfilling all the last minute orders out of stock. In the last week I've made up a bunch of gift bags for workmates. Now I've got to think presents for the family!

Anyone pouring any cool candles for table decorations?

Happy Friday - yay!

If you're going to label it, you should label it properly with the INCI ingredient list. Those additional comments aren't correct - they are marketing spin. If you want to mention them, I'd move them to a descriptive paragraph somewhere.

But that's just me.

...To save me time and fees, I set a minimum card purchase of 14.00 so that I'm not paying more in fees than I am making. ...

Just as a FYI, watch out with this. It is against Visa/MC rules to set minimum purchases unless you do it correctly.

From http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/rules_for_visa_merchants.pdf

...always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase . Imposing minimum or maximum purchase

amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules.

...always treat Visa transactions like any other transaction; that is, you may not impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction . You may, however, offer a discount for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for all other forms of payment.

The antibacterial component is usually triclosan. You can do a web search for information on this chemical.

Insurance is one of the parts of doing business. I'll bet most peolpe at farmers markets and shows don't have it though. I didn't have it for 3 years, since I had control over who I was selling to - people who knew me, not strangers. As soon as I got bigger, I got insurance. If you have small sales, your exposure is minimal.

Your call, your comfort level. Evaluate the true risks and decide.

Anyone doing something fun this weekend? Shows?

I've got a show Sat - my biggest one of the year. Hoping for an over $1K day again. Set up is tonight, and this will be the last show of the year (except for one next Friday at work, but that'll be easy)

Have already presold 2 soap logs, so that's $60 so far

Sunday I'll crash. I'm applying for a new job that's a total career change, so I want to be prepared for a stressful interview next week. How about going from a 30 year programmer to an entry level botanical chemist? I'm crazy...

Have a great weekend - it's Dec already!

This is my 5th year, and my overall gross sales are up 24% this year, but my net is way way up. Better margins, less waste... Market increased 40% over last year, which is a great indicator for next year. Web sales flat. Craft fairs down a bit but that's because I dropped 3 of them.

This is a common looking stick blender

http://tinyurl.com/36pn57

Yes, it's a novelty item, but I also love the feel of them in the shower. I suck at making them, but I keep trying. There's a gal in town that does nice ones. It's a nice tie in with people who weave - we've got lots around here. I get my rovings from a gal at work who also has an alpaca farm. Maybe I'd have better look with sheep wool lol...

Looking forward to R&D next year, big time.

New line of soaps - a new brand, with special marketing and labeling and website. Probably higher price too

2 new unscented varieties.

2 new EO blends

1 new EO blend that will replace an FO.

1 new lip balm EO flavor, maybe 2. New label design.

Design new marketing materials.

Decide if I want to drop my lotions for the 2nd time. I'm just not comfortable with bases, don't know why I keep trying.

Is it lye heavy?

How does it feel?

Does it leave your skin feeling good, or does it make it feel tight and dry?

How long does it last in the shower?

How does it lather? Creamy? Big bubbles?

Is the scent too light? Too strong?

Does the color run? Does it stain a washcloth?

Are any herbs added too scratchy?

Is it hard? Can you make a dent with your finger? (harder soap lasts longer and ships better)

Do you actually enjoy using it?

And, when you start planning on selling - do you have all your Canadian requirements covered? Soap is a cosmetic in Canada and needs full labels.

I'd go. Around here, the weatherman is only right about 50% of the time. It would depend if 'showers' in your area meant heavy rain that lasts all day or if it's a stop/start/stop again.

I've done some of my best outdoor shows with miserable weather. If you've got candles, light one and your booth looks cheery. If you've got soap, talk about nice long hot showers/baths...

Glerup.com has it, but I think their minimum is $70-80.

Happy Friday! Almost Thanksgiving for the US folks - the weekends are starting to get busy aren't they. Not enough hours in the day.

More labeling to do, more lip balms to make. Lavender, tangerine, and I've got to package up my lavender bubble balls. And make my lavender bath tea - I've only got one made - that won't go far!

So a rainy lavender weekend. What's up with you?

Yes, that just gives you the weight of the oils to use (not lye, water, fragrance, etc.). That's what the .4 does , adjusts the amount to just reference the oils. Somewhere I posted a long drawn out mathematical process of where that .4 *really* comes.

Using Mals' isn't too complex - you just have to learn how to put a button on your webpage that sends the info to mals. It can be as simple as a button, or, if you need drop down options for scents or colors, you need to add a form to your webpage.

I did a tutorial a while back - maybe this will help:

http://watersgulch.com/howtomals.shtml

When you set up Mals to take CC, then Mals does all the work in providing a secure place to put a CC

Nice job!

To take credit cards online, any customer would be foolish to do so unless they were on a https:// secure page. And that means you either need to buy a SSL certificate, or it could be your host that has your website and shopping cart has a shared secure link that you can use. Most hosts should have something for you if they support shopping card software.

When I started and use Mals e-card, that cart was hosted on their site and it automatically was secured - I didn't have to do anything extra. When I changed to an osCommerce site, I had to buy my own SSL certificate. As soon as you hit 'checkout' the site goes secure.

You can put your privacy policy on your information page along with your returns and other policies.

Supposedly Tusseh silk uses cocoons that the worms have already left, so there's no boiling bodies involved. I've never bothered to research to see if it was really true, but it sounds good to me

No problems ever with Propay. There have been a few other internet processors that had a similar format and they folded after about 6 months. Propay has been around for many years and is backed by Wells Fargo, so I wouldn't worry about their security.

Happy Friday everyone! Good luck to everyone with shows this weekend - hope everyone does as well as they'd like.

I'm starting labeling mode - only 4 more weekends until my big holiday fair, and one of those is Thanksgiving. I've got 500 soaps and 300 lip balms to label. My printer will be humming.

And I might get in some lavender bubble balls - I haven't made any all year and I just thought of some gift packaging that might work.

What's up at your place?

Bunny wrote up a nice tutorial on how to build a soap formula

http://www.candletech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3164