Soap Makers Help!

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I'm pretty excited about the prospect, but I am now wondering if I can make the soap cure any faster. I am guessing this is the water discount that the books mention?
Do any of you discount liquid to get a faster cure time, or is that not reccomended?
~Red

Red, I use the DWCP (discounted water cold process) all the time. The amount of liquid depends on the amount of lye you used and how much of the lye solution you want to be lye and how much you want to be liquid.

The very best explanation is from a soaper down under:

http://www.aquasapone.com.au/soapmaking/discountedcp.html

Read this a few times and you'll get it. Soapcalc.com has a place to enter in your lye solution ratio to make it easy for you to adjust the liquid in your existing soap recipes
 
Hey gang! I'll have to take some pictures later of the packaged soaps since my camera batteries need charging.
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But, I wanted to tell you all that we took a bunch of the soaps to sell after the church services today. We sold 66 bars today, plus handed out a bunch of the pre-ordered soaps. Woo hooo! We had an offer from someone who owns a shop to sell some there, but we'd have to check out the legalities of that before moving forward on it. Right now, this is simply a craft project being done by church members and for sale at church to benefit a church program that helps to feed the poor. I imagine that opening it up further than that would require a few more steps to satisfy the powers that be. I would guess that most of you are selling are working with business licenses and such? Before moving forward on this current plan, we consulted an attorney at the church to be sure we were OK with what we were doing. We will have to consult with him again if we take this to the next step and then decide whether the benefits outweigh the work.

We made 7 varieties - Lavender, Rosemary & Lavender, Lemon Verbena, Applejack & Peel, Oatmeal, Milk & Honey, Oatmeal, Milk, & Almond, and an Unscented Chamomile soap.

Lemon Verbena completely sold out and we sold all but one of the Lavender. The next in popularity was the AJ & P and the Rosemary & Lavender. The least popular was the unscented soap, but there were definitely people who were only interested in that due to allergies and such.
 
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That's a nice option. I've been to your website - lots of good stuff going on there!

With our status being non-profit, I'm sure there's a whole lotta things to consider and I haven't the faintest idea about such things. Thank goodness for the attorney who is advising us!

Right now I think our plan is to not sell on a regular basis, but more likely we'll sell at set seasons - Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, perhaps a summer sale and a fall sale, with seasonal soaps coming out at each sale. I'm about to make our Valentine's Day scent order and will probably get some extras for Mother's Day so that we can easily flow from the one to the other.

This is such a fun hobby!
 
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That's a nice option. I've been to your website - lots of good stuff going on there!

With our status being non-profit, I'm sure there's a whole lotta things to consider and I haven't the faintest idea about such things. Thank goodness for the attorney who is advising us!

Right now I think our plan is to not sell on a regular basis, but more likely we'll sell at set seasons - Christmas, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, perhaps a summer sale and a fall sale, with seasonal soaps coming out at each sale. I'm about to make our Valentine's Day scent order and will probably get some extras for Mother's Day so that we can easily flow from the one to the other.

This is such a fun hobby!

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Keep it up....this is a dying craft!
 
oh I didnt think it was dying.. it seems to be getting more and more wanted with people trying to get away from chemicals...

But
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I thought it was a dying thing to till I went and asked a lady who owns a small store in town if she would want to buy any for her store. She told me her sister makes soaps and that she sent her the stuff to do it. Now she makes her own all the time and is trying to get rid of the brand she carries in her store so that she can sell her own. So back to the drawing board for me as far as finding someone who would want to sell my soaps in their store. Maybe its making a comeback in small towns.
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I guess you guys do not know about the Globalization Act of 2008...it is about to put all us small town soapers out of business. Yes....this is a dying craft if this piece of legislation passes. Call your politicians and ask them to VOTE no against it!

http://www.soapguild.org/FDA2008.php

The FDA is trying to impart a $2000 fee per facility/cosmetics company on TOP of existing business expenses...and some say they will charge a FEE per ingredient in the products and require impossible amounts of paperwork submitted for APPROVAL of these products...no small soaper can maintain a business like that.

You decide...is this going to kill the industry or not???
 
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I made sure to sighn the petition while I was on the site. The goverment sucks in the first place with everything they try to control but they forget what started the economy and the big chain stores we have now. These buisnesess had to start small at some point but they didn't put them out of buisness and now people spend thousands of dollars at these difrent places. Don't dare do anythiing on your own anymore to better your lives or the goverment tries to step in and take it away
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