Making soap to sell? Trust yourself

When you decide to make soap for the first time, you are probably wondering many questions, these will include: What fragrance should I use? What combination of oils and fats is the best? What shape and size should I make the bars?

In answer to all of these questions, when you first start out, you should moderate the practical requirements with a “let’s do a little” attitude, because simply put, the first batch you ask will answer 99% of your questions, and secondly, no. you can expect to please everyone at all times. In fact, I previously spent several hours carefully mixing essential oils to scent a batch of soap, only for my partner to announce that the end result smells like pee!

Fortunately, prior to this very honest review, my first batch was very well received, which boded well and gave me the confidence to continue.

So when you’re considering how to perfume your soap it’s best to start with the scents you love, in case you haven’t really given this much thought visit a local store where they sell soap, homemade soap if possible and then take note. of the fragrances used, if they are not on the list, just take note of the flavors as they appear, something that will refresh your memory when you get home, a starting point is all you need.

When deciding which oils and fats to use when preparing your soap batch, you need to consider your own skin type. If your skin is naturally oily, design a soap that dries a bit. If you suffer from dry skin, include moisturizing oils and exceed the required amount of oils to give a small excess, this will ensure that the finished soap will help hydrate and condition your skin.

Finally, when deciding on the shape and size of your finished soap bars, you need to consider some practicalities. A five pound batch of soap will make about twenty to thirty 4 oz bars of soap, you must provide adequate molds to accommodate this amount of soap. If you want to create individual pretty bars in oval or rounded shapes, you will need to purchase plastic molds for the entire batch and this can be expensive. Not only that, but if you have purchased a mold with a very specific shape, it may not be appropriate for all your soaps; for example, heart-shaped soap may not be suitable for making soap designed for the man in your life.

It is best to start with a soap “bar” mold, one that creates rectangular blocks of soap, which can be cut into individual bars, it will vary depending on the oils used, but a 4 oz bar will be about four inches long, times two inches wide and about three-quarters of an inch thick, a useful size for adult use and reasonably easy to create, but if you want to create children’s soap it may be a bit too large so this needs to be taken into account as well .

I started out using loaf pans, this works reasonably well, but the bleach reacts a bit with the non-stick surface, leaving stains and also the soap bars are oddly shaped. Then I tried using about 12 inches long ABS (plastic) vent, this worked quite well too, but the heat made the sides warp a bit and the soap was very difficult to remove from the mold. Also, the chute dimensions were closer to four and a half inches by two, so the bars were five ounces instead of four, this reduces the number of bars per batch and can hurt your profit if you’re not careful.

In general, my advice to you is make some soap first, it is very easy and the satisfaction of making your own soap is immense. Second, trust your instincts, make the soap you want, not everyone will like it as much as you do, but many will love it in pieces!