How To Make Soap To Sell
If you are a crafter and you are looking to find out how to make soap to sell, perhaps as a sideways move from your usual crafting habits, we are going to walk you through a list of equipment you may need and the steps you can take to start creating your own beautiful soaps.
With the growing trend of switching to more ethically sourced and created products, handmade soaps have become a popular choice for many households. Making your own soap allows you to add your own personal touches and designs to every bar. When you combine this with high-quality photography that you can take yourself, it can significantly boost your sales.
If you’re new to soap making, you should start with a soap base – a pre-mixed combination of soap, glycerine, and add-ins like plant butter and extracts for skin benefits. This is one of the best ways to get started, as creating soap from scratch with ingredients such as lye can be problematic and potentially hazardous to your health if you don’t follow the right safety precautions. Soap bases can be found in transparent and opaque options, so you can create an entire selection of soaps to your own specifications.
The melt-and-pour process for soap-making is one of the easiest steps to get started. All you need to begin making soaps is a melt-and-pour base, the essential oils or fragrances that you wish to add, colourants and a few pieces of equipment. Please note that some essential oils are banned and all are restricted on the amount you can use. You will also need a chemist’s report, and when you have obtained it, you’ll need to register all your soaps on the government website. Once you have done all this, you will be able to show others how to make soap to sell.
Before you start your soap-making, gather all the tools you need – a heat-safe container to melt the base, a stainless steel wire whisk to stir in your fragrance and pots and pans (old ones that you no longer use). It is useful to also have a hand mixer if you’re thinking of adding extras to your soaps, such as colourants, exfoliant powders, glitter or dried flowers. Silicone moulds are a must-have as they make shaping the soaps and removing them from the moulds so much easier. You can find them in all sorts of shapes, for example, you might want to use a heart shape for Valentine’s Day or for bridal gifts and snowman and star shapes for Christmas.
Your first stage is to melt the base, and most melt-and-pour bases can be in the microwave or on a hob in a double boiler over low heat. Both techniques work well. Microwaves can be quicker, but you get more control over the melting when you use a double boiler on the hob. If you decide to use a microwave, you should place the melt-and-pour base in a microwave-safe container and heat it on high for one minute. Check to see if the base has completely melted, and if not, continue to heat in intervals of 20 to 30 seconds until it has fully melted.
If you decide to use a double boiler, you should fill the pot with a few inches of water, place the soap base into the container, and place it on top of the pot. Put the hob on medium-low heat and continue to heat until the base has melted completely. Try not to stir the base whilst it is melting, as it can cause air bubbles to appear.
Once you have melted the base, remove the container from the microwave or the hob. With your wire whisk, you can add any fragrance oils or essential oils. Do this gently to ensure that the fragrance is spread out evenly and to prevent too many air bubbles from occurring. Where possible, try to get cosmetic-grade fragrance oils for use in your soaps.
If you want to colour your soaps, you can also add in your colourants at this point. Again, you should use food or cosmetic-grade colourants for this. Mica powders are a great option, and they can be found in a wide range of colours. Including metallic and glitter colours and shines.
Next, you can pour your fragrance and coloured soap base into your chosen moulds. Make sure that you fill the moulds as close to the top as you can, as soap does not expand as it cools. Place the moulds on a flat surface and allow the soap to cool at room temperature. The time it takes for the soaps to cool will depend on the mould shape and size, as well as the temperature of the room. In some cases, the soaps may be set in just over an hour, or it can take up to 24 hours for them to solidify completely.
Once you have removed your soaps from the moulds you can start to think about how you can photograph them to give you some great marketing images. A light-box can be a good investment when it comes to taking photos of your soaps. These often come with different coloured inserts for effect.
Another great way to make your soaps stand out is to utilise the world around you as a canvas. This might mean heading out as the sun starts to set and placing your soaps on the grass to get some beautiful imagery. If you live near the beach, you might also want to consider taking some photos of your soaps on the sand.
Lighting is a critical factor in product photography, and natural light is often the best choice. The “golden hour” – the beautiful time just after sunrise or before sunset – offers the perfect lighting for photography. This light is soft, diffused light, which can help the colours and details of your soaps shine on the page.
When photographing your soap, be sure to use a neutral background that doesn’t distract from the product. A white or light-coloured background works best. You can use a tripod if you need to help keep your camera steady and to help avoid blurry photos. If you want to take detailed shots of your soaps, you can use a macro lens feature on your phone. Now that you have found out how to make soap to sell and how to photograph them you can set about planning your designs!