First off, Welcome to Bonanzle!

Are you thinking about making soap from scratch?
using a base?
melt & pour?
or cold process?

I make Goats Milk Soap from scratch using our own recipes
and via the cold process way. Goats Milk instead of water.

which direction do you want to go?

are you wanting to make soap just for yourself?
or to sell as a business

Oh! also,

have you tried the various types of hand made soaps?

Try doing a google search for ‘Soaper’ as that’s how many hobbyists term themselves. You can find plenty of information. Your probably looking at around 2 weeks of solid research & note-taking to learn it all, and the best information sites are from bulk suppliers that offer just about anything, there are also a ton of forums for each category and reading old forum postings is the BEST way to dig up good information on your topic.

As a customer I was always terribly curious so I did spend 2+ weeks learning it all. I just don’t feel like writing up in a huge dissertation. (because it would be at least a 200 page book of solid info)

I’ll just list some topics I know of to point you in the right direction.

Hot Process
Cold Process – Ruins DYED Hair!
Shampoo
Soap
Detergent
Melt & Pour
Liquid Soap
Bar Soap
Soap Molds
Demonstrations How to Make [URL removed] Youtube, Guru, E-How, Etsy.
Gel Soap
Soap Recipes
Milk Soaps
Alternative Milk Soaps Goat, Yak, Llama, Soy, Almond Milk
Sugar Scrubs
Bath Bombs/Fizzies
Fizzy Soap
Whipped Soap
Bath Crayon Soap
“Gourmet” Icing Soap
Silk or Pearl Soap
FDA standards for Soap Labeling (if you want to sell it you must know it)
Detergent Soaps
Propaganda Myths about Hand-Made and Commercial-Made Soaps
Hand-Made Ball Soaps
Vegetable (Vegan) Soaps
Fragrance FDA approval ratings and understanding safety issues
Color FDA approval ratings and understanding safety issues.
SuperFatted Soaps
Transparent Soaps
Syndet Bar Soaps
Syndet Myths & Propaganda
The wonderful properties of Mango Butter, Coconut Butter in soaps.
Diabetic & Medical Warnings
Copyright & Trademark Laws
Litmus Paper – A necessity!

Start up costs

I’ll write this one out because I was thinking of doing it myself.
I would suggest picking 1 soap process and 1-2 fragrances and 1 color.
I would also suggest starting a herb garden and start growing some lavender, chamomile, and mint. This will give you natural herbs to add directly to your soaps. *Having recently purchased natural herb soap from a vendor, I might suggest coating your herbal leaves in a natural preservative or melted dental wax just to preserve their natural beauty longer.

With the included costs of creating and testing your product for 1 year prior to selling. (to make certain it doesn’t harm people) You’ll need to also register your business when you want to start selling it and these fees typically are around $200 to be a legal merchant. You MAY get around this for a while by declaring your fledgling business in Start-Up mode. Which gives you some wiggle-room to sell a product as you test it for market viability.

However, you must find a way to label your product to meet FDA standards. No matter if your in start-up or not. Otherwise you can face some serious $500+ fines within the States.

For a basic start up in soaping operation I found myself estimating the cost of EVERYTHING at around $1,000. You can squeek by on about $500 or less in start-up capital but your not going to be able to easily meet the needs of your customers, or do very much in product development.

Break down of costs
Year 1
$250 Commercial licencing obligations – See your local chamber of commerce
$200 Decent Logo Design you want one that will work black and white in newsprint, & color
$200 basic supplies soap, soap molds, additives, colorants.
$100 FDA Labeling w/fancy & pretty designs
$300 reserved for internal business funds. When you run your business you’ll find you will need internal liquidity to quickly process orders. If a good, repeat customer wants to buy $50 worth of soap from you but wants a fragrance or color you don’t have you’ll need liquidity to help you buy that item as soon as the order is placed so you can produce the item in a reasonable amount of time.

Year 2
$250 Commerical licensing obligations
$100 restock your basic supplies soap, soap molds, additives, colorants. (Not everything will need to be replaced, that’s why the cost goes down a bit in year 2)
$200 advanced soap supplies, this includes fancy things like embeds, fancy fragrances/scents, special mold shapes/supplies, fancy packaging to make your product more attractive to buyers.
$100 FDA fancy labels & designs
$600 reserved for internal business funds. The more your business grows, and produces the more liquidity your going to need on the inside to survive anything that’ll try to rock your boat and send your business into collapse.

I didn’t really go beyond year 2 because I decided it just wasn’t for me!

The Green Goat is a GREAT resource for soap info. Her soaps are some of the VERY best I have tried and I have tried literally hundreds!

There are many great resources online as well. Google soap making, recipes, tips, equipment etc,… but I would start with Leslie (The Green Goat) for tips and advice :)

Tonia of bvaughnfamily is also a fantastic soap maker, makes goat’s milk (from her very own goats) and other soaps as well. Check them out over [URL removed] [URL removed]

HELLO sunshine, I too agree that our soap-maker [URL removed]
[URL removed]
is a good start to research your interest. Check it out next. Thank you