Hey everyone! Market season is just around the corner and I want you all to be fully prepared to get the best product you can so you don’t waste your money! We are talking soap today. I’m talking real, amazing, skin-loving, creamy soap (the one you want to buy right?!?!). First we need to talk about the four types of “soap” so you will understand which one you want to purchase. If you are at a market ASK the vendor what type of soap they sell! Ask if they make it too so you know if it is a re-sell product or a pure hand made product.

Cold process soap produces a rich and creamy bar that has no drag to it. They are super moisturizing and won’t leave that “tight skin” feeling. But, all of these amazing benefits come at a cost. They do require attention and detail when making them so typically beginners get intimidated and are afraid to try it, which means at a market only a few vendors will have these amazing bars available for purchase. Also, a down side to cold process is once the soap ingredients are blended together and poured into the mold it takes a full day before the soap is ready to be cut into bars, then the bars have to cure (dry basically) for 4-6 weeks before they can be used. This slow process when making this soap is exactly the same idea as a roast baked on low all day that is just fall-off-the-bone tender compared to a roast that you throw in for an hour (which will be the next type of soap I’ll talk about) on high that is quick to make but tough to eat. If you don’t allow it to fully cure your bar will dissolve rapidly (so if you purchase a cold process bar that is gone in a week you know the vendor didn’t fully cure it) and you will have completely wasted your bar and your money.

Cold process: Pro- it is the best darn bar of soap you can buy and they are great for sensitive skin (if they are free of fake fragrance oils/colors/additives). Con- it tends to be more expensive as it is labor intensive to make.

Hot process, in my opinion, is the second best soap to make or buy. It is easier to make since essentially you are throwing your ingredients in a crock pot and letting the pot do the work so they should be cheaper to purchase. When it is time you just take the soap out of the crock pot, pour it into a mold, and you can use your soap within a few days. It is easier to make, BUT, the bar is far less superior than the cold process bar. From my experience, the hot process bars do have some drag to them and don’t seem to be as moisturizing as the cold process bars. I mean, they are still good bars of soap but they just aren’t on the same level as cold process. (This bar is the quick and easy roast in the above metaphor) As I stated before, since there is no cure time they take up less working space for the vendor and with the quick turn around and less work involved you should be able to get these at a lower cost.

Hot process: Pro- easy to make and fast turn around (you can make and use within a few day) so they should be less expensive. Con- the bar isn’t as rich or moisturizing as the cold process.

Type 3: Melt and Pour

Melt and Pour is the most popular soap for beginners. Melt and pour is a pre-made block of soap that you heat up (melt) and pour into your own mold. You can add your own fragrance, herbs, or exfoliants BUT you are not actually making the soap, so you chance added ingredients and not truly natural components. It does not technically classify as a “handmade soap” as the soap was purchased in bulk (most likely made at a factory) to be melted down and resold as bars of “handmade” soap. It is basically “customized pre-made” soap instead. These bars are only one step up from store bought bars and from what I have experienced they typically leave a high drag and the tight-skin feeling. The goats milk melt and pour does seem to be a little better than the others but it is still the lowest level of bar soap you can produce.

Melt and Pour: Pro- great for learning as it is super easy to work with, there is no lye involved as that part has been done for you, and you get to use the bars as soon as they cool SO these should be one of the cheapest bars you can buy. They also should look really pretty like crystals, or have toys in them, or could look really clear- they tend to have a shine to them if that makes any sense. No pits or deformities- just smooth flawless bars. Con- you may as well go to the store and get soap as the outcome will typically be the same- high drag and tight skin. Also you risk a non-natural bar as you are locked into the ingredients list the factory put in the melt and pour.

Type 4: Re-sale Soap

There are vendors out there who buy in bulk and re-package and re-sell everything. They have a great display, and may even claim that everything is handmade BUT this is how you now for sure if they truly are handmade or if they were purchased (from I don’t know…China maybe? Who knows!), re-packaged with the vendor’s logo, and sold as hand made product- are you ready for the magic questions? Ask “How did you make this and when did you make this” Every vendor should know what basic ingredients they used in their product, what method they used, and when they made it. I mean, I make a lot of different products and I may have to double check the label for the essential oil blend for the fragrance since I blend about twenty-bazillion oils in the weeks prior to a market but I can tell you what the basic body of any of my product is. And I’m not saying all of these bars are bad, I’m just saying you have to know where your bar came from to know how it was made and what is truly in it.

RE-sale Soap- Pros- these should be dirt cheap as a vendor buying in bulk can purchase them pre-made from anywhere between .75 cents and $1.50 per bar. Cons- I wouldn’t buy these at all as you just can’t be sure what is in them. You are trusting that the company that made them created a pure product and you are trusting that the vendor got all the ingredients on the label when they re-labeled it. I have known a vendor who use foaming bath whip (to top their cupcake soaps) and failed to list sodium laurel sulfate (which bath whip is made with) on the ingredients list since it couldn’t qualify as “natural” ingredients. I asked her where she got bath whip at that was sodium laurel sulfate free as I was really interested in getting some for my products and she told me that it wasn’t free of it. She knew it was in there. I told her she left it out on the label and she straight told me she knew but if she listed it people would know it wasn’t’ all-natural. Yes, you heard me right, she claimed to sell everything “all natural”, had an “all-natural” sticker on the cupcake plastic it was wrapped in, told her customers it was great for kids as it was “all-natural” and intentionally used synthetic ingredients containing one of the top chemicals that is causing adverse side effects, skin reactions (such as eczema- sodium laurel sulfate triggers my son’s eczema EVERY SINGLE TIME!) and she sold tons of them. You really have to be smart and know who you are buying your product from.

So, now that you are equipped with tons of new soap knowledge you can go out and find the bar of soap of your dreams! Now, the above information is based off of my years and years of soap making. I have dabbled in every single type of soap making listed above (except the re-sell soap- that’s not soap making at all and I just wouldn’t risk my sensitive-skinned children’s safety) and I wrote about my experience with them. That is not to say that there isn’t a melt and pour bar out there that is as amazing as a cold process bar. I doubt it, but it could be possible. That is not to say that there isn’t a cold process bar out there that was made with cheap or synthetic ingredients and has and even lower quality then the melt and pour bars. My very best advice is know who you are buying from. Do some research and go with your gut :)