Buyer Beware: a Story About Deception

This weekend I participated in a small local craft show that had been recommended by another vendor.
I was not expecting to be directly side-by-side with another soap maker, and worse, I was not expecting this young inexperienced soap maker to be misinforming customers. Whether by deception or ignorance, I am not sure, but I certainly hope the latter.

I take great care to ensure that my soaps are high quality. They are packaged and priced accordingly, not the highest priced homemade soap, but definitely not the lowest either. Other soap makers I have encountered at other shows, have been priced along the same lines as mine, dependent upon their ingredients and packaging. All have been very knowledgeable and I have even directed customers to them if I hadn’t had a particular kind that they wanted.

This particular soaper was offering a line of molded soaps that were wrapped in plastic. I asked if they were glycerin soaps (yes, I know, this is actually an incorrect term, but at the time I couldn’t think of ‘melt and pour’ – what can I say, it was still pretty early.) She replied, “No, they are hot processed.”

This confused me and without even stopping to think I said it, “…and you put them in plastic?”
To which she replied, “Shouldn’t they be?” That’s when the red flags started going up for me, because it is standard knowledge that melt and pour soaps should be covered in plastic to help keep them moist while cold and hot processed soaps need to breathe so that they stay dry.

I instantly knew that they were melt and pour soaps and she had absolutely no real soaping knowledge, her next questions confirmed it. “Do you use lye?” When I stated that I did, as my soaps were made from scratch, she said, “I usually tell my customers that my soaps don’t have lye and that I don’t think anything that has to sit on a shelf and cure for 2 weeks should be used on your skin.”
Honestly it was all I could do not to flip out on her at that moment. It is this kind of misinformation that gives homemade soap a bad rap, and makes people afraid to use them even though they are the best thing that you can clean your skin with. My reply was a little snappy because of my irritation, “All soaps are made with lye, and I can 100% guarantee that your soap has lye; otherwise it is not soap.”

Honestly after that I did not want to deal with this person, but I was stuck beside her for the entire day. Now granted, she was a good sales person, and I complimented her on this skill. As I listened to her, she was very convincing and believable; but, sadly, she really had no clue what she was talking about. She kept telling people that her soaps were honey based and shea based. Neither of these were true. Honey cannot be a base for soap and shea butter is far to expensive to be used as a base and be priced so cheaply.

The final nail to the coffin for me was when she was talking about purchasing bars of Dove, melting them down, adding some colors and fragrance and reselling them as handmade. Unbelievable!! If I bought a bar of handmade soap and learned that the crafter had used a commercial product, colored & perfumed it and resold it to me, I would be very angry. The whole point of purchasing handmade soaps is to avoid all of the chemicals that commercial soap manufacturers add to them. However, I did hold my temper and pointed out to her that Dove is not soap. She was stunned (as most people are) and argued a little. I pointed out that it is called a “moisturizing bar” which means it is not lye based, but diesel based. I felt like smacking my own forehead with frustration when she replied, “then I shouldn’t put it in my microwave?”

So a word of warning: I hate to say this because most soapers I have met are knowledgeable and have very good products, when purchasing homemade soaps at a craft show, especially inexpensive local ones, be very careful. If the price of ‘handmade’ soap is super cheap, it’s almost guaranteed that the soaper is first very inexperienced and secondly using substandard materials. This is one of those cases where you do get exactly what you pay for.
Signs of a quality soaper, include attractive packaging, pricing typically $6-8 per bar. (if it’s any less than $5, run don’t walk…). The best way to tell, are they registered as a business, or is it a college student just trying to make an extra buck with a microwave, a couple molds and some FD&C dye.

Fact: soap is made with lye… if it isn’t, it is not soap.
Fact: soap base: water (or substitute such as milk, aloe, cucumbers), lye and oils

When customers are asking what your base is, they are asking what kind of oils make up the largest percentage. (if they’re asking, they most likely are looking for vegan based soaps)
Fact: most common oil base is lard, tallow, palm or olive
With only a few exceptions, my oil base is a combination of palm, olive and coconut, with many combinations of other oils used in much smaller quantities.

Fact: Honey cannot possibly be the base of a soap. The base must be an oil. Honey is an additive.

Fact: Shea Butter is also an additive. Too much of the oil resists saponification to be used as a base. Although some soaps can have a larger percentage, almost all soapers use shea butter as a superfatting oil, added later in the process, helping more of it to stay in the final product unchange and retaining it’s own qualities.

Fact: melt and pour (a specialty purchased base that is melted in the microwave, colored, scented and poured into molds) is not hot process, it is Melt and Pour. Advantages to melt and pour is that it is possible to do very small batches and beautiful works of art can be created by melting and coloring small portions. Using isopropyl alcohol to wet already set portions, bars can be build layer by layer. Often a caning method is used to create a loaf of translucent soap with intricate opaque designs.. The con of this process, is that a commercially created base must be purchased and the ingredients are not completely disclosed as they are a trade secret.

Fact: cold process soapmaking involves mixing water and lye to a variety of oils, adding color and scents. The only heat that is applied is to warm the oils to about 110F to ensure that they are melted and that there is not a huge temperature difference when the lye is mixed into the oils. The “cooking” actually comes from the chemical reaction (remember basic Chemistry) between the lye and oils as it saponifies and turns into a completely different substance, soap. Cold process requires the soap to “cure” for 2-4 weeks to ensure completion of the process (also allowing the bars to harden, making it more durable in the shower). Pros to this method, complete control over every ingredient. Cons, limited to block type molds to ensure saponification takes place. At least some shelf life is required before the soap is used.

Fact: hot process soapmaking starts out just like cold process with the basics: lye, water and oils. But then the soap maker takes it a step further and applies heat to the mixture for several hours, speeding the saponification process. Hot process soap does not require a curing process, though a drying period is still necessary for bar soaps. Hot process is required for liquid soap manufacturing, potassium hydroxide is substituted for lye (sodium hydroxide) because it doesn’t bond as strongly to the oils allowing the “loose suspension” required for liquid soaps. Pros: This soap can be safely used as soon as it cools, molds could be used to create interesting shapes, complete control over ingredients Cons: Can be a lengthy process and the soap must be constantly monitored to prevent burning, while some soapers stir to control “boil ups” others may use isopropyl alcohol. This alcohol usually burn off during the cooking as it readily evaporates with heat.