The Ultimate Guide to Making the Most Out of Your Handmade Soap

1. The Ultimate Guide to Making the Most Out of Your Handmade Soap

2. Introduction No consumer likes spending money on a soap that does not deliver on its promises. You don’t want to use your money on a cleanser that gets used up fast and one that is unfriendly to your skin. You want to get the most from your soap. Unlike most commercially-manufactured soaps which contain harsh chemicals which irritate the skin, handmade soaps contain natural ingredients such as essential oils, thus friendly to the skin. If you have the knowledge of making handmade soap, there is so much that you can benefit from the skill. For one, you can use the soap at home for all your washing needs. From bathing to hair conditioning, you can do it all. Two, you can translate the art into a business idea. This means sharing the product with other consumers and earning from it. This ultimate guide will look at both aspects so that you can decide what to do with your skill.

3. Table of Contents • Getting the Most of your at Handmade Soap at Home. • Getting the Most of Handmade Soap Commercially. • Closing Thoughts.

4. Getting the Most of your at Handmade Soap at Home As mentioned in the opening remarks, you can use your handmade soap for all your cleaning needs. To ensure that the natural soap serves you better, here are 9 tips that you should use: 1. Use a Soap Dish Using a soap dish, you can boost the life of your handmade soap significantly. The soap dish that you choose should allow better drainage after wetting the soap. The drainage channel will allow quick aeration and drying of the soap between uses. If you get a two-side dish, the better it’s for you since you are able to put two separate colored soaps without having to mix them. When the soap is allowed to dry between uses, you’ll notice a considerable change in your consumption. This is more important when you are a large family. 2. Cut it Into Pieces If what you are making is a lengthy bar soap, you should learn to cut it into perfect sizes before using it. In this case, you don’t have to wet the entire bar but only the piece that you are using. You can use the kitchen knife to cut it. Actually, one bar is enough to produce a piece for each of the washrooms. While cutting the soap, you need to cut portions that can comfortably sit on the soap dishes.

5. 3. Preserve the Soap Color To ensure that your handmade soap maintains its color, you should use vitamin E oil, dry herbs, and sunflower oil. These ingredients are meant to slow down the process by which handmade soaps lose their color. In addition, the ingredients are safe for the skin. Sunflower oil, for instance, has the advantage of adding a fragrance on your handmade soap. Normally, a change of color is a sign that the soap is losing its effectiveness and this should be addressed during the manufacturing. 4. Learn to Smell your Soap It’s important that your handmade soap smells great when using it. If you are not careful, you may be using a soap that has lost its fragrance and effectiveness without knowing. Other than a change in color, an unusual smell from your handmade soap means that it’s time to replace it. This may not be the case if you use long-lasting fragrance oils when making the soap. Before you smell the soap, you should first sniff coffee. The coffee will help to clear your nose so that you can smell the ideal scent of your soap.

6. 5. Watch Your Water What makes handmade soaps to run out fast is long contact with water. It’s necessary to keep the natural soap dry as often as possible. When using the soap in the shower, try to move the soap dish from where the water is dropping. Move it to the opposite side. If you learn to do this often, you’ll definitely improve the life of your handmade soap. 6. Take Time Before Cleaning the Soap-Making Equipment It’s necessary that you wait for three or more days before cleaning the soap-making equipment. If you do right away after making soap, you are likely to get your hand messed up with lye. Lye may interfere with the production of the new batch. You need to give your equipment time to cool down so as to allow the grease plus the lye to change into soap. Then, you can wash the deposit using hot water. It’s easier that way than doing it routinely after every soap production.

7. 7. Diversify Your Production With the knowledge, you can make a common handmade soap that can be used for bathing, hand washing, and hair conditioning. But still, you can diversify to have separate soaps for each washing need. For example, you can add vitamin E and essential oils to the ingredients to make a bathing soap. The ingredients are friendly and therapeutic to the skin. Likewise, you can add soda ash to enhance the foam effect of the soap. Such soap is great for hand washing or hair washing. It’s just a matter of being creative. 8. Exploit the Soap-Making Fabrics You don’t have to buy laundry detergents when you are making handmade soap. Save the blankets and towels that you use when making soap. When it comes to doing laundry, mix the soapy fabric with the clothes that you want to clean. Soak them in hot water so as to force the soap out of the fabric. Start cleaning when the water cools. The advantage is that you don’t even need a fabric softener when doing laundry using this approach.

8. 9. Perfect Storage Sometimes, all you need to leverage your handmade soap is storing it correctly. To ensure that the extra soaps are not ruined and that they maintain their quality, keep them in your wardrobe or closet. Actually, keeping the soaps where the clothes are boosts the scent of your clothes. The clothes will resonate the smell of your handmade soap. You can also store the soap that you have used in the compartments, awaiting subsequent uses.

9. Getting the Most of Handmade Soap Commercially If you believe that your handmade soap is smelling good and is safe for usage, then you can sell it to the public. However, you’ll need to follow these three steps if you opt to go commercial. Step 1 – Test Your Soap In your state, there is a testing and standardization body for products that are meant for public consumption. You need to take your soap to them for formal testing and approval. This is assuming that you already have some nice feedback from friends and neighbors. You should learn to give the people close to you a few samples so that they can give you their individual reviews. If the soap is approved by the testing body, then you can move to step 2. Step 2 – Get the Permits You need to visit your townhall to inquire about the fees for running a handmade soap business. Ensure that you apply for all the licenses as it’s advisable to start selling locally before you expand regionally and globally.

10. Step 3 – Market Your Soap You need an effective marketing strategy if you are planning to create the awareness of your handmade soap online and offline. The first thing to do is to prioritize your campaign efforts. Where would you want to concentrate your time and money? In this case, you may find it necessary to organize the following marketing avenues based on priority: • Your Website • Your Blogs • Email Marketing • Social Media • Paid Advertisement • Print media • Word of Mouth

11. Once you have a priority list, the next thing is to strategize the marketing channels. Let’s look at the various ways that you can do it: Marketing Through Your Website If you are decided on using the internet to market your handmade soap, you need a working and user-friendly website. The site should be able to convert the traffic that’s directed towards it. Some of the tips that you can use to ensure this are: Optimize and simplify your checkout page so that the customers are not prompted to abandon their shopping carts. Create and post how-to video tutorials so that new customers can learn how to use your handmade soaps before buying. Offer discounts on the site. You can display them on the product page, the home page, and the checkout so that the customers can see them easily. Provide the customer with flexible payment options such as PayPal and credit card. For credit cards, you should target all card users. To ensure that the product convinces the site visitor, you’ll have to brand it. This means investing in better packaging, a logo design, and other ideas that will distinguish your soap from the rest.

12. Marketing through Blogging Blogging is one of the easiest ways to establish an online presence these days. Through the blogs that you post, customers land on your site. You need to learn the secrets of SEO and keyword use so that the right readers can find your articles and get to know about your soap-making brand. You have the option of hiring bloggers to write the articles when you are not comfortable doing it yourself. Generally, you have to be consistent if you choose to invest in blogging. This will guarantee your regular readers fresh information to read so that they can continue visiting your site. Email Marketing So many consumers sign up for newsletters when they shop online. Investing in email marketing is a great way to let your subscribers understand your brand better. You can inform them about the products options and the special offers that you have. Social Media Marketing Social media is a powerful marketing tool. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are dictatorial online. If you achieve massive followers on the platforms, you can easily convert a good number of them. You’ll need to use smart strategies like offering referral coupons and launching a buy-one-get-one promotion.

13. Paid Advertisements There are so many avenues that you can exploit here. For example, you can design banners that you can display in local trade fairs and shows. You can also pay for TV and radio advertisement. This may be expensive but will cover a wider audience size. Additionally, you can build your online presence by paying to advertise on established e-commerce sites such as Amazon, Etsy, and eBay. Since these sites are visited by millions of internet users, you are guaranteed to reach a significant target audience. This will mean more traffic to your online store. Print Media Marketing You can start by printing flyers and brochures that you can distribute locally. The other options include publications such as newspapers and magazines. You can use the avenues to create the awareness of your brand locally. They are effective in driving sales. Word of Mouth Marketing This is a great strategy when carrying out a local marketing campaign. You can create business cards that you can distribute locally. Start with your neighbors as you move to the surrounding estates. You can even offer free soap samples for charity use. This will push many people to recognize your brand. You can also offer discounts such as BOGO (buy one get one) for the local audience. The idea is to enjoy as much local support as possible. Each time you talk to someone and they consider buying your handmade soap, ask them to recommend the brand to the people they know.

14. Closing Thoughts Clearly, there are so many ways that you can make the most out of your handmade soap. It all depends on what you plan to do with your skill. Whatever you opt for, it’s smart to take advantage of the opportunities as discussed in the above guide. This will ensure that your handmade soap-making skills make significant dividends in the long run. Sapona is one-stop shop for all-natural soaps, bath and body products. Whether you are looking for bath soap, bath tombs, body soap, body scrubs, and other exciting soap products that can turn your beauty routine into a mini spa vacation, Sapona has you covered. Sapona takes the health of their clients seriously and that’s why they stock only Paraben-free soap and beauty products. Use the contact form on their website to reach their qualified team.

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