What are your favorite scents for soaps?

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
I am still in the process of getting this soap making business off the ground and it is taking some time because of all the items I needed to get. I have decided I am just going to make soaps and lotion bars.

I plan to do two types of kids soaps - one for girls and one for boys. I want to do a play on the old Fuzzy Wuzzy soap which had that little bear inside. Im thinking of doing Hello Kitty and Disney Princess soap for the girls and bugs and little cars for the boys.

I have a couple of other scents I plan on. One is a pumpkin spice for the fall, a Christmas themed one and a Cannabis soap of all things. NOT REAL POT!!!! You cant get high washing up...lol. It has Cannabis fragrance oil and hemp oil. Hemp oil is extremely good for you.

What other scents would you love to smell in your soaps?
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well since no one is answering me, I will put out scents that I am thinking of doing. For the beginning maybe 6 months of selling I only plan on doing 5 or 6 soaps besides the kids soaps. That will be a lot for me to do all by myself because I need to buy larger crockpots to really do large batches. I bought two old ones at a flea market but they are only 3 quart. I need 6 or higher to do even a 3 to 4 pound batch of soap. When Black Friday rolls around I can pick some up cheap. I would love to get one of those Nesco counter top ovens because they can be used as a crock pot too but they are huge and I could easily make 5 to 10 pounds of soap in them.

It also depends on if I want to do hot process or cold process. I can do cold process in smaller pots and I can get those pots a whole lot cheaper. Problem is, cold process has to sit and wait for 4 to 6 weeks before you can sell it. Hot process you could actually use the day you take it out of the mold but most people wait a week or two so they are completely dry.

I will probably do both eventually but you have to build up some equipment like molds that can withstand being in the oven at low temps. Tony can build me some but will he is the question. Right now I am using Pringles cans and plastic boxes.

But anyway, back to the scents of soaps.

Like I said above I am going to do the kids soaps, I got to thinking I really need to do 3 of them. Boy, girl and toddler under 3. I dont want any little tot getting one of the embeds and swallowing it. The one for the toddlers will be little rubber duckies on top of soap. I can pick the scents on those pretty easy.

Then like I said, the Cannabis soap which I think is going to be a good seller around here. Even if people dont actually use it, everyone will want one....lol.

Then because it is fall I am thinking a pumpkin spice, Xmas soap with cranberry, orange and pine in it.

Im thinking a hot chocolate with marshmallows would be a great soap. Also a coffee type scent...maybe hazelnut, raspberry or caramel. I also think I should have some manly type soap. Something woodsy. Also a very feminine type perfume fragrance. The place I order my fragrances has some that smell like name brands. I might go with two of those.

What would your favorite male fragrance be? Female fragrance?

If this all works out well then I will add lotions and body butters. I want to start out with just one thing. Actually I may start with the body butters because I can get the fragrances out there faster. Something to think about. I would be able to sell the body butters and foaming body wash as soon as I get the product in and not have to wait for the soap to dry. That would also give me some cash coming in.

Sigh, this is a big venture. I am just going to order those business cards for 10 bucks as my labels for the start.
 

BusynMember

Well-Known Member
Janet, for adults, I love, love, love lavender. It is very relaxing. I am an incense lady and we are always burning it. Our neighbors probably think we are potheads...lolol. If I choose a scent, lavender is always on top. I think the idea of pumpkin spice is great. Yummy!!!! I also like Apples and Cinnamon. They have that at Bath and Bodywork!!!
 

LittleDudesMom

Well-Known Member
I like the citrus scents and clean scents (like clean cotton and vanilla) like pasajes4. I like to layer my scents so I like my lotion and my perfume/body spray/e du toilet to match the lotion.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Apple and cinnamon is always a great combo. I could probably call it apple pie...lol. I also like the citrus scents over the overly fruity scents. One time Tony got a car air freshener for my car and I searched that thing all over thinking I had a piece of rotting fruit in it!
 

SuZir

Well-Known Member
I don't use scented soaps etc. so I may be a wrong person to answer. But I would go with one or two traditional and mostly with untraditional, odd and totally bizarre. You can go to any supermarket and choose from ten types of lavender or vanilla soap. And because you are likely not able to claim that your soap would be somehow much better than some other soap, you have to stand out in some other way. Oddities both in scent and shape would be a niche I would go for. And maybe forget a children products (or have separate outlet for those) and go for naughty/adult products. Something that isn't easier to pick from local supermarket. There is a market for funny, slightly naughty adult stuff for all kinds of parties, presents etc.

With children stuff I would also be careful with Disney and Hello Kitty, they take their trademark seriously. Be careful not to commit copyright infringement if you sell in any more public venue (like internet or ebay.) Buying and using registered toys from them to manufacture your products is likely legal, but you have to be really careful in advertising, can't really use pictures of their products in marketing etc. May not be worth it.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Oh I have a wonderful list here! I meant to add the frankincense and myrrh because I have heard it is really good for ADHD and I want to give a bar to Monkey to put under her pillow and maybe a little piece to keep in her pocket or book bag. She has recently been dxd. I know how I am going to do that soap because it turns a dark brown automatically so I will try to put some colorant on a small portion to swirl through it and then sprinkle 24K gold mica on top.

So lets see -
Lavender
Peppermint...Candy Cane for Xmas!
Lemon...how about lemon balm or lemon grass?
I was thinking of doing eucalyptus shower bombs for when you have colds.
Apple Pie
Clean linen
Some type of green scent...will have to think on that one. (That could be my Cannabis - it has a flowery undertone)
Hot cocoa
Coffee
I may or may not do the kids soaps. I may just do those for people we know. Those will be more expensive for me to do. Cute as all get out, but more expensive. I know I will do some for my grands for Xmas and if any of you want some for your kids or grands just let me know. If you want a special embed, I can see if I can find it.

I better get busy!!!! I need to order the scents then get my stick blender. I bought one from a thrift store, plugged it in at the store to make sure it turned on but when I got home, the little blade didnt turn!
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Suzir...I know I couldnt claim to be selling Hello Kitty soap but I can put a toy Hello Kitty item inside the soap. In fact they sell silicone bakeware in the shape of Hello Kitty. Tony wants me to do spiderman for boys but I am telling you, I cant find much in the way of tiny spiderman toys...lol. Not cheap anyway. I can find little Hello Kitty rings, erasers and such much easier.

I dont think it would be easy for me to do the naughty soaps because I would have to have a bunch of special molds for that and those would be expensive. Right now I am using pringles cans and homemade molds.

Oh and one special soap I am going to do at Xmas and Father's Day is shaving soap in a mug. I will sell it as a set with a shaving brush. That is something that has gone pretty much out of style but I think it will be a cute idea. I can use the mug as the mold. If I use plain colored mugs, parents can have the kids decorate the mugs for their father's.
 

SuZir

Well-Known Member
Oh and one special soap I am going to do at Xmas and Father's Day is shaving soap in a mug. I will sell it as a set with a shaving brush. That is something that has gone pretty much out of style but I think it will be a cute idea. I can use the mug as the mold. If I use plain colored mugs, parents can have the kids decorate the mugs for their father's.

That sounds like a cool idea! And make Monkey decorate one for marketing purposes ;) You could even pay her first salary ever for that job.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Sorry I have not posted on this. I would be careful about using Hello Kitty or ANY Disney theme because the licensing is expensive and both of those companies come after even very small businesses with everything they have. I know one woman who was sued for a HUGE amount of money for selling small xmas ornaments with disney characters decoupaged on them. She used wrapping paper for her designs and glued them onto wood shapes and sold them at craft fairs. Seemed no big deal, she was a little old lady and was trying to afford xmas gifts for her kids. They went after her, and anyone else using any disney image in crafts they were selling, like FL goes after opiates. It was astounding and made sure I won't try to use their characters. Disney esp has a real bad reputation for going after the little people using their characters. It seems like they wouldn't be able to find out, but Disney actually pays people to go to craft fairs and local bazaars and church sales to find this stuff so they can sue.

For soap scents, around here lavender is big. For fall the apple pie spice type scents and pumpkin spice are huge. winter also adds pine and cranberry and peppermint.

I used to make a soap that used Celestial Seasoning Tension Tamer tea (brewed triple strength) instead of the water, had 5% shea butter added after saponification (super-fatted to make it more moisturizing), and used peppermint, cinnamon and lemon oil for fragrance. Before pouring into molds, I ground up old fashioned oatmeal in the food processor (blender works fine) until it was a fine powder and mixed that in until it was fully combined. The soap didn't need any colorants and was absolutely wonderful. The tea, oils and shea butter are all good for your skin, and adding the oatmeal made it really helpful for any skin problems. I could not keep it in stock at the craft fairs I went to. I was able to charge 50 cents more per bar after the first fair for the 'extras' and people were fine with that.

You can experiment with using other teas to help boost the scent and color of the soap for a fairly nominal amount. Adding finely ground oatmeal gives a very gentle natural exfoliant and makes the soap very soothing to any skin problems. It is great for eczema, psoriasis, rashes, esp for diaper rash, etc...

While shea is a very popular oil for superfatting, you can use other oils just fine and save quite a bit. DON"T buy unrefined shea butter because it will add an odor to the soap that is unpleasant. I personally think unrefined shea butter reeks, but I know several soap makers that say it is really hard to not have the scent get overpowering, meaning it isn't just me. (I am hyper-sensitive to smells.) You can use olive oil or grapeseed oil for superfatting and it will work very well.

At some point, you may want to consider adding oil cleansers to your line. Oil cleansing is using oil rather than soap to clean your skin. Right now it is very popular for faces if you read any of the beauty magazines. Jess and I have been doing it for quite a while and it is incredible. Her acne is vastly better if she sticks to it and doesn't either forget to wash her face totally (like on a migraine day), or if she just soaps up as she washes her hands because it is faster. When she forgets she gets the big nasty infected zits popping up but otherwise her skin is the clearest it has ever been. My skin isn't as acne prone, but it looks and feels incredibly soft and smooth with this.

How can this help you? Oil cleansers are super easy to mix up and package. You can mark them up a TON past the cost of ingredients also. Most contain castor oil for cleansing and other oils for other properties. The castor oil is really helpful for dissolving the dirt on your face and any other makeup. I have not tried it with-o castor oil but it probably would work. Right now Jess' formula is 1/3 castor oil and 2/3 grapeseed oil with some lemon essential oil for fragrance and beneficial properties. That is what I would make for oily skin, esp with acne breakouts (she has both blackheads and the nasty cystic kind that are infected). I used 1/5th castor oil and 4/5ths grapeseed with a few drops of lemon oil. I am about to mix up a new batch and am going to play a bit. I plan to use 1/5 castor, 1/5 rosehip seed oil, 3/5 grapeseed oil and rose absolute essential oil for fragrance and other beneficial properties. I may add a few drops of lavender after I try this for a few days.

Grapeseed oil is easy to find and not terribly expensive. Castor oil isn't expensive either. The other oils can be, but you can use small amounts of oils like rosehip seed oil (NOT rose ess oil), macadamia nut oil, walnut oil, etc... for their properties. You can use 1% to 5% and get anti-aging properties and other benefits from various oils. You can even use olive oil instead of the grapeseed oil - and it would probably be great on marketing as Olive Oil is still considered very luxurious. Plus it is very affordable, esp if you go to Sams.

Why would this be something for your line? It is a cleanser and is moisturizing. It is very popular right now. With the right signage and labels, you can push the various buzzwords like anti-aging, acne clearing, etc... Plus it is easy to mix up and it is FAST to make.

You can also make salt and sugar scrubs easily. Pick a fragrance that you like, put some salt or sugar in a container, pour in enough oil to make a paste, stir in the fragrance until it is strong enough for you and stir. Then put in jars and label. Done and super popular. You can even offer demos of it - water in a squirt bottle like a smart water bottle, a bowl to catch it, a bunch of small spoons. Give a customer a small spoonful, have them rub it into their hands, then rinse with water from the bottle over the bowl to catch it. Then just dump the water into a bigger container until you can take ti to the bathroom. These are super popular at craft fairs here and vendors have told me that it ups their sales by a TON.

If you offer scrubs and soaps and lotions in the same scents or complimentary scents, you can stack sales. It increases the profits because people want the soap an the scrub and the lotion in the same scent. just a thought.

These are just ideas. Use what works for you and ignore the rest.

Oh, for the soap making, consider using an immersion (stick) blender. You will need one just for soap making, but they are a HUGE help. Check around for a used one, even try freecycle (don't mention it is for a business), or invest in one because it will help a TON with all that stirring. DON"T try the 'robostir' thing from the as seen on tv aisle - it won't stir well enough. Or so my soap-making friends have told me.

I sent you I think 2 PMs. I esp need advice on the 2nd one if you have time Thanks so much.
 

HMBgal

Well-Known Member
Freesia. Bath and Body Works used to make that scent years ago. They stopped making it and I've missed it ever since. Freesia. Love it.
 
S

Signorina

Guest
I love lemon in soap. I also love Bergamot! CrabTree and Evelyn used to have a cucumber scent which I loved too.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Sig...I have about 3 bottles of Bergamot essential oils here. First thing I bought because I found out it is helpful for people who have mood issues and addiction problems. I have sent over a spray bottle to Cory and told him it was for helping to get rid of smoke and cooking odors...lol. I want him to spray it ALOT!!!! I also told him to mist it on his light bulbs when they were turned off and then when he turns them on, he will be able to smell the scent. I actually think its working on him. Unfortunately, my cigarette smoking hasnt lessened and I still want mini eclairs!

I am thinking of doing the lotions too but Im not entirely sure if I can go all in at one time. It is quite expensive to get started. I have been buying little things here and there that I know I need but I am going to have to make a big purchase around 200 bucks this month to even get off the ground. I am going to have to start making the soaps with what is known as the "grocery store soap recipe" which means I can get all the oils in the grocery store. I realize some folks dont want to think of lard and beef fat as being in soap but tallow is in most of your major soaps. Sodium tallowate is simply the name given for rendered beef fat in soap. You can even use Crisco...the white stuff in the can.

I am also going to be using coconut oil, olive oil and grapeseed oil. I have a website that helps me formulate recipes and then I can run them through a lye calculator.

Like I said, I am going to be using a very good quality hemp oil which is very good for your skin in my cannabis soap. I tell ya, the more people we talk to about this scent, the better response I am getting. I was only going to get a small amount of the scent oil to try it out but as of now I am buying a whole 16 oz bottle!

Maybe I will just forgo the kids soaps with the embeds...unless its special order.

I am going to get a good immersion blender. I bought one from the local good will type place here in town and even though I checked to make sure it turned on and off, I didnt notice that the little paddles at the end of the shaft which turn to actual do the beating were broken. Absolutely useless. I have bought a 12 quart stainless steel stock pot just because it seems like you need one at some point...lol. I have all the spoons, scale, plastic bowls, ice cube trays, rubber gloves, safety glasses and things like that. I do want Tony to make me a mold that I can put in the oven so I can do cold process oven process soap. If I could find that Glad Ovenware stuff I would use that. I have looked all over my town and cant find any. It used to be everywhere. I baked lasagna and brownies in it.

Cold process Oven Process is the best of both worlds between Cold process and Hot process. I keep looking on the side of the road for a small drawer someone is throwing away. That would work pretty well. Or I could fix it to work.

Im going to think hard about the body butter and lotion. I know I dont want to do shampoo. I have tried on us for the last month and havent gotten one I like yet. Im gonna stick with my dollar store brand. However we arent buying another bar of soap or buying any body wash for a very very long time. Since I havent been able to do anything else I have been experimenting with all the pinterest posts about making your own hand soap and body wash. I have gallons of the stuff. I dont know if I am just not good at it or what but my homemade Dove bodywash didnt come out anything like the pictures. Now my castile bar soap came out perfect. I made another one out of lemon vegetable oil soap that should have reacted similarly to the castile soap but it came out a bit gloopy. It lathers up wonderfully though and smells divine. I also make a hand soap to just use in foaming pumps and that works well. Yes...I have found grating soap to be therapeutic. LOL oh one thing, if you go looking for such things, you will probably find a recipe for making a knock off on a Lush product that looks like jello body wash. It is layered in a glass jar in these bright layers. Keyana and I did that this weekend following exact directions. Well...we used the unflavored gelatin, the water, the clear body wash from the dollar store, ...everything we were told. we got out 4 containers big enough to hold all this and put food coloring in each of the 4 containers. Oh it looked good. we put it in the fridge to let it all set up. Good to go it looked. Until we took it out to shred the "jello" up so you can layer it in the jar. That worked well until it was all in the jar and we put it back in the fridge. This morning there was liquid collected on the bottom of the jar. I just dont know. Im sure it will still work to soap up with. when I washed out all the containers they soaped up really good. I sent the stuff home with her for her and her brothers to use in their baths. They will smell like coconuts...lol. I dont think we will be doing that one again. I would say I wont be using jello anymore for anything but it worked very well for the lip balm. I also want to see how it works for silly putty.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
They sell a LOT of different oils in grocery stores that are great in soaps. I used lard in soap and it worked great and was quite inexpensive. Sunflower seed oil, safflower oil, olive and grapeseed oils, etc... are great in soap. Various nut oils like macadamia nut and walnut oil are also wonderful. The best thing to do with those is to make superfatted soap with them. After you start the reaction with the lye, toward the end when you are going to put in the scent and color, you add 3-5% of the oil to superfat the soap. It makes it very moisturizing and great for your skin. If you use oil from nuts you MUST label it because people who are allergic will react. Most soapmakers do not use any peanut oil because it will stick to your molds and then future batches may cause reactions that could be a big problem.

Superfatting is a way to get the most benefit out of the more expensive oils and still keep the cost down. Coconut oil is great for lather but is actually fairly harsh on the skin so you don't want to use too much of it. You don't need the fancy expensive coconut oils either - the cheapest kind in the grocery is usually just fine for soap making.

If you use bergamot, consider buying a box of earl grey tea and brewing it up strong to use for the liquid in your soap. Bergamot is the flavor that makes it earl grey and you get more bang for less buck if you add the tea - it helps the scent and makes it more luxurious. I would use maybe Stash or lipton earl grey but I would NOT use TAzo earl grey. Why? Stash has the same amt of flavor but is MUCH cheaper than Tazo. Tazo just would be too expensive and you would get the same results from the cheaper tea. Just let the tea steep maybe 10 min instead of the 3-5 you would use for tea you drink, then let it cool and use it for the liquid.

You can use a crock pot to do oven process soap. I just put the stoneware from my crockpot in my oven and took it out to stir once I got to that point. It worked very very well for me.

Be aware that a LOT of pinterest things are impossible to actually create. You have to accept that they won't all work because not all of them are reliable or tested. It is annoying, but it is true. Some are just pretty pictures put up by idiots who got lucky or didn't actually test them. It is hard to know which is which from the posts though.
 

runawaybunny

Administrator
Staff member
Prior to developing eczema I dabbled in making products and perfumes from natural essential oils. Lavender is a favorite of mine. It makes my difficult child cough and gag so take that for whatever that is. I think neroli oil is pleasant, many other people are repulsed by that scent. I find bergamot and other citrus oils pleasant but on the skin they cause many very bad skin reactions.

Do research. Be cautious.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Runawaybunny: Do the natural products make your eczema worse, or are you just wary of trying them? I have found that the natural products I make myself are about the only things I can tolerate. What they originally thought was eczema (for years) turns out to be psoriasis that reacts atypically (of course, how else would MY body react to anything, grrr, lol). I only use food grade products on my skin and it is in MUCH better shape than when I used what the dr suggested for eczema. Just a thought. I can give a few suggestions if you are interested. If the dr has you using cortisone creams (westcort etc...), be aware that they do thin out your skin and prolonged use can cause problems because of that. No one told me until I actually had a problem because of this.

Janet, have you asked for any equipment on your local freecycle? or checked your local ReStore and other thrift stores for crockpots? Even if the heating element does not work, the crock can be used to make soap and it can go into the oven if it is stoneware. Around here a request for a crockpot is usually given at least 3 offers from freecycle. I have no clue why so many people have extra crockpots, but they seem to

For the drawer you mentioned for molds, find a ReStore (Habitat for Humanity ReStore - sells used furniture, building supplies and housewares) in a city near you and get an old drawer or three. I have yet to see them go for more than $5 or so.
 
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