"You could sell these!" It was a well-meaning comment, a compliment. A friend, upon seeing my laundry room shelves lined with rows of curing soap, gasped in pleasure, and said aloud what I'd been quietly thinking – that I could sell these.
My great grandmother, Ma Mayo, had ugly memories of making soap in a big pot out the yard, stories of the skin-stinging lye soap made from various stinky animal fats, potash and salt. She held no nostalgia for the process or the product. She was a tiny, sour-faced woman who dipped (and spit) snuff, thought big bags of unshelled pecans made excellent gifts for children, and died in1982 without ever having indoor plumbing because she was suspicious of city water and afraid of alligators coming up through the pipes. Obviously I couldn't much trust her opinion on anything, and her unfond tales about the soap pot were the spark that, years later, ignited my interest in soapmaking.
It was the late 90's and the internet made research far easier than it might otherwise have been. I read everything online and in the library, consulted saponification tables, practiced with small batches, perfected my recipes. Soon, I had more soap than my family could ever use, scores of bars. That quiet thought – I could sell these – grew louder.
I launched my business in 1999, and was instantly inundated with orders from individuals and gift shops. My little hobby took over my kitchen. Many nights I made soap instead of dinner. Once, I set my stove hood on fire while I was simultaneously heating oil and taking a phone order. I made soap, balms, milk baths and soaking salts. I designed and printed labels, wrapped and packaged products, ordered supplies, kept up with paperwork and paid taxes. Weekends were spent at craft fairs or farmer's markets. I even taught a few soapmaking classes.
Soap in the Mold. (My husband made the mold.)
Over the years, I sold thousands of bars of soap and never turned a true profit. The cost of ingredients was too high; the process was too labor intensive. I began to hate making soap, when what I really hated was selling soap. So I quit, closed my business, said goodbye to my craft fair friends and gift shop owners, fielded calls from nearly-hysterical customers who had to have soap. (I can't be sure, but I think they survived.)
These days I make two kinds of soap: a lavender and buttermilk soap because it's my favorite, and a patchouli and orange soap for my hippie children. Friends and family get bars for Christmas and birthdays. I also make tea tree oil balm and homemade deodorant for my son who takes after Ma Mayo in some respects – he's suspicious of city water and of chemicals in commercial deodorants. I politely refuse any requests to purchase a bar or two. It would be too easy to get sucked back in.
A Batch of Lavender and Buttermilk Soap
A while back I made necklaces out of linen strips and vintage buttons and gave them as gifts. One recipient admired the necklace and said, "This is so cute! You should sell these!" I just smiled and thought, No way!
****Soapmaking isn't as difficult as you might imagine. It's rewarding and – I'll warn you now! – addictive. It's a useful craft and there aren't too many of those. There are plenty of online resources, forums and books available if you'd like to dig a little deeper and experiment with some simple recipes. I will leave you with my recipe for tea tree oil balm. It's simple, inexpensive and the ingredients are easy to find.
Tea Tree Oil Balm
½ cup olive oil
1/4 to 1/3 cup beeswax pellets (available in craft stores or through an online supplier)
1 oz tea tree oil (available at a lot of pharmacies in the foot care section, at a health food store, or online)
1 Tbsp vitamin E oil (available at most pharmacies)
A clean 1 cup jar or tin to hold the balm
In a double boiler, heat the olive oil and 1/4 cup of the beeswax until the beeswax is melted. Add the tea tree oil and the vitamin E oil. Drop a little bit onto the counter and blow on it until it's cool and then rub it on the back of your hand. If it's firm enough to set but will spread once you add the heat of your fingertips, it's done. If it's still a little loose, add more beeswax and stir until melted. Test again. Once you've achieved the desired consistency, pour into a small jar to cool and set. I use the balm on chapped hands, rough heels and minor skin abrasions or scratches.****
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Comments
Rated with hugs
I'm with Cartouche: I want to be your friend, though I'd opt for some of each. I'd offer to do something for you in return, but I have no abilities, so you'll just have to be generous and a Better Person.
There are just so many creative and talented people here on OS! You, Bell, are one!
Cartouche -- Patchouli is one of the only essential oils that sticks to the skin. It's powerful stuff. (Purchasing essential oils through a soapmaking supplier will save you tooonnns of money if you like essential oils.)
Owl -- Yes, making soap is fun again. For a while it was such a chore.
Ann -- I want to see those angels!
Linda -- It doesn't take much patience. Trust me. I don't have much.
Robin -- The orange and patchouli was my best seller. The supplier for the essential oil blend has gone out of business, but I stockpiled!
Hugs -- I can't do a lot of things (like write poetry!). I do hope you'll make your own.
Oryoki -- I knew a lot of people would understand the trap, how making a hobby a business can suck the fun out.
Green -- Paper for soap? I'd be cheating you! The balm is great to apply to hands after washing dishes. I've also substituted lavender essential oil for the tea tree (which is antiseptic and has a medicinal smell).
Boanerges -- I've met lots of soapmakers, and still keep in contact with some of them. We're a sisterhood of sorts! Once you've gotten used to the homemade stuff, it's hard to go back to the commercial bars.
Pilgrim -- Ha! I'm sure they found other sources for their soap. P.S. If you can run lawnmower we can trade.
Little Kate -- Thanks! The buttermilk doesn't impart any scent (thank goodness) but it does add a creaminess to the lather.
Scarlett -- I've enjoyed reading the made open calls, and I'm glad I had something to contribute. Let me know if you try the balm. They make great gifts too.
Sheila -- It imagine it's a balancing act with any business, and maybe my resentment came because it started as a hobby and it used to be fun. Maybe the mindset is different when you enter business from that direction?
Alysa -- I do wonder if I would have felt the same way if I'd actually made money? Or if the hobby-to-business model was just doomed to soul-sucking with or without a profit.
Dirndl -- The good thing about soap is that from start to finish takes less than an hour (not including the time the soap is in the mold and then curing). You can' t start and then put it down and go do something else! I liked that aspect of it.
Zul -- It is a compliment that people think your product is of professional quality. As for soapmaking, the internet is your best resource. Start with Miller's Homemade Soap Page. It's probably the oldest site out there. It's been around since the late 90's. Start with the "Rachel's Tried and True" recipe. It uses inexpensive oils and you don't have to buy a scale. The 12 oz of lye comes out to about 1 and 1/3 cup of lye if you don't have a scale. Lye is difficult to come by these days, but you can usually find it at a small hardware store (like Ace) or through a local chemical supply company or online.
Kate -- You're right, there's nothing like a good bar of soap. I hope you'll try the recipe!
I think I've seen this phenomenon quite a bit on etsy. Lots of times I'll go back to try and buy something again from a seller, and I'll find that they're just not there anymore. I imagine that it can get absolutely overwhelming.
Rated
Thank you for sharing your recipe for Tea Tree balm. I've paid silly amounts of money to some guy named Burt for stuff like that.
PS, if you want to open an OS shop, I don't think anyone would complain...
Thank you for sharing this great hobby--I'm glad you still love it again.
I, too, get the "you could sell these!" every time I go through the grocery line with my market bags. Yep, I could, but I won't. I'll be giving them as gifts this Christmas (which reminds me to get my act together.)
Oh, and I remember a family friend making soap...she was a true mountain woman (born about 1920 in a very small town in NC).
What to say-I'm salivating over those soaps.
Always glad to get chance to hear about your offline life.
Lulu -- Come on down, Girl. At least I know you'd be okay with the dog hair.
Kathy -- Keeping my hippie children from stinking was one of the reasons I started this endeavor!
Hyblaean -- Don't be intimidated. It really isn't difficult to make a simple soap. Once you start getting into various fragrances and colorants and additives it gets more complicated, but the basic recipes are easy, and very rewarding.
Bonnie -- I did think about raising the price, but there's only so much people will pay for a bar of soap, and well, really by then I was just tired of the process anyway.
Jeanette -- I've experienced the same thing with Etsy. Having been through my retail/wholesale phase, I'm sympathetic, but I do miss some of my favorite sellers.
Susan -- Well, my house does smell good, even if it isn't clean! There are still a lot of soapmakers out there who selling -- Etsy is a good place to look. I do have one soaping friend who is going strong selling her soap, just happy to have a self-supporting hobby.
Fay -- Oh you KNOW! We should exchange recipes!
Mypsyche -- I hated losing that passion. When it's gone you so miss that feeling of delight and enthusiasm.
Mumble -- Ha! My husband and I actually talked about that during the Y2k frenzy. I said we should make soap and moonshine because people will want their booze and they'll need soap.
Grace -- You can make any kind of balm, with any kind of base oils (shea butter, avacado oil, etc.) as long as you have the beeswax. It's cheeeeaaaap, easy and fun to make.
Clay -- I'm learning to love it again. It takes a while for it to come back!
Jean -- Yes you can make it with lavender too. The only essential oils I like to use for it are the tea tree or lavender though because those can be applied directly to the skin without a carrier oil anyway. Some essential oils can cause photosensitivity or skin irritation, and that would defeat the whole purpose of the balm.
Felicia -- Ma Mayo was a character, that's for sure. She always reminded me of Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies (and looked quite a bit like her too.)
Matt -- You're hilarious! Some of the phone calls were like that.
Fernsy -- I'd hate to have to live on what I made selling soap. It would be a hard candy Christmas for sure!
Juli -- Don't let lye scare you. Unless you ingest it or spill a large quantity on your skin, all you get when it touches your skin is a sting before you wash it off. I mix my lye water in the sink, which minimizes any chance of it spilling and getting all over the kitchen, and I use a pitcher for the mixing so that it pours into the oils without drips or spills. I've never had a major mishap.
~R
enjoyed reading you.
I feel you as the saying goes. I make leather cue cases. Been doing it for 20 years. At the beginning I made one for myself only.
I took a break for a couple years after building a company with more partners than friends. Sold out my share for a fraction of what it was worth just to get out.
Three years ago I started making cases again. The idea was to explore themes and build cases that interested me. Now, once again I am caught up working for other people. I work for my customers who have desires and demands that only I can fulfill because of the way I set up shop. I work for my employees, yes I have employees, whose salaries must be be paid regardless of whether they produce something "sellable" or not.
In a way I have what I always wanted. A little workshop/factory with elves to do my bidding with the ability to turn leather into whatever I like. On the other hand I have the tumor that keeps growing and weighing me down.
I have always given this advice to people who think I am a millionaire from this business. The best way to lose your love of playing pool and insure that you never play again is to get in the billiard business.
It's true. The best way to ruin a hobby is to turn it into a business.
You just had to go and put a picture of it and have us all aching from want.
Sad thing is I can't trade you on anything because I can hardly cook...
oh, well.
(I once bought a book on soap making. Didn't make one bar.)
Thanks for the recipe!
(P.S. Want to buy a lovely sparkly glass cross? JK, as my daughter would say :)
717Judie -- That was my best seller. I called it "Hippie Chick." There are plenty of eager sellers on Etsy these days, who are still in the honeymoon stages, or who are perhaps better at business than I was and can make money at it.
Joan -- When you come down South, I'll have a bar waiting for you.
Sweetfeet -- Quilts are so labor intensive, I wonder how anyone can bear to part with one. At least with jewelry or soap, the time spent isn't usually measured in weeks or months!
Bonnie -- I've paid exorbitant amounts for my favorite products too. Silly, really...or maybe not.
Renatta -- I've begged for my neighbor's poppyseed cake recipe and DAMMIT...she won't hand it over! I know where she keeps her hide-a-key but so far I've resisted the temptation to sneak on over and explore.
John -- Wise words. I'm glad you found a good balance and managed to return to something you loved. I hope things continue to go your way and that you maintain your love of pool. (What a cool business, btw!)
Anne -- Yes, that's it. Mass producing handmade items kinda takes the "handmade" out of it. There's no way around it.
Vanessa -- Soapmaking is more chemistry than cooking, so I bet you'd be excellent at it!
Dear Reader -- Oh yeah, I get that one too -- "You should open a restaurant or a catering business." Luckily I have friends who have been through what you describe. I'm a good cook, but I can't imagine cooking on demand.
Nelly -- I wish I had your photographic ability. Every single photo I take with my digital camera needs heavy editing in Picasso and is (basically) soulless. I don't know where that talent comes from, but wherever it is, it's a place I can't get to.
Ayememyself -- Those sound lovely! The cost of that craft must be extraordinary, and probably not profitable -- BUT, if you happen to create more items than you can use or gift, I don't think there's anything wrong with looking on "selling" as a way to support your hobby and maintain your craft/supplies. AND, some artisans do take off and command great prices. I'd never advise someone not to follow a dream.
Jonathan -- Thanks!
2mchwrk -- That made me laugh! People rarely think that the person teaching them a new skill merits proper pay. I mean, they have "talent." So how much work are you actually doing?!
Christine -- Lavender is one of my favorites too. I still love the smell of Yardley Lavender soap. Yeah, I had a good run. I can't say I'm sorry I did it. Every experience is a learning experience.
Hey, didn't Burt's Bees start out this way? You could have Bell's Bees!