How to Make Melt and Pour Soap Base from Scratch

Book excerpt: This is the first book published with recipes, methodology and tips on how to make Melt and Pour Soap from Scratch. It is written from the perspective of a Cosmetic Formulator on the production of the popular cosmetic base known as, Melt and Pour Soap. Whether you are a crafter, hobbyist or business owner this book has everything that you need. This book give you guidance on how, as a small home based business, you can follow the regulations, labeling laws and industry standards for selling soap and cosmetics. My entire journey into the cosmetic industry started with Melt and Pour Soap shortly after I discovered aromatherapy. The roots of our business, Essential Wholesale, all started in December of 1998. Over the years we moved from our home kitchenette to a 600 square foot space, to a 2500 square foot building, to a 10,000 square foot space in a bigger building, and from there we have expanded into 30,000 square feet of that same building. In 2011 our business will be moving to an even larger 58,000 square foot building. As our business expanded we began to focus on natural cosmetics and personal care products. However, I never lost my curiosity and fascination with Melt and Pour Soap. Our relationship with Melt and Pour Soap changed over the years. At first we sold retail customized Melt and Pour Soaps. We then bought and sold the company Critter Soaps. Later we sold thousands of pounds worth of wholesale Melt and Pour Soap base and eventually discontinued selling Melt and Pour Soap because the price kept rising. At the time Melt and Pour Soap was the only cosmetic base we sold that we didn't manufacture ourselves. It simply didn't make sense to wholesale someone else's base when our business model had changed to selling only the bases we manufactured ourselves. It was at this point in our business that I decided it was time to formulate our own Melt and Pour Soap ourselves. It didn't take long to have working formulas, but at that moment we were using up every inch of space in our 30,000 square foot building. We were bursting at the seams and couldn't accommodate the manufacturing and cooling of the Melt and Pour Soap Base in bulk. Our space was so tight we couldn't possibly cool an 8,000 lb batch of Melt and Pour Soap base into multiple 1 lb, 20 lb and 40 lb blocks to sell in bulk. But we got continued requests to manufacture and sell Melt and Pour Soap base. My solution is this book. I decided to share these basic recipes with you to give you the freedom to make your own Melt and Pour base in the quantities that work best for your business. These recipes will teach you the foundational information that you need and give you tips on how to customize your base.