Fall is here, and you know what that means-pumpkin everything! Get in on that craze and add a little pumpkin to your soap. Oh, Pumpkin Let’s talk about how you’ll be incorporating pumpkin into your soap. We realize that pumpkin is all the rage this time of year, but please: put down your neighbor’s Jack-O-Lantern and grab a can of … Read More
Fluid Hot Process for Beginners
If you are familiar with the soap making process, you know that there are three fundamental ways one can go about making a bar of soap: cold process, hot process, and melt & pour. Each process has its own unique benefits and drawbacks, and most soapmakers have a pretty distinct preference about which one they like! Hot process soapmaking lends … Read More
Master Batching for Beginners
Going from hobby to business is exciting, challenging and intimidating for some soapmakers. Time is split between formulating, implementing that formulation and finding ways to sell; not to mention regular day to day activities! One method of manufacturing that has saved many Handcrafters quite a bit of time is master batching. Master Batching is the process of mixing a large batch … Read More
Common Scents: Citronella
Welcome to our series, Common Scents! Common Scents is a series of articles exploring the history of commonly used essential oils and how they became popular in modern day soap and cosmetic crafting. This month, we’ll learn about citronella. Here in the great Northeast, we love our few beautiful summer months. What we really don’t love are the mosquitoes and … Read More
Let’s Make a Coffee Bar!
If you’re like about 50% of the HSCG Staff, you need at least one cup of coffee per day to function! Did you know that not only can you get a little energy boost from this miraculous bean water, but you can also use it in your soapmaking endeavors? It’s true! Let’s talk about taking you and your customer’s love … Read More
5 Do’s and Don’ts of Labeling
You can have the most fantastic, most luxurious, most incredible product in the entire handcrafted soap and cosmetic industry, but if it’s labeled wrong it might as well be a lump of rock in a nice package. Labeling is crucial to ensuring both you and your customer’s safety and also maintaining the integrity of the handcrafted soap and cosmetic industry … Read More
Common Scents: Anise
Welcome to our series, Common Scents! Common Scents is a series of articles exploring the history of commonly used essential oils, and how they became popular in modern day soap and cosmetic crafting. Like just about every other scent, anise is one of those smells that you either love or desperately hate. If you’re not familiar with anise, think … Read More
All About Melt & Pour: What it is and How it Works
When we talk about soap, there are a few different types that we could be talking about. There is cold process, which is a method that involves melting and combing oils and lye water and allowing the soap to go through the saponification process over a certain time period. There is hot process, which is when a soapmaker combines melted … Read More
How-To: Foot Scrubs
While we all dream of having magic slippers that we can click together to bring us to our favorite beach destination, walking the beach in bare feet to exfoliate them is just not always an option! Luckily, making your own foot and hand scrub is simple, and there are many options for customization. Different Types of Exfoliants Before you begin … Read More
Common Scents: Patchouli
Welcome back to our series, Common Scents! Common Scents is a collection of articles exploring the history of commonly used essential oils, and how they became so popular in modern day soap and cosmetic crafting. This week, we’ll talk about patchouli! Scent is an incredible sense. A certain smell can make you remember a person or place, or can be … Read More