There is a lot of uncertainty around the correct labeling of soaps, because to elaborate them there are very specific processes that make these soaps a unique case in the world of beauty, let’s explore how difficult it is to label them.
If you’re making soap for sale, it’s important to label it properly. Not only do consumers want to know what’s in the product they are buying, but it’s important to stay in compliance with the industry standard required practices.
Labeling Requirements for Soap
For your soap to be considered soap in the eyes of government labeling laws, it must be real soap, meaning it is made primarily from oils and lye. In addition, it must not make any cosmetic claims, such as “moisturizing,” “exfoliating,” or “deodorizing.” It just has to be soap. This also includes melt and pour soap bases.
Soap falls under the jurisdiction of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which requires the following on the label:
- Wording on the package that identifies the product as “soap”
- Net weight of the product
- Name and address of your business
Soap ingredients should be listed on the label
Technically, you don’t need to list the ingredients. It’s enough to label it as “soap,” say how much it weighs and where to find your company. But, to get sales and do good business, you have to give people what they want to know, and they want to know what’s in these types of products. It’s the main reason your potential customers buy handmade soap in the first place. That’s why most soap manufacturers include the ingredients on the labels.
If you’re going to list the ingredients, list them per the guidelines of the FDA: list the ingredients in descending order of predominance (the percentage of the total formula), and use the most commonly accepted industry standard names.
You can list fragrance as just “fragrance,” and you can list any ingredients that are less than 1 percent of the total formula in any order at the end of the list of ingredients.
List the ingredients before and after on the label
If you plan to list ingredients, you have a choice of listing the ingredients before processing or the transformed ingredients after saponification of soap-making.
The ingredients that you put into your soap pot, unlike those in a lotion or a cream, go through a chemical reaction. Quite literally, the ingredients that you put in are not the same ingredients that come out. For example, here is a general list, which many soaps-makers use:
- 9.6 oz. olive oil
- 22.4 oz. pork tallow
- 10.5 oz. water
- 4.2 oz. lye
- 1.4 oz. of fragrance oil
You can list those ingredients as pork tallow, water, olive oil, sodium hydroxide, and fragrance, which are the ingredients before the process. Alternatively, you can list the ingredients as sodium tallowate (the “salt” made from the combination of the tallow and the lye), water, sodium olivate (the “salt” made from the combination of the olive oil and the lye), pork tallow (there’s still some remaining in the soap due to superfatting), olive oil (ditto, from the superfatting), glycerin, and fragrance.
See the difference? In the first one, you list the original ingredients, including the lye (sodium hydroxide). In the second one, it’s the ingredients as they actually are in the soap after the saponification process is done. Notice there isn’t any lye or sodium hydroxide in the second one.
It is best to list the ingredients in the clearest and most easily understood method possible, which is usually the first option by listing the ingredients as they are before the saponification process.
Combined Ingredient List Label
When making ingredient lists, some soap-makers do a sort of hybrid of the two methods listed above. For example, for the same general soap recipe, you may see saponified pork tallow and olive oil, water, glycerin, and fragrance. It’s theoretically correct, in that it’s listing the ingredients. The main reason that people use this list is that they do not want to list sodium hydroxide as an ingredient and they do not know how to label it in the more complicated second way.
If you find it too difficult to label your soaps, at The Label Shoppe we can help you implement soap labeling in the best way, complying with all the regulations while looking great.