I've been selling soap for about 7.
I've started making my soap because my hands kept being rough from too much hanwashing. At a Christmas party one year, the boys were blinfolded and each guy had to find his girlfriend. Mine found me right away beacause my hands were rough... That year I started making my own soap.
Artisanal soap is different from manufactured soap in many ways. It is made the old fasihionned way using oils and lye. The oils are chosen for each individual properties, long discussion for another time. The glycerine, which is naturally produced in the cold processed soap (artisanal) is left there, while it is taken away in commercial soaps to be sold seperately for other products. The glycerine softens the soap but most importantly keeps the natural moisture of the skin.
My workspace is small, it has grown in my laundry room and in another part of my basement. My worktable comes from an old monastary that mom worked in once. It is old, well worn and full of good vibrations! That being said, even if my equipement is old, it is clean, cleaned before each use. I work in a kitchen feeding little children, I know how to work properly.
I've been selling soap for Passion Lavande for four years now, making them about 1,000 to 1,200 soaps a year
So voilà :
Microwave to melt oils, binder to write down ingredients as they are measured
Cupboard for sillicone moalds
Sorry for the lighting - my workstation
Oils
Fragrances - big ones on top for Passion Lavande, small ones for me
«Stockroom» :-)
Cutting table
Drying soap
Ready to go!
There you have it! Just not the smell!