The Bramble Berry customer service team gets about 2,300 emails, chats, and phone calls a week. That number jumps to more than 5,000 during the busy holiday season. They answer questions about everything from goat milk soap to starting a small business. We asked the team what posts they share most often, as well as their best advice for beginners. Find their answers below.
Tina
How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
7 years in July
What blog posts do you share with customers most often?
- How to Create Homemade Lotion Recipes
- Free Beginner’s Guide to Soapmaking: Cold Process
- Business Musings category
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Mistakes are part of the fun! Be open and okay with everything not turning out as you envisioned. Sometimes things turn out better. Also, maybe start with a basic recipe with a few ingredients first rather than jumping in with a 100% coconut oil cold process soap with a swirl design and raw honey as an additive.
Carla
How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
6 years
What blog posts do you share with customers most often?
- Beginning Soaper Resource Roundup
- How to Create Homemade Lotion Recipes
- Soap Behaving Badly
- Soapy Mess-Up Quick Guide
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Anyone can do it! Trust yourself, have patience, and pay attention to the recipe.
Terah
How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
4 years
What blog posts do you share with customers most often?
- Formulating Cold Process Recipes
- Explaining and Preventing Glycerin Dew
- How to Resize Cold Process Soap Recipes
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Even if you’re following a recipe, there can be some trial and error before you get into the groove of things. We’ve all had failed batches, even after we become experts!
Matt
How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
2 years
What blog posts do you share with customers most often?
- Free Beginner’s Guide to Soapmaking: Common Soapmaking Oils
- Formulating Cold Process Recipes
- How to Add Lye to Milk for Cold Process Soap
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
Don’t be afraid to experiment with your creations. You don’t always have to “soap inside the lines” – learn how to formulate a recipe and make changes to it, how to resize your batches, and get creative!
Chloe
How long have you been with Bramble Berry?
Almost 2 years
What blog posts do you share with customers most often?
What advice would you give to someone just starting out?
For a beginner soapmaker my best advice would be to measure everything twice because once you make your soap you can’t go back – like baking a cake!
I am trying to figure out the best way to make larger batches of Melt and pour soap. Currently i can only melt about 2lbs at a time in a glass pyrex measuring cup. Someone i buy soap from makes like 15-30 loafs at a time (or in a day or two) and i have no idea how she can make so much in a little amount of time. Anything you suggest for large batches ?
If you have a larger crockpot sometimes you can melt larger amount of Melt and Pour soap in there. Just make sure you are able to control the temperature a little since the soap can begin to burn at 140 degrees F.
I have made a coconut oil and peanut bar soap fragrances with thyme, the bar came out very hard,was difficult to cut, the top of the soap bar had a crack, so I know with the saponification if was too hot, but is it still useable? Are there ways to test and see if it is lye heavy or safe to use?
Both Peanut Oil and Coconut Oil make an extremely hard bar of soap. In the future, I would add some Olive Oil or something else that is a soft oil to make sure the bar is not too terribly hard. To test for lye heaviness you can use a pH strip in the lather from the bars. A number between 8 and 10 is reasonable for soap.
I had a batch rice on me after adding my FOs, which were all supposed to behave well in CP. I was unable to get the lumps out. I only was able to reduce granule size before it just got too thick (maybe it seized a little too). All of the soap queen posts I read said to smooth the lumps out with stick blender to save the batch. But no mention of it being safe with the lumps left in. So is my soap still safe even if the ricing was not smoothed out? Thank you in advance for your help.
Yes your soap will be safe to use as long if it riced. It just may be a little rougher looking of a texture when you cut into it. If you don’t like the look you can also rebatch the soap to make it more consistent once it has hardened enough to grate.
How to Make Rebatch Soap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YcCV0AWutw
Phew! Thank you for the info and link! I’ll take a look.
I was wondering if you have ever tried to but sterling silver jewelry in soap. I’m trying to figure out if the jewelry will tarnish while in the soap.
I would guess it would tarnish but you can always put it in something like a lip balm container to keep it safe: https://www.brambleberry.com/Non-stackable-Clear-Lip-Butter-Pots-P3022.aspx
Hi, I was just wondering if there is somewhere where I can ask questions about the products you sell. I’m sorry if I’m asking in the wrong place. Also I can’t see what I’m typing. I don’t know what’s up with that. I do however love the app otherwise. It’s amazing that I can just go to an app and solve my soaping problems quickly!
That’s strange! You can email us for help at [email protected]
I have a question about making spray perfumes.
I have Caprylic/Capric Triglycerides I was going to use, but I also have have some cyclomethicone. Can I mix the 2 for a light but slightly “drier” spray perfume, like an “after shower” body spray? I have used the cyclomethicone as a perfume alone, but though the oil would give it a bit more of a body oil feel without the entire thing being too oily.
I also have some Isopropyl Myristate – I bought both of these ingredients for a project i never made, so wondering what else to use them in to use them up as they are from 2017 and I don’t know how long they can last. Is there a big difference in feel and usage for these?
We haven’t tried mixing both of those together, so definitely do a small test batch first to make sure you like the results. There is a difference in the way they feel on skin, you’ll have to decide if you like the way it feels when both are combined.
How do I calculated the proper amount of fragrance oil to add to the bear oil base? The fragrance calculator doesn’t have an option for this. Please help! Thank you!
Use the ‘lotion’ setting on our fragrance calculator for beard oil base – since they are both leave-on products, the usage rate will be the same. Since your product will be so close to the nose, you may want to stick with the ‘light’ or ‘medium’ setting.
I sent an Email But, Will try to post it here. Does your fragrance oils contain Paraben, DEA, DBP, DMP, DEP, Formaldehyde, Polethylene Glycol, Parfum, sodium laureth sulfate, siloxane? I get this Question alot. I will still use your products but i want to be 100 percent honest with my clients many of which are cancer patients.
Thank you, Jess
Hi there Jessica, there are trade secret laws at play here. We do have documents for common known allergens in any given fragrance oil, and we’d be happy to supply you with those upon request. Just email your order number and request to [email protected]
sent you guys an email also but just curious:
I’m trying to figure out why my soap after 3 weeks to 6 weeks of cure will still have a Trace scent of lye; no matter what essential oils I use.👎 for instance my most recent peppermint batch smells like peppermint but I can also smell the lye every time I wash my hands with it and it is not lye heavy for there is no zap during the tongue test.
any info you can give to enlighten me on what may be happening would be much appreciated!💙 thank you.
It sounds like could still be Lye heavy.
Find out more about checking and troubleshooting lye heavy soap here: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/troubleshooting-lye-heavy-soap/
Hello team!
I just read the post on water reduction in cold process soap, and I want to try it. I am wondering though – when I am working with my normal recipe, which is let’s say 5 lbs, if I do a water reduction, will it make less soap? Should I ocrease the recipe to make up for that?
Thanks!
Using a water discount will not make less soap. Your soap will harden up faster though. This post might help clear things up: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/water-discounting-cold-process-soap-how-why/
Thanks Terah foryour guidance with my international order!
Hola equipo de Blamberry,hize un jabon con aceites de oliva 1400g y coco308g,avena en polvo 60g,sal marina 160g,sosa 229 y agua 560g.pasaron 40 dias y se esta desmoronando.Que hize mal?
Crumbling is normal when you’re trying to cut salt soap. You said it didn’t start drying out until 40 days later?
I made Honey Oatmeal soap with ground oatmeal and real honey, I put it in the fridge to process! it was great has a terrific smell- after a few weeks I started getting large powdery white spots on the bottom of the soap… could you please tell me what is causing the spots? I have not had the spots on any of my other soaps.
Do you have a photo of the spots? That would be really helpful. You can email those to [email protected] or message us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BrambleBerry/
Hello Brambleberry team!
I’m looking for some input. I’ve been making cold procsss soap for a few years now and never really had any problems. I’ve been following the same recipe and have always had great success. So I decided to make 6 different 5 lb batches of cp soap using your berrywine fragrance oil to use as party favors for my wedding in August. I made it in late March early April, off and on when I had time on my days off so it would have time to cure and dry out well before the wedding. I kept it upstairs in a bright room, open to the air. When I checked on it today I noticed two of the batches have yellowed horribly and are kind of oily and seepy for lack of a better word. I’m pretty devastated as I’ve never had this happen except for really old bars of soap. I’m wondering if the light or the fact that the room has been really hot now that it’s summer may have been a factor? I also may have used olive oil that I’ve had for awhile. I plan on making two new batches to make up for this but was hoping for any thoughts as to what I did wrong this time.
Thanks in advance!
I’m wondering if it’s the olive oil – it sounds like it may be past its shelf life. Does it have an off smell, sort of like Playdough? That happens when the soap develops rancidity: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/shelf-life-bath-products-ingredients-rancidity-vs-mold/
Yeah some of the bars have a plasticy kind of smell. That’s what I get for not paying attention to my oil.
That definitely sounds like rancidity – fresh olive oil will help.
This post has more on rancidity/dreaded orange spots: https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/dreaded-orange-spots/
Hello Bramble Berry team,
I just made my first batch of soap, and I believe that I made some beginner’s mistakes. I was following the recipe down to a T, until I decided to add some essential oils which were not in the recipe that I created. I believe that their addition caused acceleration. Howbeit, I managed to get the mixture into the mold nicely despite its pudding like consistency.
My questions are:
Do fragrance and essential oils have saponification values, and should they be included when formulating a recipe?
Due to the acceleration, will my soap be okay to use after it has properly cured?
I also noticed from touching the mold, that my soap feels mildly warm as it is curing. Is that normal?
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I have really enjoyed your products.
Fragrance and essential oils are additives, so they don’t need to be calculated into your main oils. Just enter the total weight of the soap into the Fragrance Calculator to find out how much to add: http://www.brambleberry.com/Pages/Fragrance-Calculator.aspx
The soap should be just fine to use. If you notice any separation, let me know.
Soap heating up in the mold is normal – it’s called gel phase. Some makers cover their soap with a blanket or towel to force gel phase because it makes the colors more bright. Others leave the soap at room temperature or put it in the fridge to stop it. Whatever you choose is personal preference – you may try both ways to see what you think.
Learn more about gel phase here: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/gel-phase/
And this post talks about how to get gel phase or avoid it: http://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/when-to-insulate-handmade-soap/
The soap appears to be fine, it is only mildly opaque from the gel phase. Thank you for your help. I can’t wait to use it.
You’re welcome, enjoy.
Oh that Chloe has saved my tail a couple times 🙂 Thank you team!
Absolutely, thanks for reading Diana.
It’s good to see some of the team. Matt: I LOVE your style. I’m extremely fortunate to be able to wear shorts to work as long as they are loose and not too short and I absolute LOVE the wild, oversized Hawaiian shirts. We must have some of the same blood flowing through our veins!
Thanks for your kind comment Eric!