The first step to preparing your products for shipment is to evaluate what you are shipping. Are your products delicate, like bath bombs? Are they heat sensitive, like balms or lotions? Or maybe they are an awkward shape like soapy cupcakes. All of these factors will affect how your items are packed and shipped.

Then, it’s time to consider the packaging materials and what shipping service you’d like to use. Products can be shipped in a wide variety of containers. In fact, there are so many different options…it can be a little overwhelming! First, evaluate the package. How much product are you shipping? How much does it weigh? What shape are the items? For example, if you’re shipping one single bar of soap, your package strategy is going to be very different than if you are shipping a candle or bath bomb. How large and heavy your package is may help you decide on what type of shipping carrier to use, as they all provide different services depending on the size and distance of your package.

How large and heavy your items are will greatly affect how they are shipped. For smaller, sturdier items like cold process soap, an envelope can work well.

Choosing Your Shipping Service
What is the perfect shipping service? This is an impossible question to answer as there are so many variables to consider. Everything from package size, to location, all the way down to the driver that makes the delivery will determine which shipping service would be the best. Unfortunately, it is impossible for you to know if the UPS driver has been awarded Driver of the Year 5 years in a row, or will just throw the package over the fence for the dog to chew on (UPS has 450,000 employees after all). Because things don’t always go as planned, it’s important to ship early and package your items securely just in case.

One of the most popular shipping options for small businesses and smaller packages (under 5 pounds) is the United States Postal Service. In particular, USPS makes it easy with wide array of Priority Mail Boxes for free. Sizes range from envelopes to large boxes, and feature flat rate pricing (there are size restrictions which make this a limited option). FedEx and UPS are also popular choices, especially if you are shipping very large packages. Both UPS and FedEx also offer free shipping materials for those who use their service. Other things to keep in mind when selecting a shipping method are insurance, confirmation and tracking options.

To help find the right shipping option and carrier for you, check out the links below! If you sell on Etsy, they have some great tips for shipping success here.

• USPS Mail & Shipping Services
• USPS Service Postage Price Calculator
• FedEx Shipping Rates
• UPS Shipping Time and Cost

Choosing Your Package Materials
Selecting a shipping service and materials goes hand in hand, as many carriers provide free materials along with their service. But, it may be helpful to go over the two big options: boxes and envelopes.

There are a wide variety of shipping services and package material options including envelopes and boxes.

• Envelopes: Shipping your items in an envelope is a great option for small, durable packages. Envelopes usually feature a small amount of bubble wrap inside to provide padding, but don’t have a lot of space for added padding materials. Envelopes tend to work best for bars of soap because they are flat and sturdy. Envelopes are also suitable for small and durable items like lip balm and cosmetics. It’s possible to place larger items such as jars and bottles, just make sure the packaging is sturdy (glass is not recommended).
• Boxes: If your items are larger or unable to lay flat, a box is a better option than an envelope. They are also better suited for delicate items such as bath bombs, because they can be filled with plenty of padding materials (bubble wrap, packaging peanuts, etc) to keep the items from moving within the box. Choose a box that is slightly larger than the item to make room for packing material. Keep the items safe by placing them in the center of a sturdy box and taping the box securely. Keep in mind that your box will not remain upright throughout the shipping process, so make sure it is taped well.

Additional packing materials such as bubble wrap prevent your products from bouncing around within the box. These materials are also referred to as “loose fill,” as they fill up empty space within a box. Loose fill options vary in terms of effectiveness and price, so it’s important to consider the best option for you. Click here to read UPS’s “Loose Fill” tips. Typically 1″ minimum between the box and the products is needed to ensure products arrive at their destination in tact. You’ll want to bubble wrap + loose fill; not just one or the other. Items shift a lot in transit so bubble wrap can be your last line of defense.

Packing peanuts are a popular loose fill material that helps absorbs shock and prevent the items from moving within the box.

Bubble wrap is one of the most economical options, and works great if you’re shipping items in a box with little extra space. Packing peanuts are another cost effective option and work well for a wide variety of box shapes and sizes. In particular, packing peanuts are great for filling extra space within a box to absorb shock. The downside to packing peanuts is they can get a little messy and sometime, are not recyclable. Below is a breakdown of some of the most popular options.

Bubble Wrap

• Pros: Cost effective, easy to use, easy to cleanup, easy to wrap around products, works especially well for square/uniform shaped items, good for lightweight items
• Cons: Not very effective for filling extra space within a box

Packing Peanuts

• Pros: Cost effective, great for filling empty space within a box, absorbs shock within a box, good for lightweight items
• Cons: Messy, may not be effective for extremely heavy packages. If using recyclable or biodegradable packing peanuts, peanuts will melt if any leaks happen during package transit.

Foam Packaging

• Pros: Form fitting to individual items, good for a variety of different shapes, high level of protection, good for heavier items
• Cons: Can be expensive and foam machines have high set-up costs.

Once you have your box and loose fill material, it’s time to put it all together! First, fill the bottom of the box with a little bit of fill material, at least 1″ thick. Place the item in the center, and cover with more fill material until it’s well cushioned in the box. For most items, you will want to wrap them in a protective material such as bubble wrap or paper. This is particularly true for extremely delicate items or odd shaped products (like cupcake soap!).

Wrapping your products in protective material such as bubble wrap or paper help protect them during transit.

Before securing your box with tape, give it a good shake to make sure the items inside are secure and do not move within the box. Use a sturdy plastic or reinforced paper tape to seal the center of the box. In general, duct tape is not recommended for shipping boxes as duct tape tends to peel away from porous materials like cardboard. Some prefer to be extra cautious and seal all the seams with tape. Using the tape to seal all the edges is known as the “H-tape” method, as the tape will create an “H” shape on the box’s surface.

Taping all the seams of the box with packaging tape ensure the box is securely shut.

Considering Hot and Cold Temperatures
If you’re sending your items during the holiday season, chances are you don’t need to worry about heat damaging your items. But if you’re shipping in a hot climate you may want to take extra precautions to ensure your recipients receive their items in mint condition. These steps include packing heat sensitive items with ice packs, shipping with an expedited option and performing a “ship test.” Check out the Soaping in the Summer Heat blog post for more tips on shipping items in hot temperatures.

Luckily, cold temperatures do not negatively affect homemade bath and beauty like extreme heat. Many products can freeze and thaw without major side effects. How your products react to extremely cold temperatures will depend on your unique recipe. Cured cold process soap can freeze and thaw without major problems (you may find it sweats a little). When melt and pour soap freezes and thaws, the soap may produce glycerin dew. Read more about glycerin dew (and how to prevent it) here.

Emulsified products (products made by emulsifying oil and water together, like lotion) are heat sensitive. When lotions freeze and thaw, the emulsification may break and the lotion can separate. This also applies to other emulsified products, such as heavier creams and scrubs. Oil + wax balms are also heat sensitive (this includes lip balms and lipsticks) and need more TLC for shipping during the summer than during the colder months. If your product is sensitive to humidity (such as bath bombs) you may want to include moisture absorbing silica packets in your box as well. If you’re unsure how your product will react to extremely cold temperatures, you may want to place your product in the freezer for 2-3 days and allow it to thaw at room temperature. This will give you a good idea of what will happen when your product comes in contact with cold temperatures during shipping.

Inform Your Recipients
The last piece to make sure your items safely arrive to their destination, is to inform the recipients. Packages can get left at alternative entrances such as back or side doors. This may cause the package to sit in the hot sun or rain for several days. Your recipient may prefer to have their package sent to an office space, or to a friends house where it can be received immediately. In addition, if you are selling your items that are heat or cold sensitive, you may consider encouraging your customers to choose expedited, 2-day, or overnight shipping. Customers may also be able to sign up for FedEx and UPS services that will text or email them the status of their orders and their locations.

Shipping homemade beauty products can be a little stressful. After all, you put so much hard work into making it, and want your recipients to receive them in tip-top shape. But with a little planning ahead and plenty of protective material, shipping is simple. It’s also a learning process; the more you package and ship items, the better you’ll get at it! This post only scratches the surface, and I encourage you to chat with other soapers to learn what packing and shipping techniques work best for them. In particular, the Teach Soap Forum is an amazing resource for reaching out to other soapers and small business owners.

If you have any tips or tricks for safely packaging your items, I would love to hear them. 

The post Beginner’s Guide to Packing & Shipping Handmade Beauty Products appeared first on Soap Queen.

If you have ordered from Bramble Berry recently, you may have received liquid oils or butters when you were expecting a firm texture. All solid oils and butters have a melting point where they melt from a solid into a liquid. Once the butters cool down again, they will resolidify. The quality of butters and oils does not decrease by melting and solidifying several times. But remember to always fully melt your entire container of palm oil to ensure your soap receives the proper ratio of all the fatty acids.

Average Melting Point of Common Hard Soapmaking Oils and Butters
Avocado Butter about 90° F
Cocoa Butter about 100° F
Coffee Butter about 104° F
Mango Butter about 86° F
Shea Butter about 90° F
Coconut Oil 76° F
Palm Kernel Flakes about 102° F
Palm Oil 95-97° F
Beeswax 144-147° F

Because butters and oils need to be melted before they can be made into cold process soap, let nature do some of the work for you! But, if you are not using them for soap and prefer oils and butters to remain solid, you may want to keep them in your fridge or cool place in your home to prevent melting. Below is coconut oil inside Bramble Berry’s retail store, Otion: The Soap Bar, which experienced a hot day of 81° F. As you can see, the coconut oil has started to melt due to the hot temperatures inside the store.

Heat can cause some butters such as shea, mango and cocoa to become grainy. Graininess is not an indication of poor quality, but is simply a reaction of temperature fluctuation. Butters include various fatty acids, and each acid has different melting and solidifying temperatures. Once the butter begins to cool down from a melted state, the fatty acids will begin to solidify at different temperatures. If the butter cools down slowly, the fatty acids may clump together. These clumps are the graininess that you feel on your skin. To avoid this, melted butters should be cooled quickly to help all the fatty acids solidify at the same time, which prevents them from forming clumps. If your butters arrive liquid or semi-liquid, stir or shake them up to get the fatty acids mixed back up evenly and, pop them in the freezer right away to help them cool quickly and evenly.

Tempering your butters is a great way to avoid graininess caused by temperature fluctuation.

You can also temper your butters. Tempering butters is a technique that helps prevent graininess, and keeps butters smooth. Tempering involves heating butters and maintaining a high heat for a prolonged amount of time, about one hour. This causes the fatty acids to melt completely. The product is then rapidly cooled, which results in a smoother butter. For harder butters such as mango and cocoa, slowly heat the butters to about 100° F and hold this temperature for 45-60 minutes. Shea butter should be heated to about 180° F and held for 45-60 minutes. Be careful to not overheat your butters during this process. Keeping a constant and even temperature may require you to turn the heat source on and off. A crock pot is also a popular way to temper butters. Once your butter has been tempered, pour it into an airtight container and place into the fridge to cool rapidly. Graininess in butters tends to be a more common problem during the hot summer months, because the butters may melt slightly during shipping. If you receive a butter that has melted in shipping, either toss it straight in the freezer or temper and fridge/freeze it to get rid of graininess.

If you own a small business, high temperatures can make shipping many bath and beauty products difficult. This is especially true for body butters that, when melted, change textures dramatically. Unfortunately, you can’t tell your customers to temper their already made products! There are several things you can do to help your customers receive their products in mint condition during hot summer months. The key is to communicate to your customer that the item is temperature sensitive. That way, the customer can help themselves to receive it in the best condition possible. Below are a few tips to keep your package in tip-top shape during shipping.

• Pack extremely heat sensitive products such as butters with ice packs and thermo cases to help keep products cool. Keep in mind that ice packs usually don’t last longer than three days in transit. You may choose to include the ice packs into your shipping costs. The good news is that most ice packs are reusable, and the customer can use them for other things once they receive their package.
• Shipping your package along with dry ice is another option, but keep in mind that dry ice is considered a dangerous good and requires special handling.
• Ask your customers to arrange delivery to a time and place where they can receive the package immediately. This way, their package won’t be sitting in the hot sun for hours. This might mean that they should have the packaged delivered to their office or workplace. Or, they may want to ask their neighbors, family or friends to bring the package into their home once delivered.
• If delivering a package to a hot climate (or if you live in a hot climate), encourage your customers to choose expedited, 2-day, or overnight shipping. To help limit the time the package is in transit, do not ship the items on a Friday. Instead, ship the items Monday-Wednesday to ensure the items reach the customer in time.
• Perform a “ship test.” Ship a temperature sensitive product to a friend or family member with ice packs/thermo cases and quick shipping times to see how it arrives to them. If your product is still being affected by the heat, you know it’s time to up the heat protection! If you can’t get your products to customers in the summer without them melting, you may wish to not ship some of your products in the hot summer simply to ensure the efficacy of your products.

In addition to butters and oils, your soap can be affected by the heat as well. For cold process soap, a warm room temperature can help promote gel phase. ‘Gelling’ and ‘gel phasing’ in cold process soap refers to a part of the saponification (soapmaking) process where the soap gets warm and gelatinous – up to 180 degrees. If you’d like to learn more about gel phase, check out this blog post. Gel phase helps colors appear brighter in soap, and gives it a slightly translucent and shiny look.

The number one way to promote gel phase in your soap is to insulate it to promote hotter temperatures, but this may not be necessary in the summer! Insulating cold process soap in a hot room could cause the soap to overheat, which results in an effect called alien brains. Overheating your soap does not effect the quality, and is purely aesthetic. If your area gets extremely hot during the summer, you may consider placing your soap in the fridge for the first hour after pouring. Check out the When to Insulate Handmade Soap blog post to learn more.

For melt and pour, higher temperatures can bring humidity, which causes glycerin dew. Melt and pour soap contains extra glycerin, which is a natural humectant. This glycerin allows the soap to be melted and attracts moisture from the air. This moisture accumulates on the top of the soap, and looks like sweat or dew drops on the soap. The best way to avoid glycerin dew is to wrap your melt and pour immediately after it is completely hard and cooled. This stops the soap from attracting moisture. Click here to read more about preventing glycerin dew.

It’s best to store all handmade beauty products in a cool, dark place. This can be tricky when temperatures rise. Some products can benefit by being stored in the fridge, like butters and lotions. Melt and pour and cold process soap should not be stored in the fridge, as cold process soap needs good air circulation, and the fridge can promote glycerin dew in melt and pour. Click here to learn more about how to store your handmade products.

Soaping in the summer heat can be tricky. But with the proper precautions, it’s easy to keep your products consistent throughout the year. During the summer, the Soap Lab gets extremely hot. It always has multiple fans blowing to keep temperatures as low as possible, and help the cold process soap to get good air circulation. The key is knowing your product! It can sometimes take a few seasons to really learn how it reacts to the summer heat. How do you protect your products from the rise in temperature?

The post Soaping in the Summer Heat appeared first on Soap Queen.

Soapers abroad encounter all kinds of challenges trying to obtain soapy products. International customers deal with a whole new set of rules, from international shipping restrictions to import and export regulations. If you’re an international soaper, read on to learn more about our international distributors, how to place an international order and other special circumstances and considerations.

Bramble Friends Around the World

We understand that international shipping rates aren’t always the most affordable. Luckily, we’re in contact with three other soapy companies that might be a better option for our international friends.

If you live in Australia, New Zealand or Southeast Asia: Aussie Soap Supplies is Bramble Berry’s only official distributor. Aussie carries most Bramble Berry colorants, fragrances, molds and more. Aussie also has its own learning library full of recipes and tutorials, as well as an active Facebook page.

If you live in Europe and the UK: You Wish Soap Supplies is located in the Netherlands, and it’s a great option for European soapers. You Wish carries Bramble Berry colorants, fragrances, exfoliants, soap bases and more. You can find You Wish on Facebook and Twitter.

Keep in mind that although these outlets supply Bramble Berry products, our most complete selection of products come from our flagship warehouse in Bellingham, Wash. If you do decide to order internationally from Bramble Berry, keep in mind that all shipping rates are determined by the weight and size of your package, which can be quoted by our online shopping cart. To get a quote, simply place your items in your shopping cart and enter your shipping information.

Special Considerations

The International Shipping Policies page is a great resource for international customers. Read through it thoroughly and familiarize yourself with any special considerations within your country. Some things to note:

• We are unable to ship anything to Italy or Greece, and we can’t send Russian customers any order valued over $75 USD.
• We are unable to ship any botanical products from Bramble Berry to New Zealand, Korea or Japan.
• Some colorants from Bramble Berry are unable to ship to Mexico.

The world is a very big place, and we are unable to know the intricacies and details of every country’s rules and regulations. To be totally sure you’ll receive the items in your international order, please speak to your local customs agents. You can also try Googling the shipping restrictions in your country. For European customers, the Importing Cosmetics into the EU website is a great place to start.

International customers can place orders through the shopping cart just like domestic customers, but for any special circumstances or questions, use the purple support tab located on the left side of the Bramble Berry homepage. You can also submit a ‘ticket’ through the help desk, which is the same as sending us an email.

We are so proud to support such a broad, diverse community of soapers from all over the world!

The post Soaping all over the World: Resources for International Soapers appeared first on Soap Queen.