How to Make Soap to Sell: A Step-by-Step Guide

While soap-making might start as a hobby, it offers a unique opportunity to blend creativity with practicality—and build a profitable business.

You’ll produce a product that’s always in demand. Whether you’re looking to satisfy your creativity or tap into a thriving market, soap-making is an excellent choice.

Sold on the idea? Below, learn everything from the basics of crafting your first bar to strategies for transforming your newfound skill into a profitable home business. 

What is soap-making?

Soap-making combines natural oils or fats with an alkali (typically lye), in a process called saponification. This reaction forms soap, which you can customize with additives like fragrances and colors.

Key soap-making steps include:

1. Mixing: Combine oils with a lye solution to start the saponification process.
2. Molding: Pour the mixture into molds and leave it to set.
3. Curing: Cure the soap for several weeks to harden, completing the chemical process.

The benefits of starting a homemade soap business

A soap business combines art, science, and your personal flair, making it a fulfilling and potentially profitable venture. 

Thinking about diving into selling soaps? Here’s why it’s a smart move:

• High demand: Soap is a daily necessity for everyone, ensuring a steady market demand. Plus, the growing interest in artisanal, handcrafted products makes it a timely choice.
• Creativity and branding: Soap-making allows for creativity––from scents and colors to shapes and innovative packaging. You can create a unique brand identity that stands out in the market.
• Eco-friendly and health-conscious: Consumers want natural, eco-friendly products. Handmade soaps with natural ingredients cater to this need, appealing to conscious customers.
• Profitability: The cost of materials is relatively low compared to the premium price consumers are willing to pay for handcrafted soaps. With the ability to start small and scale up, soap-making can be profitable.
• Flexibility: This business can start as a home-based operation, allowing for a flexible schedule and lower overhead costs. It’s perfect for entrepreneurs who want to balance their work and personal life.
• Community connection: Handmade soaps can be a hit at local markets and events, helping you build a strong community presence and brand loyalty.
• Online sales potential: Soap is easy to package and ship, making it an excellent product for online sales and for expanding your reach beyond local customers.

Is a handmade soap business profitable?

Yes. Most artisan soap-makers earn gross profit margins between 25% and 50%, with an average of 40%. A single bar typically costs $1–$3 to produce, but can retail for $6–$12.

Global demand for soap continues to rise. Industry forecasts project the global soap market will reach $66.5 billion by 2032, driven by heightened hygiene awareness and growing consumer preference for natural, sustainably packaged products. 

With low startup costs and plenty of room to scale, a handmade soap venture can turn creativity into a dependable income stream. Want to run your own numbers? Try the built-in Shopify profit-margin calculator to see how pricing and volume affect your bottom line.

Creating your soap business plan

Identify your target market and niche

Knowing who will buy your soap helps you determine pricing and retail strategy. Start your business plan by creating buyer personas that include details such as age, income, preferred shopping channel, and pain points.

Some segments that work for soap include:

• Eco-conscious shoppers who value low-waste packaging and plant-based formulas
• Clean-beauty enthusiasts who want certified natural and organic ingredients 
• Functional skincare fans looking for additives like charcoal, oatmeal, or aloe

Choose a single audience to start with and speak directly to them with your branding and marketing. Perhaps you envision a young professional who orders everything on her phone at lunch, or a parent who shops weekend farmers markets for plastic-free household staples. 

Give each persona a name, a brief backstory, and one pain point your soap can fix.

💡Tip: Use Shopify’s customer reports to validate these personas once you have first-party data.

Defining your unique selling proposition

You must offer shoppers a reason to buy your soap instead of the bar right next to it. This is your unique selling proposition (USP), which is based on the market research you’ve conducted. 

Consider developing your USP using these criteria:

• Ingredient story: Feature a hero ingredient, like locally sourced goat's milk.
• Sensory signature: Claim a scent profile customers will remember, like a vanilla amber bar. 
• Proof of positive impact: Quantify the good you do, like using plastic-free packaging. 

An example of a USP could be:

Ultra gentle, vitamin-rich goat milk soap wrapped in compostable paper.

Experimenting with different scents and colors 

The aroma and visual appeal of your soap make the first impressions with your customers. Experimenting with various scents and colors can help you find combinations that resonate with your audience. Consider the following:

• Seasonal themes: For instance, think warm cinnamon scents in autumn or floral tones in spring.
• Color psychology: Use colors to evoke emotions or themes, like calming blues or energizing oranges.
• Essential oil blends: Mix essential oils to create signature scents.

Adding unique ingredients for special soap varieties 

Incorporating special ingredients not only adds distinctiveness, but also caters to specific customer needs. Think about:

• Natural exfoliants: Ingredients like oatmeal, poppy seeds, or coffee grounds
• Skin benefits: Additives like aloe vera or goat’s milk for their nourishing properties
• Specialty oils: Argan, jojoba, or almond oil for luxury soap lines

Designing attractive soap packaging

Your packaging is a powerful tool for branding. and can significantly influence purchasing decisions. Focus on:

• Eco-friendly materials: Sustainability is a growing concern among consumers.
• Branding consistency: Ensure your packaging reflects your brand’s ethos and aesthetic.
• Practicality and protection: While aesthetics matter, the packaging should also protect the soap and maintain its quality.

The key to creating marketable soap products lies in understanding your audience and continually innovating to meet and exceed customer expectations. Your soap isn’t just a cleansing product—it’s an experience, a lifestyle choice, and a reflection of your brand’s values.

Neal’s Yard Remedies uses unique packaging that’s instantly recognizable.

Sourcing suppliers and managing costs

Find suppliers you can grow with. Good wholesale soap suppliers won’t charge membership fees, rarely sell direct to consumers, and require a reseller permit before giving you prices. 

Favor partners with expert staff, inventory feeds, and simplified ordering— features you might find through a Shopify App Store supplier app.

For soaps, consider suppliers like:

• Bulk Apothecary for low minimum order quantities (MOQs) on butters, bases, and oils 
• Wholesale Supplies Plus for a range of soap supplies, from molds to colorants and fragrances 
• Bradford Soapworks for high-end private-label manufacturing 

How to make soap to sell

Ingredients:

• Fat or oil (animal or plant-based)
• Lye (also known as sodium hydroxide or caustic soda) 
• Water
• Fragrances, colorants, and other additives (optional)

Steps:

1. Gather your soap ingredients.
2. Prepare your workspace and tools.
3. Get your soap base ready.
4. Stir and combine with additives.
5. Pour your soap into molds and let it set.
6. Cure your homemade soap.
7. Unmold and cut your soap into bars.
8. Package and label your soap.

1. Gather your soap ingredients

Begin by assembling your ingredients. This includes your fats or oils, lye, water, fragrances, colorants, and any additional additives you plan to use.

Combining different oils gives your final product unique characteristics. Some oils help make your bars harder or provide a better lather. Other materials, like shea butter, provide moisturizing qualities.

Whether you’re aiming for a luxurious product or something simple and natural, these key ingredients are essential for crafting high-quality soap:

• Fats and oils: The base of every soap recipe. Common choices include coconut oil for lather, olive oil for smoothness, and palm oil for hardness. Each oil brings something special to the table, so mix and match to suit your brand.
• Lye (sodium hydroxide): The essential ingredient that converts oils into soap. Safety is crucial when handling lye, so always follow proper guidelines. 
• Water: Mix it with lye to initiate the saponification process. Distilled or spring water is best to avoid impurities. Avoid tap water, as it has an unpredictable pH and may contain trace chemicals like chlorine or fluoride which can bind with lye and oils, reducing the effectiveness of the saponification process and causing discoloration or an unpleasant smell.
• Glycerin base: Grab a bulk amount from a site like Soap Artisan, Naturally Balmy, Craftiviti, or even Etsy.
• Stir sticks: Available from almost any grocery store or craft store.
• Rubbing alcohol: Pharmacies, dollar stores, and bulk retailers commonly carry this.
• Microwave-safe containers: Kitchen suppliers or craft stores carry these.
• Fragrances and essential (skin-safe) oils: These give your soap its signature scent. From calming lavender to refreshing citrus, pick fragrances that align with your brand’s image.
• Colorants: Whether natural or synthetic, colorants add visual appeal to your soap. Natural options include clays and plant extracts.
• Additives: Ingredients like aloe vera, oatmeal, or honey can add special properties, like moisturizing or exfoliating.
• Preservatives: If you’re adding ingredients like milk or fruit purees, you might need a preservative to extend the shelf life of your soap.

Choosing the right ingredients defines the quality of your soap and your brand. Think about what each ingredient means for your customers and how they align with your store’s values, like sustainability, luxury, or health-consciousness. 

2. Prepare your workspace and tools

Ensure your workspace is clean, organized, and well-ventilated. Lay out all your tools and ingredients for easy access. Safety is paramount, so wear protective gloves and goggles.

Having the right tools also makes the process smoother and ensures the safety and quality of your soap products. Here’s what you’ll need in your workspace: 

• Safety gear: Always wear chemical-resistant gloves and goggles to protect your skin and eyes from lye, as it’s extremely corrosive and can burn your skin or cause blindness.
• Digital scale: Precision is key in soap-making. A digital scale ensures accurate measurements of ingredients.
• Stainless steel pot: Use this to melt your oils and mix them with lye. You can also use a heat-resistant glass container, such as Pyrex or certain high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polypropylene (No. 5) containers, to mix ingredients. Avoid aluminum and cheaper plastic containers, as they react with lye and crack or melt when exposed to high temperatures.
• Thermometer: Temperature control is crucial. A thermometer helps you check the temperature of your lye and oils.
• Immersion blender: This speeds up the saponification process and helps achieve “trace” faster.
• Silicone spatulas: These are great for stirring and scraping out every bit of soap mixture.
• Soap molds: These come in various shapes and sizes. Silicone molds are popular for easy removal of the soap.
• Measuring cups and spoons: Use these to measure smaller amounts of additives like fragrances or colors.
• pH test strips: Use these to check the acidity (pH level) of your soap to ensure it’s skin-friendly.
• Cooling rack: You’ll need one for air circulation around your soap as it cures. 
• Sharp, non-serrated knife or multi-bar cutter: Use one to achieve perfectly straight bars. 

Investing in these tools is the first step toward crafting unique, high-quality soaps that set your store apart. The quality of your tools directly affects the quality of your soaps, so choose wisely!

3. Get your soap base ready

If you’re using a melt-and-pour base, simply melt the ingredients in a microwave-safe container, a double boiler, or slow cooker (crockpot) to heat the soap, and then set it aside to cool.

If you’re using a glycerin base, cut it into small chunks, place them in your microwave-safe container, and microwave for 30 seconds.

For cold-process soap-making, carefully mix your lye into water until it’s dissolved before combining it with your oils. Then, check the temperature of both solutions.

💡Safety tip: Always add the lye into the water, not the other way around, or the mixture will fizz and bubble, potentially burning your skin. The solution will heat up and is corrosive, so be sure to set it aside to cool in a safe place.

4. Stir and combine with additives

Once your base is ready, add in your fragrances, colorants, and any other additives at room temperature. Oils and lye don’t naturally combine, so stir the mixture thoroughly to create an even distribution of all ingredients and ensure they’ve reached emulsion.

While those ingredients are combining, use a spray bottle to spritz rubbing alcohol into your molds to prevent any bubbles from forming in your bars of soap.

5. Pour your soap into molds and let it set

Carefully pour the soap mixture into molds. Tap the molds gently to remove any air bubbles. If you like, you can insulate the molds to help the soap stay warm throughout the saponification reaction and prevent it from cooling too fast and cracking. When the bars have hardened, pop them out of the molds. From here, simply “lather, rinse, and repeat.”

6. Cure your homemade soap

For cold-process soap, you need to cure it, allowing it to rest in a dry, ventilated area for about four to six weeks, depending on your recipe. Some homemade soaps benefit from a longer cure of around three months. During curing, the water in the bars evaporates, and the soap fully saponifies. The result is a harder, milder product with a smoother texture, enhanced color and fragrance, and better lather.

7. Unmold and cut your soap into bars

Once the soap has set or cured, gently remove the bars from the molds. If you have larger blocks, use a soap cutter or a knife to cut them into bars.

8. Package and label your soap

Wrap your soap bars to protect them from moisture and dust. Clearly label them with your brand and important details, including ingredients, bar size/weight, usage instructions, and contact information. Here’s an example:

Handmade soap legal and safety requirements

FDA regulations and the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA)

In the US, there are specific licensing requirements for selling soap. Some guidelines you’ll need to follow include: 

• Disclose all ingredients: The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act (MoCRA) requires a full ingredient list for all “cosmetic products.” Not all soaps fall under this category, but you should check to see if yours do. 
• Include cautionary labels: The FHSA states that any product containing a “hazardous substance” must include a cautionary label warning of potential hazards, such as “keep out of reach of children.” Check to make sure your soaps don’t include ingredients that fall under that category. 
• “True soaps”: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) regulates true soaps, as deemed by the FDA, checking for “nonvolatile matter” in the ingredients, and verifying which ingredients cause the cleaning action, and how they are intended to be used. For example, soap should be labeled, sold, and represented only as soap, without any promises regarding moisturizing, smell, deodorizing the body, treating skin conditions (like acne or eczema), or killing germs.

Under MoCRA, enacted in 2022, every US cosmetic facility (kitchens included) must now register with the FDA and list its products. The first compliance deadline was July 1, 2024, with renewals due every two years thereafter.

Product liability insurance

Even a pure soap formula can trigger an allergy. Many craft fairs and wholesale buyers demand proof of insurance, too. A homemade soap insurance policy that bundles general and product liability coverage of up to $2 million costs roughly $390 to $510 per year. 

Good manufacturing practices (GMP) for home crafters

Follow FDA GMP guidelines to keep your bars free of contamination and FDA-compliant:

• Work on clean, dedicated surfaces and sanitize tools before each batch.
• Record every lot number and weigh ingredients precisely to enable recalls.
• Store lye, oils, and finished soap separately to control humidity during the curing process.
• Create a written standard operating procedure (SOP), covering allergen control, pest prevention, and batch-testing pH.

How to price your homemade soap for profit

Calculate your cost of goods sold (COGS)

Add up every direct expense involved in making a batch of soap. Consider oils, lye, scent, colorants, packaging, and a fair hourly rate for your labor. Then, divide by the number of bars you cut. Most makers who buy ingredients in 5- to 10-pound lots land between $1 and $3 per bar.

Research competitors and perceived value

Scan Etsy, Instagram shops, and local boutiques for bars similar in size and story. Note the high and low end of the price range, read reviews to learn what customers praise or complain about, and ask yourself where your bar fits. 

If you use certified organic oils, zero-waste wraps, or hero ingredients like goat milk, you can confidently anchor at the top of that range because the perceived benefit matches the premium.

A simple pricing formula to get started

Use a two-tier approach that leaves room for wholesale:

• Retail (DTC): COGS × 4, which covers marketing expenses and still yields roughly 45% gross margin
• Wholesale: COGS × 2.5, which gives retailers a 50% markup while you maintain a healthy margin

Review the numbers each quarter. If ingredient costs drop, keep prices steady and bank the extra profit. If demand surges, test small upward nudges in price to find your ceiling.

Pricing can make or break your profitability. For a deeper dive into pricing strategies, check out Shopify’s guide on how to price your product.

How to sell your handmade soap

Create an online store

To get in front of a larger audience, an online store is essential. Here’s how to set yours up for success:

• User-friendly design: Create a clean, navigable, and visually appealing website.
• High-quality product images: Showcase your soaps with professional-grade product photos.
• SEO: Use relevant keywords and descriptions to improve your site’s visibility.
• Customer engagement: Include features like product reviews, blogs, and newsletters.

Known for their natural, vegan, and cruelty-free skincare products, Herbivore Botanicals promotes a range of soaps made with organic ingredients on their site.

Promote your soap on social media

Social media is a powerful tool for reaching and engaging with your audience. Here’s how to use it effectively:

• Consistent branding: Maintain a consistent style and tone across all platforms.
• Engaging content: Share behind-the-scenes looks, customer testimonials, and soap-making processes.
• Regular posting: Keep your brand top of mind with frequent updates.
• Cross-promotion: Use multiple platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok to reach different audiences.

LEND Handmade Soaps leverages Instagram Reels and TikTok videos to promote and advertise their business and products.

In addition to social media, consider other platforms like local markets, popup shops, and collaborations with other local businesses to expand your reach.

Effective marketing involves storytelling. Your brand’s story, values, and the uniqueness of your product should be at the heart of all your marketing efforts.

Integrate omnichannel selling

In addition to selling your soap at retail stores and through your own online shop, you can take it on the road to fairs, markets, and festivals. Soap is easy to transport and display, so it’s great for event selling and temporary retail. 

Shopify POS can hit the road with you, syncing data from your online and retail sales channels, so you have it all in one place. Plus, it lets you process payments and collect customer data. 

👉 Learn how Starlight Knitting Society saves over 20 hours per week with Shopify POS.

Engage with customers

Whether you’re selling soap online, at a farmers market, or at a crafts fair, you’ll need to engage with customers to nurture sales. Use customer data to:

• Build detailed customer segments
• Send relevant campaigns at each touchpoint
• Create localized promotions around key events or holidays in different regions
• Offer personalized product recommendations based on previous purchases
• Improve products and introduce new ideas based on customer preferences

Then, create a customer loyalty program to reward repeat customers with exclusive offers, special discounts, or early access to new products, fostering deeper loyalty and increasing retention. 

For example, if your customers shop through your online store, give them points for signing up, following you on social media, or for every dollar they spend. Then, encourage them to redeem points for handmade soaps or other products you offer.

Sell on marketplaces 

Want to grow your customer base and sell online more effectively? You can sell soap through online marketplaces like Etsy and Amazon. 

Even better, get yourself listed on wholesale marketplaces like Faire, Orderchamp, or Creoate, to sell to independent retailers. Faire’s sales channel, for instance, lets you integrate your Shopify account, sell products wholesale, and manage everything through your Shopify admin. 

When you receive an order on Faire, the order automatically syncs to Shopify, and you can fulfill it directly through your Shopify admin. This streamlines your operations and fulfillment and lets you sell wholesale alongside other strategies.

Unify inventory management 

As your soap-making business grows, you’ll need an efficient, centralized system to organize your stock, reduce inventory costs, maintain consistent stock levels, and speed up order fulfillment. 

Shopify automatically syncs your stock quantities as you receive, sell, return, or exchange products. This unifies inventory management, giving you a single view of inventory, orders, and customer data, so you can:

• Track what’s happening across your business in real time
• Enhance the customer experience across multiple sales channels, storefronts, and locations
• Unlock new ways to harness customer data, manage orders, reduce the risk of lost sales, and personalize the customer journey

Start a profitable soap-making business

By following this guide, you can turn your soap-making hobby into a lucrative business. Start by mastering the basics of soap-making and gathering quality supplies. Develop unique products with appealing scents, colors, and ingredients, and ensure your packaging reflects your brand. 

Next, create an online presence, adopt smart pricing strategies, and actively promote your products on social media. Finally, remember to always adapt to market trends and customer feedback.