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Soap & Cosmetic Labeling Book – Corrections to Third Edition
There are no corrections for the 3rd Edition of Soap & Cosmetic Labeling. Corrections to Second Edition: Two pages of my book Soap and Cosmetic Labeling (2nd Edition) should be corrected. If you have the book, please update your book.
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Good Manufacturing Practices – Where to Start?
If you already make a good product, then you already have the beginnings of your good manufacturing practices in place. But if you are ready to take it to the next level, where do you start?
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Labeling of In-Process Materials
Running all through Good Manufacturing Practices guidelines is the theme of label, label, label. Label incoming materials. Label containers of raw materials. Label containers of measured ingredients when making a batch. Label bulk materials ready to be packaged. In other words, label everything as you go! Why? Because if you rely on “remembering” what’s what, you are open to the very real possibility of forgetting what…
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FDA Cracking Down On Cosmetic Product Claims
Based on the warning letters the FDA sent to manufacturers of cosmetics in the last year (especially the last 4 months of 2013), the FDA is starting to crack down on some of the claims being made for cosmetics. I looked through all of the warnings for cosmetics and some of the warnings for food supplements, and made some surprising discoveries.
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FDA Final Rule on Detention of Food
On February 4, 2013, the FDA announced a final rule amending the criteria for administrative detention to prevent potentially unsafe food from reaching the marketplace. While this doesn’t apply to soap, cosmetics, forestry, or small woodland ownership (my usual blog topics), there were some issues in it on which t I just had to comment.
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Ingredient Labels for Soap
Soap can be a chameleon – a consumer commodity, a cosmetic, an insecticide or a drug. What about the ingredient declaration?
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Master Formulas – Not Just Ingredients
Master Formulas are a key part of Good Manufacturing Practices. They’re more than just a list of ingredients; they document what makes your products uniquely yours. Your Master Formulas should contain every step, trick, and technique you use to make your product—and it should be written in sufficient detail that someone with reasonable familiarity with making that type of product could follow it and end…
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Nova Studio Classes – October 14, 2012
I will be at the Nova Studio on Sunday, October 14th 2012 giving two classes; one on Soap and Cosmetic Labeling, and the other on Good Manufacturing Practices. You can see the details for the Soap and Cosmetic Labeling class here. We’ll be covering all of the basics of labeling. The class will be hands-on, and all attendees are encouraged to bring their own products…
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Calculating the Net Weight of Soap (Part 2)
In Part 1 of this series, we discussed how to calculate the net weight of your soap over time by weighing actual bars and seeing what happened to them. That works if you know where your soap will be and can rely on the fact that the environment won’t change much. If your soap may be in a retail shop somewhere, or if the environment in…
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How & Why to Keep Lot Numbers
Last week The Nova Studio posted a great post, Why You Should Care About Lot Numbers, detailing their experiences on finding out that the San Francisco Herb & Natural Food Company in Fremont, CA had a bad rodent infestation & was recalling over a dozen of their products that may have been infested with droppings. The news report on it includes a list of the recalled items; the…
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Castor Oil Toxicity?
I was recently asked about castor oil, and whether there was a need to buy “detoxified” castor oil for use in soap. I’ve used castor oil in my soap for a long time because it makes marvelous creamy lather, but I did check into the toxicity issue.
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Calculating the Net Weight of Soap (Part 1)
When you are labeling soap, one of the problems you run into is figuring out the net weight to put on the label. Since water will continue to evaporate out of the soap over time, the soap will gradually come to weigh less, even after the initial “cure time.” When the consumer is deciding whether to purchase the product, the net weight stated on the…
Helping you understand soap and cosmetic regulations — in plain English.