Archive for ◊ July, 2009 ◊

31 Jul 2009 Find Out What No One Told You About Soap Making That Might Get You In Trouble

The matter of soap making legislation often appears very daunting for the individual and a lot of people are put off starting their own soap making business as a result of this. In realityThe truth is, the whole process is nothing more than a paper trail to prove that your whole melt and pour soap making process, ingredients, recipes and soap are safe. If there are any problems, they can be traced back to you and if necessary to a particular ingredient or batch. It is simply an audit system.

The law is not there to trip you up or catch you out, but simply to protect you and the consumer, i.e. your customer. It’s not enough to just know how to make soap, you just need to show that your products have been produced from a safe recipe, with good quality, reputable, safe ingredients, in a suitable environment. You need to be able to ensure, and to prove that you have not knowingly used any process, or ingredients which could cause any hurt or side effects to your customers.

To meet these requirements you need to produce evidence that you used a consistent method and recipe, using the appropriate ingredients, in a clean and hygienic environment. You need to provide the following information about your ingredients:

- Details of Supplier
- Batch number of ingredients
- MSDS Sheets
- Chemical Analysis Sheets
- Gas Chromatography for essential oils
- IFRA certificates for fragrances

Each and every one of the above confirm that your ingredients reach a safe standard for cosmetic use.

You will need to provide your recipe, which will include ingredients, quantities and the method used to make your soap. You will need to show that you consistently stick to to a Good Manufacturing Practice and you will have to supply details of this practice.

You will need to set up a Quality Control System which will involve a tracking system so that if something goes wrong you can go back and identify exactly when the soap was created, what ingredients were used and which suppliers they were from. This will enable you to check all the other soaps that were made in the same batch to make certain there are no issues with them.

Once you have done all of the above you have to to create a PIP – a Product Information Pack. This will include all of the above information and will need to be submitted to a chemist who is qualified to certify your soap. For a fee, he or she will provide you with the necessary certification for your soap. He or she will be able to notify you about all aspects of the certification process, so it is worth contacting one early on in the process as support from them could save you a lot of time and energy. Much of this information exchange can be done by email these days, saving you time.

You will also have to label your soaps, describing your ingredients in the proportions in which they are included in your recipe, starting with the largest. The ingredients must be listed in INCI format. INCI stands for International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients and is an Internaional naming system which standardises the names so that they are internationally recognised. The requirements for precisely what information you need to show on your labels changes from time to time, so it is best to discover what the up to date legal requirements are before designing your labels and puting them on all your soaps!!

Trading Standards also oblige you to sell soap by weight. There are two ways to do this – by average weight or by minimum weight. You need to talk about this with your local Trading Standards Officer as some have a preference for one method, and some the other. You need to display the weight either on the bar of soap itself, or at the point of sale. This means that if you want to sell your soap by the slice, you can, for example, show the price by the 100g and then cut off slices, weigh them and price accordingly. Otherwise you can precut and wrap your soap and price it individually.

You will need to use accurate measuring scales for this. Digital kitchen scales are not considered accurate enough for this, so it is something to discuss with Trading Standards how best to do this.

You will usually find that if you talk to your local Trading Standards Officer, they will be only too willing to help you, as they like people who want to adhere to the law and they should be able to steer you in the proper direction to comply with the requirements.

Two more things that I’ve listed last, but are very important. You should never make any therapeutic claims on your products. You can only do this if you have scientific research to back up your claim!! There are many descriptive words you can use to sell your products, without making claims. It is worth discussing this issue with the cosmetic chemist as they can advise you.

You will also need to get some public liability insurance in case someone has a reaction to your product, or, if you are having a physical sales point, rather than selling over the internet, you should be be covered in case someone injures themselves at your shop or stall.

So, once you have completed your paperwork and submitted it to the chemist, you can have fun wrapping and naming your products, so that you are ready to get going as soon as your products have been certified.

30 Jul 2009 About Scrapbooking
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Scrapbooking is the art of developing unique and personalised books packed with your memories. These books begin as a simple book to which you can add photos, quotes and journaling. You can design any outline you want and add paper cut outs and other trimmings to enhance your designs.

You can get scrapbooking supplies from most decent art shops or online. These supplies include plain albums, layout designs, paper cut outs, and trimmings made of an assortment of materials. You can improvise by collecting your own embellishments, for example seashells, leaves, even show tickets or other memorabilia.

Once you have collected your photos and other items you will need to decide on the layouts of your pages. You can decide on separate sketches for each page or stick to a shared theme. You can then layout your content and change it around until you are pleased with it. Then fix the whole thing down with paste and leave to dry.

You can construct scrapbooks for yourself picking themes that are of importance to you such as your family or your baby’s 1st year. You can assemble scrapbooks as presents for other people they make wonderful wedding or Christening presents.

You can even develop into a freelance scrapbooker and produce scrapbooks as a professional service for other people. At least it is a pleasant and gratifying hobby, but if you wanted, it could turn into a fabulous profession.

About Digital Scrap Booking

Digital scrapbooking as the name suggests is the formation of digital scrapbooks intended for printing. You can begin to utilize a graphic design software for example Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop to make outlines which include photos, quotes, journaling, and graphical trimmings.

Digital scrapbooks can either be saved online or else on CD-ROM so friends and family can take a look or else be printed out and stuck into an album. You could additionally design your own digital scrapbook for professional print using one of the many internet photo printing services which retail photobook albums.

There is also massive scope for building a small business as a freelance digital scrapbooker - particularly in the wedding albums & new baby markets.

A few people prefer to use hands on traditional scrapbooking methods which is a great deal more tactile style. Nevertheless digital scrapbooking can award a more skilled finish to a project and what’s more has the extra advantage of always being saved on hard disk in the event that a backup copy is required.

Hybrid Scrapbooking

Hybrid scrapbooking produces the best of both methods using a mix of both traditional and digital scrapbooking.

For example an excellent way of achieving a really professional finish is by utilizing an online photo printing service to make a photo book which contains all of your photos and journaling in a layout that you generate online. Once you receive your printed photo book you can then start to insert your own page titles, cut outs and embellishments.

This technique is especially good if you have not yet printed out your photos, moreover it suits a wide collection of scrapbookers as it incorporates all of the best methods available and leaves you with a really expert looking long-lasting scrapbook.

For more info and free tutorials visit Start Scrapbooking.

Read competent tips to heirloom organic seeds - this is your personal guide.

30 Jul 2009 Gift For Babies

Tired of finding for that ideal baby present for somebody special? Fear no more! Here is the summing up on where and how to have the most ideal baby gift of all time. As I have searched the internet for the best sites that would answer my demand, here are the more user-friendly sites that I discover to grant the best baby present thoughts around.

As with Linus in Peanuts, a baby cover is an ideal baby shower gift to give that is full of love and consideration. Having it personalized is even better. For those with more formal tastes and preferences, monogrammed baby linen would give that senses of tradition. While those with eclectic tastes and full of venturous spirit, baby shower present baskets, wall art for the nursery room, personalized baby gift items are just some of the baby gift ideas that you could give. Each baby present suggestion can be found in best-baby-gift-guide.com where they give a neat description to every item.

Baby gift baskets come in all shapes and sizes and they speak of your consideration for setting it all together. Baby gift baskets are so unusual because you can personalize it, make it green or a brown basket depending on the sex of the baby, you can make a foodie basket, or a nutrient baby basket or even a baby bath gift basket. There are many ideas you can think of to work it an unique baby present.

Another good site that you can visit is babyshowers.info where they list all the potential items and other required equipment that the baby might perhaps need. This website narrows down your options since it would restrain you to explore for particulars that are within your budget for those budget conscious spenders. Each product is under a heading such as clothing, baby’s room, bedding, meal time, play time, keepsake, jeweler and other particulars. If you have the money, why not begin the baby in a starter savings account? The receiving parents would surely take account this baby present that would start their baby in his or her million dollar goal at 12 years old!

A click at enactwi.org for those who are into the environment or into healthy stuff suggests some baby gift ideas you can grant as they are simple to make since the stuffs used are very open in shops and groceries.

Visit kiddiegiftidea.com to discover an extensive choice of baby gift items that you can never go wrong with. Its product index carries to more than 2 pages to view all it’s proposing so there are many items to pick out from.

Baby gifts are the best when the gift-giver swarmed love and care to grant that very special baby present. It’s not that difficult to look and seek for baby gifts as some would think. It is just a matter of creativity and time to think what the baby might want or use in the future. There are other sites and links that you can visit and discover other great thoughts for that ideal baby gift to give away. There are also blogs of parents that provide not only present thoughts but other interests involving on how to take care of your baby better.
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