A soap co-packer makes your bars to your recipe: cold process soap poured into molds, cut and cured, or melt and pour soap from a ready base, then wrapped or boxed with your label. The questions that matter are the soap maker's own: cold process bars cure for weeks before they're ready, so the co-packer's schedule and shelf space are part of the price; the fragrance and colorant changes between runs add setup; and the label decides the law, because a bar sold only for cleansing that's mostly fatty acid salts is soap, while a bar sold to moisturize or deodorize is a cosmetic, which brings MoCRA's rules. Under MoCRA, a contract manufacturer making products for several brands needs only one facility registration, which either it or a brand can file. In the example below, an Oʻahu skincare maker selling about 800 bars a month pays $2.99 a bar making it in slab batches, $3.26 with a small cold process co-packer, and $2.46 with a larger soap manufacturer whose minimum is six months of bars. Below is what soap co-packers do, the label and registration questions, three quotes, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Soap co-packers make cold process or melt and pour bars to your recipe, cut, cured and wrapped.
- Cold process bars cure for weeks, so schedule and shelf space count.
- Fragrance and color changes add setup between runs.
- Soap sold only for cleansing is soap; sold to moisturize or deodorize, it's a cosmetic.
- A contract manufacturer needs one MoCRA facility registration, filed by it or a brand.
- Freight matters for heavy bars, especially to Hawaii and Alaska.
- TaroStack keeps track of your bars and boxes at the co-packer, by lot, as a site of its own. More below.
What soap co-packers do
Cold process makers mix oils and lye in large batches, pour into log or slab molds, cut and set the bars to cure, then plane, stamp, wrap and label them. Melt and pour makers melt a ready base, add fragrance and color, pour, and wrap the same day. Most will make to your recipe and fragrance; some offer their own base recipes as private label. What a co-packer is in general is in what is a co-packer, and the business side of soap in soap business license.
Soap or cosmetic, and who registers
| Question | What to settle |
|---|---|
| Soap or cosmetic | Mostly fatty acid salts, sold only for cleansing, is soap; sold to moisturize or deodorize, it's a cosmetic (21 CFR 701.20) |
| Who registers | One facility registration covers a contract manufacturer making for several brands, filed by it or a brand (21 U.S.C. 364c) |
| Small business | Brands and facilities under MoCRA's small business line skip registration; the co-packer may be above it |
| Label | Ingredients and the brand's name and contact for adverse event reports, for a cosmetic |
| Cure | How long bars cure before they ship, and who holds them meanwhile |
The rest of MoCRA is in MoCRA small business, and the cosmetic label in cosmetic labeling requirements. This is general information, not legal advice.
Three quotes compared
Hoʻola Botanicals, the made-up skincare maker in Kailua, Oʻahu, I use in these examples, sells about 800 bars of cold process soap a month at markets, online and to gift shops:
| Make it yourself | Small cold process co-packer | Larger soap manufacturer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Run you'd order | 200 | 1,000 | 5,000 |
| Minimum run | none | 500 | 5,000 |
| Good bars, after the loss | 200 | 990 | 4,950 |
| Setup | $0 | $150 | $400 |
| Fee, or your own labor, a bar | $1.25 | $1.10 | $0.55 |
| Oils, lye and fragrance, a bar | $1.34 | $1.30 | $1.20 |
| Box and label | $0.40 | $0.38 | $0.32 |
| Freight a run, to Hawaii | $0 | $300 | $900 |
| Run cost | $598 | $3,230 | $11,650 |
| Months to sell the run | 0.2 | 1.2 | 6.2 |
| Storage while it sells | $0 | $0 | $519 |
| Cost a good bar | $2.99 | $3.26 | $2.46 |
The small co-packer costs 27 cents a bar more, mostly the freight to Oʻahu, and frees about 50 hours a month of slab batches. The larger manufacturer saves 53 cents a bar, about $424 a month, for $11,650 out and six months of bars, which keep, but tie up cash. Its bars are labeled "moisturizing" like the ones made at home, so they stay cosmetics either way. How the bars sell to shops is in how to sell soap wholesale.
What to settle before the first run
- The recipe by weight, the superfat and the fragrance load.
- Cure time, and when bars are ready to ship.
- Bar weight and its tolerance, and the declared net weight.
- Wrap or box, label and lot code.
- Who files any MoCRA registration, and whose name is on the label.
What a spec sheet holds is in product specification sheet.
Get the calculator
Download the soap co-packer quote calculator. One column for each quote and one for making it yourself: type the run you'd order, the minimum, the loss, the setup, the fee or your labor, the oils and fragrance, packaging, freight and storage, and the run's cost, the months it takes to sell at your sales a month, the storage while it sells, the cost of each good bar and the cash out before it sells fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Bars curing at the co-packer, boxes shipped from your supplier to theirs, and a customer's rash report that has to lead to one batch's oils: a spreadsheet doesn't know any of it.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps track of your bars and boxes at the co-packer, by lot, as a site of its own.
The co-packer as a site. The co-packer's premises can be a site, so the boxes and labels you send are a transfer, shown in transit until they arrive, and the cured bars there are counted as yours. More than one site is on Standard at $99 a month.
Runs as batches. Each run is a batch with a lot, recording the oil and fragrance lots it used, so a question about a bar leads to its batch and its suppliers.
Packaging on time. Boxes and labels come up on the reorder list in days of cover, with each supplier's lead time and minimum.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Bars at the co-packer | Ask them | Stock at their site |
| Which oil lot is in a bar | Unknown | Lots recorded on the run |
| Boxes for the next run | Found short | Reorder list in days of cover |
Sites, transfers, recipes, batches and lots are on Standard at $99 a month for more than one site. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.