Most of the ingredients you use to make handcrafted soaps and cosmetics are relatively harmless. Even so, there are some safety issues to be aware of when creating your own bath and body care products. Here are some tips for working safely :

Protect your hands: Wear rubber gloves when working with caustic chemicals such as sodium or potassium hydroxide or essential oils that can cause burns (cinnamon and cloves).

Protect your skin and clothing: When you are working with ingredients that can cause burns (sodium or potassium hydroxide) or ingredients that can discolor your clothing (colorants) wear an apron, an old long sleeved shirt, pants, shoes and socks to protect your skin from accidental spills.

Protect your eyes from accidental splashes: wear safety goggles when working with liquid mixtures such as soap in the raw state.

Protect your nasal passages and your lungs: Wear a face mask with a filter to protect your nasal passages when you are -

a) Working with soap. When sodium hydroxide is combined with water the reaction emits fumes that will cause coughing. If you don’t have a face mask with a filter you will have to hold your breath or walk out of the room for a few minutes.

b) Working with large amounts of finely powdered ingredients: If you use large amounts of powdered ingredients in any of your products (corn starch, powdered pigments, clays, etc.) you have probably noticed clouds of dust as you mix the ingredients. Protect your lungs and nasal passages by wearing a face mask with a filter.

If you’re thinking about selling your products on the internet, but don’t want to set up a website, consider Ebay. According to Alexa (the website search engine that is run by Amazon.com), Ebay is the 9th most visited website in the world, and the 5th most visited site if you only consider sites in the English language. They get millions of visitors everyday from all over the world. And selling on Ebay is extremely easy. All you have to do is register and create an ad for your product (or service). For just pennies you can have your ad seen by visitors all around the world.

If you visit Ebay you will find that there are literally thousands of skin care products being sold by a wide variety of sellers. Most are commercially produced products, but there are several handcrafters that are selling products there too. To be successful is not something that happens overnight on Ebay (although it might for some), but for the small amount it costs, it is certainly worth it to try. Here are some tips for success.

Register On Ebay And Purchase Something First. Although it is not necessary to buy something on Ebay before selling there, it might make you more comfortable to see how the buying and selling process works before launching out as a seller.

Know Your Categories. Before you actually sell something on Ebay browse the different categories to see which ones your product should be sold in. Many products can be sold in different categories. For instance, one soapmaker on Ebay sells loaf soaps in one category, and shaped soaps as wedding favors in another category.

Choose Your Title Carefully And Study What Other Sellers Are Doing. People shop on Ebay differently. Some browse through the different categories until they find something that interests them. Others type what they are looking for into the search box. If you offer something that many people are looking for, and the words you use in your title match what they type into the search box, you will do much better than if your title doesn’t contain words that your customers are searching for. How do you know what customers are looking for? One way is to spend time browsing through the “completed listings” on Ebay. Every time you advertise something for sale on Ebay, your ad is called a listing. When the time has expired for your listing (whether your item has sold or not) it is completed. Ebay keeps a record of all completed listings for the past month available for registered users to browse through. By browsing through completed listings you can see what has sold, and for how much. Studying these will give you an idea of what sells, and what doesn’t sell.

Specialize. When you first start on Ebay try different products to see which one does well for you. Then when you find one that you can sell pretty easily, focus on that particular product. One Ebay seller offers a handmade face cream. This cream targets people who suffer from acne. This is the only product that this seller sells, and from what I have observed they seem to be selling it consistently.

Open a Store. Some sellers save money by opening an Ebay Store. This allows them to save money on listing fees while still selling many different products.

If you want an easy way to create customized soaps without the hassle of dealing with lye, melt and pour soap may be for you. Melt and pour soap is soap that has been manufactured so that it melts easily on the stovetop or in the microwave. One of the nice things about melt and pour soap is the incredible versatility that it offers the soapmaker. There are several things that you can do with melt and pour soap that you cannot do with soap when you are making it from scratch (unless you remelt it after it is done). With melt and pour soap you can use food coloring to color your soaps, you can use almost any type of mold that you want, and you can use just about any fragrance that you want. You can also add herbal extracts, both glycerine and alcohol based.

Glycerin Soap Base opaque 4 lb. Melt and pour Natural US $9.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Sunday May-11-2008 23:42:38 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

Glycerin Soap Base Clear 2 lb. Melt and pour Natural US $5.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Sunday May-11-2008 23:43:08 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

Glycerin Soap Base opaque 8 lb. Melt and pour Natural US $18.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday May-12-2008 19:11:54 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

Glycerin Soap Base Opaque 18 lb Melt and pour Natural US $40.50 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday May-12-2008 19:13:49 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

GLYCERINE SOAP BASE ULTRA CLEAR 3LBS MELT AND POUR US $8.75 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday May-13-2008 6:52:38 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

GLYCERINE SOAP BASE ULTRA CLEAR 3LBS MELT AND POUR US $8.75 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday May-13-2008 7:05:20 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

GLYCERINE SOAP BASE CLEAR 3LBS MELT AND POUR US $8.75 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday May-13-2008 7:08:42 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

11 lbs variety combo LUXURIOUS MELT AND POUR SOAP BASE US $40.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday May-13-2008 10:20:14 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

21 lbs variety combo LUXURIOUS MELT AND POUR SOAP BASE US $69.99 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday May-13-2008 18:13:38 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item

Glycerin Soap Base opaque 2 lb. Melt and pour Natural US $5.00 (1 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday May-13-2008 18:22:33 PDT Bid on this Item   | Buy this Item   | Watch this Item