Custom Wholesale Soap
Gain Freezer Space and a Value Added Product
Do you have lard and suet taking up space in your freezer? Turn it into a unique custom product at Fat Chance Farm. I can take your raw leaf lard and/or suet (cow, sheep or goat) and turn it into a custom batch of soap made only with fat from your farm.
When stored in a cool, dry place, soap has a shelf life of around three years, making it easy to store and display. Because of its durability, it is hassle free to transport to and from farmers markets or ship to customers in the mail.
Fat Requirements
I need a minimum of 20 lbs of raw fat to make a custom label soap. This amount of fat will make 70 to 75 bars of soap (net wt. 4 ounces each). The bars can be unscented or you can choose a scent from the essential oils I have available. For each 20 lbs of fat you provide, you can choose an additional scent if you like.
I can make soap from leaf lard, suet or a combination of the two. Lard can include a maximum of 15% back fat. Any more makes the fat too soft and impacts shelf life. Suet can be from cows, sheep, goats, or a combination.
I cannot accept fat from deer or other wild game because of legal restrictions on selling those products.
Shipping
Once we've set out what you're looking for in a custom soap, we need to get the fat to the farm in Hyde Park, VT.
If you're shipping from within the lower 48 states of the US, ice packs and dry ice are not necessary when shipping fat for soap making. I do recommend starting with frozen fat and shipping in insulated boxes, especially if shipping during the summer. You are responsible for getting the fat to me and any costs associated with that.
If you're in Vermont or nearby in the northeast, it may be easier to drop off the fat at the farm. If you choose this option I'll be in touch to organize a drop off day.
Once the soap is made and cured, I can either ship it back to you (75 bars of soap ship for around $25 via UPS) or we can arrange an in person pick-up time.
Labeling
Labels are not included in the base price, though I do provide an ingredient list and ask that you display "made by Fat Chance Farm" and our website either on your label, on your soap display and/or on your website product listing.
Timeline
Once the fat arrives at the farm, you can expect your soap to be ready in 6-8 weeks. Cold processed soap requires a minimum of four to six weeks for curing and the additional buffer is to allow me time to work your order into my soap making schedule.
Curing is an important step that lets the soap harden (so it's long-lasting) and finish saponifying (which ensures a mild soap).
Storage
After the soap is cured, it is finished and ready to use. However, soap will continue to slowly cure and further harden over its life. This means that the soap bars are constantly giving off a small amount of moisture. To accommodate this, it's important to store your soap in a well-ventilated area, not sealed in a box. Cardboard or wooden boxes with no lid or a ventilated lid are a great option. You can also store them on wooden or paper-lined shelves in a ventilated cupboard or closet.
Do not store your soap on uncoated wire racks or any other type of metal. Even the mild reactivity of cured soap is enough to corrode metal over time and the soap can also be discolored as a result and will have a shortened shelf life.
Other enemies of soap's shelf life are sunlight and humidity. While soap can be out in sunny, humid weather for a short time (e.g. once a week at a farmers market), it needs to be stored in a cool, dry place. In very humid weather you may notice the soap "sweating". This "sweat" that appears on the surface is glycerin, which is not caustic and is safe to touch. Soap bars that are sweating glycerin will recover if moved to a drier location, though if they spend too long in these conditions the soap bars can eventually become less moisturizing due to the lost glycerin.
Pricing
The price of one 20 lb batch of custom soap is $299 (excludes shipping). This is approximately $4.15 per finished bar of soap and can be scented or unscented.