Safety Assessments

[Poppy4lee]

I just wondered whether it would be possible for several of us to 'club together' for a safety assessment for soaps, bath bombs etc? It seems that there are lots and lots of individuals paying for individual assessments for bath products and, presumably, there will be an awful lot of duplication/overlap within the assessments, plus they cost a pretty penny!! I just think that it would be so nice if a group of us could get together and agree on a range of products/ingredients etc. and share the cost of the assessment. I would imagine that we could have a much broader range of ingredients than we could each afford on our own.

Has anyone tried this before, or, does anyone know of any reasons why this wouldn't work?

[Soapwitch]

Have you checked that this is legal??

And what about PIF work? Who would hold the original copy of the assessment? Have you approached anyone about assessing a 'group'? Of course I can only speak from experience but my assessments are between my chemist and my company, they have to contain all of my personal details on and my GMP and my suppliers. Assessments are not that flexible and you have to stick within the guidelines that you set down when preparing your document, how could you be certain that everyone would do this?

Just my thoughts!

[Poppy4lee]

There's lots to think about, I know, but I'm currently covered by a safety assessment that's held by another company. The company had the assessment carried out and they hold the original copy, however, under the terms of the assessment, they can licence other soap producers. Each producer is responsible for their own PIF work. The individual 'licence holders' are fully responsible for their own compliance under the terms of the agreement, and non-compliance by any individual means that individual is not covered.

As you may imagine, the company holding the assessment is the sole supplier of all of the fragrance oils & soap & shampoo bases although the essential oils and cosmetic colourants, covered by the agreement, can be purchased from any supplier.

The only real problem is that , for any additional items (e.g. another fragrance, or, different soap base), I would have to go through the whole process of assessment myself, thus incurring its total costs, when there may be several individuals who would appreciate the same additions but who would all have to incur the full cost, rather than being able to share it.

[Soapwitch]

I understand that there is a lot to think about. It's not an easy process to go through and you're right it isn't cheap when you have a lot of products!

I guess by soap that you mean melt and pour? I can imagine that working with those kinds of pre certs is very restrictive and limits the amount of creativity you can use. I've heard that companies like melt and pour supplies hold one certificate and sell you their base ingredients to work within the certificate. I thought that maybe the reason they were allowed to hold the main assessment was because they could supply the ingredients?

I guess the easiest thing would be to get in touch with a safety assessor and see what advice they can give you. There is also an experienced soapmaking group on Yahoo that offer advice on setting up/certifications etc they are called 'slippery slope'

Hope that helps.

[Poppy4lee]

Thank you for your help, I will certainly contact 'slippery slope'. Being very much a novice, it's really good to know that there are so many helpful and kind people around who are prepared to share their time and expertise.