Selling Soap in Germany

Making soap is a beautiful, meditative, creative process.  There is science involved, absolutely, but once you understand the balance between oils, their relationship with the lye, the impact of essential oils and scents on the speed of trace, what on earth superfatting is all about, the soap making process becomes a calming (challenging!) process.

So once your home starts to smell overwhelming yet incredible and your shelves are bursting at the seams, once the cacophony of praise from family and friends hits fever pitch you think - yes, I really should sell these beauties!

Magnificent Marie from Humblebee and Me wrote an excellent blog post on this recently, and it got me thinking - if you are ready to take the leap, what are the local rules and regulations you need to know you keep yourself out of trouble?

Marie touches on this in the article, so I went hunting to find out what’s necessary in my local market, Germany.

Schöne Seife wrote a comprehensive article on the topic, but if your German isn’t up to reading through it, let me break it down for you:

First, know you’re responsible for sourcing up-to-date information, and this is really only intended as a guide. With that in mind, let’s take a look…

The Workshop

You are not permitted to use your own kitchen for the creation of soap for sale.  Apart from cross-contamination risks, you’re not going to make any friends in the regulatory authorities. Just as we should keep business and pleasure separate, so too should we keep soap making and cooking separate.

Expert for Cosmetics

Get in touch with a cosmetics expert right from the get-go.  This expert should also assist you with all legal and bureaucratic procedures, and should know which regulations should be observed in your federal state.  You can obtain a list of experts from the IKW (Industrieverband Körperpflege- und Waschmittel e. V.), however it can be difficult.  But don’t give up!

GMP

Once you have your list, look for an expert and ask for the necessary GMP Certificate for your workshop.  This necessitates an appointment, of course, in your workshop.  The cosmetics expert will tell you what needs changing, and how various regulations work etc.  Don’t get your back up when hearing their advice - take it on board and make any necessary changes.  Once you obtain your GMP Certificate, you’re not allowed to advertise with it - it’s forbidden under German law.  You can, however, inform your customers that you hold the certificate.

Recipes and Market Suitability Assessment

During your meeting for the GMP Certificate, you should be prepared to submit not only your recipes for assessment but also a list of the raw materials.  Think of this as a roadworthiness test - are your soaps suitable for the market?  Are your raw ingredients suitable for cosmetic use (are they cosmetic grade).  This assessment starts with your oils and stops with fragrances and dyes.  Be fastidious here!  Each recipe can cost between €350 - €550, so you it may be advisable to start with a basic soap recipe and then have different variations be separately evaluated.  Speak to your assessor about your options here.

Your Path to the Authorities

Whether or not your workshop is ready for production and your GMP Certificate has been issued, make yourself known to the relevant authorities, introduce yourself, and form a positive relationship with the people who ultimately have the “yea” or “nay” over your burgeoning business.  You’re hopefully going to be working together for a long time!

Control Authorities and their Addresses

Make yourself known to the relevant authorities and be aware of your reporting responsibilities.  Each state / district has their own responsible authority, and more information can be found at this link (in German).

BVL - The Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety

Another place where you have to report is the BVL:  the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety. All recipes must be entered in their database. The area of consumer goods / cosmetics is important for all manufacturers of cosmetics, and at the BVL you’ll find all necessary information. Make yourself an expert, rather than relying on your expert / assessor to answer questions (for which you’ll likely be billed).  A list of prohibited raw materials is available here, in the Cos-Ing database. Contact the BVL and read the information for applicants carefully.

What is in the Market Suitability Assessment?

There is a proposal / guideline from the German Safety Assessors for Cosmetics (der Deutschen Sicherheitsbewerter für Kosmetik), which describes the core elements of a safety assessment. This includes the clear labelling of the product, the evaluation result, the product description, the composition of the product, a quantitative INCI declaration, a few sets of the intended use, assessment of the risk profile in reasonably foreseeable application, exposure assessment of the finished product, the toxicological short profile of the individual constituents, exposure assessment of the product’s individual components, application safety warnings, germ exposure test (not necessary for soap, but sometimes required). Do not confuse these certificates, safety assessments or market suitability with the authorisation of your product as a cosmetic product. This is not necessary in Europe.

What do the control authorities do?  They control!

It’s absolutely reasonable that control authorities are there to check that your products are fit for use, and as such they might check practical things such as cleanliness, they may request documentation on raw materials, or they may take samples from your shelf for testing.  But attention is not only paid to the ingredients you use, but also your labelling, price and weight indications, intended use, product life, and your advertising claims.  Never, repeat never, make claims about the medical efficacy of your product unless you have extensive experience, undertaken extensive tests (with your product), and have scientific reports to back up your claims. And even then, think twice and thrice.

Administration

Keep well-organised files of your recipes, invoices etc so that you’re prepared for any inspection at any time.

Ingredients: Correct Information

It’s absolutely essential to use the correct nomenclature as per the INCI (International Nomenclature of Cosmetic Ingredients/ Internationale Nomenklatur für kosmetische Inhaltsstoffe), and interestingly the responsibly authority for the exact names to use is the CDFA in Washington - the Cosmetics and Toiletries Food Administration.  They release a new dictionary of terms every two years, for which one must pay, however the database is accessible, after some months, via the European Cos-Ing database.   Changes occur regularly, so make sure you’re on top of the current regulations!

Weight

Quantities on handmade products are somewhat complicated to explain. According to the Pre-Packaging Ordinance, no inadmissible minus deviation may be given (§ 22 para. 2 and para. 3) - (the loss of weight due to drying and storage being at the expense of customers / similar to pastry products).

In addition, one must know that the prepackaging regulation also refers to exceptions and handmade soaps fall exactly here. According to Article 18 (2), a sign on or next to the products is sufficient if they are intended for immediate consumption and are produced predominantly in small quantities by hand. That is, a sign with the basic price (price per 100g) is enough. For manufacturers of hand-made soaps, therefore, § 18 (2) of the prepackaging ordinance applies.

Shelf Life

Although soaps are fairly long-lasting - which also applies to hand-made soaps - there must be a shelf-life on every cosmetic product. You now have the choice between specifying a minimum shelf-life date, where 12 or 24 or 36 months are present. Specifying an exact date can cause problems, because then you must guarantee that date. 12 months after use is simply much more unobtrusive.


Okay, is that enough to get you thinking?  Fantastic!  Don’t forget - this only applies to the German market and you are responsible not only for checking whether there have been updates, but also for what your local regulations are.  Hopefully, though, both this article and Marie’s at Humblebee have given you food for thought!