Streamlining the Packaging Process: Soap Wrapping 101, an Evolution

When you are a one-woman-show running a small business with three different branches, you begin to realize how important it is to save time at every step of the process. 

Several years ago, when I began packaging my soap to sell, I created handmade paper sleeves to individually wrap each bar, cigar-band style.  Yes, I made the paper from pulp!  Well, you can imagine after a hundred bars or so, I couldn't even keep up making the paper, much less the soap!

So, the handmade paper sleeve fell by the wayside.  It was replaced by the printed paper sleeve, which I designed and scored/tore by hand to give it a deckle edge.  I continued to use a cello bag and raffia tie to complete the packaging.

After several hundred bars of soap, I realized the inordinate amount of time that the packaging was taking me.  But I was really struggling with this notion that a handmade bar of soap had to have numerous handmade components in the final presentation in order to be authentic.

Then it occurred to me that I should really be focusing on the handmade soap (my actual product), and minimize the effort to create a nice presentation in the packaging.  And my packaging has recently evolved again, into much easier and less time consuming steps.

There is a little upfront work each time you tweak your image and have to recreate from scratch -- banners, labels, etc.  But from here on out, I'll be folding a box, slapping on a couple of labels, and in the soap goes.  By comparison, even with folding the box, it is a breeze. 

Hopefully, the look and feel of a handmade product has not been lost in the new packaging.

What do you think, and how have you streamlined your packaging process? 

~ Dana @ Soap Sense