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Soap label generator

Build a soap ingredient label from your saved recipe

SoapCalc turns the oils and scents in a saved recipe into an INCI ingredient declaration and keeps the other label fields in one place, so a label starts from your real formula instead of a blank page.

A soap label generator should start from the recipe.In SoapCalc the ingredient declaration is built from the oils and scents saved in your formula, listed in order by percentage, using each ingredient's INCI name. The label builder is part of the Studio plan; the soap calculator that creates the formula is free.

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How the INCI ingredient declaration is built

When you generate a label, SoapCalc reads the oil and scent lines of the saved recipe, sorts them from the highest percentage to the lowest, and uses each ingredient's INCI name. If an ingredient has no INCI name on record, its regular name is used instead, so check the list before you print. The result appears as an editable ingredient declaration field.

For a simple olive, coconut, and shea recipe the generated line looks like this:

Olea Europaea Fruit Oil, Cocos Nucifera Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii Butter

The lye is not a recipe line, so it is not added automatically. Many soap makers declare the saponified oils instead, for example Sodium Olivate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Shea Butterate. Others list the oils and then Sodium Hydroxide. Because the declaration is a text field you can edit, you can write it whichever way you have decided to label, and add additives or fragrance as your formula requires.

Label fields

The label builder keeps these fields together with the recipe:

  • Product identity — What the product is called and what it is.
  • Net contents — The amount of product in the package.
  • Responsible party — The business that makes or sells the product.
  • Business address — Where that business can be reached.
  • Ingredient declaration — The INCI list, prefilled from the recipe and editable.
  • Warnings — Cautions you decide the product needs.
  • Directions — How to use the product.
  • Lot code — Ties a label to a production batch.
  • Review status — Draft, needs review, or reviewed.

Identity, net contents, responsible party, business address, and the ingredient declaration are treated as required: a label shows how many of them are still missing, and it only reads as ready once they are filled in and the review status is set to reviewed.

True soap or cosmetic? It affects the label

In the United States, whether a product is regulated as soap or as a cosmetic depends largely on its ingredients and on what you claim it does. A product made from alkali and fats or oils, and marketed only for cleansing, is generally treated as soap. If a product makes cosmetic claims such as moisturizing or skin-improving, it is generally treated as a cosmetic and the FDA's cosmetic labeling expectations apply. Soap that is not a cosmetic is usually a consumer product, which falls under the CPSC, and the details differ from the cosmetic rules.

SoapCalc does not decide which category your product falls into, and a generated label is not legal advice or a guarantee of compliance. Check the current FDA and CPSC guidance, and any rules where you sell, before you print. SoapCalc's safety guidance covers the making side.

How it works

  1. Calculate the formula in the soap calculator, checking oil names against the oils catalog.
  2. Save the recipe to your workspace.
  3. Open the label builder and review the generated ingredient declaration.
  4. Fill in the identity, net contents, responsible party, address, warnings, directions, and lot code.
  5. Set the review status once you have checked the label yourself.

The label builder is one part of the wider soap making software, which also covers batches, lot codes, inventory, and costs.

Get started

Create an account and continue to the Studio plan, or see all plans first. You can also start free with the soap calculator.