Welcome!

The Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild, Inc. is an international non-profit professional trade association. Our mission is to promote the handcrafted soap industry; to act as a center of communication among soap makers, and to circulate information beneficial to soap makers.

For the Public

The Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild, Inc. has a mission to make everyone aware of the wonderful goodness of handcrafted soaps. As with all art, handcrafted soap is as varied as the number of soap makers there are! Our Soap Gallery contains pictures of many of our members' soaps. No two are alike!

Because there are so many processes, methods and types of soaps (not to mention the wide array of artistic styles), some definitions are in order. About Handcrafted Soap explains what the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild defines as "handcrafted soap" and why.

If you are looking for a particular soap maker, a certain type of soap or a source of handcrafted soap in your area, you can find a soapmaker with our on-line search. If you can't find what you need through a search, on the same page you can submit a special request which will be forwarded to our membership.

Members of the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild and can display the Membership Seal on their products, packaging and promotional materials, as well as on their website and on signage in their place of business. Look for it when you buy handcrafted soaps! All members within the HSMG agree to follow our Code of Ethics. As a consumer, you know that the HSMG members you deal with are following a standard in their soap making and business dealings.

For Soap Makers

The biggest thing the HSMG does with and for soap makers is to promote the industry of handcrafted soap, helping to make the joys of handcrafted soap more widely known to the general public through magazine ads and our website. The HSMG also works to provide information beneficial to soap makers. As a membership organization, it is the members who set the policy and guide the future of this association and how it represents soap makers.

See the Industry Resources for more information about the HSMG. For both new and veteran soap makers we have compiled some helpful links and recommended books that may assist you. Included on this website is a list of vendors, some of whom offer discounts to members of the Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild, Inc.

Every year the HSMG has an Annual Conference open to all soap makers and vendors (members or not). The location rotates around the United States; the 2008 Conference will be in Burlington, Vermont at the beautiful Inn At Essex (home of the New England Culinary Institute) on April 28 - 30, 2008.

Membership is open to all Handcrafted Soap Makers as well as to individuals or companies that provide any kind of supplies to Handcrafted Soap Makers. Product and General Liability Insurance is now one of our many membership benefits. If you are a soap maker and not a member, join now!

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact us.

The Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild, Inc. is an independent non-profit trade organization (registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(6) organization) and is not affiliated with any soap company, vendor, supplier, list serve, individual or group. Membership in the Guild is not an endorsement of any product or soap maker.