New York City August Soapmaking Classes - Learn to Make 15 Products!

Ready to learn new soapmaking techniques? Want to brainstorm with three movers and shakers in the handmade soap industry? Your timing is perfect, as we are heading into the busy sales of the fall and holiday seasons. Join us and learn how to make and sell more than 15 different types of soap (cold process natural bars, advanced color designs, felted soap designs, wine, beer and champagne soap, cupcake, chai latte and salt bar soaps, and four kinds of glycerin soaps, including photo and personalized bars!

This New York City Soap University 3-day weekend is an exciting, three-day soapmaking intensive program is a fun and educational soaping experience! Whether you're new at soapmaking, or a veteran soapmakers, you'll learn new techniques to apply to your line of soaps to help you increase sales or just have more fun at soapmaking. Choose one class, or come join us for all six classes.

Students receive six classes of training from: Marla Bosworth, founder and owner of Back Porch Soap Company (Massachusetts), Amanda Griffin of Lovin Soap (Texas), and Holly Port of Lotion Bar Cafe (Colorado). With more than 25 years of combined bath and body industry experience, these ladies will share their selling and product formulation expertise as well as their in-depth knowledge of soapmaking throughout the weekend with you.


This course intensive is perfect for entrepreneurs who own a business as well as for budding entrepreneurs who are seeking training in the field of bath and beauty. Students receive a certificate of completion at the end of class on Sunday and a photo with the teachers.

Remember to check with your tax accountant, as this class fee, your travel and accommodation expenses and more could be tax deductible.

Students have traveled from Ghana, South Africa, Germany, Chile, Guatemala, Ireland, Venezuela, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos, Israel & and from around the United States to participate in our programs. 

Dates: Friday, August 24 through Sunday August 26
Times: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. daily

For detailed class descriptions, or to sign up for single classes, please visit individual class pages under "NYC August Classes" on our website.

Learn how to make these wildly popular felted soaps with Holly Port of Lotion Bar Cafe

Day 1
Morning Session: Cold Process Soapmaking with Marla Bosworth
Afternoon Session: Creating Beautiful Felted Soaps with Holly Port

Amanda Griffin of Lovin Soap will teach students how to make these adorable 
cupcake soaps as well as chai latte and salt bar drink soaps!

Day 2
Morning Session: Glycerin Soap Techniques with Marla Bosworth
Afternoon Session: Cupcakes & Specialty Drink Soaps with Amanda Griffin

Ready to color and swirl like a pro? Amanda Griffin of Lovin Soap will show you how!

Day 3 Morning Session: Cold Process Soap Advanced Coloring with Amanda Griffin
Afternoon Session: Wine, Beer & Champagne Soapmaking with Holly Port

Happy Hour Soaps! Holly Port of Lotion Bar Cafe will 
teach students how to make beer, champagne and wine soaps!

Our classes are held at Little Shop of Crafts, 711 Amsterdam Ave. at 94th Street, New York City. 

We hope you will join us!

For more information or to register, visit our website for NYC classes.

Students from Overseas and Across U.S. Trek to NYC Soap Making Classes

Fifteen adults spent their Memorial Day weekend dressed in face masks, latex gloves and protective goggles in an Upper West Side craft shop to get up close and personal with the caustic chemical lye.

Instead of heading out of town for the long holiday weekend, the group stood in a classroom at Little Shop of Crafts, learning soapmaking from Marla Bosworth, founder of Back Porch Soap Co.

About two hours into Friday night's three-and-a-half hour session, Bosworth was supervising students as they mixed melted shea butter, lye, and water in a plastic bucket with a hand blender.

Bosworth teaches students how to incorporate organic ingredients, where to source supplies, and emphasizes the use of natural and organic colorants like the parsley shown here

One student sprinkled dry parsley, a natural green colorant, into the mix, which looked like cake batter. After pouring in essential oils may chang, cedarwood and vetiver, a lemony scent filled the air.

"Isn't it fun?" Bosworth said. "When the whole thing happens, it's just magical, isn't it?"

Bosworth was once a market research analyst who dabbled in making her own creams at home for fun. When she was laid off in 1998, she used her severance package to start Back Porch Soap Co.

Now she manufactures her own line of bath and beauty products out of her home studio in Duxbury, Mass. She teaches hands-on classes there — topics include organic body butters and artisanal bath fizzies — and also consults with clients on how to start their own bath and body products business.

Bosworth teaches classes at Little Shop of Crafts on Amsterdam Avenue and West 94th Street about every other month. Later this summer, she's opening a permanent store and classroom inside Little Shop of Crafts.

During Friday's class, Bosworth dispensed plenty of tips. Some were business-oriented, such as where to get insurance if you're going to sell soap out of your home, and how to look up information about the FDA-approved method for labelling soaps.

Other information was more in keeping with the theme of Bosworth's product line, which is entirely vegan and uses all natural ingredients, some of which are organic.

"There's nothing like essential oil to change your mood," Bosworth said as students stirred a combination of rosemary, patchouli and lavender oils that she dubbed her "Good Karma" blend. "If you're a little off and bummed out, smell some rosemary."

Some students at Friday's class were enrolled in an $895 four-day series of classes called Bath & Body University, for people who want to start their own businesses.

Others took the soapmaking class for fun. One students was a retired nurse whose son gave her the class as a present, another was a woman who wanted to learn how to make soap for a husband with sensitive skin.

Gina Francois, a web designer, said she took the class because she wanted to learn how to make soap "the right way."

Francois started making her soap at home after her daughter was born with mild acne and a doctor advised her to seek out cleansers with natural ingredients. She taught herself how to do it mostly by reading information on the Internet, she said.

Francois was enrolled in the four-day Bath & Body University. "I've been here since Wednesday and there are so many things I've found out I was doing wrong," Francois said. "It's been great."

At the end of the night, students left with two plastic tubs filled with still-warm soap batter. It would set overnight, then get sliced into bars, then spend another four weeks "curing."

Bosworth said she got "completely addicted" to soapmaking as soon as she made her first batch.

"I love the fact that you can take all natural ingredients and create your own soaps from scratch and not have to use any chemicals," Bosworth said.

More info on upcoming New York City soap classes.

Reprinted with permission by Leslie Albrecht, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer