Contact
How Can You Get in touch with the Nerdy Farm Wife?
This page might make me sound like a grumpy old hermit in places, but in reality I’m quite a happy, cheerful hermit, just one that gets easily overwhelmed trying to keep up with emails. :)
I get a LOT of emails each week! Please realize that I am only one person with limited time to spend on the computer.
Any emails that aren’t directly about Payhip Shop orders may take 2 or more weeks for an answer. Thanks for understanding!
I am not accepting: guest posts, sponsored posts/paid links, SEO services, video appearances, bundles or summits, and I don’t wish to sell my site.
Most Frequently Asked Questions & Their Answers
Question #1: Can I use a Nerdy Farm Wife recipe to make products to sell?
Answer: My Nerdy Farm Wife recipes are created for the casual home hobbyist and are not designed with commercial use in mind. However, you may take a recipe from my website, print books, and ebooks and adapt it for commercial use if you’d like, but all recipes are made and used at your own risk. You alone are responsible for product and recipe testing to ensure compatibility and safety for the market. Also, please do not imply that The Nerdy Farm Wife has made or endorsed the product, or use any Nerdy Farm Wife images in your marketing. Best of luck with your business adventures! :)
Question #2: Why did my cold process purple Brazilian clay soap turn tan or a faded color when I made it.
Answer: You probably used purple Brazilian clay from Amazon. From what I can tell from the many dozens of readers with this problem, all or at least most of the purple clays on Amazon appear to be fake – made up of cheap white clay mixed with synthetic purple mica that doesn’t behave well in soap. Try the intense purple Brazilian clay from Rainforest Chica instead & I think you’ll be a lot happier with the results!
Question #3: What preservative should I use in my handmade lotions and creams? Or serums? Or face wash? Or masks? Or toners? Or the related question – why did my homemade lotion and cream/serum/face wash/mask/toner mold so quickly?
Answer: I honestly can’t easily answer these questions. Read my article about natural preservatives: 10 Natural Preservatives for Homemade Lotion & Skin Care (+FAQS) then pick one that sounds interesting and give it a try in your creation. My personal favorite is Geogard ECT, but that might not be the right one for you. If I’m making lotions or creams for extended family, I’ll often go with Optiphen Plus (not natural, but is formaldehyde-free and paraben-free.) Most of the time, you’re going to have to make many test batches of the creations you come up with, then observe them for many months, test them for microbes, and get a lot of experience with them under your belt before gifting or selling them.
Question #4: My batch of soap didn’t turn out right – why?
Answer: Pretty much every answer I would have for you is inside my article about troubleshooting soap problems: What’s Wrong With My Soap? {troubleshooting cold process soap problems} It’s very long and very detailed – please give it a read through and there’s a good chance that the answer will be there. Also check out the Classic Bells – Soapy Stuff website for a mini master education in soapmaking – there’s a lot of excellent and accurate soapmaking information and wisdom to be found there!
Question #5: How can I get started selling soap or making a business selling products?
Answer: I’m sorry to say that I am the wrong person to ask! I did successfully sell products for a time, but it’s been ages – about 15 years ago or so – and I’m not up to date or even remotely interested in current regulations and best practices. I found out it’s more fun for me to go with my whims when creating recipes, then sharing what I make with close friends and family as gifts, plus writing about the most successful ones in books or on my site. Selling physical products is zero fun for me! I usually send people over to Modern Soapmaking as a good place to start for soapmaking business help, and Marie Gale’s website for cosmetic and labeling information.
Question #6: What is the superfat and/or water amount of your soap recipes?
Answer: They can vary a bit, but most of my cold process soap recipes have around a 2.1 to 1 water:lye ratio. (The water weight is equal to 2.1 times the amount of the lye weight. So if a recipe calls for 4 ounces lye, I would likely use somewhere around 8.4 ounces of water.) The superfat of my soaps is usually 6%, with milk soaps sometimes going a bit lower to 5%.
2026 Update
I have just updated my entire email system for the new year; the previous contact form has been removed from this page. Instead, you can directly email hello @ the nerdy farm wife . com if you run into problems with your course or ebook orders. An alternative method to reach me is the.nerdy.farm.wife @ gmail.com. If you write and don’t receive a reply within 24 hours for ebook and course products that you purchased, or if it has been at least 2 or 3 weeks for all other queries that aren’t about paid orders, try the alternative email address from above that you didn’t use the first time and see if that one reaches me better.