Become a Member of the Guild of Craft Soap & Toiletry Makers
The Guild is a voluntary peer support network and is FREE to join – but please do read ALL the information on this page carefully before applying to avoid delays in processing your application. The application process is very straightforward but we do require very specific information.View Page
General information about membership
It is important to understand that the Guild functions as a peer support network and should not be considered a replacement or alternative to any other trade bodies. What makes this Guild unique is you are required to show evidence, in the form of valid product safety assessments, that you are in compliance with the EU Regulation 1223/2009 (Cosmetics Regulation) before you can be accepted as a member.
Admission to the Guild members register is entirely discretionary and no correspondence will be entered into.
It is not Guild policy to accept into membership resellers, i.e. traders only selling on other manufacturers products or makers who self-certify their own products. This is not a comment on these practices, which are perfectly valid business activities, however, the Guild was set up for self-employed and SME’s who manufacture and market their own products. This is reflected in our title ‘Maker’. This also ensures that each member has had their products independently verified.
The Guild does not set standards but rather raises awareness of existing standards. Neither does the Guild involve itself in approving suppliers of raw materials and products. As raw materials used in craft products must be safety tested and certified before the end product can be legally sold, standards in the area of supply are maintained by those who test the products. Testing is carried out by authorised persons as specified by the regulations.
Who can join the Guild?
Membership is open to any EU based craft soap and toiletry maker who can demonstrate that their products have been safety assessed and approved for sale by a chartered chemist in line with the EU Regulation 1223/2009 (Cosmetics Regulation). Members are required to hold insurance cover where available (such cover may not be available in all countries). We do not ask to see copies of insurance policies. It is the member’s responsibility to ensure that they hold such cover where available. Where not available members should abide fully with any variations in local legislation. Each member is responsible for ensuring that they continue to meet membership conditions, including updating safety certificates as required, and any issue affecting membership eligibility must be reported in writing, preferably via email, to the Guild immediately.
NOTE: This page will be updated in January 2021 on completion of the Brexit process…
What do I gain by joining the Guild?
You are making yourself known as a craft soap and toiletry maker who complies with the relevant cosmetics safety regulations. You can let your customers know this by stating that you’re a member of the Guild on your promotional literature. Members receive a membership certificate:
Click to view an example of the MembershipCertificate (certificates are for the strict use of registered members ONLY)
You can also tell other people about the Guild and encourage them to join. The more members we have, the greater the ability of the Guild to raise awareness of the regulations. This is in the interests of members, other compliant crafters, and consumers of cosmetics products.
What is required to join?
- You must be registered with the Cosmetic Products Notification Portal (CPNP) – http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/sectors/cosmetics/cpnp/ – or UK notifications portal, at time of writing yet to be announced, as the UK has now left the EU. This a requirement of the regulations. The notifications databases are not open to scrutiny other than by appointed authorities and bodies such as Trading Standards and similar (and Poison Centres). On application, the Guild will assume that you have complied with your registration requirements. A user guide for the CPNP registration portal that is appropriate for small-scale producers has been produced by Scott Grainger of Cosmetic Safety Consultants which can be found here – we will update with information on the new UK portal once it is announced:
http://cosmeticsafetyassessment.com/index.php?p=1_39_Resources - We’d like to see copies of the Cosmetic Product Safety Report issued by your product safety assesor. A sample of certificates will suffice if you have a large product range OR Alternatively we can accept confirmation directly from your assessor via their business email or letterhead confirming that they have certified your product range. As part of your application process, we may contact your safety assessor for a reference if deemed necessary. Your permission will be requested before any direct approach to your assessor is made and the reasons explained. If we have not previously verified your assesors qualifications and experience we may need to complete that process before confirming your membership.
- Only the ‘new style’ assessments are accepted, issued in or after July 2013 (EU Regulation 1223/2009 (Cosmetics Regulation)
- Please forward the documents as provided by your assessor. Part B in its entirety is acceptable. Otherwise we do not accept amended documents, screenshots or image files. Once verified no copy or copies of your safety assessments are stored. Only the registrar seems the documents and they are never shared with anyone else
- It is a condition of membership that public liability insurance be held where available. Although we do not ask to see copies of insurance documents it is each members responsibility to ensure that they hold such cover or follow other local regulations where such cover may not be available
- We hold the following information on all successful registrants: Membership No, Date joined, Business name, Contact person name, Contact address including Post Code, Business email, Website, Country based, Assessors name and business details. Note: if a separate business email is not specified we will use the email that you used to send us your application. You can change this on logging in to your profile at any time…
- Successful applicants are provided with login details to their business profile on the Guilds website. Members can change any details except their username, which is always the trading or business name. Members can delete or request to have deleted their profile at any time
- No details of unsuccessful applicants are stored and a new application can be started at any time.
Additional Information
By joining you agree that the Guild can use the email that you provide to send you members updates. This will generally be in the form of email newsletters. The email that you provide is for publication with your profile, the plugin used for membership registration on this site requires a username and email before it can be published. We do not sell or share our membership list. To opt out of these emails please inform admin once joined. You will still receive individual communications relating to your individual Guild membership occasionally. This will generally be to confirm details in order to meet our requirement to hold an up to date membership list.
Failure to comply with any of these preconditions above invalidates membership immediately.
We DO NOT ask to see details of the formulas that you use to make any of your products – this is commercially sensitive information. Kindly note that any information you share with the Guild as part of your application will be kept in strictest confidence. Applications are only seen by the registrar. We will not be keeping any information that we do not need. Guild membership is offered entirely at the discretion of the Guild.
We do not offer membership to anyone who self-certifies their own products. Although there is nothing in the regulations that prevent a qualified person from so doing this decision has been taken to ensure that every member of the Guild has to follow a similar application process based on independent verification.
Membership of the Guild is at our entire discretion. No correspondence will be entered into where applications are not successful.
If you would like to join the Guild of Craft Soap & Toiletry Makers, please see the instructions below. Kindly note that we do not use drop-box or other similar file-sharing services. Once your information is received and your membership approved, you will be a sent a link where you can register and create a profile. Please allow 21 days for a response regarding membership applications.
Note that your trading name and business email are for publication on this site and are used to set up your member profile. Your business name will be your site username and cannot be changed. Your email can be changed at any time by using the log in details that are supplied to all new members.
To join the Guild we need to see the original safety assessments sent to you by your assessor.
This information is seen only by the registrar and is never shared with anyone else. If you have many SA’s please only provide a copy of one.
When applying please also provide the following information:
- Business or Trading name
- Website URL (if you have one)
- Business mailing address including Post Code
- Contact name
- Business email – this will be used to set up your profile on this site. Please make sure that our email is added to your ‘safe senders’list.
Once ready please email the above information, including attachments, to: info@gcstm.co.uk
Once you have your login details you can then build your profile – if you need any help with this just email and we will do our best to help…
The Guild of Craft Soap & Toiletry Makers is owned and operated by:
Registered in England & Wales – Company number 11250299
Registered office address: Suite 306, Kemp House 152-160 City Road, London, United Kingdom, EC1V 2NX