Cool fact Friday - CR regulations for making soaps

Did you know it takes around 7 steps to legally sell soaps in Costa Rica?

1. Permit for "Soil use"...basically you need a permit to establish a factory in your city
2. Health permit
3. Municipal permit - not the same as #1
4. Tax permit
5. Invoice legalization
6. Books legalization
7. Chemical formula inscription - one per product you are producing...so if you make castile soap and castille soap with poppy seeds for exfoliation...you need to have two permits since the formula changes between the two...oh...and FYI...since soap is classified as a cosmetic, it defaults to a Grade A dangerous product and you get charged $100 for each inscription

All of these can take up to 6 months before you are legally able to sell soaps...what a difference from other parts of the planet.

One last "fun" fact...you actually need to have the chemical formula signed by either a chemist or a chemical engineer to be valid...just to make it fun for all of us soapcrafters.

Needless to say...I'm a little discouraged but moving ahead. Need to check with my local offices is I qualify...I'll worry about the inscription later.