Handmade soaps retain their natural glycerin content.
Glycerin is a naturally-occuring product that is formed in the saponification (soapmaking) process. It is a humectant, which means it draws moisture from the air ... for skin this means it helps the skin retain its natural water content. In commercially-made soaps, the glycerin content is extracted and sold to pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies - you'll often find it added to moisturisers, particularly skin-sensitive ones like sorbolene. In all handmade soaps, the glycerin content is left intact, where it helps to nourish and moisturise the skin.
They use a variety of skin-loving oils.
Look at the ingredients label of a commercially-made soap and you'll usually find one of these as the main ingredient: sodium tallowate (tallow, or beef fat), sodium cocoate (coconut oil) or sodium palmate (palm oil). These oils are used for one reason: because they're cheap. I'm not saying they don't have their place in soap, because they do, they just need to be used in conjunction with other oils. Tallow is actually very conditioning and restorative for the skin, but it doesn't cleanse well, so synthetic ingredients like sodium lauryl sulphate needed to be added. Palm oil makes a hard, long-lasting bar but on its own cleans too harshly and will dry out the skin. Coconut oil gives an excellent lather, but again, on its own will dry out the skin.
My soaps contain olive oils and sunflower oil for moisturisation, balanced with palm, coconut and castor oils, to make a soap that is mild, feels nice on the skin, has a good lather and most importantly, cleanses gently but without stripping away the skin's natural oils, so there's no dry, tight feeling after washing. My soaps do not contain any animal fats - they are mostly vegan, except for the ones that contain animal by-products such as goats milk, honey and beeswax.
My soaps contain olive oils and sunflower oil for moisturisation, balanced with palm, coconut and castor oils, to make a soap that is mild, feels nice on the skin, has a good lather and most importantly, cleanses gently but without stripping away the skin's natural oils, so there's no dry, tight feeling after washing. My soaps do not contain any animal fats - they are mostly vegan, except for the ones that contain animal by-products such as goats milk, honey and beeswax.
No nasties: sulphates, parabens, preservatives etc.
My soaps, like most other handmade soaps, don't contain sodium lauryl sulphate (or the slightly gentler version, sodium laureth sulphate), preservatives, parabens or any other nasty additives that so many commercial soaps do.
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