Have you ever wondered why certain brands sell "Beauty Bars" rather than soap? This is because these beauty bars aren't actually soap! Yes they may look like soap, smell like soap and perform like soap but the manufacturers are not allowed to call them soap. I am talking about the one named after the white bird we all know about!
There is a huge difference between soap and beauty bars and it is all down to personal preference. The traditional cold/hot process way of making soap involves mixing butters, oils or fats with a strong alkali and a base liquid which forms crystalline structures and eventually becomes what you and I know as soap. These are widely regarded as more natural. A soap maker will spend hours testing different oils and butters in a bar, ensuring it is adequately "super fatted" to ensure some of those gorgeous natural oils and butters are left on your skin after washing. Have you ever used soap which has left your skin feeling tight? This will be due to the soap containing a high number of butters or oils that are super cleansing (like Coconut) or the Soapmaker hasn't super-fatted the bar enough. Of course, some Soapmakers will make a bar especially cleansing on purpose, to clean really dirty hands. Lots of natural additives can be added to a cold process bar of soap, fruit, vegetables, yoghurt, milk (like our Guernsey Milk Soap), aloe vera water, sea water can be used as well as scrubby ingredients like poppy seeds, ground walnut or pumice powder (which is in our Dirty Scrubber Soap) for people that like a super scrubby bar. Salt is also a common additive in soap, this makes a luxurious, hard bar (often referred to as a "spa" bar) with masses of bubbles. A range of natural salt soaps are in the pipeline, watch this space!
A beauty bar is a "syndet" bar, synthetic detergent. These are not bad (our shampoo bars are syndet), they are just not as natural as the cold process method. In fact, you may argue that the syndet bars are better for your skin as they will be better PH balanced. If you choose the right bar with very mild surfactants it will give your skin a good clean and leave it feeling silky smooth without that tight feeling that some traditional soaps can leave you with.
As a soapmaker, cold process soap is far more fun to make than syndet bars, we find it cheaper to make them although they do take longer as need a 4-6 week cure time to enable all the liquid to evaporate and form their crystalline structures to ensure a nice hard, long lasting bar. Of course, if it's left in water in your shower, sink or bath, it will dissolve quickly so make sure you look after it to get it's full potential.
There are also "melt & pour" soaps out on the market where soapmakers can buy a base, melt it down and add their own colours and fragrances to it, it is soap making but as a soapmaker you are limited to the manufacturers ingredients rather than creating your own.
There's nothing quite like the look and feel of the "old fashioned" way of making soap and the excitement of cutting each bar to see what it will look like on the inside will never, ever disappear. It's my favourite part of the whole process.