Someone recently asked me,
"So when customers ask what makes handmade soap special, what do I say?"
She wanted to offer the best response possible, and picked up a pen and waited for my answer. There's really more than one reason why handmade soap is superior to the soap you buy at the grocery store, but if I had to explain it in a minute or less, I'd say this:
The biggest difference between handmade soap and commercially made soap is the copious glycerin content, that's left in handmade soap.
Glycerin is a humectant. Humectants attract water from the air onto our skin. It's an emollient, master of hydration that leaves us feeling soft and comfortable, and a natural by-product of the soap making process.
Commercially made soaps produce lots of glycerin too. The difference is, it's not retained and commercially produced soaps contain practically none of it!
Glycerin that's produced by commercially made soap is skimmed off and sold for other purposes. It's a versatile, non-toxic product used for many purposes, in several industries including manufacturing of cosmetics, food and pharmaceutical products, the printing industry and more.
The drawback for the consumer, is glycerin-stripping is one of the reasons why mass produced soaps make us feel so dry and tight after showering with them.
