Someone recently asked me,
"When customers ask what makes handmade soap special, what do I say?"
She wanted to give the best response possible, and picked up a pen and waited for my answer. There's really more than one reason why handmade soap feels so different from the soap you buy at the grocery store, but if I had to explain it in a minute or less, I'd say the biggest difference between handmade soap and commercially made soap is the glycerin content, that's left in handmade soap.
Of course, great ingredients are key, but what's left in handmade soap is just as important.
Glycerin is a humectant. Humectants attract water from the air onto our skin. It's a master-of-hydration emollient that leaves us feeling soft and comfortable, and a natural by-product of the soapmaking process.
Commercially made soaps produce lots of glycerin too - the difference is, commercially produced soaps retain practically none of it.
How can this be? Because glycerin is a very wonderful ingredient. It's a versatile, non-toxic product used for many purposes, in several industries - including manufacturing of cosmetics, food, pharmaceutical products, the printing industry and more.
And so - in commercial soapmaking - glycerin is skimmed off and sold for these and other purposes. It's why many mass produced soaps give us that dry and tight feeling (we're so used to!) after showering. Handmade soap will never leave your skin dry or tight, because of it's free-floating oils and copious glycerin content.
I'm gonna go out on a limb and speak for all small-batch soapmakers when I say;
we have no means of removing glycerin content from our soap, and we wouldn't do it even if we could.
Handmade soap is special. You'll feel the difference it makes the very first time you use it. It's a small act of self-care your skin will thank you for, and worth it's weight in glycerin.
