I love making soaps and I love making luxurious bar soaps. Sometimes I get asked – what makes a bar soap luxurious? Well, there are in fact a few things that separate a luxurious handmade soap from a standard handmade bar soap. Handmade soap is already significantly better than a store bought, mass produced bar soap that is depleted of its natural glycerin. One of the benefits of handmade soap is exactly that, you maintain all the wonderful glycerin in your soap. The glycerin makes the soap so much wonderful for the skin. Another benefit of handmade soap is the ability to select the perfect ingredients.

Now, what separates a handmade soap from a luxurious handmade soap? There are three key things that make a luxurious bar of soap. First, the main base ingredients in the formulation, second, the selection and incorporation of any additives with unique and special properties, and third the end properties of the soap with respect to the feel and lather. We will cover all three in this article.

Base ingredients in a luxurious handmade soap

The selection of the base ingredients in the formulation of handmade soap is the first thing customers look at when purchasing a handmade luxurious soap. While handmade soap can be made with all sorts of oils, butters, fats (such as lard and tallow), a luxurious bar of soap uses a combination of oils and butters that are perfect for the skin and produce a hard bar with wonderful lather. Generally, the most known and used oils are olive oil, rice bran oil, avocado oil, sweet almond oil and sunflower oil. These are very well known and used in many formulations along with coconut oil and castor oil. Other less known but also fantastic oils to use in a luxurious bar of soap are apricot kernel oil, safflower oil, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, hemp oil and others. All these oils are evaluated in the formulation to ensure that they bring a good balance for conditioning, cleansing and a perfect amount of bubbles.

The selection of butters in the formulation is also very important to create that perfect and luxurious bar of soap. There are so many wonderful butters to pick from as well. Shea butter and cocoa butter are two of the most well known butters used in handmade soap. Other butters such as kokum butter, mango seed butter and specialty formulated butters such as coffee butter, aloe butter, hemp butter and lavender butter can also add that luxurious feel and properties to the soap.

Specialty ingredients in a luxurious handmade soap

Now, what are specialty ingredients and why are these important in the luxurious bar formulation? Well these ingredients add unique properties and characteristics to the soap that make a very specific formulation and take the soap to the next level. These specialty ingredients are generally known as additives. The additives are selected so that we can bring even more skin loving properties to the soap. Each additive has its unique benefits not only for the skin but also for the type of hardness, conditioning or lather of the soap. Examples of these additives are clays, colloidal oatmeal, vitamin E oil, and tussah silk to name a few.

Other specialty ingredients can be those that are used to replace the some or all the amount of water. These water replacements can be in the form of various milks. Lots of soap makers make goat milk soap or add coconut milk to the soap. Both these milks have sugars that add to the lather properties of the soap. Another wonderful specialty ingredient that is widely used is local raw honey. Honey is great for the skin and increases the lather.

A luxurious handmade soap feel and lather

A luxurious soap is soft and glides on the skin. It feels like wonderfully caressing your skin a the same time providing its intended purpose of cleaning the skin. A luxurious handmade soap is formulated in such a way that it cleanses and is not drying. A luxurious bar of soap also has a wonderful and sustained creamy lather. It is a hard bar and long lasting.

Handmade soaps are made in small batches, carefully formulated, made with lots of love. Luxurious handmade soaps are the product of a long process. This long process includes the formulation, preparation and curing time. Handmade soaps are not only made by artisans but dedicated entrepreneurs that take pride in what they do. In a lot of cases the ingredients for handmade soap locally sourced. This stimulates the local economy and touches the lives of those around us soap makers.