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 while she 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, 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. The glycerin that's produced by commercially made soap is skimmed off and sold for other purposes. Glycerin is a versatile and non-toxic product that's used for many purposes. It's needed for manufacturing cosmetics, certain food and pharmaceutical products, the printing industry and more.
The drawback for us, 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.