With this question I want to include not only shave soap but also bar soap for showering since I bought both recently. Are tallow based soaps better for you and your skin than non tallow. (Glycerin, etc.) Less chemicals? Healthier?
Less chemicals depends on the individual soap but tallow soaps leave my skin feeling softer and more nourished. Some find it slicker I have found veggie soaps as slick but only a few with the moisturising effects of a good tallow. So really it's a case of finding which works best for you. For me it's usually tallow but not always. p.s. most of my favourite soaps also have lanolin and it led me to think mammal fats are more readily absorbed. I know, I know, claptrap and snake oil but my skin says different.
I'm not a chemist so I can't speak to the technical aspect. The little I understand is that soaps use fat and lye. The choice of fat goes to either animal or plant based. For ethical reasons some folks prefer plant based. I'm not so hard line being an Omnivore. I have found that animal fat based tend to make better lathers that give slicker glide. There are exceptions in the plant based oils soap world. Some plant oil based soap makers have developed soaps that rival or best animal fat based soaps. Even in that broad category some folks have found a way to be offended. See Palm Oils. When you are deciding on a bath bar be aware that not all are actually soap. Detergents are not the same though they creatively label products to make you think they are soap.
I read that glycerin absorbs water, even from the air. I make sure my shave soap has glycerin and even use a glycerin prep before shaving.
Um, pardon my ignorance, but why would someone be offended about Palm Oils? I can understand someone not wanting to "hurt" animals for animal fats and parts, but have Palm trees turned sentient or something? Thank you in advance for the explanation.
Just a random check, I looked at ingredients for the arko stick. It lists potassium tallowate and glycerin. So maybe those that contain both are a win win
I agree. It's only from experience, but tallow soaps perform better from my experience. Sent from my DROID Turbo using Tapatalk
I have found excellent tallow shave soaps and terrible tallow shave soaps. I have found excellent veggie shave soaps and terrible veggie shave soaps. For bath soaps I have a strong preference for tallow soaps, I find they do not dry out my skin like other soaps. Now I am talking real soap, not engine degreasers that are sold as cleansing bars or liquid cleansers.
It has to do with the cultivation of the palm trees. Often, diverse forests are cut down and replaced by groves of palm trees. Growing only one type of tree has many consequences including loss of food for animals that ate from the tree species that were removed.
Thanks for the answer. Anyone offer to buy the farms from the farmers to let the diverse forest regrow?
That’s an excellent question. Unfortunately I don’t have that info. (I also realize that ecological issues do not exis completely apart from the economy.). But back to the palm oil, there are other options that are less damaging to the environment and work just as well.
For many years, I used only tallow based soaps and was convinced they were superior. I've since found some veg. based soaps that rival or surpass tallows I've used in the past, for me at least. I've been using Saponificio Veresino, almost exclusively, for close to a year (I drifted back to Stirling briefly, but went right back). Another one I thought exceptional is Tcheon Fung Sing. But, like anything else in wet shaving, it comes down to a matter of preference. Ultimately, the one that's superior is the one that you like best and works best for your shave.
I'm not in the cult of tallow myself. There probably was a time when tallow soaps were generally better, because they've been around forever. But these days more people are getting the hang of making excellent veggie soaps. I have, and will always have, both.
My skin likes Arko, tallow based. I have fancier veg french soap with nicer nose but find myself using Arko majority of time.
