Mass market vs artisan soaps

Discussion in 'Shave Soaps' started by matthewoli98, Mar 26, 2019.

  1. matthewoli98

    matthewoli98 Well-Known Member

    Ive seen a lot of posts on different shaving forums where people complain about mass market soaps and their slickness scents and ingredients so i thought id post my option on the differences between the two.

    Mass market soaps- these are soaps readily available from bigger companies of pharmaceuticals, products like Arko, Derby, the South African reitzer and tabac fall into this category.

    Artisan soaps- these soaps include the likes of the wonder soaps manufactured by bundubeard and RVTs own range of soaps, both offering remarkable value for money and excellent performance.(often artisan soaps in other countries are rediculously over-priced, but thats certainly not the case here.)

    Performance (mass market soaps)- Often people complain about the lathering of some of these soaps, but performance wise id say the majority are excellent, many mass market soaps have been around for years, and there's a reason for that. They provide excellent performance at an often low price.

    Performance (artisan soaps)- Lathering is often excellent, however there are a few artisan soaps which do have issues lathering, especially when used with hard water. Often because these soaps are made in small batches, the consistency can differ slightly from batch to batch, and often individual recipes and formulas are still being tweaked to maximize performance.

    Scent- (mass market soaps)- This is one category where artisan soaps win hands down in my opinion. Often mass market soaps have a more industrial scent, but they get the job done.
    Scent(artisan soaps)- artisan soaps win this category hands down, theres so many available, so many different scent profiles and varieties that there's one to suit your requirements and budget available for almost everyone.

    Ingredients-(mass market soaps)- this is the category that makes me lean more towards artisan soaps, often mass market soaps are made with lower quality ingredients, and often have a ton of dodgy preservatives in them. For example one of my favourite budget soaps Arko has the following Ingredients: Potassium Tallowate, Stearic Acid, Potassium Cocoate, Aqua, Sodium Palm Kernelate,Glycerin, Parfum, Paraffinum Liquidium, Cl 77891, Tetrasodium EDTA, Etidronic Acid, Disodium Distrylbiphenyl Disulfonate, Amyl Cinnamal, Citronellol, Geraniol, Hexyl Cinnamal, Linalool.

    A lot of those ingredients sound pretty dodgy, even though they have been approved for use in the cosmetic industry.
    For example tetrasodium EDTA is one of the dodgy ones, and you wont believe how they make it, check it out, https://www.annmariegianni.com/ingredie ... maldehyde/

    Ingredients (artisan soaps)
    Artisan soaps definitely contain much safer natural ingredients, and are often healthier for you as well as for your skin.
    Here's an example of the ingredients found in RVTs own soap range:

    Stearic acid

    Palm Oil

    Shea Butter

    Cocoa Butter

    Avocado Oil

    Glycerin

    French Clay

    Essential oils

    As we can see, clearly artisan soaps(usually) contain healthier and Safer ingredients.

    Conclusion: both mass market and artisan soaps have their place, artisan soaps are better if you want less preservatives and dont mind paying more, but mass market soaps are the better option if you dont mind the extra ingredients or are on a tight budget. Personally i use both artisan and mass market soaps and enjoy them both, but i like the idea of less harmful ingredients and supporting smaller businesses and artisans.

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  2. BigD

    BigD Well-Known Member

    Just remember, today's mass market soaps were yesterday's artisan. Tomorrow's mass market soaps my just be today's artisan. That's what is great about Capitalism. The consumer gets to vote with their wallets. Anyway, great post. I can't disagree with anything you said.
     
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  3. matthewoli98

    matthewoli98 Well-Known Member

    Very true and the ingredient thing isnt true for all mass market soaps, some contain no preservatives, its just in general.

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  4. BigD

    BigD Well-Known Member

    Of course.
     
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  5. KUSTOM

    KUSTOM Well-Known Member

    As a soapmaker, I can definitely appreciate a soap made from simple ingredients that work really well.
     
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  6. matthewoli98

    matthewoli98 Well-Known Member

    As a consumer so do i! Keep up the good work.

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  7. BigMark83

    BigMark83 [...........] this space intentionally left blank

    Hm, how about a link?
     
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  8. Shaver X

    Shaver X Well-Known Member

    What difference does it make if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches the mice?

    I think to that all the artisan vs. commercial, tallow vs. non-tallow, ingredients lists, and all the other shaving soap nonsense is irrelevant and meaningless. What matters is how well the soap works for shaving, and it's cost / value for the money. There are plenty of soaps that are great, both artisan and commercial. Not to mention that nobody has clearly identified a widely accepted boundary between an artisan and commercial shaving soap businesses.
     
  9. BigD

    BigD Well-Known Member

    His signature has it. www.moonsoaps.com
     
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  10. BigMark83

    BigMark83 [...........] this space intentionally left blank

    Those don't show up in Tapatalk.

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  11. brit

    brit in a box

    does anyone have a vintage 1950s puck of tobs, truefitt or trumpers soaps, or a vintage mwf, .. or 1959 tabac, most higher end shave soaps were a luxury item in the old days and distinguished by scents, not so much by performance.old school soaps worked by design..i could be very wrong of course. just speculation..todays soap could be just fluff..
     
    Last edited: Mar 28, 2019
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  12. matthewoli98

    matthewoli98 Well-Known Member

    I wasn't saying one performs better than the other, i was just stating the differences ive found in my experience. My favourite soap is Arko, a commercial soap.

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  13. matthewoli98

    matthewoli98 Well-Known Member

    You're correct, old school high end soaps mainly differed by scent. Its the same with modern soaps, but artisan soaps traditionally have less ingredients in, but performance wise theres no definite winner, it varies from soap to soap.

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