Soap School
Different Bars, Different Formulations
Two cold-process soaps can be made using the same basic method and all the same core ingredients.
Yet the end result can feel and perform in very different ways.
Same method does not mean same bar.
"Are they all the same, just different scents?"
The answer is "No"
Every one of our soap bars starts with its own formulation. The base oils, their proportions and any added ingredients are chosen with the intended shower experience and user in mind.
Because preferences are personal, this gives you more ways to find a bar that feels right for you, return to the ones you love, or simply enjoy how each bar brings its own little character to your everyday shower.
IT STARTS WITH THE OILS
Cold-process soap is primarily made from carrier oils and fats that are saponified into soap. These can come from plant oils and butters, such as olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter or cocoa butter, or from animal fats such as tallow or lard.
At My Naked Bar, we have chosen to work only with plant-based oils and butters. Different oils contain different fatty-acid profiles, which help shape how the finished soap behaves, including its hardness, lather, cleansing and conditioning qualities.
Proportions
It is not only which oils are used, but how much of each. Changing the proportions changes the balance of the finished bar.
Two soaps may use many of the same oils but still behave very differently because the recipes use them in different amounts. This is where formulation matters. The soapmaker chooses the balance depending on the kind of bar they want to create.
Superfat
A cold-process recipe can be calculated so that a small amount of oil remains unsaponified in the finished bar. Soapmakers call this superfatting. The amount is another formulation choice.
More is not automatically better, because it can also affect the bar's hardness, lather, longevity and overall performance.
THE ADDITIVES
THE OPTIONAL EXTRAS WE ADD
A cold-process soap made with just its core oils and butters can already be a perfectly good bar.
But soapmakers may choose to add other ingredients for skin benefits, texture, lather, scent or appearance, depending on the experience they want the finished bar to offer.
Oatmeal
Oatmeal is valued for its soothing properties and can give the lather a softer, creamier feel. Depending on how it is used, it can also add gentle texture to the bar.
You'll find it in bars such as Unscented Oatmeal and Lavender Oatmeal.
Clay / Charcoal
Clays and activated charcoal are often used for their absorbent properties, as well as the colour, texture and slip they bring to a soap.
Different clays and amounts of charcoal can create very different bars, from gentler everyday formulations to a deeper-cleansing feel.
Salt
Himalayan pink salt brings hardness, texture and naturally occurring trace minerals to a soap bar, creating the distinctive feel that makes salt bars such a different shower experience.
Salt also affects how a soap lathers. In larger amounts, it can suppress the bubbly lather people usually expect, so the rest of the formulation has to be adjusted carefully to make the most of what the salt brings while still producing a satisfying lather.
Botanicals
Botanicals may be chosen for their known cosmetic properties, as well as the colour, texture and character they bring to a formulation.
At My Naked Bar, you're more likely to find botanicals infused into our oils than scattered on top. We're perhaps a little too practical to want you picking petals off the bathroom floor after you've just showered clean.
Scent
Some bars are scented with essential oils, which add another dimension to the experience of using the soap.
Different essential-oil blends can make a bar feel fresh, calming, herbal or uplifting, while some of our formulations are intentionally left unscented for those who prefer fewer variables.
Beyond the ingredient list
How it all comes together
Ingredient choice, formulation, and purpose all work together to create the experience of each bar.
Balance matters more than the ingredient count
A longer ingredient list does not automatically make a better soap.
What matters is why each ingredient is there, how much is used, and how the whole formulation works together.
Sometimes the better formulation includes an additive. Sometimes the better decision is to leave something out
The formulation shapes the bar
Two soaps can contain many of the same ingredients and still behave very differently.
Change the oils, their proportions, the superfat or the amount of an additive, and you can change the bar's hardness, lather, cleansing, conditioning and overall feel.
Same ingredients do not necessarily mean the same soap.
The thinking behind our formulation
We start with the benefits we want from the bar and who we are making it for.
Those priorities come before aesthetics.
From there, we work with the natural ingredients in the formulation and make the most of their colours, textures and character to shape the final design.