Savon de Marseille (Marseille Soap)

[abemom2]

Is this better than the WAHM's soaps from here?

I just discovered this. It's chaper than many of the soaps here.

[captivatedlife]

It sounds like a lovely soap and I would love to try a bar of it!

That being said, it is just like anything else - you have to choose your battles. I like to buy handmade and support hand artisians. I like (even better) to make my own at a steeply discounted price! It looks like a decent company - I don't know anything about their practices, but they seem ok. You can check around. One thing you might like to do is ask to buy a pound or 2 from a soaper - many times they will give you a discount based on you buying bulk. Soap keeps for a while, especially unscented soaps like you're looking at. You don't have to worry about scents disapating - the soap will last years.

[KBinSATX]

I wish I could find a listing of ingredients. The closest thing I could find is this:

The white soap is made with palm oil, the green with at least 50% olive oil.

So the white soap is made with palm oil. Nothing wrong with palm oil. I use it for my own soaps (Mellow Yellow Soap Company). It makes a nice hard soap but it doesn't have much to offer in regards to moisturizing, nutrients, etc. You use it in combination with other oils so my question would be: what are the other oils?
Different oils have different properties - and also vary widely in cost.

Then the green bar with 50% olive oil: Olive oil makes a softer soap and it's also more expensive. You can find 100% olive oil soap usually under the name Castile soap but be careful: unfortunately it's now okay to call any soap 'Castile' as long as at least half of it's oils are from olive so look at the ingredients!

Mass produced soap definitely will be cheaper than handcrafted soap. Also using cheaper oils will produce a product for less.

Speaking of cost- I have a Soap Giveaway going on right now. Check it out!

[abemom2]

KBinSATX: I checked out your soaps. They look nice. I still have 3 bars of soap, so I'm not going to buy yet.

Congrats on your new baby. What's your older child's birthday? (I'm wondering because the years are the same.)

[KBinSATX]

Originally Posted by abemom2

Congrats on your new baby. What's your older child's birthday? (I'm wondering because the years are the same.)

Oops. I edited my signature right after DD was born and I must have been sleep deprived! LOL. Duncan was born May 2006 and Nikki was born 2 years later! Still seems to close (I am tandem nursing and at times it's driving me CRAZY!!!) but I see you have them spaced very similarly! Congrats to you too

[3bees~1flower]

Originally Posted by KBinSATX

Then the green bar with 50% olive oil: Olive oil makes a softer soap and it's also more expensive. You can find 100% olive oil soap usually under the name Castile soap but be careful: unfortunately it's now okay to call any soap 'Castile' as long as at least half of it's oils are from olive so look at the ingredients!

actually, olive oil makes a VERY hard bar with a good long cure. it does take longer than a bar with not as much olive, but ultimately, it does get very hard. i make a soap with 75% olive oil...my very favorite soap...it also has cocoa butter and a little castor and coconut to boost lather. it's like a brick!

[KBinSATX]

Originally Posted by 3bees~1flower

actually, olive oil makes a VERY hard bar with a good long cure. it does take longer than a bar with not as much olive, but ultimately, it does get very hard. i make a soap with 75% olive oil...my very favorite soap...it also has cocoa butter and a little castor and coconut to boost lather. it's like a brick!

I was talking about 100% olive oil. With soft I mean it will get gooey faster than other bars if you leave it on the wet counter, etc.
I am not surprised at all that a soap with coconut oil and cocoa butter turns really hard- that's what coconut and cocoa are known for - in fact too much cocoa and soap can actually turn out too brittle.

Didn't mean to hijack the thread though. Back to the Marseille stuff- I have no idea and without seeing the ingredients it's tough to say!

[KBinSATX]

Originally Posted by abemom2

Is this better than the WAHM's soaps from here?

I just discovered this. It's chaper than many of the soaps here.

I just finished reading another great soap book and know more about Marseille Soap now

It's actually considered a household soap. It's traditionally used as a laundry soap because it cleans well. It's safe to use on hands but would be quite drying if used as a regular bath soap, etc.

It's usually 50% olive/ 50% beef tallow (or palm oil)

[AprilDaisy]

I have to agree that I buy handmade for it's goodness and ingredients.