I was recently asked for information regarding the superfat amounts in our soaps by a client and I immediately went to our website to send a link and realised this is not something I have wrote about! So here I will explain what superfat means, how our soaps are superfatted and what to look out for in other soaps.
What is superfatting?
When making soaps, we use a lye solution to convert oils into soaps (the saponification process). If the ratio of oil to lye is higher then these oils will not be saponified and will remain behind in the soap. These un-saponified oils are superfatting.
Why superfat?
The benefit is the un-saponified oils are left behind in the soap to moisturise your skin. Oils are expensive so many commercial soap companies don't so this which is why you may have found some soap bars to be drying to the skin.
How much are our soaps superfatted?
Our face & body soaps are superfatted by 5%. After lots of testing, we've found this to be the right level for our soap recipes. Your skin will feel moisturised as well as clean afterwards.
The household soaps are not superfatted, because for these, we want the maximum cleaning power and these do not need to be moisturising.
Will a soap superfatted by 20% be more moisturing than 5%?
This very much depends on the soap recipe and the oils used. For example, a soap bar made with only coconut oil (like our dish soap) would be too drying to use on the skin and to combat this, could have 20% superfat. A soap with nourishing shea butter for example, doesn't need as much superfat.
I hope this helps to explain superfatting but please let me know if you have any more questions!
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