Soap Definitions

I find soaps can be very confusing and I don't always know what my shave soap is. For the most part, it doesn't matter. It either works for me or it doesn't when I shave but I like to know what I put on my skin at times. If you're not sure, you can always ask a soap maker what the soap base is and process. Always a good idea to know if a scent is Fragrance Oil or Essential Oil too.

Hot Process Soap (HP):
Adding an additional heat source to shorten the cure time on soaps.

Cold Process Soap (CP):
Relies on the release of heat from lye to make the soap. Needs 3-6 weeks of cure time.

Melt & Pour Soap (M&P):
Ready made soap. Just remelt and add scents or other ingredients and pour into molds. Glycerin based.

Milled Soaps:
Single or Triple Milled just means how many times it went through the roller process. Glycerin is extracted from the soap and the resulting dense soap is powdered, put into a hopper with scents and colorants and rolled between steel rollers. It's then pressure extruded into molds and set to cure. Lasts a long time but the glycerin is missing.

Soap Bases:
Glycerin
Tallow (Animal Fat)
Vegetable Fat (Olive Oil, etc.)
Lanolin
Milk (Goat, Cow, etc) in Lye Solution

These are just a number of different ways to make soap. I tend to like the Cold Process Glycerin and Tallow based soaps and also the high end milled soaps.