Teach Soap

There is a commercial for Dove or Ivory (or some other cleansing bar) that is playing on TV right now where they show a bar of cracked soap. They narrator says something to the effect that, "If a bar of soap gets this dry and cracked, imagine what it can do to your skin." Then the commercial goes on to say that you should use their moisturizing bar.

What makes some bars of soap crack, while some do not? I'm referring to store-bought soap though I guess handmade soap may do the same

Thanks

I picked up some soap in my recent travels from St. Petersburg that my wife translated the ingredients for me. It's made from 100% coconut oil. The lather was incredible and the soap is so hard that it could be used as a projectile. We used it about a week and it started to crack. It also dried our hands out terribly.

While I don't know the answer to your question; I would guess it is because the soap is diamond-quality hardness.

And your bentonite and a small sample of my shaving soap is going out in tomorrow's mail Midnightstorm. While I don't shave my legs like many of you, I do however shave my face.

The harder the oils/butters, the less superfat, the more chance it will crack while in use.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I did a salt bar with 100% coconut and even though I did the 20% superfat I still found that soap very drying. I use it on a limited basis. As for the commercial.... they came up with a good analogy even though it may not be correct. Guess that is just marketing.

_________________
Susie
Sometimes A Mistake is so much fun, You just have to do it again!

Midnightstorm,
I've seen the same commercial, and yes, it's marketing. I've never had a bar of my soap crack, and I've been making soap for more than 10 years. Wait, I take that back, when my daughter leaves it in a puddle of water, it cracks. But Bubbles is right, it's marketing! If I tell you that I make a better soap than anyone else on the planet and pay a truck load of money to put it on TV, it will sell. Even if I'm full of s*&t, it will sell.
While I agree with SoapBuddy, if you use hard oils and low superfat, it will crack, D*ve is just marketing, look at the ingredients in a bar of their soap and you'll see that.

Brandy

The big boys have the $$$ for creative advertising. Just like the ad where their soap doesn't leave scum on your skin, but any other soap does.

_________________
Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

I've never seen my soap crack till just this winter. The office I work ins bathroom is unheated. We don't stay in there long. I keep my soap in there for all to use and it cracked. I think it was the cold, and being wet and having hot water used on it all at once. I may be wrong but this has never happened to me at home.