Have you ever wondered about doing your shaving with a regular soap than using your shaving soap? Well, this may sound a bit awful to you, doesn’t it? Let’s have a deeper look into what is the difference between shaving soap and regular soap to make the whole scenario a clearer on to you.
There can be found many people who think a regular soap can do all the works that a shaving soap does for shaving. Is that really ‘TRUE’? Does a regular soap have the same properties a shaving soap possesses?
I think a valid argument is necessary to make you get acquainted with the properties of a regular soap and shaving soap. At the same time, I believe that suck kind of argument will make you understand the differences between shaving soap and regular soap.
Before we make a jump into that detailed argument, let’s get to know about these 2 soap types at the very first place.
What Is Regular Soap?
A regular soap or commonly known as bath soap is a kind of soap that is made of a mixture of some kind of fatty acid and oils.
If we consider a domestic setting, regular soap is usually used for bathing, washing along with some other kinds of housekeeping purposes.
What Is Shaving Soap?
Shaving soap is some kind of hard soap that is mainly used to create lather with the help of a shaving brush.
The lather produced by this soap is used to apply on the face before shaving to soften the facial hair.
Difference Between Shaving Soap And Regular Soap
It’s time we should try to find out the major differences between shaving soap and regular soap from every possible angle.
We have divided this section into some sub-sections so that you can easily understand the key differences between shaving and regular soap in terms of specific criteria.
Shaving Soap Vs Regular Soap – Ingredients Differences
Ingredients of Regular Soap
- A combination of fats and oils are used to make a balanced soap bar as different oils have different types of characteristics. Palm oil and coconut oil can be used to make a hard bar that has more of high-cleansing abilities with features if producing big bubbles along with sufficient lather. And, the olive oil is somewhat gentle in nature. So, altogether they have the ability to make a balanced regular soap.
- Sodium hydroxide is also used as the alkali for the production of a solid soap bar.
- Water and other liquids like milk or beer.
- Colorants are also used depending on the manufacturing design.
- Kaolin Clay is another ingredient that is added to produce a good slip. It also works for anchoring any kind of fragrance you want to include.
- Other forms of additives like petals, pumice, etc.
Ingredients of Shaving Soap
- Shaving soap is made using almost the same kind of technology that is used for producing a traditional soap with a slight variation of ingredient selection with the sole purpose of producing slick and stable lather.
- Sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide are most probably used as saponification agents. Sodium hydroxide tends to make the soap as a harder one. So, potassium hydroxide is added to make a softer soap that can be applied on the face with a shaving brush.
- Tallow is known to be one of the most popular ingredients (traditionally) used to produce shaving soap.
- Palm oil is thought to be a substitute for tallow at present because it doesn’t possess any animal fat.
- Coconut oil is a common oil that is widely used for the production of shaving soap.
- Components like stearic acid and fatty acid are also for the production of shaving soap as they have properties to create a more dense stable lather.
Shaving Soap Vs Regular Soap – Features Differences
Features of Regular Soap
• Hardness
Usually, regular soap tends to be somewhat hard in nature. The main reason for producing a hard soap bar is it lasts for a longer time. Always keep in mind – the harder a soap bar, the longer it will last.
• Cleansing
Cleansing is thought to be the main purpose of using regular soap. This is the most important factor is regular soap quality. To be more specific, there is some kind of carbon atoms’ chain in a soap molecule. One end of that chain attracts the oil and the other end attracts water. In this way, regular soap works for cleaning the dirt.
• Conditioner
After the use of soap, what is left behind is known as emollients. And, it varies depending on the type of soap you’re going to use. For instance, if you have more like dry skin, then we would suggest you go for a soap that has moisturizing emollients that will work for preventing water evaporation.
• Fragrance
This feature of regular soap varies because not every person will like the same fragrance type. And, that’s the reason, soap manufacturing companies offer soaps with numerous types of fragrance. It gives you the option of choosing the type you like most.
Features of Shaving Soap
• Stable
To shave the first thing you want to create lather. And, to have a comfortable shave, you will expect to have more of a stable lather. Shaving soap has the properties that have the ability to create a stable dense lather that will help you get a comfortable shave.
• Slick
Another feature of shaving soap is slickness. Because of the slickness of lather created by shaving soap, you get the advantage of gliding the blade easily over your skin without having much irritation.
• Hydrating
Shaving soaps have some kinds of moisturizing agents that keep your skin from being dried. At the same time, these ingredients will work for softening the whiskers that is needed for a BBS shave. For sensitive skin, moisturizing agents included in the shaving soaps give some kind of better feeling after the shaving is performed.
• Antiseptic/Nourishing
When you glide the blade over your skin, it causes some kind of damage to your skin even though there is a stable, slick lather. For that reason, shaving soaps have ingredients like anti-inflammatory, antiseptic or skin-nurturing properties.
Shaving Soap Vs Regular Soap – Chemical & Physical Properties
For shaving soap, the production of bubble thing or lather is the main purpose. For that reason, a long chain of 18 carbons is used. And, this sort of long chain of carbon can be found in coconut oil or beef tallow.
On the other hand, for regular soap where the sole purpose is cleaning, typically shorter chain line 12 carbons is used. This way it works for removing dirt or other harmful substances from your body or skin.
Another way to distinguishes shaving soap from regular soap is glass temperature transition. The glass transition temperature is known to be a temperature at which the soap starts to flow. A bar of shaving soap tends to flow at a very lower temperature than a typical regular soap. To get a real-life demonstration, you can put shaving soap and regular soap in a microwave at a low temperature. Then, you can find the differences in temperature that we have already discussed.
Another thing we want to include to distinguish shaving soap from regular soap is glycerin content. We can say that shaving soap is full of glycerin or there is a higher percentage of glycerin in it which works for improving your skin feel and will also work as some kind of moisturizer.
Besides, shaving soap is typically produced in a colder environment. This kind of environment helps shaving soaps to have some sort of residual oils inside it. Also, the glycerin remains within the soap at a higher percentage. On the contrary, regular soaps are produced in a normal temperature which is higher than the temperature used for the production of shaving soaps.
So, we have got a clear idea that soap production environment, production procedures, the fat composition used for production are the main reasons that basically distinguish shaving soaps from regular soaps.
Wrap Up
So, we have got a clearer picture on the topic – what is the difference between shaving soap and regular soap.
It is always ‘IMPORTANT’ that you use the right kind of soap for a specific purpose. If you previously used regular soaps for your shaving thing, it is high time you change this habit of yours as we have already come to the difference between shaving soap and regular soap.
Our entire discussion has mainly been divided into sections like ingredients, features, chemical, and physical properties so that you get to a deeper knowledge about the differences lying between regular soap and shaving.
From our analysis, we are quite sure that we have successfully added all the necessary points and angles that can give you the clearest picture.
Still, if you think that we have missed out on a vital point, you can give us a message. We will surely look into it.
Good-Bye!
