If you've come across the term “superfatted soap,” you may be wondering what it actually means.
Superfatted soap is soap made with more oils or fats than are needed for the soap-making reaction. That leaves a portion of the oils unsaponified in the finished bar rather than converting all of them into soap.
At Life Essentials Refillery, we use superfatting when making our handcrafted soaps because it helps us create the kind of bar we want to use ourselves: one that cleans while leaving skin feeling comfortable rather than overly stripped.
What Does Superfatted Mean?
To understand superfatted soap, it helps to understand how soap is made.
Traditional soap is created through a process called saponification. Oils or fats are combined with an alkali—such as sodium hydroxide for bar soap—and a chemical reaction transforms them into soap and glycerin.
A soap recipe can be formulated so that there is more oil or fat than the calculated amount of alkali can convert into soap.
That extra amount is called the superfat.
In simple terms:
Superfatting means deliberately formulating a soap recipe with some excess oils or fats remaining after saponification.
Why Do Soap Makers Superfat Soap?
One reason soap makers use a superfat is to change the characteristics and feel of the finished bar.
Soap's job is to help remove oils, dirt and debris from the skin. But cleansing can also remove some of the skin's natural oils, which is why some soaps can leave your skin feeling tight after washing.
A properly formulated superfatted soap can provide cleansing while leaving some additional emollient material in the finished bar.
For us, it's part of creating a bar that feels pleasant to wash with rather than simply trying to make the strongest cleanser possible.
Does Superfatted Soap Moisturize Your Skin?
This is where the terminology can get confusing.
Superfatted soap contains excess oils or fats, but it's still a rinse-off cleansing product, not a replacement for a leave-on moisturizer.
A better way to think about it is that superfatting can contribute to a less stripping, more conditioning feel compared with a soap formulation designed with little or no excess fat.
How a particular soap feels on your skin also depends on the complete recipe—not simply whether the word “superfatted” appears on the label.
Is Superfatted Soap Good for Dry Skin?
People with dry skin often look for cleansers that don't leave their skin feeling excessively tight or stripped, which is one reason they may be interested in superfatted soap.
However, superfatting alone doesn't guarantee that a soap will be right for everyone with dry or sensitive skin.
The oils used, fragrance, essential oils, additives and overall formulation can all affect how an individual person's skin responds.
If your skin is particularly reactive, looking at the entire ingredient list is just as important as looking for a superfatted bar.
Is Superfatted Soap the Same as Handmade Soap?
Not necessarily.
Superfatted describes how a soap recipe is formulated. Handmade describes how or by whom the product is made.
A handmade soap may be superfatted, but you shouldn't assume every handmade soap uses the same formulation or superfat level.
At Life Essentials Refillery, we make our soaps in small batches in Tampa and formulate our bars with a superfat.
Why We Superfat Our Handmade Soap
For us, superfatting isn't a trendy ingredient or marketing phrase. It's part of how we formulate our soap.
We want our bars to:
- Clean effectively
- Feel pleasant during washing
- Avoid an unnecessarily stripped feeling
- Be made in small batches with thoughtfully selected ingredients
It's one of the choices we make when developing our recipes rather than something added to a finished bar afterward.
Does More Superfat Make a Better Soap?
Not necessarily.
Soap making is about balance.
Adding more and more excess fat doesn't automatically make a soap better. The amount of superfat has to work with the oils, fats and other ingredients in the overall formulation.
That's one of the reasons handmade soap recipes are carefully calculated rather than simply combining arbitrary amounts of oils and lye.
What Should You Look for When Choosing Handmade Soap?
Superfatting is one thing you can consider, but it shouldn't be the only one.
Look at the complete ingredient list and consider whether the bar contains fragrance, essential oils, colorants or other ingredients you prefer to use or avoid.
And don't be afraid to ask the soap maker questions.
One advantage of buying locally made soap is being able to learn more about how the product was actually made rather than relying only on the claims on the package.
Shop Superfatted Soap in Tampa
At Life Essentials Refillery, we make our soap in small batches right here in Tampa.
Our soaps are formulated with a superfat as part of our approach to creating simple, thoughtfully made cleansing bars.
Visit us at:
Life Essentials Refillery
4317 W El Prado Blvd
Tampa, FL 33629
Or shop our handmade soap online.
The Bottom Line
So, what is superfatted soap?
It's soap intentionally formulated with more oils or fats than are needed for complete saponification, leaving some excess fat in the finished bar.
Soap makers use superfatting to influence the characteristics and skin feel of a bar. It doesn't automatically make a soap perfect for every skin type, but it's an important part of how many handcrafted soap recipes are formulated.
And now, when you see “superfatted” on a handmade soap description, you'll actually know what it means.
Our soaps are cosmetic cleansing products and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any medical condition. Individual skin responses vary.