Sure, it's clear that the ingredients make a difference. But what properties will a soap bar exhibit when high quality ingredients are used to craft it? The ingredients list is useful, but may not tell you everything. For example, the grade and brand of olive oil used may not be disclosed.

In addition, soapmakers may use a variety of vegetable oils that are less expensive than olive oil at the expense of the amount of olive oil used. Since the amount of olive oil is not specified, it's hard to tell how much of it is actually in the soap.

The list of oils and fats that soapmakers may use is long. Some are much more expensive than others, depending on the process used to produce them. Different types and grades of fats and oils will give different characteristics to the final product - the soap.

Different soapmakers may also use essential oils that come from different parts of the world, are of significantly varying quality, and were produced using different distillation and extraction processes. Some extraction processes used to produce essential oils may involve chemicals that may still exist as a residue in the final essential oil.