Which soap do you use? Toilet soap or bathing bars?

I am writing this article because my student Rachana. The question asked by her brother to her and she asked the same to me - “why toilet soap is written on the soap’s wrapper?”. I have undergone for a little research on this topic and I am putting here my findings.

Short answer:

Toilet soap is the soap used as a toiletry and the toiletry means - an object or cosmetic used in making up, dressing, etc. Due to the word toiletry, we misunderstood the concept of toilet soap. Cambridge dictionary defines the toilet soap as “a sweet-smelling soap that is intended for washing the body”.

Soap is used to clean the body and it is catagorised as toilet soap and bathing bar. The distinction (toilet soap and bathing bar) is made on the basis on amount of fatty material used to manufacture the soap. The thing to note is higher fatty material soap has better cleaning ability. Toilet soap contains more fatty material than bathing bar, so they soften the skin than bathing bar. Most of the soaps present in the market (Lux, Liril, Lifebuoy, Hamam, Rexona, Cinthol) are toilet soaps. (See the list at bottom)

Detailed Explanation:

To understand whole concept, you must to understand the manufacturing process of soap (called as Saponification). Soaps are the compounds formed by the reaction of bases (alkalies or salts) with triglycerides (fatty acid esters) with a byproduct as a glycerin. Fatty acid salt is a chemical name of soap. Bases are mostly sodium or potassium hydroxide. Triglycerides are mostly found in vegetable oil (coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil, etc) or animal fats. Vegetable oil produces soft soap whereas animal fat produces hard soap. The soaps are rated in terms of Total Fatty Matter (TFM) contents. Good TFM soap has a good cleaning and nourishing property. TFM is a measure (in %) for identifying the amount of fatty matter present in soap i.e. more the fatty material present in soap, it is good for skin. In ideal saponification process, the ratio of fats to bases is 5:1. If we consider 5:1 ratio then TFM value of soap is 83.3% (but observed max value of TFM is 80%).

According to Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), there are two types of soap - toilet soap and bathing bar. TFM content in bathing bar should be less than 60% but not less than 40%, while toilet soaps are categorized in three sub-categories depending on their TFM content. The TFM content of Grade I toilet soap should be 76% or above. TFM content of Grade II toilet soap should be less than 76% but not less than 70%. TFM content of Grade III toilet soap should be less than 70% but not less than 60%. It is mandatory for toilet soap to mention TFM value on the wrapper while in case of bathing bar, it is not obligatory to mention TFM value.

Toilet soap v/s Bathing bar

Toilet soap	Bathing bar
High amount of fatty material	Less amount of fatty material
TFM ranging from 60-80%	TFM ranging from 40-60%
Surface active agents are absent	Surface active agents are present

Grade I soap has better cleaning ability and it is gentle to skin than lower grade soap. Grade I soap has no filler (additive like talc) while Grade II and Grade III have large amount of fillers. Sometimes fillers present in Grade II, Grade III and bathing bar may have bad effect on the skin. These soaps consumed faster than Grade I soap when gets contact with water and they are also poorer in lathering.

If TFM is low, this means, other than fatty material something like moisturising cream, vitamin, ayurvedic material or talc is added to soap.

There are some soap sub-categories (not standardized) are present in market like glycerin soap, beauty bar, ayurvedic soap. As glycerin soap (like Pears) is soft to skin so it may be the choice of people who have sensitive skin but they are not good at cleaning the skin. Beauty bar (like Dove) may be choice of people whose skin gets dry when they use soap because soap pours inside the skin. Beauty bar does not dry the skin because they are made up of neutral cleansing material and moisturising cream. One can use ayurvedic soap (like Margo) whose skin is sensitive to chemicals.

Following are the soaps according to their TFM contents and Grade,

Sr. No.	Soap Name	TFM (%)	Grade
1	Anu spa aloe vera	80	1
2	Anu spa Astagandha	80	1
3	Anu spa Chandanam	80	1
4	Anu spa Gulabjal	80	1
5	Anu spa Keasar	80	1
6	Anu spa Kevada	80	1
7	Anu spa Sandal with almond oil	80	1
8	Anu spa Shahi khas	80	1
9	Doy Care Cream soap	80	1
10	Mysore Sandal Classic	80	1
11	Mysore Sandal Gold	80	1
12	Mysore Sandal Millennium	80	1
13	Mysore Sandal Regular	80	1
14	Nivea	78	1
15	Anu spa Anuved Panchamrut	76	1
16	Cinthol Lime	76	1
17	Dyna	76	1
18	Everyuth Superia silk	76	1
19	Fair Glow	76	1
20	GLY-SEB	76	1
21	Godrej No 1 Aloe vera and white lily	76	1
22	Godrej No 1 Coconut and cream	76	1
23	Godrej No 1 Lavender	76	1
24	Godrej No 1 Lime and aloe vera	76	1
25	Godrej No 1 Rosewater and almond	76	1
26	Godrej No 1 Saffron and milk	76	1
27	Godrej No 1 Sandal and turmeric	76	1
28	Himalaya Nourishing cream and honey	76	1
29	Himalaya Protecting neem and turmeric	76	1
30	Moti Gulab	76	1
31	Moti Sandal	76	1
32	Nima Sandal	76	1
33	Park Avenue Double deo	76	1
34	Park Avenue Freshness deo	76	1
35	Park Avenue Luxury fragrant	76	1
36	Santoor Gold	76	1
37	Wild Stone Ultra Sensual	76	1
38	Yardley English lavender	76	1
39	Yardley English rose	76	1
40	Yardley Sandalwood	76	1
41	Vivel Luxury cream with olive butter	74	2
42	Liril 2000	73	2
43	Vivel Aloe vera	73	2
44	Vivel Luxury Sandal cream	73	2
45	Vivel Mixed fruit+ cream	73	2
46	Vivel Refresh+ moisturiser	73	2
47	Anu spa Uptan	72	2
48	Lux Creamy white	72	2
49	Santoor Sandal and almond milk	72	2
50	Vivel Luxury cream with shea butter	72	2
51	Dettol Cool	71	2
52	Dettol Original	71	2
53	Dettol Radiance	71	2
54	Dettol Re-energize	71	2
55	Dettol Skincare	71	2
56	Margo Original neem	71	2
57	Everyuth Fragrant flower	70	2
58	Everyuth Lemon	70	2
59	Everyuth Sandal	70	2
60	Jo Jasmine	70	2
61	Jo Rose	70	2
62	Jo Sandal and turmeric	70	2
63	Lux Fresh splash	70	2
64	Lux Peach and cream	70	2
65	Lux Sandal and cream	70	2
66	Lux Sheer and romance	70	2
67	Lux Strawberry and cream	70	2
68	Rexona	70	2
69	Vivel Green tea	70	2
70	Wipro Shikakai	70	2
71	Hamam	68	3
72	Chandrika Original	65	3
73	Margo Glycerin	64	3
74	Breeze Fresh rose	63	3
75	Breeze Lemon splash	63	3
76	Doy Care Aloe vera	62	3
77	Doy Care Honey and glycerin	62	3
78	Savlon	61	3
79	Lifebuoy Care	60	3
80	Lifebuoy Nature	60	3
81	Lifebuoy Total	60	3
82	Medimix Classic	60	3
83	Safrogel Glycerin	60	3
84	Anu spa Honey and Aloe vera		Bathing Bar
85	Anu spa Honey and rose		Bathing Bar
86	Chandrika Glycerin		Bathing Bar
87	Dove		Bathing Bar
88	Everyuth Natural hydrating fruit		Bathing Bar
89	Fiama Di wills Men		Bathing Bar
90	Fiama Di wills Peach & avocado		Bathing Bar
91	Fiama Di wills Skin sense		Bathing Bar
92	Lifebuoy Clini care		Bathing Bar
93	Margo Active glycerin		Bathing Bar
94	Medimix Moisturising		Bathing Bar
95	Medimix Sandal		Bathing Bar
96	Mild & Care Blackberry & blackcurrant		Bathing Bar
97	Mild & Care Glycerin & vitamin E		Bathing Bar
98	Mild & Care Skin guard		Bathing Bar
99	Pears Oil clear		Bathing Bar
100	Pears Pure and gentle		Bathing Bar
101	Pears Soft and fresh		Bathing Bar
102	Riviera		Bathing Bar

Note: The above given TFM % and Grade value are the figures of the article’s last updated date (23-03-2014). I will not be responsible for any future change of the values. To know the latest values please refer the wrapper of the soap.

Final words – Soap selection is depending on the individual’s requirement. The people don’t have any skin problem, they can opt toilet soap (grade 1 is better choice than lesser one). If you have a sensitive skin then you can prefer to use glycerin, beauty bar or ayurvedic soap.