Difference Between a Cream and a Soap?

Hey guys, what is the underlying physical difference between a shaving cream and a shaving soap? Are they both saponified fats, with just varying degrees of water? I think there must be more to it than that. What makes a cream a cream, and not a soap? A soap a soap, and not a cream? Thanks for any thoughts.

There's probably a Sticky on this but I have no idea where.

However, the answer to this question varies between makers. Most soaps are just creams with less water in them. Some have other subtle differences to get the desired consistency. Then you have the croaps. Many Italian soaps are considered croaps. Half way between a soap and a cream in consistency.

Basically though, they're the same.


So why one over the other? Personal choice. Many consider a soap to be slicker than a cream, although this is not a hard and fast rule by any means. Again, it varies from maker to maker.

Have fun and experiment! So many choices out there you'll probably never settle on just one.


I can say with almost 100% certainty that any of them will be magnitudes better than goo in a can

I believe that it's a matter of final consistency of the product. A cream will have more water than a soap making it a cream instead of a solid block of soap. Many products, as mentioned above are considered to be croaps where it's really in between a shave soap and a shave cream. They don't exactly have the consistency of one or the other.

Sodium Hydroxide makes a hard soap, Potassium Hydroxide makes a soft soap (cream). Most soaps/creams have a combo of the two to achieve the makers desired consistency. Otherwise they are mostly the same.

I've been using a lot of in-between type products lately, like Razorock and Cella. Thanks for the chemistry lesson, i always thought the difference was merely moisture content. I have heard that soaps have a longer life than creams.

Thank you guys for the thoughts. I wondered, bc in some cases their ingredients seemed virtually identical.