Simple soaps vs complex soaps- which do you prefer and why?

[JCinPA]

I’m with @luvmysuper except scent is a huge part of the enjoyment for me. Regarding the question in the OP, I don’t think it matters. Cella is simple and wonderful. Ethos Grooming has dozens of ingredients and is wonderful. I never look at ingredient lists, I don’t understand them. If it works I buy more of it. If not, I don’t.

One thing I’m perplexed by is this movement toward “I only use vegan soaps.” It seems that for most people they think it’s about animal cruelty? Unless you eat vegan, this is ridiculous. If you enjoy a good steak, chicken parm, veal scallopini, Brazilian skirt steak, a grilled pork chop … the tallow is simply a byproduct and it respects the animal by ensuring none of it will be wasted. Kind of like the American Indian revered the Buffalo. But unless you’re also eating vegan, avoiding tallow soaps to somehow be kind to animals is just silly, IMO. They don’t kill cows for the tallow to make shaving soap, after all.

I also use tallow or vegan soaps because they both work. I don’t read ingredient labels and I don’t seek out tallow or non-tallow. Tallow Cella and Tabac are wonderful. Saponificio Veresino or Haslinger non-tallow are wonderful!

I don’t get it. But then I’m old and getting foggy, I guess. I don’t get a lot of modern trends.

P.S. I understand some may not want tallow for other reasons, I suppose, not knocking not wanting tallow soap. It just makes no sense to me if you also eat meat. That perplexes me.

 

[BigJ]

Slick.
Any other concern for me is periferal.
I'm looking to shave whiskers off my face.
I'm not looking for "skin nourishment" or lather that "looks like" whipped cream.
I don't much care how many, or what the ingredients are.
I don't obsess about the pursuit of so called "cushion".
I want a very slick soap. That's all you need for a good shave.
A scent that is not repugnant is a close second.

+1! I am after a ‘slick’ lather that provides a great shave! Everything else is secondary in a shave soap.

All else being equal, I also prefer soaps with ‘simple’ ingredients as that makes it easier to troubleshoot problems.

 

[SalS]

I like the best, but it just so happens the best in this case are the most complex.

 

[pellidon]

I get good results from both complex and simple. Really can't determine a post shave difference in them.

I haven't tried making shave soap yet but I've made regular bar soap with two ingredients up to six. The latter was to use up small amounts of oils. All work fine. Some may suds up better from the oil choices but they all clean.

The scents are where my preferences lie. The base is the base to me. I'm a vegetarian but tallow based soaps are fine with me.