For those of you who've been wondering whatever happened with the chelation tests that I was doing a couple of months ago…it took longer than expected for everyone to complete their evaluations, and then we were in the middle of our festival/beginning-of-market-season flurry, before I could write a comprehensive summary of the results.
To sum it up, everybody received a control sample of the regular soap, another with citric acid only, and three others that had citric acid/sodium gluconate/sodium lactate, in different combinations to see what would boost the lather without negatively affecting any of the other qualities. You might think that there would have been a unanimous opinion about “the best” one – but as we all know, YMMV rules and that was proven once again. There were a couple of instances of one person's favorite being another person's least favorite.
Each person ranked the five soaps in order of preference: the final choice of most improved soap came down to two that had the same number of votes each: B and C. But C was consistently considered in top or second place, with the fewest, if any, negative comments. C was the one with citric acid only, and so that is what I have been adding to all restocked batches since early summer.
So far, I’ve made the following soaps with the new easier-to-lather formula:
Marrakesh
Pompelmo & Fiori (btw, the newest batch of this has menthol in it too!)
Lavender Lime w/menthol
Raspberry Lemon
Irish Traveller
Vetiver & Oakmoss
Lilac
Eucalyptus & Spearmint w/menthol
Sandalwood Rose
Adirondack Jack
Poggio dei Pini
Sandalwood Vanilla
Bay Rum
Jeff’s Lavender
Sensitive Skin
Jasmine
Windjammer
Lemongrass & Blue Gum w/menthol
Lime
Almond Vanilla
Frankincense & Myrrh
Bergamot, Cedarwood & Sage
Cedar & Sage
Barbershop
Eventually, they'll all be switched over to the new chelated formula, meanwhile there are still a few types available in the original formula.