What is a "French style" soap in your opinion?

Maybe they meant scent and performance?

I have MdC and it's not soft at all.

I was under the assumption "french style" only really means that the ingredients are very basic; usually potassium hidroxide, coconut oil, water, stearic acid, etc. no added moisturizers and no tallow.

Indeed I've gotten the impression that "French style" among artisans means an ingredients list modeled after MdC, though not usually cured in the way that creates MdC's hardness and extraordinary longevity. First one that comes to mind is the main Catie's Bubbles line, which, while easy to load and lather, is certainly not the same as MdC.

My caties bubbles is similar to cella, should it be harder? Softer then stirling or razorock.

I'm not sure what Franchise style is. The 2 French soaps I've seen are hard pucks, is mdc hard or more soft? I shave never know unless win lottery, wish I could try it.
Isn't caties bubbles and wsp suppose to be clones of it?

Thank you Wingdo for this post. It was my understanding the 'French' soap was minimal ingredients but I thought hard as well. That being said, the gal that owns Tiki is one of the PhD chemist soapmakers, no? Clearly her knowledge of soaps is greater than mine and perhaps I made a huge assumption on the hardness issue. Now creams are a whole different issue for me because my Castle&Forbes, Lime and Lavender along with Penhaligon's Blenheim Bouquet can be poured out of their containers. Interesting knowledge to be gained from this post. thx

MdC is extremely hard Slyfox. This (and the hardness of the other famous French soaps) is why I associate "French-style" soaps with being hard/dense - with more simple ingredients compared to an Italian triple milled soap in the vein of SV or Valobra (and the French ones are usually non-tallow), but similarly hard.

I don't mean to knock the artisan with this comment (I'm actually looking forward to trying Tiki soon), but this discrepancy in expectations really demonstrates the importance of flawless marketing/communication skills. The fact that a good portion of this relatively educated consumer base believes something completely the opposite of what is the case (whether or not the "French-style" label is "in reality" accurate) is a recipe for unmet expectations. At the very least this should be explained on the website.

Just used L'occitaine Cade soap today for the first time, is this considered a french style soap alongside MDC and LpL? If it is, it's definitely not soft at all.

Well, I talked with someone over at PAA where I bought the soap and they told me to e-mail Tiki directly. I started a conversation with Amanda yesterday and shot her some pics today of what I received. Her belief is that the soap had been sitting in an AZ warehouse for too long and is sending me a new tub directly.

Thumbs up for great service from Amanda at Tiki. Looking forward to getting a "proper" jar.

When I think of French Style soaps, I think of triple milled hard soaps. The only french soap I have is Pre de Province (PdP). Great stuff, lasts forever and I believe it's triple milled.

wingdo did she say what the consistency was supposed to be like?