If you don't use Savon de Marseille on a regular basis, at least you know the name. But did you know that the name "Savon de Marseille" is not protected? This means that anyone, anywhere, anyhow can produce a soap and call it that. As a result, the majority of Marseille soaps you come across in supermarkets, specialty stores or Provencal markets are not made in France, and certainly not in Marseille.
Here are our tips for recognizing genuine Marseille soap:
Color: authentic Marseille soap is colored by the oils in which it is made. In fact, it must not contain any coloring agents. Its color can therefore range from dark green (olive oil) to beige (vegetable oils), with all shades of green and beige in between.
Its scent: the scent of traditional Marseille soap must be that of its ingredients, particularly the oils. That's why the scent of green Marseille soap, made from olive pomace oil, is so distinctive! Real Marseille soap contains no perfume.
Composition: the simplest and surest way to recognize a Savon de Marseille is to refer to the list of ingredients. This must be made up of just 4 ingredients: vegetable oils, soda, water and salt. It may happen that two different oils are used in the same soap, in which case the list may contain 5 ingredients.
The Savon de Marseille logo: To preserve our ancestral know-how, local employment and the reputation of Marseille soap, Savonnerie Fer à Cheval has joined forces with the last 3 remaining soap factories in Marseille to create the UPSM (union des professionnels du savon de Marseille) [insert upsm link]: a collective brand that guarantees the origin, composition and respect of the soap-making process.
The UPSM logo appears on our soaps and their packaging. For all Marseille soap users, it represents a guarantee of the origin and manufacture of our soaps!
