Did you know that the "Savon de Marseille" appellation is not protected?
This means that anyone, anywhere and 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.
Color: authentic Marseille soap is colored by the oils in which it is made. In fact, it must contain no colorants.
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. Sometimes 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 and the reputation of Marseille soap, we've joined forces with the last 3 soap factories in Marseille to create the UPSM (union des professionnels du savon de Marseille): a collective brand to be certain of the origin, composition and respect of the soap-making process.
The UPSM logo appears on our soaps and their packaging. It's a guarantee of where our soaps come from and how they're made!
