Soap and Glory is a British beauty brand that focuses on affordability, quality, and fun with their makeup and skincare products. The brand’s mission is simple: give every girl the best bang for her beauty budget. Soap and Glory’s most popular product line is their “Sexy Mother Pucker” lip glosses, which come in a variety of shades with names like “Nude Star” and “Candy Queen”.
What are the Best Skin Care Products of 2023?
The catchy names, bright packaging, and delicious smells may easily lure you into purchasing these products. But before spending your money, you may be wondering: is Soap and Glory a good brand?
We’re going to answer that question in our Soap and Glory review. We’ll cover the formulation details, including the key ingredients in Soap and Glory skincare products and the research that supports (or doesn’t support) their use in skincare.
We’ll also share some Soap and Glory reviews so that you can get an idea of what customers really think of these products.
Is Soap & Glory Skincare Worth The Money?
A common question about this brand is if the products are worth the cost.
In our opinion, Soap & Glory Skincare products deliver value for money, but take a look at other brands that don’t require you to sacrifice your precious money.
We recommend brands that are committed to developing clean yet effective products.
One brand is Carrot & Stick, a clean skincare brand that perfectly balances the gentle nurturing of plants with the powerful results of innovative science.
Carrot & Stick intro bundles deliver great value for money because you can bundle 3 full-size products worth up to $240 for $88.
What’s Inside Soap and Glory Skin Care?
Soap and Glory skincare products include a variety of plant-derived ingredients that serve a variety of purposes, including:
- Aloe vera as a natural humectant
- Ginseng and rose water as soothing ingredients
- Natural clays to absorb excess oil and exfoliate
- Shea butter and seed oils as nourishing emollients
- Sea salt and golden sugar as gentle physical exfoliants
These naturally-derived ingredients are combined with safe synthetics, such as vitamin C, peptides, and silicones.
Vitamin C
We’ve been hearing for years that Vitamin C is the best anti-aging ingredient. It’s a potent antioxidant that protects the skin from free radicals, the unstable molecules that contribute to the formation of premature wrinkles and fine lines on the skin.
Vitamin C also helps fade dark spots, evens out skin tone, and increases radiance. As if that wasn’t enough, research suggests that when vitamin C is applied to the skin, it significantly reverses aging-related structural changes by influencing collagen and elastin synthesis.
You might guess that vitamin C is a key ingredient in Soap and Glory Face Soap & Clarity Vitamin C Face Wash based on the name, but that’s actually not the case. There is vitamin C in this formula, but it’s used in a very low concentration. In fact, there’s more fragrance in this face wash than vitamin C! Plus, it’s best to apply a leave-on product with vitamin C, such as a vitamin C serum.
Our favorite Vitamin C serum is Carrot & Stick The Defence Serum. It contains 3 distinct types of Vitamin C that work together to help fight free radical damage. We recommend using it every morning.
Peptides
As you age, your body’s production of collagen and elastin slows down. These two proteins are responsible for your skin’s structural support. As a result, the skin loses its natural plumpness and smoothness.
While collagen is necessary for maintaining youthful-looking skin, the collagen protein is too large to absorb into the skin topically. That’s why applying skin care products that contain collagen won’t provide the anti-aging benefits you’re looking for.
This is where peptides come into action. Peptides are the building blocks of protein, and they are easily absorbed into the deeper layers of skin due to their smaller size.
Soap and Glory Make Yourself Youthful Super Serum contains the peptide complex Matrixyl 3000, which is composed of the matrikines palmitoyl tripeptide-1 and palmitoyl tetrapeptide-7. These matrikines work synergistically to restore and maintain the skin’s youthful appearance by signaling to cells to produce more collagen.
If you’re looking for a peptide serum, we recommend Carrot & Stick The Repair Serum. It contains 7 plant-based peptides to promote plumper and smoother-looking skin. It also has skin-loving ingredients like hyaluronic acid and niacinamide.
Fragrance
We noticed this brand places a major emphasis on fragrance in their products. We understand that many customers love when their products smell nice, but here’s the truth: fragrance is not skin care!
All fragrance ingredients (whether natural or synthetic) impart scent through a volatile reaction, which leads to a sensitizing reaction on all skin types — not just those with sensitive skin.
Even if you don’t have a full blown reaction to the ingredient, the damage may still be occurring every day. Ultimately, this can cause mild problems for your skin in the short term and worse problems in the long term.
And the use of synthetic fragrance ingredients in the Soap and Glory skincare products is problematic because the brand can use a proprietary blend of chemicals to create the fragrance. On average, this consists of 30 to 50 chemicals (but it can have as much as 200 components).
Want to know the worst part? The brand does not have to disclose which chemicals they use on the label. They are allowed to list this blend as “Fragrance (Parfum)” on the ingredient list.
Furthermore, a 2018 study by Women’s Voices for the Earth discovered that in over 3,000 chemicals reportedly used for fragrances, 1,242 were chemicals of concern – and that included at least 7 possible carcinogenic (cancer-causing) agents.
So while the Soap and Glory products truly smell delicious, these fragrance ingredients aren’t doing your skin any favors!
What Are The Top 10 Best Soap and Glory Skincare Products?
Soap and Glory offers bath and body products, makeup, hair care, and skincare products. Below we’ll give you the breakdown of the top 10 best Soap and Glory skincare products.
Soap and Glory Face Soap & Clarity Vitamin C Face Wash
This Soap and Glory face wash is one of the brand’s most popular products, but we noticed that there isn’t anything particularly special about the formula.
Like most cleansers, it includes surfactants, such as cocamidopropyl betaine and coco-glucoside. A surfactant molecule contains one end that is hydrophilic (attracted to water) and one end that is lipophilic (attracted to oil). This allows surfactants to attract and suspend oils, dirt, and other impurities that have accumulated on the skin and wash them away.
You might guess that vitamin C is a key ingredient in this Soap and Glory face wash based on the name, but that’s actually not the case. There is vitamin C in this formula, but it’s used in a very low concentration. In fact, there’s more fragrance in this face wash than vitamin C!
Plus, it’s best to apply a leave-on product with this ingredient — such as a vitamin C serum or cream — so that it can protect your skin from free radicals.
Bottom Line: While this Soap and Glory face wash is one of the brand’s most popular products, we actually don’t recommend it. The formula includes basic surfactants that can be found in most cleansers, and there’s a high concentration of fragrance in the formula.
Soap and Glory The Righteous Butter Body Lotion
The Righteous Butter is a lightweight lotion that can be used anywhere on your body that’s feeling dry or rough. It absorbs easily, leaving skin feeling velvety soft with long lasting hydration thanks to a combination of shea and cocoa butter.
Both shea butter and cocoa butter are excellent emollients because of their rich supply of triglycerides and fatty acids that create a protective layer on the skin in order to lock in moisture.
In addition, both shea butter and cocoa butter contain nutrients that help to heal and regenerate skin. For instance, shea butter is a natural source of vitamin A, which helps to firm the skin. Cocoa butter contains polyphenols, which have been shown to improve skin health by increasing skin’s elasticity and hydration.
Many customers are in love with the fragrance of this body lotion, but in our opinion, fragrance isn’t meant to be in skincare products! We’ll explain more about this in the Key Ingredients section below.
Bottom Line: A lightweight body lotion with shea butter and cocoa butter as key ingredients.
Soap and Glory Hand Food Hand Cream
Do you hate when hand creams promise to moisturize your skin, but instead they just turn your hands into a greasy mess without ever absorbing? We do, too. Fortunately, this isn’t the case for Soap and Glory’s Hand Food.
The rich cream absorbs into the skin easily due to the high concentration of grape seed oil. Grape seed oil has a high affinity with the structure of skin cells, and therefore is absorbed easily without leaving a greasy feeling on the skin. This property also enables grape seed oil to deliver other active ingredients deeper into the skin.
Additional key ingredients in Soap and Glory Hand Food include shea butter, sweet almond oil, and macadamia seed oil. All of these ingredients function as emollients to soften and moisturize hands.
Bottom Line: Soap and Glory Hand Food is loaded with grape seed oil, shea butter, sweet almond oil, and macadamia oil, thereby leaving hands velvety soft and smooth.
Soap and Glory Peaches and Clean Deep Cleansing Milk
This Soap and Glory face wash has a rich, milky texture that can be used to remove makeup and cleanse the skin.
Most of the formula consists of synthetic emollients (i.e. isohexadecane), silicones (i.e. cyclopentasiloxane and cyclohexasiloxane), and jojoba seed oil. These ingredients help to melt away makeup and excess oil, allowing them to be washed away.
Unfortunately, there’s quite a high concentration of fragrance in this formula, which could lead to skin sensitivity.
Bottom Line: A cleanser with a rich, milky texture that can remove makeup and cleanse the skin, but we don’t recommend it due to the fragrance in the formula.
Soap and Glory Speed Plump All Day Super Moisture Marvel Moisturizer
This Soap and Glory moisturizer is a lightweight, fast absorbing cream that makes the skin’s surface appear glossy and bouncy. It locks in moisture for all day hydration without feeling greasy or tight on your face, which can be especially helpful during hot weather when you need something light but effective!
Like many of the Soap and Glory skincare products, the formula includes shea butter as one of the key ingredients. There’s also quite a few silicones, which give this moisturizer it’s silky feel while also helping to smooth the look of skin.
The brand lists hyaluronic acid as a “key” ingredient, but there’s actually less than 1% hyaluronic acid in this formula!
If you want to reap the benefits of hyaluronic acid (think lots of hydration and plump skin), we’d recommend Formulyst’s Super Hyaluronic Water Moisturizer or The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid + B5.
Bottom Line: A lightweight face moisturizer that contains shea butter and silicones to moisturize and smooth the skin.
Soap and Glory No Clogs Allowed Deep Pore Face Mask
Is it just us, or does a face mask + takeout + Netflix sound like the perfect Friday night? If you agree, you may want to pick up this Soap and Glory face mask the next time you stop at Target.
It’s formulated with zeolite, a type of clay that not only absorbs excess oil, but also exfoliates, detoxifies, removes heavy metals, neutralizes free radicals, and reduces redness and inflammation.
However, we noticed that some of the reviews for this mask mention that it’s difficult to wash off. For instance, one review says, “VERY hard to wipe off, scrubbed my face way too hard to get this off. Made my face feel chalky.”
Bottom Line: A clay mask formulated with zeolite to absorb excess oil and detoxify skin, but keep in mind that some reviews mention that it’s hard to wash off.
Soap and Glory Puffy Eye Attack Eye Cream
The list of things that can give you puffy eyes is a long one, from allergies to poor diet to staying out too late and so on. Fortunately, there are many ways to alleviate puffy eyes. You could throw some cool cucumber slices and chill if you have the time. But if you don’t, try an eye cream specifically formulated to reduce puffiness, such as Soap and Glory’s Puffy Eye Attack.
You can reap the hydrating and soothing benefits of cucumber thanks to the inclusion of cucumber fruit extract in this eye cream. Plus, there’s several more soothing botanicals in the formula, such as ginseng and aloe vera.
Another key ingredient in this eye cream that helps reduce puffiness is caffeine. As a stimulant, caffeine causes vasoconstriction (constriction of the blood vessel) when applied to the skin. This helps to tighten and firm the skin due to the removal of excess fluids. It also aids in reducing the amount of blood that accumulates under the eyes — a major factor that contributes to dark circles.
Lastly, the soy and rice peptides plus yeast proteins in this eye cream are clinically proven to reduce dark circles and under eye puffiness while boosting elasticity and collagen production.
Bottom Line: A soothing eye cream that helps reduce eye puffiness thanks to a combination of soothing botanicals, peptides, and caffeine.
Soap and Glory Sexy Mother Pucker Lip Plumping Gloss
With a name like “Sexy Mother Pucker”, you can probably already guess that this isn’t your average lip gloss. Upon application, you’ll notice a slight tingling followed by a subtle plumping effect after a few minutes. Notice that we used the word ‘subtle’. Sure, this is a plumping lip gloss, but don’t expect to have lips like Kylie Jenner after using it.
The slight tingling is thanks to “LIPSWELL Natural Plant Oil Infusion”, which boosts microcirculation to help your lips feel instantly fuller. Plus, the formula includes Lip Plumping Spheres that help bind moisture to your lips.
Bottom Line: A lip plumping gloss that moisturizes lips while also creating a subtle plumping effect.
Soap and Glory Make Yourself Youthful Super Serum
Make Yourself Youthful Super Serum is an anti-wrinkle serum and a moisturizer in one — it promises to boost collagen and cell respiration, reduce the depth and appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, and rejuvenate skin overnight.
A patented Bionymph plant peptide complex is combined with clinically proven anti-ager, Matrixyl 3000 to help reduce the appearance of – and prevent – fine lines and wrinkles.
The serum also features “ENERGINSENG”, a special blend of energy-and-oxygen-boosting actives, such as ginseng.
Unfortunately, this serum includes many fragrance ingredients, which have the potential to cause skin sensitivity reactions.
Bottom Line: An anti-wrinkle serum and moisturizer that combats signs of aging with peptides and ginseng, but the inclusion of fragrance in this serum prevents us from recommending this product.
Soap and Glory Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub
Soap and Glory’s award-winning body exfoliator, the Smoothie Star Breakfast Scrub, gently polishes skin thanks to its skin-smoothing blend of sea salt, golden sugar, oatmeal grains, and hydrated silica.
All of these ingredients exfoliate the skin, which means they remove dead skin cells from the stratum corneum (the outermost layer of skin). So why is this important? The buildup of dead and keratinized skin cells can take a toll on your skin’s texture and appearance, making it appear dull. Exfoliation leads to a reduction in thickness of the stratum corneum, which gives the skin a bright, glowing appearance and smoother texture.
This Soap and Glory scrub also includes nourishing emollients like shea butter and honey to help soften and moisturize skin.
Bottom Line: A body exfoliator that uses physical exfoliants like sea salt and sugar to polish away dead skin cells, which helps to brighten and smooth the appearance of skin.
How Much Do Soap and Glory Skincare Products Cost?
Soap and Glory skincare products are pretty affordable, with the prices being comparable to higher end drugstore brands such as Olay and Burt’s Bees. For example, the Soap and Glory Face Wash costs $12 USD for 11.8 ounces on Ulta.com.
Where to Buy Soap and Glory Skincare Products?
Soap and Glory skincare products are not sold on the brand’s website. If you’re in the UK, you can purchase the products from Boots.com. If you’re in the US, you can purchase the products from Target.com, Ulta.com, or Walmart.com.
What is The Soap and Glory Return Policy?
Soap and Glory does not have a return policy on their website since they do not sell products on their website and, therefore, don’t accept returns.
Is Soap and Glory Cruelty Free?
Yes, Soap and Glory is cruelty free. The brand’s animal testing policy states, “We understand that animal testing is a key concern for a growing number of consumers and at Soap and Glory, we can confidently state that all of our formulations are safety and efficacy tested on people. Made for humans, so tested on humans obviously. At Soap and Glory, we absolutely do not test our formulations on animals, however we can’t say that each and every ingredient that goes into them has not, historically, been cleared for human use by animal testing.”
Is Soap and Glory Vegan?
While Soap and Glory offers some vegan products, this is not a 100% vegan brand because some products contain animal-derived ingredients (i.e. honey).
Soap and Glory Reviews
Soap and Glory reviews on Ulta.com are mostly 4 and 5 star ratings, and one product that has received plenty of positive feedback is the Soap and Glory Face Soap & Clarity 3-in-1 Daily Vitamin C Facial Wash. This face wash has earned an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars after more than 2,000 customer reviews.
The positive reviews for this Soap and Glory face wash mention how well it removes makeup and cleans the skin, leaving it feeling refreshed — not dry or tight.
For example, one review says, “I love this face wash and I’ve tried many. I wear a lot of makeup and this gets it all off even waterproof mascara. It’s a great deal if you want to save money to splurge on other high end skin care. This is a great way to do that. The bottle will last you forever.”
And another 5-star review says, “Works incredibly well on my sensitive skin. It leaves my face so smooth and clean.”
However, there are a handful of negative reviews for this Soap and Glory face wash, which are mostly from customers who experienced acne breakouts after using this product.
For example, one review says, “I purchased this after reading all the great reviews. I have relatively clear skin and it gets dry in the winter. I used this for about 3 weeks and I was the most broken out that I have been in years. As soon as I removed this product from my routine my skin began to clear up!”
And a similar review says, “MAKES YOU BREAK OUT HORRIBLE!!!! I don’t have terrible acne prone skin. I get a pimple here and there usually and some blackheads on my nose… once I started using this, literally within one wash I woke up the next morning with many pimples across my cheek(where I never get them!!!), on my chin and forehead.”
Other Soap and Glory reviews for this face wash voice concerns with the micro-beads, fragrance, and dyes in the formula, as one reviewer says, “The beads in this create micro-tears in the skin and can lead to early aging and more damage in the long run. This product is not good for your skin. It also doesn’t help that there are dyes and fragrance in it too, which can lead to the skin becoming allergic to it over time.”
Our Verdict
Overall, we don’t recommend Soap and Glory products since all of the formulations contain fragrance.
Pros
- Many positive Soap and Glory reviews
- Soap and Glory is cruelty free
- Affordable
Cons
- All Soap and Glory products contain fragrance
- Some products contain low concentrations of “key” ingredients
What Are Some Alternatives to Soap and Glory Skincare Products?
If you’re looking for skincare products to address the signs of aging, we recommend Carrot & Stick. Carrot & Stick maximizes the use of powerful ingredients and minimizes the use of superficial ones, resulting in advanced skincare solutions that help promote healthy, more youthful-looking skin. We recommend The Defence Serum, followed by The Moisturizer.
References:
Women’s Voices for the Earth “Unpacking The Fragrance Industry” 2018
