Why is cold process soap beneficial?

I love making cold process(CP) soaps. I have been making, using, gifting, selling them for 7years. Here is an interesting post on CP Soap.

1. What is cold process soap? Soap is made by mixing fats and caustic soda solution. After the mixture reaches certain consistency, it is poured into molds, it hardens in mold. This soap is very rich in Natural glycerine and very gentle on skin. Of course caustic soda will not at be left in finished soap. Industrial methods involve heating the thickened mixture(which is called Hot-process). There is possibility of extracting glycerine from Hot-process soap. And all commercial soap companies do it.
2. Commercial soap- It is still soap but without glycerin. And glycerin is their valuable by-product. It is sold to us in the form of lotions creams.
3. Transparent soap(Also called as glycerine soap)- Usually Transparent soap is soap + chemical surfacant + alcohol + glycerine.  It can be remelted and nutritive additives can be added.  In transparent soap maximum percentage of glycerine that can be added is 10-20%. While CP soap has definitely more glycerine. (One fat molecule produces 3 soap molecules and 1 glycerol molecule, which technically means handmade soap contains 25% glycerol molecules. But percentage by weight is little less than this becoz  soap molecule weight more than glycerol      molecule  ). Though transparent soap contain good amount of glycerine, it still has unwanted alcohol and petrochemical derived synthetic surfacants like SLS/ SLES. So we prefer CP soaps.    Article about glycerin-http://www.pioneerthinking.com/crafts/crafts-soapmaking/glycerin.html
4. More benefits of CP Soap- It is making soap from scratch. So we can have control over all the ingredients that go into making soap. 
5. Soap Chemisty- When caustic soda solution is mixed with oils, Soap(technically, is the alkali salt of a fatty acid) and Glycerin are prodused.  And water  is medium for caustic soda to react with fats. (Fats)  + (Sodium Hydroxide+ Water) =  Soap Molecules + Glycerol Molecule                             so from the above we can understand that any oil that is good for skin can be chosen and any liquid that is good for skin can replace water in making Sodium Hydroxide solution. So Specialty ingredients make Cold Process/ Hand made soap very special. This is not possible in commercial production.
6. What  Specialty Ingredients can be included in CP soaps? Fats like Cold Pressed oils(they have better nutritive values). Liquid ingredients like milk (which is 85% water, rest are fat and nutrients )   and aloevera . Also powders like  Clays,Fruit and Vegetable powders. Even fresh fruit and vegetable puree(Cucumber is almost 95% water) can also be added.  Who doesn’t want to bath with a product packed of full of vitamins, proteins, Minerals and enzymes??
7. Does CP soap need preservatives and why?  Here comes the beauty of Handmade soap. You can use freshmilk, aloevera, fruit puree, vegetable puree without any prevatives. While mixing Fresh Ingredients with caustic soda, it kills any live bacteria in water. 
8. What is pH of Soap?? pH of commercial soap is usually above 10, while that of handmade soap would be between 8-9. (Usually skin itself will return its pH of 5.5-6  after wash ). pH  Extremes like pH11+ and under pH 4 will irritate skin. But it is safe to use handmade soap of pH under 9. While we have been using commercially made soap of pH 10/11 since long time.
9. How is l Dove  pH neutra ? Dove is often claimed as pH neutral, but it is not soap alone. Citric and boric acid are added to bring down the pH to 7. So when soaps’ pH is less than 8 it doesn’t lather, so a synthetic surfacant is added to increase lather. All these additives may irritate some skin. While a good quality handmade soap cleans and nourishes skin in very gentle way. How gentle is again dependent on oils and ingredients used.