Soaps are salts of fatty acids, route of production is irrelevant. H2O produced by a chemical reaction is still the same as H2O that fell out of the sky.
What a marketing department says does not rewrite chemistry. A synthetic detergent is still a soap it has a hydrophilic end and a hydrophobic end.
Obviously I already knew this…
The Technical Difference
- True Soap: Created via saponification—mixing fats (oils or animal tallows) with an alkali (like sodium hydroxide for bars). It has a naturally high alkaline pH (usually around 9–10).
- Not Soap (Syndet): Created using chemical surfactants that emulsify oil and dirt. It can be engineered to match the skin’s slightly acidic pH (around 4.5–5.5).
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Yes, this I know 
A true soap? A soap is a soap is a surfactant, only down to definition; pH does not define a soap also the route of production.
Vocabulary and chemistry—that’s all 
Soap is clearly a defined term for a specific product. Detergents may be soaps or they may not. It’s plainly not about surfactant properties, but rather a specific process.
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Chemistry is defined. Marketing bollocks is marketing bollocks. 
Guess what I have had many run ins with the marketing department.
All are salts of fatty acids. There is still a hydrophilic end and hydrophobic end, if there is isn’t you will not emulsify and wash it off with water.
I’m a marketing repentant (L’Oréal Paris), and I’ve cured myself of my youthful mistake 
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A synthetically produced soap that amuses every skool boy is Wanklyn Soap, no idea why?
It’s a syndet isn’t it? So not soap, more acid so more skin compatible. urgh shouldareadaconversation. I make soap, it’s marvellous even if I say so myself
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You’re still looking in the wrong place. Imperial Leather?
Bar soap is one of the things I bring back from the UK. although the selection is diminishing. No Wrights Spring Fresh anymore frinstance.
Not soapy, but I read Roses lime marmalade is now finished. 
Oh, and let’s not start the margarine argument.
That will go straight back to Unilever again won’t it. It never was butter!
Not the same formulation as it was once, but trading under the same belief. False again,
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Our local supermarkets in France have plenty of bar soaps ..particularly the Le Petite Marseillaise brand . My Sister in Law in Ireland , with some allergies swore by the stuff and each year we had to bring back multiple bars for her … It smelled just like Sunlight soap to me …
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The worst is that Clinique have as good as discontinued their facial soap bars which basically made the brand’s DNA for about 60 years. They’re obviously hoping to push users towards the enormous profits of their liquid “soap” which is not a soap and has lots of other ingredients that work differently on the skin.
Fortunately users have been able to locate close substitute soaps and are sharing on the internet. For some, Pears soap works, for others due to the same French triple milled manufacturing method an Italian pharmacy soap called Nesti Dante Purissimo has been located.
It’s not just the ingredients that make a proper soap the manufacturing method matters as well. Our tender facial skin knows the difference!
You’ll be able to find Rose’s Lime Marmelade abroad still sold in other markets I suspect. There are food suppliers on Amazon UK who often have access to such buys.