Is there a soap expert or maker in the house?

My question has turned into somewhat of an obsession for me. The most recent explosion of newly offered and highly touted soaps have stearic acid, coconut oil, potassium/sodum hydroxide and fragrance and little else. Maybe some shea butter, lanolin or the like.

How different can the performance be with variations in the amounts of these ingredients, as well as the final form of the soap. Can the curing of the soap actually make a significant difference in its performance?

I would greatly appreciate some input from the soap-learned.

I am no expert, but my answer is "yes". There really can be a huge difference between soaps with the same ingredients. A soap with a higher volume of coconut oil will saponify differently than a soap with a lower volume of coconut oil- and that goes for all the other ingredients too. Hot process and cold process also develop different characteristics.
Also, more potassium hydroxide will create a softer soap, where sodium hydroxide creates a harder soap. Then, when you blend the two, you can really dial in the firmness/softness etc of the soap. There are an incredible amount of variables.

I make bath soaps and in my experience it definitely makes a difference which oils and butters are used. For example, if you add too much coconut oil to a bath soap it will have a drying effect on the skin; if you add too much castor oil the bar will be slimy. The oils or butters used in a soap formula will determine how the soap performs and whether the bar is soft or hard. Also, curing can lead to harder bar, at least in my case using the cold process but I have to include enough hard oils or butters too.

Have to agree with the other two responses. Every ingredient is a variable, hot or cold process is a variable. Where you source your oils from is a variable.

As for curing that is typically done with cold process soaps to ensure proper saponification. The cold processed bath soaps I made I let them sit 4 weeks and chrcked them with a ph strip before using. Hot process doesn't typically need to cure.

There are a number of great web sites out there that go through the different processes and one has a calculator that allows you to create a soap based on the oils you put in. This is typically for hard or liquid soap only. Shave soaps typically use a blend of both hydroxides - and some vendors sell a softer soap where others make them harder.

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Thank you for your informative responses. Specifically, would the beard softening and glide properties of a shaving soap differ if the ingredients are the same, but the process is different?

Thank you for your informative responses.  Specifically, would the beard softening and glide properties of a shaving soap differ if the ingredients are the same, but the process is different?

That is up to you to decide when you try them. Which soap are you referring to?