Looking for a Buff City Soap Alternative?
Looking for a Buff City Soap Alternative?
If you want a laundry soap that costs less per load and leans on real saponified fats instead of a synthetic surfactant, Kingston Oak's laundry soap is a straightforward alternative to Buff City Soap — made in Kingston, Ohio, not a national franchise.
Buff City has built a real following — 30+ scents, stores across the country, and a lot of people who genuinely love it. If you're happy with what you're using, there's no reason to switch. But if you've ever done the math on cost per load, or wanted a laundry soap built from full saponified fats instead of a soap-and-surfactant blend, here's an honest, numbers-first look at how the two compare.
How the Numbers Compare
- Buff City Fresh Cotton Laundry Soap+: 30 oz, $22.00, rated for about 30 loads — roughly $0.73 per ounce, $0.73 per load.
- Kingston Oak Fresh Springs / Man Wash Laundry Soap: 40 oz, $16.00, rated for 40–50 loads — roughly $0.40 per ounce, $0.32–$0.40 per load.
Same basic job — a powder laundry soap you scoop into the drum — at roughly half the cost per load.
What's Actually in Each
Buff City Laundry Soap+: Sodium Carbonate, Citric Acid, Sodium Cocoate (from Coconut Oil), Fragrance, Sodium Bicarbonate, Polysorbate 20.
Kingston Oak Laundry Soap: Sodium Carbonate (Washing Soda), Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda), Sodium Tetraborate (Borax), Sodium Percarbonate (Oxi-Clean), Citric Acid, Kingston Oak Soap Bits (Sodium Olivate, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Palmitate), Fragrance Oil.
Both use the same washing-soda-and-baking-soda base. The difference is in the soap itself: Buff City's only true soap ingredient is coconut oil, backed up by Polysorbate 20, a synthetic surfactant. Kingston Oak's soap bits are a full blend — olive, coconut, tallow, and palm — the same saponified fats used across our bar soap line, and no synthetic surfactant added.
What We're Not Saying
We're not going to tell you Buff City is bad soap — it's a popular, well-reviewed product, and plenty of people love the scents and the in-store experience. This isn't about which company is "better." It's about two different approaches: a large, corporately-backed national brand with retail stores in dozens of states, versus a small batch made by hand in southern Ohio. If the scent, the price, or the ingredient list matters to your decision, now you've got real numbers instead of a guess.
The Bottom Line
If cost per load and a fuller saponified-fat blend matter to you, Kingston Oak's laundry soap is worth trying. First order? Use code AFTERHOURS for $5 off $30+.
For more on how laundry soap and detergent actually differ, read Laundry Soap vs. Detergent. For dosing, see How Much Laundry Soap to Use and How Many Loads Does 40 oz Wash.