These questions can not really be answered. There are endless recipes for making CP, so each bar is going to be different. There are many dif M&P manufacturers so they are going to be dif as well. Some have milk, aloe, hemp, etc
Some people prefer M&P over CP, some prefer CP, some can not tell the difference. It's all about personal preference.
The majority of the population does not care if their soap is synthetic, most items on today's market (IE: toothpaste, make-up, cough syrup, etc, etc,etc) are synthetic & they do meet FDA standards and are widely accepted as the norm in the US. There is a market for non synthetic soap but it is very tiny, very similar to the market for veagan soaps, tiny.
Since everyone's skin is dif you can not say if 1 is more moisturizing than the other. That is like saying do boys prefer apples or oranges. It's personal & depends on your skin type as well as your likes & dislikes.
As for the scent issue, that is going to depend on the scent you put in it & not the actual soap it is carried in.
Which is more profitable? You should decide on a standard mark-up for your items & that would be the same if it is M&P, CP, lotion or bunny slippers. Most people go w/ 1 4x mark-up so the profit margin will be the same, it will be 400%.
Some CP cost .75cents a bar to make, CP w/ more expensive oils can cost $2.00 or more a bar to make. M&P can cost anywhere from 50cents a bar to $2.00 a bar so again, that is like saying how much does it cost to make dinner? Are you making grilled cheese sandwiches or steaks & lobster. You can make plain ol' cheap CP or fancy lux CP and you can make plain ol cheap M&P or fancy lux M&P.
There are too many variables to make any kind of mass assumptions or declarations.
I own a craft mall/artist gallery & it is amazing how some people will not touch CP w/ a 10 foot pole just going on & on about how wonderful M&P glycerin is & how it's the only thing they will use & how much their skin has improved & how they wouldn't bath w/o it. Then the next customer in the door would won't touch CP w/ a ten foot pole & so on.
I suggest you buy a couple bars of each, from several dif makers & just try them for yourself & see which you pref.
In the beginning I made CP but had people asking for M&P, so I began to make both. The M&P greatly out sold the CP w/i my particular customer base, so I now only make M&P, which is ironic because I personally only bath w/ all vegetable CP. Go figure.
