Natural Beauty: Lather Up with Natural Soap

In addition to the natural ingredients, the manufacturing method can also greatly affect the quality of soap

Lathering up in the shower is part of nearly everyone’s morning routine – is there a single home in the country without a bar of soap? And yet, pervasive as soap is, knowledgeable consumers are reconsidering then essential cleaning commodity. They want alternatives to the chemical-laden and often animal-fat based bar soaps available in the mass market. In response, natural products manufacturers are stirring up hand crafted natural soaps made with quality oil, fresh herbs, pure essential oils, even goats milk.

Soap is made through simple chemical process called saponification, which entails heating animal or vegetable fats with an alkali (in the case of hard soap, the alkali is treated salt water). During the heating process, this alkali attaches itself to the fatty acids of the fat ingredient, thereby creating soap. While this is the basis for all soap making, varying the manufacturing methods and ingredients can resulting soap with dramatically different moisturizing, scent and lasting properties.

When soap is made correctly, using the handmade process, the end product is 30 percent moisturizer. “When you make vegetable oil based soap, there are some oils that don’t get saponified, so those free oils, along with the glycerin and some free waxes, give you moisturizing properties in the soap.”

Because the FDA does not require manufacturers to list ingredients, many consumers have no clue what is in their soap. The typical mass market bar contains sodium tallowate (tallow derived from animal fat), synthetic glycerin, BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene), synthetic fragrances and colors, salt and other preservatives. On the contrary, most natural soaps contain simply one or more saponified oils. Soap can be made from virtually any kind of oil. The different oil used alters the properties of the soap.

The importance of using whole oils as opposed to fractioned vegetable oils can be related to using a whole egg where one part has the cholesterol and one part has the B vitamins. It’s a balance, and in nature there’s this amazing balance. When manufacturers buy fractioned oils they may have been extracted with a chemical solvent and there may be a residue present in them.

Many soap manufacturers take advantage of the wide variety of essential oils available to scent their products. “Handmade soaps are very good medium for aromatherapy.” The citrus blends are good for combination skin; lavender works well for drier skin because it tends to relax pores; tea tree oil is good for closing pores because it is astringent; and unscented is ideal for hypersensitive skin.

In addition to the ingredients, the soap manufacturing method can also greatly affect the quality of the soap. In the hand made soap making process, the warm soap is poured into wooden molds where it cures for about 30 days – as opposed to three days for the mass market variety. This extra curing time allows the soap to set up without added chemicals, most artisan soap makers also mill their soap at least once. Milling refers to processing the bars, which results in a low water content and helps to evenly distribute the oils in the bar. French milled soaps are milled five times.

Many makers of natural soap add additional ingredients to the vegetable oils to create soaps geared for specific needs. Goat milk has become a popular soap ingredient because of its moisturizing properties. Goat milk contains caprylic acid, which helps reduce the alkalinity of soap. “The milk has natural alpha hydroxy acids, which have rejuvenating effects as well.”