All About Soap - Your Questions Answered!

Here at beautiful healthy home, we believe you deserve only the best. This is why we’ve looked closely into our products to understand why they really are so good. Let’s talk about soap: do you know how it’s made? Soap is something we use so frequently and on sensitive parts of our body, yet it took me many years to even think about how it was created! Humans have purportedly been making soap since 2800 BC, but the methods currently in use were popularised in the 1800s. That is a long history of cleanliness! All those years ago, soap was made from mixing various animal fats together with lye. This process of mixing is called saponification. Shop here for natural soaps.

How does saponification work?

Saponification is the process by which lye (an alkaline or basic material) is combined with some form of oil. The subsequent chemical reaction creates soap! 

Soapmakers can either choose hot or cold process saponification. Our makers tend to use cold process, as it requires less high temperature working and is generally safer for the makers. This is because the making of soap generally involves pouring oil into lye, which then heats up. The soap makers then have to keep it moving so that everything mixes up well before it cools and sets. In the cold process, your soap sits longer, allowing the good scents and cleansing properties to properly sink into the bar before reaching your sink, shower, or bath. 

Lye is also known as sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or caustic soda, and in its pure form, can be quite harmful to skin. However, after reacting with oil and being left to neutralise for some time, it helps to create very useful and safe soap! Lye is the only ingredient which can be used to make soap - anyone who says they have made soap without lye is a LYE-ar! (Although it is possible they have only taken into account the ingredients after the chemical reaction.) There are alternatives to lye out there, but they can only create alternatives to soap, not real soap. 

When lye (a base substance) interacts with an oil, the two have an exothermic reaction (meaning they release heat). We’ve gathered a handy list of oils below to find out why our makers use them in particular. The name for the compound created from that reaction holds onto the sodium, takes part of the natural material, and adds the suffix -ate. The whole thing becomes sodium [oil name]ate!

Some lovely oils our makers use

NaOH + Coconut Oil → sodium cocoate (Coconut oil is high in healthy saturated fats, making it a natural moisturiser, reduces inflammation, keeps skin hydrated, provides protection for your skin from foreign substances, and contains lauric acid, an antimicrobial substance.)

NaOH + Shea Butter → sodium shea butterate (Shea butter contains healthy fatty acids and is high in levels of vitamin A, E, and C; known to improve skin's elasticity and reduce the appearance of marks and scars, possibly preventing wrinkles/age marks. It can encourage circulation and the repair of damaged skin cells, which may help with stretch marks, acne, psoriasis, eczema, rosacea, and diaper rash.)

NaOH + Olive Oil → sodium olivate (Olive oil is hypoallergenic and rich in vitamins E and A as well as beta carotene, which can repair damage caused by free radicals on the skin, stimulate new cell generation, slow down wrinkle development and give your skin a youthful look.)

NaOH + Castor Oil → sodium castorate (Castor Oil has good fatty acids which are antimicrobial and anti-fungal, helping to reduce spots; astringent to clear away dirt and dead skin; and moisturising, even promoting the production of collagen, helping to reduce wrinkles.)

As that chemical reaction happens, the baseness of the lye is mostly neutralised and the colours/scents are added. Then, in cold process soap making, the soap sits for another six weeks (or more) to allow the remaining lye to neutralise and those good scents to sink in.

Glycerin is okay!

In studying up on saponification and lye, we got into conversation with the lovely Alastair from Evergreen Natural Soap Company here in beautiful Leigh-on-Sea, and he said that glycerin is a natural by-product of the saponification process. Therefore, all of Evergreen’s soaps have glycerin listed in their ingredients - and it’s good for you! Glycerin is one of the parts of soap that moisturises while it cleans. However, some commercial manufacturers, in search of a quick buck, have found a way to strip the glycerin from soap during saponification so they can put it into their lotions/moisturisers. So, if a soap tends to make your skin feel drier after using it, check the ingredients list to see if it is missing glycerin (or if that company does a lotion or moisturiser with added glycerin!)

Nasties we like to steer clear of…

Parabens - serve as preservatives, but have been shown to be endocrine (hormone) disruptors.

Phthalates - serve to make plastic more flexible and in the case of soap are used as a binding agent but have been shown to cause infertility, birth defects, and malformations of the male reproductive tract plus they linger in the human body for long periods of time.

Petrochemicals - byproducts of the crude oil industry (i.e. benzene, toluene, ammonia, methanol, methane, ethane, propane, butane, methanol, and formaldehyde) - these are used for anything from preservatives to additives in scents.

Paraffin - serves to create a layer on the skin to ‘hold in moisture,’ but has been shown to damage the immune system, interfere with hormones, potentially causing cancer.

SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) - used to decrease surface tension and artificially increase foaminess, but causes skin irritation and is a known carcinogen and hormone disruptor.

Synthetic fragrances - almost always contain benzenes, toluenes, aldehydes, and phthalates (baddies, unfortunately).

So there is a LOT going on with soap! But we have made it easy for you by promoting only the best and safest for your skin. Now, all you have to do is make up your mind which scents and packaging you like the best! Happy soap shopping x

Images: Evergreen soap image © Evergreen soap company, soap bar in hands image © Sincerely Media via Unsplash, coconut image © Kateryna Ivanova via Unsplash, oil drum image © John Cameron via Unsplash, Legra soap bars image © Legra Soap Ltd

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