A good soap should have 3 basic ingredients, find out which ones
Posted By HealthyBuddha on Wednesday 28th December 2022
I went on this journey looking out for a good soap to use and understanding how it is made. Some label reading, online research, speaking to soap makers and those around me…made me realize that not all soaps are the same.
- From what I have learnt along the way.. I understand that when you turn over to your soap label there should be just 3 basic ingredients - natural saponified oil such as coconut or olive, glycerine and water.
- This uses the basic and simple step process saponification : using an acid and a base. Fatty acid in this case comes from pure coconut oil and the base is caustic soda (sodium hydroxide).
- At the end of saponification you are left with sodium salt(soap), glycerine and water. They are left to cure till no more acid or base remains. A soap made well, is when none of the acid or base is left over in it. Fragrances if any are added in the form of essential oils directly from natural botanical sources.
- The natural glycerine is retained & final outcome its untouched so the goodness is retained in entirety.
- This should be then confirmed by a government authorised lab test.
⁉️ Looking at some commercially manufactured soaps and their labels (check images commercially manufactured soap sample label) got me extremely confused. Most of the ingredients were a mystery and I was lost in a sea of chemical names and their synomyns.
❗ Most commercially manufactured soaps seem to contain fillers, additives, fragrances, colours, lathering agents, and much more that could not even make any sense of.
❗ I dont feel comfortable putting anything on my skin that I dont understand or is a mystery to me.
It also came as a shock to me that most commercial soap manufacturers remove glycerine from soap and sell it for manufacturing cosmetics like lotions and creams.
Glycerine formed is actually quite hydrating for skin. It is known to be a humectant that draws moisture to the skin helping create a protective moisturised layer. Ideally it should remain as part of your soap.
But think about this, the moisturising agent is removed by commercial soap manufacturers and added into another product... Just to make you purchase another product which specially moisturizes your skin! You end up feeling dry after using your soap and reach out for a lotion to moisturize. Looks like a profit-making strategy.
After all my searching & learning.. I was happy to see that the range of hand-made soaps we have at Healthy Buddha have labels that are simple & easy to comprehend (check image for handmade soap label). The focus is on the three key ingredients with the final outcome confirmed by a govt lab test.
At the end of this exercise, can confirm that I found my mystery-free, all goodness retained soap that I was looking for.
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