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What’s in Your Soap?
Soaps are made from fats and oils that react with lye (
sodium hydroxide) in a chemical process known as saponification. Solid fats like coconut oil, palm oil, tallow (
rendered beef fat), or lard (
rendered pork fat), are used to form bars of soap that stay hard and resist dissolving in the water left in the soap dish.
The saponification process results in about 75% soap, and 25% glycerine. In homemade soaps, the glycerine is left in, as it acts as an emollient (skin softener) and adds a nice feel to the soap. In commercial soaps, the glycerine is often removed and sold separately, sometimes showing up in skin moisturizers that remedy the damage done by drying soaps.
Commercial bar soaps contain sodium tallowate, sodium cocoate, sodium palmate and similar ingredients, all of which are the results of reacting solid fats (
tallow, coconut oil, and palm kernel oil respectively) with lye.
To these ingredients, they add fatty acids such as coconut acid and palm acid (
the fats in coconut oil and palm kernel oil) as the extra fats needed to ensure the lye is completely reacted, and the soap has a good feel.
Last year I changed bar soap and really like
Kiss My Face - Big Kiss Organic Palm Oil Soap, Sweet Orange & Lime. The bar is huge, lasts 3 months, is cruelty-free and isn’t drying. I’ve also tried their pure olive oil, fragrance free soap which is exceptional for dry skin. It doesn’t smell quite as nice as the Sweet Orange and Lime bar because it smells, well, a little like olive oil. Kiss My Face is listed as cruelty free on both
LeapingBunny.org (
The Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics) and
CaringConsumer.com (
PETA). These two Kiss My Face bar soaps score in the “low hazard” range for their ingredients in the
Skin Deep Cosmetic Database. Their bar soaps with fragrance fall in the “moderate hazard” range.
The list below includes companies who make bar soaps in the “low hazard” range in the
Skin Deep Cosmetic Database, have signed the
Compact for Safe Cosmetics and have “cruelty free” designation by Peta and/or CCIC (Leaping Bunny).
I researched the ingredients in my old soap and found there was more in it than I ever imagined.
- Sodium Tallowate, Sodium Cocoate - Results of reacting solid fats with lye. Sodium Tallowate is derived from tallow (rendered beef fat). Sodium Cocoate is derived from coconut oil.
- Water
- Stearic Acid - Fatty acid used as an emollient; soothes, softens and is an emulsifier.
- Cocamidopropyl Betaine - Derived from coconut; a mild detergent added to decrease irritation without decreasing suds or cleaning power.
- Sodium Chloride - Derived from salt; astringent and anti-inflammatory.
- Fragrance - One or a blend of volatile and/or fragrant plant oils (or synthetically derived oils) that impart aroma and odor to products. These are often skin irritants.
- Sodium Methyl 2-Sulfolaurate - Derived from coconut; mild, non-drying cleanser.
- Petrolatum - Petroleum product.
- Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E Acetate) - Added for its anti-oxidant properties, protecting oils and fats from oxidation.
- Mineral Oil - Clear, odorless oil derived from petroleum.
- Helianthus Anuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil - Non-volatile plant oil used as an emollient in cosmetics.
- Glycerin - Emollient and texture enhancer.
- Coconut Acid - Derived from coconut; added as the extra fat to help ensure the lye is completely reacted and the soap has a good feel.
- Sodium Stearate- Compound produced by reacting sodium hydroxide with stearic acid. Acts as a soap.
- Disodium 2-Sulfolaurate - Mild cleanser that effectively removes surface oil and dirt, without stripping or drying.
- Tetrasodium EDTA, Tetrasodium Etidronate - Added as water softeners, and to protect the dyes and perfumes from the effects of metal ions in the mixtures. These compounds lock up calcium and magnesium in the water, preventing them from reacting with the soap to form insoluble soap scum.
- BHT (Butylated hydroxytoluene) - Added as an anti-oxidant preservative to keep the oils from going rancid; also has carcinogenic properties.
- Titanium Dioxide (CI 77891) - Added to make the soap opaque.
After watching videos of slaughter house practices (never mind the whole impact of factory farming), I avoid companies who make soaps that contain tallow (rendered beef fat):
- Ach. Brito/Lafco NY: Claus Porto
- Ambi Products: Ambi
- Canus Goat’s Milk: Canus
- Chattem: Phisoderm
- Colgate-Palmolive Company: Irish Spring, Vel
- CVS Corporation: CVS
- Dermatologic Cosmetic Laboratories: DCL
- E.T. Browne Drug Co: Palmer’s, Skin Success
- Geritrex Corporation: Cetaklenz
- Henkel KGaA: Dial, Tone
- Johnson & Johnson: Johnson & Johnson, Neutrogena
- L’Oréal: BioMedic, Cetaphil, La Roche-Posay
- Pfizer: Lubriderm
- M O Industries Inc: The Art of Shaving
- Proctor & Gamble: Camay, Ivory, Olay, Old Spice, Safeguard, Tom’s of Maine, Yardley, Zest
- The Dial Corporation: Coast, Dial
- Unilever: Caress, Dove, Lever 2000, Pond’s, Suave
- Waltman Pharmaceuticals: Zapzyt
Resources:
Source:-
http://verdavivo.wordpress.com/2008/...-in-your-soap/
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