Soap 101, Soap Vs Synthetic Detergents

What exactly is soap? When most people hear the word soap they probably think of a bright white Dove bar bought from a supermarket. In reality, this product is a synthetic detergent and not real soap at all. If you ever find these products at the super market you will notice they cannot legally be labeled soap. As a result you will probably find these products sold as "beauty bars" or another gimmicky term. Taking a look at Dove's ingredients speaks for itself, exposing it for what it is, a chemical cocktail with no relation to real soap in any way. The FDA sums this up nicely.

"Today there are very few true soaps on the market. Most body cleansers, both liquid and solid, are actually synthetic detergent products. Detergent cleansers are popular because they make suds easily in water and don't form gummy deposits. Some of these detergent products are actually marketed as "soap" but are not true soap according to the regulatory definition of the word."

Real soap is very simple. The FDA defines soap as "a simple combination of oils and fats with a strong alkaline solution. True soap is created through a chemical process known as saponification, which forms a natural byproduct called glycerin." 

At this point you may be asking. Ok, well why does of any of this matter? And that is a valid statement, these products are readily available and cheap so whats the harm? 

The big problem is false information, misrepresenting a product and misguiding consumers. As you can see in the image above Dove states, "Dove does not dry out your skin like ordinary soap". However this statement is misleading, the first ingredient in Doves bath bar is Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, which is a by definition a detergent. A detergent in any skin product has one job, to clean the skin of all oil and dirt, which at the same time, so often dries out the skin. Advertising such products as "moisturizing" and for "sensitive skin" is misleading and simply not true.

A detergent is great for your laundry or dishwasher, but it doesn't belong on your skin.

As a consumer, everyone should be entitled to know what they are putting on their skin. For individuals such as myself with a history of eczema and skin issues this is even more crucial. I was dumbfounded to learn that for the majority of my life I hadn't used "real soap" and I had unknowingly made my eczema worse by washing with detergents. Once I made the switch to handmade soap I never looked back and my skin has certainly thanked me.

In my next blog I will discuss the components of true soap making and how you can determine if you may be interested in soap making yourself.