Washing Up With Roadkill?

Before moving on to talk about all things old-fashioned or "cold process soap making" I wanted to address one more controversial ingredient most consumers do not understand hides in their commercial soap. This ingredient is "sodium tallowate", which equates to animal fat from cattle, sheep or any other combination of animals scraps. They combine this fat with lye or "sodium hydroxide", a necessary ingredient to make all soap. 

Many people, myself included who have used commercial soaps have always assumed that their soap does not contain animal ingredients. 

The first soaps were made from animal fat as long as 3,000 years ago. When economies were more dependent on agriculture, "lard soap" was actually very sustainable and efficient because it provided a great way to use every part of the animal that would be discarded otherwise.  

However; even when soaps were made by farmers left over animal fat, they differed from nearly all commercial soaps today. Commercial detergent soaps with animal ingredients (a large majority) are manufactured and created far differently to the old style farmer soap which contained a few ingredients: left over animal fat, lye and water (more on this later). As seen below, most commercial soaps contain "sodium tallowate" in addition to a whole other slew of detergents and chemicals little known by the average consumer. 

While large soap manufacturers are not going to publicly acknowledge the source of animal fat in their soaps I think its safe to assume its not very pretty. The most likely possibility is that massive soap companies find the cheapest by-product from massive meat producers or "factory farms". It is speculated the quality of fat can even be likened to the disgusting quality of roadkill.

"According to Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database, the process of rendering animal fat consists of boiling animal carcasses in a pot to create fatty byproducts. The decaying animals used come from every source imaginable: lab animals, deadstock (animals that die before they reach the slaughterhouse), euthanized zoo and shelter animals, expired meat from grocery stores and -- wait for it -- road kill."

In short, if you don't want to lather up from sketchy animal by-product you may want to check the label of your soaps. Because most consumers don't think twice about the ingredients in their products I believe its important they have the knowledge to make an informed decision.