Organic Soaps - What is a Difference between Natural & Organic Soap?

While I was working on the next post on Organic Soap, I realized that there could be a little bit confusion between a Natural Soap and Organic One. So perhaps, I would just write something about their slight differences.

Firstly, let's begin with a basic understanding of soaps.

Since 1000 B.C., soaps have been invented and are primarily used for hygienic and sometimes medical purposes. They usually come in a solid moulded form, typically in rectangular shape, and therefore termed as soap bars.

Next, what is a soap made of?

Natural soap is made from animal fats or plant oils or even butters, and the primary ingredient used is oil or some combinations of oils such as olive, palm, coconut and almond. When the oil mixture reacts together with lye or sodium hydroxide solution (known as chemical base), it produces a sodium salt or soap and glycerin. Glycein is actually a sweet syrupy alcohol that softens and conditions the skin.

Depending on soap recipes and personal preferences, sometimes, butters such as vegetable or cocoa are added as well. Therefore, theoretically speaking, infinite varieties of natural soaps can be made depending on the combination of fat and/or oil. But only certain combinations (or "special recipes") will give you the better quality soaps that last longer lasting, produce more lathers, give good feeling on your skin and pleasant smell to your nose.

You can find out more on my previous post - How to Make Your Own Soap

How does a soap remove dirt from your body?

Soaps remove dirt from a dirty surface by attracting and clinging to dirt from the surface, and wash away with the water. This thanks to the structure of the soap molecule. One end of a soap molecule (carbon chain from oil and fat ingredients) is able to attract organic compound such as oil, while the other end of the molecule (sodium ions - that is why we need sodium chemical base) like to cling on water.

Therefore, when you wash with soap, your skin oil containing the dirt is attracted by the soap molecules. Then these molecules grap hold on to the running water when you rinse your hand with water. So this is how soaps get rid of oil and dirt on your body.

Finally, what is a difference between natural and organic soaps?

Well, the only difference is simply that organic soaps are made of organic ingredients such as aloe, peppermint and oats that are free from pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers or other chemicals harmful to personal health.

That's it. Simple? Life is already so complex, why make things so complicated.

Which is better, natural or organic?
Unfortunately, there is no clear answer to this question because essentially, it depends on the combination, quality and amount of the ingredients used in making the soaps.

But, there are benefits of using organic soaps,

Firstly, again, they are free from pesticides or potential health hazardous chemicals especially when used over a long periods.

Secondly, making soaps using ingredients from organic farming is better for the environment because organic farming does not cause any pollutions to the soil or water with chemicals. (I know what my next subject for my organic is going to be)

Point to note - it is very difficult to get soaps that are made of 100% organic ingredients, but you can find natural soaps made of 100% natural ingredients with some organic ingredients.


So, hope you have a better understanding of natural or organic soaps.


Let's Learn & Experience Organic for Better Personal Health & Our Planet Wellness

Organic Soap - How to Make Your Own Soap (Part 2)

In Part 1, I summarized the process of making organic soap bar. Perhaps, some of you have already got used to a liquid soap contained in a bottle with pump dispenser.

So for today post, I will summarize the basic process of making liquid organic soap.

Equipment you need:

1. A grater
2. A stainless steel pot
3. A stirring spoon
4. A cup (8 ounces)

Ingredients

1. Organic Soap Bar, (about 4-ounces)
2. Distilled water (a gallon)
3. Herb or other natural ingredients

If you are not keen to make your own organic soap bar, you can always begin with an organic melt and pour soap base. These organic soap base can be easily found in the soap supply websites, just type "organic melt and pour soap base" on Internet Search Engine (e.g Google, Yahoo, MSN). If not, you can go to your nearby the organic store to get some.

Steps:

1. Grate the soap bar into smaller pieces
2. Heat a gallon of distilled water (i.e. 16 cups).
3. When the water is almost boiling, remove the pot from the heat.
4. Add the grated soap into the hot water and let it melt on its own.
5. About 15 to 20 minutes later, stir the mixture to ensure the soap is completely melted.
6. Then let the mixture sit for at least 12 hours or overnight.
7. The next day, blend the mixture a few times with 10-15 minutes intervals.
8. You can customize your liquid soap by adding herb ingredients during the process of blending.
9. When the mixture becomes thickened, the liquid soap is done.

So making your own liquid soap can be a quite simple and less expensive. You can easily customize your liquid soap with your favorite herbs and other natural skin soothing ingredients

Not forgetting that you can also be helping our planet by storing your liquid soap in those old bottles.

Most importantly, it is a better alternative to purchasing commercial liquid soap that comes with chemicals potentially harmful to your family's and your health.

If you are planning to make you own soap for the first time, then I think that it will be good to get some books on handmade soaps, at least two books. This allows you to have better understanding of the process because different authors provide different processes or methods in detailed. Once you have followed the guides provided in the books and tried a few times, then you can begin creating your own handmade soaps recipes and your own cooking processes.

Of course, if you prefer, you may consider taking a class, so that you can discuss and share experiences with your friends or classmates.

As usual, I think it is not difficult to get started, but it is certainly not something you can learn overnight. It will take time to learn and master the methods like everything else. The most important thing is that you must enjoy the entire learning process and be positive.

That is all for the second part of How to Make Your Own Soap.

Next post, probably, I will try to look for what the popular "ready made" organic soaps products are available in the market.

Let's Learn & Experience Organic for Better Personal Health
& Our Planet Wellness

Organic Soap - How to Make Your Own Soap (Part 1)

When I started searching Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Soap, I happened to come across this website on How to Make Lye Soap by Shery Andrews. There is a series of video showing the entire process of making lye soap. It is quite a good soap making guide for beginners. You may want to take a look to have a better understanding the process of handmade soap.

Here is the summary of making soap using a process known as Cold Process.

Equipment you need:

1. For safety, you will need safety equipment especially goggles and rubber gloves because of the Lye or Sodium Hydroxide.
2. Measuring cups and a weighing scale to prepare the correct amount of your ingredients and additives.
3. Two kitchen thermometers that can measure over 100 degrees for monitoring the temperature of Lye solution and oil mixture
4. Two large stainless steel pots
5. A stirring spoon for lye
6. A stirring spoon for essential oils
7. A soap mold
8. Cardboard to act as a lid to the mold

Basic ingredients:

1. Lye or Sodium Hydroxide or caustic soda
2. Oils such as olive oil, coconut oils, castor oil, etc
3. Fatty acids like cocoa butter
4. Bee's wax
5. Additives such as oatmeal, buttermilk powder, oil fragrance and colorants

Steps:

1. To use your measuring cups and kitchen scale to prepare the amount of ingredients according to your soap making recipe.
2. To mix together your lye with water (Note: to put the lye into the water and not water into lye because the strong heat reaction may cause an explosion)
3. To slowly stir the water and lye because the temperature of mixture can go up to water boiling point.
4. After the lye solution is well mixed, place the thermometer into the container to monitor the temperature.
5. While waiting for the lye solution to cool down slightly, you can start mixing various types of oils and butters in a pot.
6. Then heat the oil mixture till the temperature is abou the same as the lye temperature.
7. To ensure both the oil and lye solution are at about the same temperature before mixing them together. (The stirring process can take an hour!)
8. Once the soap mixture is done, pour it into molds, cover it with wax paper and cardboard.
9. Let the soap mixture to cool down in the mold for forty-eight hours. Then remove the soap from the mold
10. Slice or grind the soap into smaller pieces and put it into a plastic bag
11. Add little distilled water into packet of soap and melt it in a pot containing hot water for about an hour.
12. Customize your soap by adding herbs and other natural ingredients together with the grated soap.
13. Mix the mixture well, pour it to soap mold and cool the mixture in a refrigerator over night
14. Finally, allow your soap to cure for serveral weeks before using it.

As you can see, the process of handmade soaps is quite simple, but it is not easy.

Hope you are inspired to try making your own organic soap.

Let's Learn & Experience Organic for Better Personal Health & Our Planet Wellness

Organic Soaps #1 - Potential Harmful Chemicals in Commercial Soaps

When I decided to embark into the journey of Learning & Experiencing Organic, I had been wondering which area I should begin with. Almost everything can be "organic", we have organic food, organic body or personal care products, organic clothing, etc, ....

Then two days ago, I was still pondering about this organic topic while I was washing my hands. Then, suddenly "click", I could begin with soap.

So here we are, 1st Organic subject - Organic Soaps.

And I will begin with harmful chemicals found in commercial soaps.

When we buy soaps for washing hands or bathing, we tend to choose soaps that produce lot of foam because most of us have this impression that thicker lather means better or deeper cleaning. Agree?

Foam Chemicals
In the commercial soaps, the chemical ingredients that cause soaps to foam are known as surfactants. The most widely used are Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES) because they are one of the most effective foaming agents.

If you don't believe, just check your toothpaste, facial washer, hand soap and see for yourself.

What are the side effects?

According to some study reports, SLS and SLES are found to have potential effects that can be detrimental to health. Some severe ones include

Skin irritation or corrosion - SLS is also known to be effective in dissolving oils or grease. So it removes oil from your skin causing a drying effect which in turn causing irritation. Besides drying effect, studies had found that SLS denatures skin protein allowing the lower layers of the skin exposing to external contaminants.

Eye irritation or deformities in children - Tests had shown that SLS could cause eye damage in young animals when it was absorbed through the skin. So be more vigilant when you are getting products for your children.

Protein Denaturing - SLS disrupts the process of replacing old cells with healthy new ones, which may cause skin layers separating and inflaming, In some cases, it can lead to early stage of skin cancer.


Fragrance Chemicals
Besides foam, another major component in the commercial soaps that uses chemicals is Fragrance, and most of the fragrance are synthetic chemicals scents. Some of the common chemicals found in the synthetic fragrance include:

• Benzaldehyde
• Benzyl Alcohol
• Limonene (used for its lemon-like flavor and odor)
• a-Terpineol (lilac odor)
• Toluene (methyl benzene)

Point to note - a fragrance having a botanical sounding name does not necessary mean that it comes from a natural source. Fruit fragrance such as watermelon, peach, apple, strawberry and many others are all synthetic chemical scents.

The possible side effects claimed:

• causing eye, throat, lung and skin irritation
• causing dizziness, headache, nausea
• damaging organs such as lungs, liver, kidney, heart, centre nervous system

Other harmful synthetic additives in the soap are FD&C colors, dyes, antibacterial triclosan & triclocarban, EDTA, TEA, DEA ... the list is long, so I will not go through them in detailed over here. I guess you have got the point, these chemicals used for the fragrance are found to be not kind to your health or the environment.

So why are harmful chemicals used in commercial soap?

I guess you also know the answer - they are cheap to produce and can be produced in large quantity easily.

The bottom line is that try to avoid soap or other body care products when you don't recognize or can't even pronounce ingredients with chemical sounding names in the label.

For the sake of our personal health, if there are natural or organic alternatives that are free from chemicals and easily available, then why not giving them a try.

Yes, organic products are known to be more expensive, but again, they are well worth it in terms of your health and the health of our planet. Think about it.

That's all for now.

Let's Learn & Experience Organic for Better Personal Health and Our Planet Wellness.

Let's Learn and Experience Organic

Welcome to Learn & Experience Organic.

This site provides information, articles or news on organic lifestyle, food, bodycare and other products. Hope it will inspire you to experiment with some of these things found here that can help all of us to achieve a better personal health and better planet.

Thanks for visiting my website, and ....

Let's Learn & Experience Organic for Healthier Lifestyle & Healthier Planet!