Recently I was asked a question, the soaps are so pretty but do people use them every day or are they to only be used for special occasions?
What an amazing question and I'm so glad it was asked. It got me thinking, how can people find out about why they should be using these soaps for daily use instead of the commercial products we see at the stores.
Commercially produced "soaps" in large part are not even considered soaps. In fact, if you take a moment to take a closer look at the labeling you'll be hard pressed to find the word soap on the package. You may ask yourself, why is that?
Well, the answer, while surprising is rather simple, they are actually not real soaps at all. Instead, they are detergents. Yes, the detergents do cleanse your skin but are harsh and strip away all of your natural oils leaving your skin dry and feeling tight. Commercial soaps are also made with synthetic, even petroleum-based ingredients that are often, on their own right, considered skin irritants that contribute to the reasons people have skin conditions such as rashes and irritation.
By contrast, our cold processed soaps are made with skin nourishing oils that combined with a lye solution and through what I call the magic of chemistry that bind together to create a completely new product... soap! This process has a fancy name called saponification. In the simplest of terms saponification occurs when the fatty oil molecules bind with the lye molecules to produce a new product called soap. More on the actual chemistry behind this but I think I will leave that for a different post.
The result of this chemical reaction is a hard bar of soap if made with sodium hydroxide and a liquid soap if made with potassium hydroxide. The new product, i.e the soap, is made with ingredients that are gentle on the skin and actually nourish it instead of stripping away all of our natural oils. In addition to the gentleness of the natural ingredients the chemical reaction during saponification creates a byproduct called glycerin. Glycerin is a humectant that attracts moisture and helps hydrate the skin leaving it feeling soft and supple.
Glycerin is actually a byproduct of the chemical reaction that makes soap. But unfortunately, it is actually removed in commercial grade products and used for other more lucrative purposes. The history of this occurrence dates back to World War II when glycerin started to be removed from soap to aid in the making of weapons and explosives! More on that topic simply because it is fascinating but I digress.
So yes, using our soaps for daily use is absolutely recommended and encouraged! The soaps are made the old fashioned way with a modern twist to beautify them because who says that art and a useful product can't mix!