Looking for Mr. Goodbar: A Tutorial for Soap Shoppers

A Bunch of Lyes


The first thing you need to know about soap is that it's made with caustic lye -- from Dove to Dial, from pine tar to glycerin, and from the finest castiles to Granny Clampett's infamous skin burners.

Soap is soap is soap. And soap is made with lye, just as it's been for thousands of years. But don't bother looking for "lye" on the ingredient list, because  it's not there. This is because the finished product doesn't contain lye. Instead it contains, at the very minimum, a list of "saponified" fats or oils, which go by many different names.

Without getting into a chemistry lesson, soap is the end result of a chemical process called saponification, which occurs when lye is combined with water + oils or fats. Once this process is complete, the lye is gone *poof* transformed through the magic of chemistry into saponified fats or oils, which are, in a word, soap. A by-product of saponification is glycerin, which gives soap it's emollient qualities. I'll get back to glycerin in a moment, but first a quick visit to the 22nd century BC, which has everything to do with finding a decent bar of soap in the 21st century AD.

Out of the Ashes

Soaps have traditionally been made from animal fats or vegetable oils or a mix of the two. Ancient soapmakers used wood ash plus animal fats -- an inexact science, at best. The wood-ash method was carried into the early American tradition and remained so until well into the 20th century -- particularly among rural and mountain communities, where not an ounce of anything went to waste, including the staples of soapmaking: fireplace ash (to make the lye) + rainwater + fat scraps.

Making soap from ash was a labor intensive process and, some would argue, an art form that took years to master. Like any folk art, it was then passed down from generation to generation.

Even then, it was unpredictable due to the unknowable alkalinity of any given batch of wood ash, not to mention the month-to-month variables in home-rendered fats. The wrong proportion of lye to fat can turn out a greasy, gloppy bar or, at the other end of the spectrum, a skin burner. The latter is what gave soap its bad rap for being harsh, and is what made Granny Clampett's backyard soap such good fodder for laughs. Today's soapmaking is more precise, with lye purchased in standardized strengths, ingredients measured in grams, and little mystery as to the saponification values of any given fat or oil. As such, the soap recipes of today are the stuff of both art and science.

Although the very first documented soap recipe was for a vegetable soap, made in 2200 BC, vegetable soaps didn't become a staple among soapmakers until the 16th century. Two hundred years later, the first brand-name soap was born -- Pears Transparent Soap -- which also happens to be a vegetable soap. First sold in 1789, the Pears ingredient list was simple: saponified vegetable oils, glycerin, rosin, water, extracts of rosemary & thyme, and essence of pear. The recipe was such a success, that -- some 221 years later -- it is still being sold. But before Pears there was castile soap, the first major refinement in the art of soapmaking. Mild, gentle and moisturizing, castile soap is still a classic among fine soapmakers and has been a favorite choice for babies and people with delicate skin for 400 years and counting. The ingredient list couldn't be simpler: saponified olive oil.

The wiles and wisdom of modern-day science have done little to improve upon this recipe. Just the opposite, in fact. The concerns of scientists employed by commercial soapmakers revolve around making a soap that won't develop cracks, won't melt in the soap dish, won't leave a soap scum in the bathtub; a soap that makes a lather that is at once creamy, dense and bubbly, but leaves the skin feeling squeaky clean; a soap with appealing colors and perfumes; a soap that is, above all, cheap to make.

This is where olive and other quality vegetable oils bite the dust. Olive oil is expensive and rarely used in commercial soaps, except as a trace ingredient (where it exists only as a marketing tool, so that the bar can be promoted as a "natural" product, made with "pure olive oil.") The fat-of-choice among most commercial soapmakers in the U.S. is tallow, the fat from slaughtered cows. Tallow and tallow-derivatives are inexpensive, plentiful, and can be bought by the metric ton from rendering plants around the world. Regardless of the ingredients, soap is still soap, made using that same basic recipe that was written on a clay table it the 22nd century BC: water, alkali and cassia oil.

An Evolution, of Sorts 

The way these saponified ingredients are listed on soap label can take several forms. The ingredient list on a quality bar of handcrafted soap might contain one ingredient: olive oil castile soap. Alternately, it might list a series of of ingredients called saponified olive oil, saponified coconut oil, saponified palm oil or saponified tallow, whereas a commercial bar with identical ingredients might list these, respectively, as sodium olivate, sodium cocoate, sodium palm kernalate, or sodium tallowate. It's all the same.


But the resemblance between Old World or handmade soaps and commercial bars begins and ends there. First, they strip out the glycerin. While most handcrafted soaps retain the natural glycerin that gives soap its moisturizing qualities, most commercial soapmakers remove this emollient in a process called "glycerin recovery." This glycerin -- which is a lucrative commodity, more valuable than soap -- is then sold or saved to use in high-end products, such as moisturizers and pharmaceuticals. While glycerin recovery adds handsomely to the profit margin on that bar, it leaves behind a harsh product, in dire need of moisturizers.

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Some Quick Terminology: The term "moisturizer" is loosely used to describe substance that contribute to skin moisture in one of three ways. Humectants (think glycerin, sorbitol & propylene glycol) are absorbed into the skin but also attract moisture from the air and help the skin retain moisture. Emollients (think cocoa butter, almond oil, aloe vera and jojoba oil) are absorbed to varying degrees into the skin to soften and smooth, while also providing a temporary, light barrier to prevent moisture loss. Occlusives (think mineral oil, petroleum jelly & lanolin) form a more impermeable film barrier on the skin, preventing moisture loss. With the exception of petroleum products, most moisturizers perform at least 2 of the above functions. Glycerin, for example, is both a humectant and an emollient, with light occlusive qualities. All moisturizers are best applied after bathing, when the skin is softened and better able to absorb these ingredients.

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Once the glycerin has been stripped from the soap, it's time to add the rest of the ingredients. First on the list is synthetic detergent, the number one ingredient in most commercial bars. This is followed by moisturizers, (which sometimes include, ironically enough, petroleum-based glycerin), plus chemicals to make the soap hard, chemicals to make the soap pliable and crack-resistant, chemicals to promote creamy lather, chemicals to promote dense lather, chemicals to promote bubbly lather, chemicals to leave you with that "squeaky clean" feeling, chemicals to prevent soap scum, chemicals to make it smell good, chemicals to color it, and chemicals to keep the other chemicals from going bad. By the time all is said and done, this bar has become something altogether different.

The Finished Bar: Animal, Vegetable or.... Syndet?

Look on your grocery store shelf for a bar of something called, "soap" and you'll likely leave empty handed. This is partly because, while all of these products contain soap, the predominant ingredient is synthetic detergent. Nothing inherently wrong with that, so long as it's not also accompanied by the above-mentioned chemical amendments, which is the case with most synthetic detergents. Despite the harsh-sounding name, some of these synthetic detergents are actually quite gentle on the skin and have so far shown little to no side-effects. Others are just the opposite. The only way to know is to slog through the research.

But what to call these new-fangled bars? The industry calls them "syndets," short for synthetic detergents. By the time these syndets reach the store shelf, they've been again transformed -- this time through the magic of marketing -- into products called beauty bars, complexion bars, body bars or deodorant bars. Part and parcel of this marketing has been to demonize soap as a harsh, irritating product, inferior to syndets.

A 4-Letter Word: Soap

Dove has led the pack in this campaign, which began during the 1950s, shortly after synthetic detergents entered the toilet soap market. This campaign has been so successful, in fact, that most manufacturers -- even those who make bona fide pure soap -- eschew using the word "soap" on their labels. That Dove has benefited so richly from this anti-soap campaign is ironic, considering that any given bar of Dove contains three or more soaps, which you'll find listed on the label as sodium tallowate (aka soap), sodium palmitate (aka soap), sodium stearate (aka soap), sodium cocoate (aka soap), or sodium palm kernelate (aka soap).

But still, Dove demonizes the stuff. Visit their website and you can play an interactive, soap-hatin' game called, "Play the Soap Toss Game." According to the directions, you have 30 seconds to throw as many bars of soap into the wastebasket as you can. The object of the game reads like this:

"Switch to Dove Beauty Bar and beat the clock. Fill the basket with as many skin-drying bars of soap as you can."

If this game doesn't bring you on board with the soap-haters, a simple click of the mouse will open more pages, where you can "GET THE FACTS: See How Soap Affects Your Skin" or "LEARN MORE: The Real Clean of ¼ Moisturizing Cream."

Keep looking, and you'll find videos of woman saying, "Ewwww" after viewing soap residue on a shower curtain and, by inference, the skin of anyone who uses it. Another video has testimonials of women who have tried soap, then Dove on their faces, and were amazed at how tight their skin felt after using soap, as opposed to Dove, which left their skin feeling soft. As Dove will be happy to remind you, this softness is due to that ¼ Moisturizing Cream in each bar.

If you're the curious sort, you might begin to wonder, "Just what the heck is in that moisturizing cream?" From here, you might decide to dig a little deeper into their website to find the answer. Surely, there's a page where the folks at Dove brag about what they use to make that much-touted moisturizing cream.

*fade in chirping crickets*

 C'mon, Dove. What's in the stuff? It's not on your website. And the ingredient list is no help, either, unless you're a chemist. In fact, studying the ingredient list, below, on Dove's Sensitive Skin Unscented Beauty Bar (which is, by the way, the most widely recommended soap by dermatologists and pediatricians), you'll find nothing that is called -- or even remotely resembles something called "moisturizing cream." It is only through process of elimination that we find that elusive moisturizing cream. It's ingredient #2, which (correct me if I'm wrong, Dove) comes from pig lard and/or beef tallow.

The Ad Campaign That Never Was: 1/4 Stearic Acid in Every Bar!

Nothing wrong with that, unless you're a vegan or vegetarian. But I imagine most consumers would at least like a heads-up before slathering their faces with lard and tallow. Too, I imagine that many Dove users, who are loath to use soap on their sensitive skin, would want to know just how many times soap appears on the ingredient list of Dove Sensitive Skin Unscented Beauty Bar, so I've highlighted these in blue. Note, too, that the first two ingredients represent 75 to 85% of the total ingredients in this bar, which means that the other 12 ingredients compose only 15 to 25% of the total.

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• Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate (comprises 50 to 60% of the ingredient total)-- a synthetic detergent, often chosen for its mildness, low-irritant potential and dense lathering qualities
• Stearic Acid (comprises 25% of the ingredient total) --a waxy substance derived from beef tallow and/or pig lard; used as a plasticizer (for texture) and as a superfatting agent (for emollient qualities). While Dove ads depict this ingredient as a rich white cream being elegantly poured from a glass pitcher into each bar, stearic acid is actually a flaky, off-white powder, and the factory workers who handle it wear hazmat suits.
  
  
  
  
  • NOTE: While stearic acid can be extracted from vegetable sources, it's more expensive, which is one reason animal-sourced acids are the #1 choice among American syndet manufacturers. Problem is, vegetable-based ingredients are the #1 choice among consumers. You can bet your bottom dollar that, if a manufacturer opts for the more expensive vegetable alternative, this will be boldly mentioned on the ingredient list, if not also shouted from the front label. For example, after the ingredient, "stearic acid," you might find the words, "sourced from coconut" in parentheses. And you'd likely also find a banner on the front label reading, "No Animal Ingredients!" Given that Dove has spent over half a century bragging on that ¼ Moisturizing Cream -- but has never once bragged on what that cream is actually made of -- it's a safe bet that Dove, like most U.S. syndet manufacturers, gets their stearic acid from beef tallow and/or pig lard. This would be no shocker, really, given that ingredient #3 is made with beef tallow -- and almost certainly ingredients #4 and 8, as well.
    
• Sodium Tallowate -- soap made from lye + beef tallow -- OR -- Sodium Palmitate -- soap made from lye + palmitic acid (usually made with tallow + plant sources, unless otherwise specified)
• Lauric Acid -- adjusts pH, hardens the soap and creates a fluffy lather
• Sodium Isethionate -- synthetic detergent, creates a dense lather
• Water
• Sodium Stearate --soap made from lye + stearic acid (derived from beef tallow or pig lard)
• Cocamidopropyl Betaine -- a synthetic detergent, enhances lather (known human immune system toxicant; skin sensitizer/allergen; may be contaminated with nitrosamines)
• Sodium Cocoate -- soap made with lye + coconut oil -- OR -- Sodium Palm Kernelate --soap made with lye + palm kernel oil
• Sodium Chloride -- common table salt, used in the the glycerin-stripping process; this residual salt serves double-duty as a thickener.
• Tetrasodium EDTA -- used as a chelating agent [NOTE: The term, "chelating" simply refers to this ingredient's ability to interact with metals, making it possible to use this soap in hard water (water with a high mineral content). This ingredient is also responsible for leaving that "squeaky clean" feeling that consumers expect from a soap. One drawback to EDTA is that it's a known skin irritant, a suspected toxin, and a "penetration enhancer," which means that it alters the skin structure, allowing other chemicals to penetrate more readily and more deeply into the skin.]
• Tetrasodium Etidronate -- another chelating agent, this one targeted toward preventing soap film in the bath and shower, hence the common use of this and EDTA in household cleansers and laundry detergents. As with the EDTA, the trade off is skin irritation. But who cares, when you have a product that will, in one handy step, wash your face and clean your bathtub? It's pure genius, I tell you.
• Maltol -- known in the industry as 3-hydroxy-2-methyl-4-pyrone, Maltol is a naturally-occurring organic compound that smells like caramelized sugar and is used as a fragrance and/or scent masker. [NOTE: While you wouldn't expect to find fragrance in an unscented product, the plain truth is that the ingredients in most any product -- natural or synthetic -- are going to have at least some smell. And if it's made with tallow, it's likely to be an unpleasant odor. To cover the base smell of the soap, thereby giving the illusion that the product is unscented, manufacturers often add fragrances or scent-masking agents, such as Maltol.]
• Titanium Dioxide -- makes the soap white and opaque

The Dove Difference

Fake, special-effects photos make great marketing tools, but to really appreciate the Dove difference, you'll want to compare their ingredients to soap. I could compare Dove to castile soap, but there really is no comparison. So I'll compare it to another national-brand, unscented "beauty bar" -- Tom's of Maine Sensitive Beauty Bar. Don't let the name fool you. This is a bar of soap.

It's not the best in the world, but it's worlds better than most national brands. For the record, I can attest that this soap never once befouled our shower curtain (or skin) with a soap film. It also lathers nicely, smells neutral, never develops unsightly cracks, and is neither too hard, nor too soft. And, if you happen to like the color tan, which I do, it's easy on the eyes. Best of all, this soap moisturizes and was gentle on my sensitive skin. All this without synthetic detergents and beef tallow. We know this because Tom's helpfully divulges the sources of their ingredients. The drawback to this soap? Expect to pay $1.50 more per bar than you'd pay for Dove.

• Sodium palmate (soap made from lye + palm oil)
• Sodium cocoate (soap made from lye + coconut oil)
• Sodium Palm Kernelate (soap made from lye + palm kernel oil)
• Water
• Glycerin (from vegetable oils)
• Sodium chloride (sea salt, either added as a thickener or left over from a partial glycerin-stripping process )
• Sodium gluconate (a chelating agent, added to make the soap work in hard water. Tom's describes this ingredient as simply "corn starch" which is disingenuous, as you would not find this ingredient inside a box on your kitchen shelf, but in a laboratory. That said, this ingredient is gentler and less irritating on the skin than Dove's Tetrasodium EDTA and Tetrasodium Etidronate, but nonetheless has the capacity to irritate the skin).
• Olive oil
• Jojoba oil
• Tocopheryl acetate (from soybeans)
• Chamomile Flower Extract (from chamomile flower heads)

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