What is Clean Soap and why should I use it?

What is Clean Soap and why should I use it?

Posted by R on Apr 23rd 2018

Clean soap is free of irritants and non-biodegradable additives.  Clean soap is made from natural ingredients.  Commercial soaps, and even some hand-made soaps, often contain synthetic dyes and fragrances and other chemicals.  Clean soap is better for your body, the Lake, and the planet.

We make cold process and hot process soap from scratch.  We don't use pre-made blocks of soap starter, called melt and pour.  We start with a combination of botanical oils, butters, and liquids.

We make soap by mixing sodium hydroxide, better known as lye, with liquid to create a chemical reaction.    We add essential oils, and we let our soap batter rest in hand-made wood soap molds.  We cut the soap into bars, hand-stamp each, then let the soap rest and cure for four to six weeks.   We do not use any synthetics dyes, fragrances, or fragrance oils.  Our soaps are scented only by essential oils and natural ingredients, like oatmeal, aloe, and cucumber.  We only use natural colorants like clay, turmeric, and spirulina.

We make clean soap, free of parabens, sulphates, triclosan, and phthalates.

We don't use parabens.

What's the big deal with parabens?  According to some research, the body mistakes parabens for estrogen when they enter the blood stream, potentially resulting in decreasing muscle mass, increasing fat deposits, and causing early onset of puberty and potentially causing reproductive disorders.  

Why do commercial soapers use them in the first place?  They prevent growth of mold, bacteria, and yeast in cosmetic products.Buy your soap fresh and local, and you don't need this preservative.

The FDA does not currently regulate the use of parabens in soap in the United States.    Parabens are banned in Europe.

We don't use palm oil.

The vast majority of hand-made soapers use palm oil.  We don't use it.  The concern with palm oil is how it is harvested.  The United Nations has linked palm oil plantations to rainforest loss and species extinction.  Our view is that if you can make clean, fresh soap without palm oil, why wouldn't you?

Our soap does not contain animal products.

We don't use lard, other animal fats, or animal milk in our soap. Most other soap companies do.  They use lard or goat's milk to make a hard, lathery bar. When we tested our soap recipes, we did not think that animal products made a better bar a soap.Our testers agreed.  So we ditched the animal products completely.

We don't use sulphates.

These are the chemicals that make commercial soaps soapy and foamy.  But they irritate a lot of us.  The lather in our soap comes from the blend of botanical oils and butter we use.

We don't use synthetic fragrances.

These we could find if we wanted to. They are all over the marketplace.  Fragrances like "linen" and "rain".  Hmmm, how'd you do that?  We only use natural fragrances and essential oils.  In our own experiences, synthetic fragrances make us itchy and give us headaches.  We don't think we need them.

We don't use synthetic dyes.

These may or may not be listed as ingredients on your favorite commercial soap.  According to some research, some synthetic colors are suspected to be a human carcinogen, a skin irritant, and linked to ADHD in children.  When used, they make soaps colorful and pretty, but we don't think it's worth it.

We don't use Triclosan.

Triclosan is an ingredient in antibacterial soap products.  Problem is, some recent studies suggest this stuff promotes the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.  Worse, they say it makes dioxin, which is (A) a carcinogen, and (B) an ingredient in Agent Orange.   They've been called "known endocrine disruptor."  Sounds bad.  We don't add it.

We don't use Phthalates.

Commercial soap companies add phthalates to soap to change its texture.  Some studies have linked them to reproductive difficulties.  One study even tied phthalates to increased obesity.

This is why we make and use Clean Soap.