Category: Au Naturel

Artisan Soaps, Au Naturel, Bar Soap, Specialty

Baby Bastille!

The origins of Castile soap go back to Middle East, where Syrian soap-makers have made bar soap based on olive and laurel oil for a thousand years.  It is commonly believed that the Crusaders brought Aleppo soap back to Europe in the 11th century, based on the claim that the earliest soap made in Europe was just after the Crusades, but in fact the Romans knew about soap in the first century CE and soap making was described as early as 300 CE.  Following the Crusades, production of this soap extended to the whole Mediterranean area. Early soap-makers in Europe did not have easy access to laurel oil and therefore dropped it from their formulations, thereby creating an olive-oil soap now known as Castile soap.  Bastille soap must be 70% olive oil with other oils added for various reasons.  Our Baby Bastille soap is 95% olive oil and 5% castor oil.  Castor oil adds fabulous moisturizing qualities and a dense creamy and stable lather.  Click to shop

Baby Soap

Artisan Soaps, Au Naturel

Why Use Handmade Soap?

 

When I go to the store to buy soap, I find that there are very few soap products are actually soap.  Most “soaps”, shampoos or body washes are synthetic detergent products.  They have more in common with laundry detergent than with real soap.

Real soap is made from combining oils, fats and lye.  The reaction that takes place when these ingredients are combined is called soponification and the result of that reaction is soap and glycerin.  Once the soap mixture has been prepared it’s poured into molds to saponify for a day, taken out to dry for a day, and then cut into bars of soap and left to cure for 4 – 6 weeks more. It’s as natural as soap gets.  Glycerin is left in the soap because it attracts moisture to the skin.

Look at the ingredients on an average bar of soap in your local store. Many contain sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), anionic surfactant used in laundry detergent.  SLS will ry out and irritate skin. Many commercial “soaps” also contain sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), a cheap foaming agent that has been known to be contaminated with a suspected carcinogen Dioxane while being manufactured.

 

It is the consumer’s responsibility to read the label!  Manufacturers may call their product “soap” even if it contains no soap at all!

 

Look at the number of ingredients in Commercial Soap and Natural Soap.

 

Dove White Bar Ingredients:  Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Sodium Tallowate Or Sodium Palmitate, Lauric Acid, Sodium Isethionate, Water, Sodium Stearate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Cocoate Or Sodium Palm Kernelate, Fragrance, Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium Edta, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891).

 

FSW Au Naturel Soap Ingredients:  Olive Oil, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Distilled Water, Castor Oil, Essential Oil, Natural Colorant.