How does soap get you clean? Well, the answer to this question is more complicated than you might think. The truth is that all soaps, whether they are mild or strong and no matter if they are made from animal fat or chemicals like sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), have only one real function: cleaning dirt and grease from your skin.
So how does soap remove dirt and oil to get your skin clean?
Soap is a surfactant, meaning it has two parts that are attracted to each other. One part of the soap molecule is attracted to water and another part of the soap molecule is attracted to oils. This means that when you rub a bar of soap on your skin, it breaks up the dirt and grease on your skin so they can be washed away with water.
Hard vs Mild Soaps
As mentioned above, there are different types of soap for different purposes. Stronger soaps tend to be used by people who need the extra scrubbing power that a hard soap offers. For example, “hard soaps”, such as those made from mostly lard, beef tallow or even coconut oil tend to be good ‘scrubbers’. Traditionally lard and tallow soaps were used by farmers and field hands to get a deep clean. During the industrial age it became popular for removing the grime from machinists, mechanics and petroleum workers. Sometimes bits of ground pumice or even fine sand were added to act as an exfoliant and dig deeper into the natural swirls of the skin.
Milder or ‘softer’ bars are often made mostly of oils that are liquid at room temperature. Real Castille soap, for example, is made completely of olive oil as the only fat. It has a reputation of being among the mildest for the skin. But mild doesn’t mean weak. Good Castille soap can get you every bit as clean as the toughest bar of lard-based farm soap.
True Soap vs Detergent-Based Cleansing Products
What’s the difference between “true” soap and detergent-based cleansers and which is the best option? Well, it depends on what you want to use it for. If you’re looking for a product to clean your skin, you probably want to stick with what is known as “true soap”.
There is so much confusion about what truly constitutes “soap”. Many people think any bar of ‘cleansing product’ that lathers and cleans your hair or body is “soap”, but this simply isn’t true. Any product that meets FDA guidelines for labeling can be sold as “soaps”, including detergents like Dawn dish soap and even certain brands of shampoo. True soap, however, must be free from artificial detergent chemicals and not make any health or pharmaceutical claims such as “moisturizing” or “healing”.
Most people are less choosy about their dish soap and laundry detergent. They will often purchase the dish soap that cleans well and removes water spots from dishes and laundry detergent that gets whites their whitest and colors their brightest. Although handmade all-natural soap can get dishes and clothes clean, it does not have the chemical additives to brighten colors, bleach whites or artificially separate grease from glass.
Is True Soap or Detergent Better?
If you’re still not sure which type of soap to buy or make – all natural versus detergent, don’t worry! We’ve got plenty of information about different kinds of soaps right here on our website. And we’ll even tell you how much each kind costs to make or buy before you make a purchase decision!
For my part, I make all my own all-natural soaps from skin cleaning to dishes, to laundry and beyond. I use plant-based oils for all dish and laundry soap. I also make them in liquid form using Potassium hydroxide (KOH). This is a different type of lye that creates soap as a petroleum-jelly-like gel instead of a solid. When that gel is properly diluted with water it forms into liquid soap.
Cost of Making Soap – and How to Price It
You can make a higher quality bar of soap for eighty cents than you can buy at your local grocery store for three dollars. There is an article on this site that will walk you through how to calculate costs and even come up with profitable pricing for your own handmade soaps; How to Price Soap Like A Pro!
Where to Buy Soap Making Ingredients
If you want to give making your own soap a try, consider checking out another post on this site called How to Start a Handmade Soap Business. Step two has all the info you need to get started.
If you want a super-quick cheat sheet without reading the full post, feel free to use this info…
For some of the premier North American soap ingredient suppliers offering international shipping, try one of these.
| Supplier | Toll Free Phone | Int’l Phone |
| Wholesale Supply Plus | 1-800-359-0944 | 1-216-503-9361 |
| Bulk Apothecary | 1-888-728-7612 | Not Available |
| Brambleberry | 1-877-627-7883 | Not Available |
| Chemistry Store | 1-800-224-1430 | 1-803-926-5385 |
| Candle Science | Not Available | TEXT: 919-891-6226 |
Insider Tip: When you find a supplier you wish to try, place an order to test the waters. Even if it goes perfectly, the ingredients and supplies will likely take several days or even a week or more to reach you. That’s time you could be working on setting up your business, building publicity and more!
Can You Make Detergent Soap?
Now why did I say “make” detergent-based soap a few moment ago? Was that a typo? Not at all! You can buy blocks of detergent-based melt and pour soap and add your own finishing touches to create some amazing cleaning products.
The more common detergent-type melt and pour varieties are used for shampoos, bubble bath, body washes and scrubs, and specialty soaps that use ale, beer, and wine in their base.
This link will take you to a top melt and pour soap manufacturer’s section focused on premium MP soap bases with “luxury bubbles,” which basically means big bubbles that come from chemical detergent additives.
In Closing
You, your family, and your customers deserve a soap that’s good for the body and good for the environment. With all-natural handmade “true soap”, you will have both! All-natural soaps are free from SLS, artificial colors or fragrances–and they’re even biodegradable too!