THE HISTORY OF HANDMADE SOAP -
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You’ll be surprised to learn that many of the ingredients that
go into soap making are already in your kitchen. Soap is the
end-result of mixing oils, lye and water. Whether you pull it
off the supermarket shelf, buy the melt-and-pour soap from your
local craft store or make it yourself from scratch, all soap
begins with this process which is know as saponification.
During the excavation process of ancient Babylon, clay cylinders
were found with a soap-like substance inside. This shows
evidence that the process of soap making was around as early as
2800 B.C. The cylinders had inscriptions describing the process
of boiling fats with ashes (a primitive form of soap making).
Records reveal that the ancient Egyptians bathed on a regular
basis. The Ebers Papyrus, a medical document dated around 1500
B.C., describes combining alkaline salts with animal and
vegetable oils to form a soap-like substance used for washing.
The story that sticks out in my mind most is the Roman legend of
Mount Sapo (which, by the way, gave soap its name). Women
noticed that washing their clothing was easier when done in the
Tiber River which was directly below Mount Sapo, where ritual
animal sacrifices took place. After a rainfall, a mixture of
animal fats and ashes made its way down the mountain, turning
into a crude form of soap along the way.
Later, early soap makers used potash, which was leached from
wood ashes as their alkali base for soap making. Its results
were often-times unpredictable, sometimes unpleasant in smell,
and created soap that was more utilitarian than luxurious.
In the 1700’s, A French chemist named Nicholas Leblanc, invented
a process for making an alkali using common salt.
During the 1800’s, a Belgian chemist named Ernest Solvay,
discovered a process in which ammonia helped to extract the soda
ash from salt efficiently. It soon became more readily available
and its superiority, in turn, increased the quality of soap
making.
In the 1940's chemists discovered how to change the molecular
structure of some naturally occurring substances. What they
discovered was called "detergent" (to differentiate it from
soap). The big advantage to detergents is that they work well in
hard or cold water and can be formulated to clean specific types
of dirt and stains. Modern detergents (known as syn-dets, or
synthetic detergents) have become quite sophisticated and are
seen in many, many forms. In fact, the majority of the cleaning
products on the market are actually detergents of some type or
another. Even commercial bar soaps commonly contain all or part
detergents. As a result, there is a new, common definition of
soap. The common definition of soap now refers to any product
that bubbles and cleans, particularly if it is in a bar form.
This seems to have created the confusion regarding what real
soap actually is. Hardeners, whiteners, lather boosters,
chemical fragrances (sometimes with as many as 500 separate
chemical components to create their unique scent) are often
found in “over the counter” store-bought, “soap” or detergent
bars.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase, “oh, but
I can’t use lye soap on my sensitive skin.” Let me reiterate
something one more time: ALL soap begins with lye (or something
just like it) and don’t let anyone try to tell you differently.
The chemical name for lye is sodium hydroxide. When you read the
label on a bar of soap, this is appears to be a bit disguised.
Sodium Tallowate is the main ingredient found in most commercial
soaps. What they are actually saying is that sodium hydroxide
(lye) has been mixed with tallow (rendered from beef fat) and,
in mixing these ingredients together, they have created a brand
new word for you, the consumer --- sodium tallowate. How clever.
So, what is the difference between making your own soap at home
and the lye soap that our great-grandmothers made? There is a
big difference. Most people I have encountered usually mention
this is conversation, saying, “My grandmother used to make lye
soap and it would rip your hide off.” That may be true but
granny didn’t have a digital scale, back then, did she? Today’s
modern soap maker has greater access to a wide range of quality
ingredients. Granny did not have help from modern technology to
let her know exactly, down to the gram, how much lye she was
supposed to use in her combination of oils. Furthermore, dear
Granny’s oils may have consisted of anything from beef fat to a
whole season’s worth of saved-up bacon grease drippings.
Soap making has come a long way since the days of using old
bacon grease. It took several months to formulate our Green
Pergola handmade soap recipe. We use a combination of olive oil,
coconut oil, soybean oil and shea butter. Most soap makers today
use similar luxury oils as well as cocoa butter, mango butter,
etc. On the other hand, there are still soaps made from lard,
but, it is almost always made from fresh, clean lard -- not
used. Handmade soap has become a luxury item in today's market
where it originally was only used for utilitarian reasons and
was discovered, quite by accident. The rest is soap history.
Gregory
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