I’ve let go of liquid soaps in the last few years and opted to used classic solid soaps for my hygiene but between trendy scents or seasonal supply I haven’t been able to find a soap I can stay with.
This led me to consider making my own soap but is it worth it?
Artisanal soaps are expensive and hard to find in my country and mostly pass the notion they are targetting luxury customers and not making something for everyone to use and enjoy and trying to make an effort to create change.
I am aware initial costs have to be considered and that there is a learning to it.
Isn’t that what is considered hard soap? A bit like Marseille soap.
You use it for general cleaning or personal hygiene?
It is
hardsolid/bar soap and safe to use on skin. Mostly personal hygiene but can be used for anything where soap is appropriate. Could grate it into shavings to use as laundry detetgent.EDIT: clarified an answer after a misunderstood definition of “hard” soap
I have used hard soap in the past for personal hygiene and it does a wonderful. Solved a case of heavy dandruff with it.
However, hard soap I find in my market tends to dry the skin over time, due to the lye. It can be used to deep clean nearly almost anything because the lye kills all nasties it comes in contact with but… I know of situations where operating rooms were desinfected using hard soap.
Lye chemically reacts with fat and is chemically changed into soap. There is no lye present in soap, unless you made it wrong. Lye is used to make soap but soap does not contain lye.
Hard soap as in bar soap, it is a solid. As opposed to liquid soap. All soap is made with lye, including liquid soap.
Hard soap, in my country, is a very hard, usually white and blue or white and pink, soap, available in long 1kg bars. It brings a warning that the soap is intended for laundry and general cleaning, but it can cause skin irritation or dryness due to the caustic soda used to make it.
Personal hygiene soaps I still haven’t discovered what reagents are used to trigger the reaction for soap making but do not carry that risk.
We have different words for the stuff. Hard soap is called “sabão” while personal hygiene soaps are called “sabonete”.
“Personal hygiene soaps” are superfatted, including the soap that I make. The ingredients are not different, only the ratio of ingredients. The recipe contains extra fat, more than the amount of fat needed to chemically react with the lye. So when all of the lye is used up by the chemical reaction, some amount of fat is left over unreacted in the soap. This extra fat is moisturizer for skin and replaces the natural oils on skin that soap strips away, so the soap is not drying.
My soap is usually minimally superfatted, so it is balanced more towards cleansing than moisturizing but still contains extra fat to ensure it is not harmful on skin. If you want a soap that is very gentle on skin, you would include even more fat.
Thank you for that clarification.
Hold up. You don’t want hard soap? I think that’s what most of the “making soap” advice in this thread is about.
I’ve just tried to explain that in my country there is difference between soap and hard soap.
Hard soap is harsh to the skin for prolongued use. It’s made with lye and used to do laundry, deep clean surfaces, etc. It has no perfumes and can even have a slightly pungent, almost bleach like, odor.
Soap is used in personal hygiene. Scented, hydrating, skin safe. Some can even labelled as “technical” and have additives put in to address specific skin conditions, like goat or donkey milk, pine tar, sulphur, etc.
Both soap forms are solid.