"Fresh and clean as a whistle" ... or is it?

This morning, I discovered a bar of Irish Spring tucked away in the dusty recesses of an unused bathroom cupboard drawer.  I dragged it out with the intent of tossing it into the trashcan.

But, as a soap maker, curiosity got the better of me ... and so, I turned it over to read the ingredients label:

There are a number of ingredients with which I was not familiar ... even though the internal shudder that coursed through my body certainly has become a familiar feeling whenever I read the ingredients labeling of so many commercially made products being sold on today's grocery store shelves.

So ... I fired up the computer and headed for the interwebs.

BTW - the internet is a beautiful thing, really.  Twenty years ago, research such as I was about to undertake would have required a library card, a sack lunch, and a degree in chemistry.  But not any more ... with a little typing and a good browser, you can find whatever you seek, whenever you wish.  It's like it's MAGIC!

But, I digress ...

So let's take a closer look at those pesky ingredients:

Soap (sodium tallowate, sodium cocoate, and/or sodium palm kernalate), water, hydrogenated tallow acid (skin conditioner), coconut acid, glycerin (skin conditioner), fragrance, sodium chloride, pentasodium pentetate, pentalerythrityl, tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate (can I buy a vowel, please), titanium dioxide, D&C green #8, FD&C green #3.

Ugh.  I make soap ... and I've never, ever heard of any of this stuff.

Well then ... let's break it down, shall we?

Sodium tallowate:  Sodium tallowate is a true soap made by combining the fatty tissue (or tallow) of animals, such as cattle and sheep, with lye, typically sodium hydroxide.

Okay ... I get that one.  

Sodium cocoate:  Sodium cocoate is the sodium salt of fatty acids from coconut oil; lauric acid is the primary component of this oil.  Function:  Surfactant - Cleansing Agent; Surfactant - Emulsifying Agent

This is NOT coconut oil (Cocos Nucifera) ... this is a byproduct that they are classifying to be the same as coconut oil.

Sodium palm kernalate:  Sodium Palm Kernelate is a sodium salt of the acids derived from palm kernel oil.  Function:  Surfactant - Cleansing Agent; Surfactant - Emulsifying Agent; Viscosity Increasing Agent -Aqueous; viscosity controlling.

Not to be confused with palm kernal oil, which we don't currently use due to the sustainability and the orangutan issues surrounding the sourcing of this inexpensive oil.

Hydrogenated tallow acid - a mixture of saturated fatty acids which are produced from animal fat by hydrolysis and then treated by hydrogen at high temperature and pressure in a presence of special catalysts.

We use stuff like cocoa butter and/or shea butter, coconut and olive oils ... and we leave the glycerin IN the soaps that we make, keeping the natural conditioning ingredients where there are supposed to be, which is IN the soap.

Coconut acid - Coconut acid is obtained from the meat of the coconut and used in soaps because the extra fat it contains helps ensure the lye is fully reacted, and it gives the soap a good feel and more lather.

This is the closest ingredient to the real thing that I've seen so far ...

Glycerin (now, this is a fun one) - produced by synthetizing sugar or different propylene based substances OR is a byproduct in the biodiesel making process.

In conventional soap making, glycerin is a naturally-occurring substance that is created during the soapmaking process and is absorbed back in to the soap as it cures.  It is what makes your skin soft and is what helps your skin absorb moisture from the air.  Glycerin is hydroscopic ... meaning that it pulls moisture from the air and brings it to your skin.  

It is during the commercial soapmaking process that salt is added to the soap mixture, causing the soap to separate from the glycerin; allowing for ease in the extraction of the glycerin to be used in other things like skin care products, medicines, and other alimentary products.  Without glycerin, soap can be very drying to your skin ... so companies add it back ... only it's not the same glycerin that they removed in the first place ... it's a chemically-derived substance.

Makes sense ... 'cuz Glycerin (aka Glycerol or Glycerine) is also used in the tobacco industry as a humectant; in the food industry as an additive; in the pharmaceutical industry as an excipient and formulation aid; in chemical substances as an intermediate; in the cosmetic industry as a skin moisturizer and humectant; as an anti-freezing substance in cell and sperm preservation; and as a lubricant in hydraulic fluid.  There's lots of money to be made off of this stuff ... no wonder the stuff is so precious that they need to siphon it off to use elsewhere.

Sodium chloride - regular ol' table salt

Pentasodium pentetate - used in soaps as a water softener, and to protect dyes and perfumes from combining with metals in a solution. It is considered a chelating agent.  It's full name is Diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid.

(Pentaerythrityl) tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate - an antioxidant [used in the manufacture of soap] that inhibits reactions promoted by oxygen that could cause unsaturated fats to become rancid.

IMO - if manufacturers stayed away from animal tallow (fat) in the first place, this ingredient would be unnecessary.  Yes, I am aware that the use of animal fat in the making of soap has been around since the beginning of Time ... but this isn't Babylon ... we've come a long way in our knowledge of making stuff from other stuff that is healthier to place in and on our bodies.

And then ... there's all the rest of the stuff ... titanium dioxide, a whitener added to get this chemical mess white so that the colorants can be added, along with a vague reference to a fragrance that is not of natural origins, but will leave you "Feeling Fresh and Clean as a Whistle".

BTW - after I researched all this information, I stumbled across a webpage wherein the author already did the homework:  http://www.scientificpsychic.com/blogentries/ingredients-in-soap.html.  I suppose I could have stopped ... but today, it seems, was a day for learning.

And so ... on that note ... the soap's being chucked in the trash.

I'll do it on my way to the shower ... where I plan on using my own stuff.

Cheers!