Truths and Benefits of Natural Soaps

Truths and Benefits of Natural Soaps

Do you have questions about the truths and benefits of natural soaps? Are you considering switching from commercial mass-produced soaps to healthy natural soaps? To help you make an informed decision, here are some honest soap truths and benefits that should clear up any confusion.

Lye in Soaps

First, almost all soaps on the market could be considered lye soaps. To understand why one needs to look at the chemistry behind soap making. When oil is mixed with a strong alkali, the opposite of an acid, the molecular structure of both are altered. The result is salt. This salt can be both water-soluble and oil-soluble. Soap manufacturers understand how this chemical reaction works and use it to create most of the commercially prepared soaps on the market.

Second, lye is a naturally occurring substance, not a synthetic chemical. For thousands of years, it was used to make soap. Great-grandmothers used lye derived from the ashes of hardwood. However, measuring the exact amount of this chemical in the recipe was difficult. Too much could burn the skin. Too little, and the soap would be mostly oil. That’s why modern soap makers use commercially prepared lye. This way, the formulas are exact and can be modified with specific skin types and outcomes in mind.

Next, there are two main types of alkali (lye) that are used to make soap products. Solid forms of soap, specifically bar soaps, are made using sodium hydroxide as the lye necessary to transform the oil into soap. Liquid soaps are created using potassium hydroxide as the alkali component in the soapmaking process. Either way, both types of soap require some form of lye to transform the oil into a soapy cleanser.

Natural Effectiveness

A common misunderstanding about natural soap is that it is ineffective. While a bar of natural soap is very effective for cleansing, you may not be aware that it also contains natural ingredients that can make your skin soft and supple.

Soap made with organic ingredients is better than the regular variety because natural soaps contain oils that are rich in moisturizing properties. These oils work together to provide intense hydration to your skin. The result is a silky, supple, and glowing complexion.

Glycerin Benefits

Another natural ingredient in handcrafted soaps is glycerin. Glycerin is a naturally occurring substance in most soap. While most mass-market soap manufacturers remove it before selling them, handmade soaps are rich in glycerin as a natural byproduct.

Glycerin has antibacterial and moisturizing properties. It also acts as an emollient, which attracts moisture from the air. Handcrafted soaps have a high glycerin concentration, making them excellent for hydrating the skin.

Lather’s Impression

concerned about lather? Don’t be. Why? Because lather is simply bubbles and larger bubbles give the impression that there’s more lather. Certain oils, when combined with lye, produce larger bubbles and thus more lather. However, there is very little correlation between the amount of lather and a soap’s effectiveness because it’s not the bubbles that do the work.

The lather is just there for show, but savvy marketing campaigns have led the public to believe that the size of the bubbles is more important. Not so, since the primary job of any soap is to bond with surface oils that have trapped dirt and grime and then carry them away in the water. (Remember the chemistry behind soapmaking mentioned above and how natural soap is both water-soluble and oil-soluble?)

Blue Sky Body Care’s Soaps

So why are Blue Sky Body Care’s handcrafted soaps better than the rest? Because they are all-natural, rich in beneficial glycerin, custom-designed for specific skin types and goals, and wonderfully effective at pampering the skin while simultaneously cleansing it. On top of it all, they are all earth-friendly besides being skin-friendly. How so? No plastic packaging. Unlike liquid soaps that require a plastic bottle or breakable glass container, all Blue Sky Body Care’s handcrafted soaps are in eco-friendly compostable packaging. Blue Sky Body Care all-natural soaps…good for you and good for the earth.