Labeling soap as Natural or 100% Natural

Crazy8 · Sep 17, 2013

Well I guess im in the mindset of what was mentioned earlier with "natural" being things made from the earth and able to return back to the earth. Saponification is a reaction when introducing the lye (KOH for instance) to the fats. Now if we take into account that all that fats are natural, the lye is natural and that there is 0 added chemicals, then what you have really is an all natural science experiment of saponification. The fact that you have saponification happening doesn't make it unnatural. At least to my very very very minimal scientific education.

This is merely a hypothesis on my end. I do believe saponification is joining the fats together and thus creating the bar we call soap. Hopefully DeeAnna could step in here and clear some of this up. She has a much better more educated scientific background than I ever will. Science and I typically dont get a long well. Its kind of like "Hey if this is how soap is made, then that's all I care about, I don't care about whats happening on the atomic level or whats going on with molecules...lol"

Twiggy · Sep 17, 2013

So welcome in my world! LOL Actually I’m interested, but little too lazy to investigate every single thing – big shame on my, but it is like it is…
BTW, I use only herbs and clays to color, and EO to scent. Even tho, EO are very aggressive fellows! On each safety data sheet of EO you can read warning, that they are actually poison for the water creatures and plants and they should not be poured to canalization…Probably in big quantity.

Crazy8 · Sep 17, 2013

Thats kind of odd that EO's could be poison because I thought EO's were made basically by steaming or maybe even extracting the essence or its properties from that particular plant, fruit, roots, etc. I had read because of this that EO's were "natural" because of the process in which the oils from the plants are collected but that FO's are completely lab created and not natural. On a similar note, I had seen on a show how a fragrance is made from ANYTHING and its quite impressive and disturbing. This took place in a lab that specializes in making scents. For instance they took a dirty diaper and placed it in this machine that kind of "sniffs" the odor and then turns that data into what fragrances to mix with what and the amounts. Based on the show hosts reaction to sniffing the final product, they nailed it...lol But I imagine this is how FO's are made everywhere. Then just brought onto a bigger scale on a factory floor to turn it into a usable product.

dagmar88 · Sep 17, 2013

Coke and heroin are natural plant extracted substances. Natural is often mistaken for safe.
Fragrance oils can contain essential oils.

Twiggy · Sep 17, 2013

I'm with you Dagmar, natural doesn't mean safe, but is very interesting discussion anyway. I still wonder if our soaps are truly natural after all.

Crazy8 said:
Thats kind of odd that EO's could be poison because I thought EO's were made basically by steaming or maybe even extracting the essence or its properties from that particular plant, fruit, roots, etc. I had read because of this that EO's were "natural" because of the process in which the oils from the plants are collected but that FO's are completely lab created and not natural.

Yes it is odd, I cannot explain it, but I think anything in a great concentration will be dangerous one way or another…

Crazy8 · Sep 17, 2013

Twiggy said:
I'm with you Dagmar, natural doesn't mean safe, but is very interesting discussion anyway. I still wonder if our soaps are truly natural after all.

Yes it is odd, I cannot explain it, but I think anything in a great concentration will be dangerous one way or another…

Very true. I also agree that natural does not mean safe I mean poison dart frogs appear in nature, but not exactly safe:mrgreen: Or something closer to home in regards to plants, poison ivy, and again not safe. Well to an extent anyway. But yes very interesting conversation and I would say worth addressing. There are many "green" people out there looking to live their lives off of "natural" ,"organic", and all that stuff and I think they sometimes place to much security in those words. If I grow it in my garden, I know what did and didn't go into it. Not to mention I don't have to pay 2-3 times as much for it saying "organic" but that's just me.

I think to kinda get back on track with the OP inquiry I would just say play it safe and dont worry about putting "natural" on the package. Sure people like to see that and it feels good to have that on their, but in the big scheme of things some would argue that it is and others would argue that its not, and you have the FDA stuff to consider. So it may prevent you from a huge headach and maybe even lawsuits. Who knows. So I would stick with things like "mad with love" or "hand made" things like that.