Misinformation and Soaping

[gigisiguenza]

I can't begin to tell you folks how grateful I am that I found this place. The staggering amount of misinformation presented as expertise, poorly designed recipes, and just plain ridiculousness out there is scary.

I ran across this on pinterest and had to laugh at the instructions. What really grabbed me was the "mix well for 5 minutes" on a picture of a SB in a bowl. All I could think was soap.on a stick here they go LOL. Check it out.

What truly ludicrous soapy insanity have you come across?

http://pinterest.com/pin/81838918206100523

 

[Saponomancer]

eugh, they're using volume measurements too, thats actually dangerous

The one I keep getting aggravated about is 'lyeless soap', which isn't dangerous so much as it is annoying

 

[mandy318]

I'm really glad I found this site before I made my first batch or got silly ideas stuck in my head from Pinterest or FB soap making groups. I feel like on this board the difference is that the experienced soapers here seem to care about not just the quality of their own soap, but for integrity of the cottage industry of soaping as a whole.

eugh, they're using volume measurements too, thats actually dangerous

The one I keep getting aggravated about is 'lyeless soap', which isn't dangerous so much as it is annoying

My boss is a natural/organic/health enthusiast and I thought she'd think it was interesting that I've been making soap--and she was, but she said she would never make it after hearing about "the problems with lye" (I think she means the fact that you have to take safety precautions).

She said "Why don't you just make lye free soap?" I said "There is no such thing." She replied "Yes there is, I saw it on Pinterest." I told her "No lye, no soap." She said "I'll go find the information and send it to you--you can make lye free soap." I just said "OK, thanks." :roll:

 

[TVivian]

My biggest annoyance are the NUMEROUS recipes like this:

http://www.measuringflower.com/2013/08/homemade-allnatural-pumpable-lotion/

"All natural lotion" in which they make their own oat milk, add honey, and use absolutely no preservative! And then if that's not bad enough, they advise folks to store it at room temperature. YUK! It makes me cringe.

ETA: I know this is not soap insanity, but it's lotion insanity!

 

[gigisiguenza]

I'm really glad I found this site before I made my first batch or got silly ideas stuck in my head from Pinterest or FB soap making groups. I feel like on this board the difference is that the experienced soapers here seem to care about not just the quality of their own soap, but for integrity of the cottage industry of soaping as a whole.

I agree wholeheartedly Mandy.

 

[osso]

My biggest annoyance are the NUMEROUS recipes like this:

http://www.measuringflower.com/2013/08/homemade-allnatural-pumpable-lotion/

"All natural lotion" in which they make their own oat milk, add honey, and use absolutely no preservative! And then if that's not bad enough, they advise folks to store it at room temperature. YUK! It makes me cringe.

ETA: I know this is not soap insanity, but it's lotion insanity!

It also calls for the optional Young Living essential oils.

 

[reinbeau]

Nitwits abound. I couldn't leave that first Pinterest thing alone.

 

[DeeAnna]

Oh ... my peeve is the baby wipes and other baby products that don't contain preservative and are going to sit in somebody's diaper bag at room temp for who knows how long.

I cannot, cannot fathom why a parent would want to use a baby wipe contaminated with bacteria and fungi on their baby's red, irritated diaper-rashy butt. The knee jerk assumption being those nasty preservatives are far worse than the cooties the preservative kills. I guess it's the "what I can't see, can't hurt me" thing -- I can't see microbial cooties growing (until it gets really really bad!), but I can see long nasty names in the ingredients list.

If you're an adult and get some kind of nasty infection from your not-preserved lotion, that's your call. But babies and children don't have much choice in the matter.

 

[Seawolfe]

The ones that tell you how to make "Lye free soap" and in the recipe they say to "melt the glycerin" NOT "melt the glycerin melt and pour soap", they actually call glycerin melt and pour soap just "glycerin" and you use this "glycerin" to make "Lye free soap" and it makes me go freaking AAAAAAAAAAaaaaaagGGGGGGHHHHHH. Every time I see that one I try to post in the comments.

 

[Dahila]

No to talk about craziness with Essential oils, for babies, they are dangerous when not used properly, some of them can not be used at all.
Whatever product I make it is preserve and I pour this knowledge into people heads; you can not buy anything from me which is not preserved , except bar of soap)
Most people care not to have mineral oil in their creams..........
Why this post in pintrest is "Soaping 101"?
She uses the weight not the volume

 

[DeeAnna]

Or the "no lye" recipes that start with a mixture of water, washing soda (sodium carbonate) and lime. After mixing the ingredients together and letting it sit, the result IS a sodium hydroxide solution! It's exactly the same as lye solution you'd make by mixing dry NaOH and water.

I can't see where anyone can feel smug about making "no lye" soap using these ingredients. Even if you don't start with a box 'o that dangerous, nasty lye, you still end up there anyways. Maybe it's just being blissfully ignorant of what's really going on that makes it "all better". roblem:

 

[snappyllama]

Pretty much anything from the EO cults drives me bonkers. I have to force myself to give their DT/YL market booths a wide berth so I don't have to see and overhear the crazy. It's the same reason I haven't been on facebook in a looong time. If I do not witness the insanity, I don't have to respond to it.

Has anyone ever figured out why people are so afraid of preservatives? Were they reincarnated from bacteria and still hold a grudge?

 

[gigisiguenza]

I've never understood the preservative phobia. I can understand trying to avoid excess chemical exposure, both in food and skin care products. But it is naive to think that just because something is "natural", or made from ingredients you recognize, that it is going to be impervious to spoilage.

Yes we live in a chemically saturated world, and yes stepping back from reliance on so many manufactured substances is smart. The closer to nature we live, the better, sure.

But the point of making and using homemade/handmade products, whether they are ingestables or topicals, is to have better control of what chemicals we are eating/wearing - not eliminate them. People have some misguided notion that preservatives and chemicals were added to products for fun or profit, not realizing that what drove the scientific community to create the stuff in the first place was a need to make using products safer and prevent people from unknowingly ingesting spoiled food or contaminating their bodies by smearing unseen nasty bacteria and other uglies all over.

I'm sure people have no real concept of exactly how many people have died needlessly in the past from contaminated food or homemade skin care products. They simply think chemicals=bad, therefore no chemicals=good.

They wouldn't be saying that if they were in the hospital with a nasty necrotic skin infection.

 

[reinbeau]

Mommy bloggers and the Environmental Working Group are the main reasons people are so askeered of preservatives. :roll: