Slippery when wet

[Seifenblasen]

It's interesting isn't it, how much influence marketing has on the psyche of the average person?

I think the marketing companies for Dove bar (and other solid detergent bar manufacturers) purposely pray on the average person who has long forgotten what he/she learned in chemistry class. When you think about it, sodium metal (Na) ignites spontaneously when in contact with air, burns your skin, respiratory system, mucous, and explodes if you drop it in water, and chlorine (Cl) is highly toxic and corrosive. Yet when you combine the two, you create NaCl, table salt, something that we absolutely require for the human body to function properly.

While none of us want to bathe with lye or oil/fat/grease, lye and oil combine to make wonderful soap!

What makes me wonder is, when you look at the ingredient list of a cake, it will have butter, eggs, sugar, flour, etc. You will not find a lump of butter, or an egg in your cake, but they list what it is made with. For soap, and probably because of American's aversion to lye, they list what it is instead of what it is made with.

As I said in some other posts, I eat lye on a regular basis! :twisted:

 

[Lindy]

By using "Sodium Tallowate" you are actually stating what the completed form of the oil/fat is after going through saponification which is what is in the finished product. Lye is not in the finished product, unless it's lye heavy, and therefore does not have to be listed when you are using the INCI terms for soap.

I make a fair amount of products that are made with Tallow and I am finding that there is truly a movement back to using the whole animal that was not evident before. Of course I make vegetarian friendly soaps, but since I use silk in all of my soaps they're not a true vegan friendly soap.

Marketing is what will create you and if you had the marketing budget you would be able to convince people that the burn of a lye heavy soap was a beauty treatment feature....

Just on a side note - Stearic Acid when used in soap is usually vegetable based....

 

[ClaraSuds]

I make a fair amount of products that are made with Tallow and I am finding that there is truly a movement back to using the whole animal that was not evident before.

Waste not want not is becoming a new mantra as the bubble has burst and people everywhere are finding the money isn't always flowing unendingly and there may not be another paycheck. I found myself quite confused the other day. I went to do my weekly shopping, except when I got to the supermarket I realised I didn't actually need anything. There was still food in my fridge, my essentials were okay and I no longer felt the need to stockpile a supply of stuff. I walked out empty handed and went and enjoyed my weekend in the park.

All of us are conditioned to work a job, get money then give money to someone else. When I don't visit shops on my days off, my bank account accumulates lots of money. How about that... Self sufficiency hobbies like soaping are great. When I have to plan a soap batch, spend time weighing, measuring and then cleaning up after it. I have a newfound respect for that product. It's had a knock-on effect with other aspects of my life. Suddenly I'm not taking out the garbage so often because I'm buying less that's packaged and I'm buying what I need and enjoy. Not a heap of stuff that clogs up my cupboards until I finally throw it away.

Sorry - bit off topic.

 

[DragonQueenHHP]

my oldest is a little bit of a "snot bot" she will not use any of my bar soaps (she won't eat the eggs my chickens lay either you know because the chickens layed them ) she will use my LS and she is in love with the face washes that I blend out of my Castile Soap it did take her little brother telling her how much he loved it to get her to try it, she told me yesterday she wanted to try a salt bar maybe LOL

 

[Kersten]

I think the marketing companies for Dove bar (and other solid detergent bar manufacturers) purposely pray on the average person who has long forgotten what he/she learned in chemistry class. When you think about it, sodium metal (Na) ignites spontaneously when in contact with air, burns your skin, respiratory system, mucous, and explodes if you drop it in water, and chlorine (Cl) is highly toxic and corrosive. Yet when you combine the two, you create NaCl, table salt, something that we absolutely require for the human body to function properly.

While none of us want to bathe with lye or oil/fat/grease, lye and oil combine to make wonderful soap!

What makes me wonder is, when you look at the ingredient list of a cake, it will have butter, eggs, sugar, flour, etc. You will not find a lump of butter, or an egg in your cake, but they list what it is made with. For soap, and probably because of American's aversion to lye, they list what it is instead of what it is made with.

As I said in some other posts, I eat lye on a regular basis! :twisted:

When I run across someone with an adversion to lye, in my explination
to them about the oil/lye reaction in soap, I also like to throw in that traditional German pretzels are dipped in lye solution to create that nummy golden crust when baked. It helps drive home the point that when used approperatly in certain applications, lye is perfectly safe ;-) I might need to make some pretzels tomorrow!

 

[TeriDk]

Find new friends...can't do much about the family:razz: Kidding of course. I get what you are saying about introducing folks to natural soaps. I moved to a place where most are clueless so the question is how best to teach the virtue of natural, handmade soap vs the commercial fakes. Hard water here (aptly named Rock Springs). I gave samples to a lot of folks and the little feedback I have got has been good to date. Patience probably comes into play.