The following is a list of ingredients in a bar of Pure and Natural bath bar :SOAP(SODIUM COCOATE,SODIUM PALM KERNELATE, SODIUM PALMATE, SODIUM TALLOWATE), WATER, GLYCERIN,SORBITOL, SODIUM CHLORIDE, FRAGRANCE, PENTASODIUM PENTETATE, TETRA-SODIUM ETIORONATE, TITANIUM DIOXIDE. Looks kind of scary, huh?
The following is a list of ingredients contained in my 19th Century Soap: WATER, TALLOW,OLIVE OIL, LARD, SODIUM HYDROXIDE. Hmmmm-- What does that tell you?
Sodium Hydroxide is commonly known as lye, and how is lye made? Lye is made by dripping water through wood ashes, or at least that is how it was done 60 years ago by my mother when she made soap at home on the farm. Now lye is called sodium hydroxide and comes in the mail and is dry and very white. You also have to sign a release stating that you will not use it to make illegal drugs! So, I would say it is probably a fairly natural item.
Back in the good old days mom would save all the old grease, strain it through cheese cloth and make her lye which she poured into this old black grease and voila, soap. Course it was a little yellow and sometimes would be setting up on the way to the box it was molded in and the hammer handle would get stuck because it set up to quick.
Way back in ancient times, when tribes or groups of people lived along the river, it was a different story. While the women washed the clothes in the river they also roasted meat over an open fire. They soon discovered that the clothes washed closest to the fire were whiter! You may ask why. Very simple. Fat meat dropped grease into the fire, and when water hit this there was instant saponification, which means, they made little balls of soap which drifted down to the river! Isn't that marvelous!
So, today, when they make soap (which, if you notice, is called a beauty bar, a deodorant bar, or a bath bar, but not a bar of soap) the companies need to make a profit, so they put fillers into the product. These fillers are usually some kind of petoleum by product. Now you would not go rub motor oil on yourself out in the yard, so why do you want to do it in the bath tub?
Soap, real soap, makes pretty little white bubbles when you lather up and actually cleans your skin and leaves your pores open and able to breathe, thus eliminating a lot of dry skin problems. Can you breathe with your nose plugged up? Neither can your skin! So give some thought to your basic, daily routine and help keep our earth green!
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