How Both Soaps are made

The general populace of homo sapiens that inhabit the planet do not look at ingredients on labels. they would have an apoplectic fit if they did.

some do look, but when confronted with a long list of Latin names that a lawyer, botanist, scientist and few others would understand, they have neither the time or energy to google each one.

Latin does have the benefit of no error of classification, but the fact that very few understand the lingo, means that it’s also not sufficiently transparent.

Do yourselves a favour and just do it twice for simple things like commercial bacon and supermarket mass produced yoghurt.

Circa 2000BC: Mustapha accidently invented yoghurt after discovering that the camel milk he’d lugged halfway across the Sinai desert in an animal skin seemed to have turned peculiar, but tasted delicious. He’d have had little insight back then, that it was a lactic acid bacteria caused by the skin sack and milk in tandem and aided by the heat of the desert.  who knew it would become a chemical shitstorm filled with starch for thickness instead.

all of my labels are in plain english

we wonder why we have skin problems, allergies, cancer.

it is an interesting fact that among people like the quakers and traditional rural people not exposed to commercialism, those who live off the land without chemical fertilisers, chemical additives, excess sugar, and clean fresh water; that cancer and many western diseases virtually do not occur.

Onto The Main Topic

Understanding Soap and the Difference Between Commercial and Natural Soap

Every bar of soap in the world is made with an acid (fat), water and an alkali (lye). The fat can be animal fat or plant based such as olive oil. The alkali used is sodium hydroxide (lye) for solid soap and potassium hydroxide (KOH) for liquid soaps and body washes.

How Handcrafted Soap Is Made

When you mix oil with lye this will create a process called saponification. It takes 24-48 hours for the saponification process to be finished. Natural soaps need to cure to harden. It will generally take cold processed natural soap about 4 weeks for the soap to be hard enough to use, but this can vary. A pure, gentle olive oil soap, probably one of the most famous soaps around the world called Castile, can cure for up to 1 year.

When properly made there will be no remaining lye in the finished product.  Each bar will produce and retain approximately 10% natural glycerine.

A natural handcrafted soap is like a fine wine, it improves with age.

Oils and botanicals are normally of a high standard.

At Africa’Zone I use a variety of top-quality oils as each oil adds different skin benefits and also properties to the soap. Coconut oil for instance gives luxurious, rich bubbles of lather, however without Castor oil, the lather isn’t stable. I use both in all my soaps so that the lather is creamy and decadent. Raw, organic unrefined Shea butter from Ghana features in a great many of my soaps, which is a fabulous anti-inflammatory and moisturiser. I only use Extra Virgin Olive oil, which produces the gentlest soap for sensitive skin and babies. There are many other oils I use in the soaps, some range up to R700 per Kg. I don’t use sunflower or canola oil ever. It adds a nice feel, but as I don’t eat it, (or very little….when I can’t resist slap chips) so if not good enough for inside my body, why would I put it into my soaps and apply to my largest organ, being my skin. A maximum guideline is that skin absorbs into your body, 60% to 70% of what is put onto it. Clearly a skin cream and a wash off product like soap will vary vastly. Other factors, will also come into play. Why put any crap onto it?

You will be gathering by now, that I’m really very picky about the quality of ingredients I use.

WHICH environment WOULD YOU consider healthy and beneficial TO SPEND YOUR TIME IN?

SHOULD YOU CHOOSE NATURE, WHY ARE YOU CHOOSING TO PUT PETROCHEMICAL PLANT BYPRODUCTS ON YOUR SKIN?…………and yet the vast majority are

Did you know most commercial soap is not soap at all, even a very well known white oval bar is pretty much a detergent not a soap.

1) They are largely made with animal fats and lye, which is great. Animal fats are extremely nourishing on human skin. It is also using a by-product of abattoir slaughter. In my opinion, if a creature has to die, then use all of it without wastage.

2) The glycerine is then removed and sold to cosmetics industries.

3) Synthetic chemicals are then added such as synthetic lathering and sequestering agents, fragrance, and dyes.  Next the detergent will go through a vacuumed drying process then milled in stages with added synthetic lubricants and then pressed into its final shape.

Retained glycerine is one of the main reasons natural cold processed soaps are so kind to your skin. Africa’Zone soap is extra skin loving and ph balanced because we also ”superfat” every bar with additional botanical oils.

Synthetic fragrance is most often the #1 dermal irritant in detergent bars. Even unscented bars often contain a masking fragrance. It is better to buy a bar that is ”fragrance free” or one with essential oils if you are irritated by fragrance.

The issue I have with most fragrances is that they contain phthalates. Phthalates are used in a variety of cosmetics, personal care products and food products.

Phthalates are chemical compounds developed in the last century that are used to make plastics more durable. These colourless, odourless, oily liquids also referred to as “plasticisers” based on their most common uses. — plus, they’re released into the environment. Diet is believed to be the main source of phthalate toxicity, because fatty foods such as milk, butter and meats are commonly packaged or stored in plastics containing this dangerous toxin.

Africa’Zone uses mainly certified essential oils and imported phthalate free fragrances.

 What is the difference between synthetic store-bought soap and natural cold processed soap?

In general terms you can liken it to the difference between nylon and cotton. Cotton grows naturally, nylon is made from chemicals in a factory.  Synthetic detergent soap (commercial store soap) is made from Petro chemicals. Natural soap is biodegradable. Natural Soap is safe for our earth and does not pollute rivers.  Most detergent soap is made from animal fat (tallow) along with petroleum- based chemicals that are not biodegradable and do pollute our water. We are now finding that the synthetic chemicals can build up in our bodies. Minimising detergent use reduces the chemical load on you and the environment. Does it seem like a good idea to bath in a product that actually pollutes our water?

  Both detergent soap and natural soap is made with lye. In natural soap the fats are hydrolysed by the lye yielding natural soap and glycerine. Detergent soap retains no glycerine and is extracted because it would make the soap too soft so you are left with only the detergent. 

Enjoy your Africa’Zone soap.