The Truth About All Natural Soap

You might be wondering if I'm going to blow the lid off of some deep, dark secret that soap makers have been hiding as they push their "all natural soaps" on us. But I'm not. What this is really about is the truth about products that are NOT all natural soaps, since the all natural soap makers are giving them a bad rap!

Soap has been around, well, forever as far as we're concerned. And that is one of the selling points of soap sellers. Soap is promoted as having a long history of safe and effective use, it is "natural", etc. so it MUST be better than the other stuff developed during World War I. Right? Perhaps. Before I continue, let's see exactly what soap is, and the alternative of soap.

By definition, a surfactant that's not a soap is a detergent. You either wash your clothes with soap, or detergent. You either clean your body with a soap, or, well, we'll call it a "soap-free cleanser." If you like science, you will appreciate learning about soap and detergent. Unless you have read extensively on "all natural" sites, you probably don't even notice much difference between soap and soap-free cleansers. If you listen to all natural soap makers, you will believe:

• Soap is better for you because it's been around longer

• All soap-free cleansers use horrible chemicals that are taking years off of your life

• Soap-free cleansers are harsher and more irritating to your skin

• Other cleansers are made of dangerous chemicals that will burn your skin

These are some of the things I've read on various sites touting all natural soap. I agree that there is a HUGE difference in natural soaps and those made by large manufacturing plants that use animal byproducts like tallow and all sorts of chemicals and fragrances. So we are all on the same page, let's examine our options:

1. Bar soap

2. Liquid soap

3. All natural bar soap

4. All natural liquid soap

5. Soap-free cleansers

1 and 2 are typical, grab off the store shelf soaps that we can all agree have pretty bad ingredients. I'm not going to elaborate on this. I personally don't use anything from "the shelf." Numbers 3 and 4 are items that you can often buy at health food stores and on-line stores, many of which are made in homes or small local factories. For the most part, they are safe, which I will discuss in detail in a minute. Number 5 is a mystery to many. These are the "dangerous, synthetic detergent, oil stripping cleansers" that you read about and run from. This is the ironic part.

Soap is More Drying than Soap-free Products

If you site jump from one natural soap site to another, you will get the idea that there is a fine line and a delicate balance between soap that is drying and soap that is moisturizing. That is the never ending battle for soap makers: to find the balance that will clean your skin, without drying it out, and leaving it feeling moisturized.

Soap-free cleansers are promoted as being better for sensitive skin, less harsh, less drying, better for skin, etc. And I have experienced this to be the case. Let me go back up to my list of complaints about "other" products by natural soap manufacturers or retailers.

• Saying that something is better for you because it's been around longer, or it's always been done that way...well, that just doesn't make sense! Polluted lake water has been around MUCH longer than filtered water, and you don't see people drinking out of the lake everyday, do you?

• Not all soap-free cleansers use dangerous chemicals. You do need to be careful and vigilant about what you buy, but once you find one with ingredients that you feel good about, you might find that it works better than soap.

• As I've already stated, soap-free cleansers are notorious for being gentler on the skin. This is because many soap makers have not found the proper balance.

• One of the ingredients we are told by soap makers to run from is sodium laurel sulfate, which is found in many bath and body products. We are told it is the same ingredients found in garage floor cleaners and engine degreasers! Gasp! You know, I use baking soda to clean my car battery...should I stop using baking soda to clean my home?! I've read how dangerous it is to handle this chemical in its pure strength, and of course "all natural sites" love telling you this. But they don't tell you the same thing about lye, which is used to make "all natural" soap! Admittedly, some soap makers simply remill soap, so they don't have to go through the whole lye process. But their defense is that lye is no longer present once the chemical transformation takes place, resulting in soap.

The Ugly Truth About Soap

I never thought about this before, until I read it in Bea Kinnear's book, Your Skin and You- Separating Truth from Hype. Soap clogs pores. There is a reason why almost all facial cleansers are NOT soaps. Soap also does not work well in hard water, as shown in the link above. While I had learned these about a year ago, I actually learned this myself in a real life accidental experiment.

We recently moved from Georgia to Kansas. Our home in Kansas has very hard water. I didn't realize this, and quietly wondered why our house had a water softener. Then our softener ran out of salt and I quickly learned why! I have never experienced hard water, and this HAS to be the worst out there. It is UNBELIEVABLE! Anyway, I had recently purchased some Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soaps for making cleaning products and washing our hands. When I washed my hands in the hard water, it felt horrible. It almost felt sticky, because the soap was reacting with the minerals in the water. I can't imagine someone using soap who also has hard water.

More importantly, I experienced the "clogging" of soap. In the past, we have thought of our skin as a simple barrier to the outside world. We now know it as a permeable layer of protection that can let things in, and let things out. Since our pores are so tiny, we hardly ever give it much thought. But soap, liquid or bar soap- clogs pores. I used two different soaps at the sink. One was Dr. Bronner's liquid soap, and the other was a baby wash made with liquid soap. I put the Dr. Bronner's in a little bottle that had formerly held one of my skin care products. These bottles never clog. The other soap was in the original bottle, a flip top bottle that you squeeze. Both soaps clogged up in these bottles. This was affirmation to me of what I had previously read in Bea's book. Wow, she was right! Imagine this stuff going into all of my tiny little pores, and preventing my skin from working the way it should. Especially if you have hard water, soap is very destructive because it will leave a REALLY bad film on your skin, not to mention your bath or shower stall.

So while all natural soap may not have harsh chemicals, just because it's all natural it doesn't mean it's better or superior to soap-free cleansers. I personally use a soap-free shower gel over soap, simply because it's awesome. I have no vendetta against soap makers, because I realize that they are just trying to sell their wares. There are some great soaps out there, but don't choose them over other alternatives just because they are all natural. If that's what makes the world go 'round, maybe I should start bottling up some of that lake water!