Commercial Soap Brands: The Hidden Truth


Is there a difference between natural soap and commercial soap?

YES! And the truth may surprise you...

The FDA openly reports that there are very few true soaps on the market. In fact, most skin cleansers marketed as soaps (both liquid and solid) are actuallylegally classified as synthetic detergent products by the FDA, which sets strict regulatory standards for products that are sold to consumers in the United States. 
 
Commercial soaps are produced in large quantities using harsh chemicals, synthetic ingredients, cheap fragrance oils, and artificial colors -- all of which can irritate your skin, cause allergic reactions, or worse.
Owned by Unilever, Dove is the most popular brand name in personal hygiene with distribution in over 80 countries around the world. While Dove advertises its products in slogans like "naturally moisturizing", there are actually very few natural ingredients to be found in their products.
 
You may notice that the word "soap" is completely absent on packaging for Dove's best-selling "White Beauty Bar", which speaks volumes about attentiveness to legal policies in product advertising (a subtitle simply reads "a beauty bar for deep moisture"). Further, a closer look at the ingredients list will reveal a synthetic mix of chemicals that may surprise you:

  • sodium cocoyl isethionate (synthetic detergent)
  • stearic acid (hardener)
  • sodium tallowate (sodium salt of cow fat)
  • water sodium isethionate (detergent/emulsifying agent)
  • coconut acid (the sodium salt of coconut oil)
  • sodium stearate (emulsifier, also used as a cheap stabilizer in plastics)
  • sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (synthetic detergent, skin irritant)
  • sodium cocoate or sodium palm kernelate (sodium salts of coconut or palm kernel oils)
  • fragrance (synthetic scent, potential allergen, common skin irritant)
  • sodium chloride (table salt used as a thickener)
  • titanium dioxide (whitener, also used in house paint)
  • and so on...

We don't intend to target Dove, but merely to shine a light on the ingredients in a typical bar of "soap" at your local store.

It could contain sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), an anionic surfactant used in laundry detergent that will dry out and irritate your skin. It may also have sodium laureth sulfate (SLES), a cheap foaming agent that can become contaminated with the suspected carcinogen, Dioxane, while being manufactured. Additionally, if the soap bar is labeled as antibacterial, it probably contains triclosan, which is classified as a pesticide by the Environmental Protection Agency.
 
But why would commercial soap companies add these undesirable chemicals to their products?

We're sad to say, but commercial companies use unnatural chemical ingredients for 2 main reasons:
 

  1. Because they're cheap (which, of course, means added profit), and...

  2. Because they provide the soaps with a very long shelf life (if companies don't lose inventory, they don't lose money.)
     
Synthetic detergents have been marketed as soaps for the better part of 80 years. During WW2, soap and cosmetic companies removed natural, beneficial ingredients from products to make production faster and cheaper — replacing natural ingredients with chemicals like sodium lauryl sulfate, parabens, and dioxin. These chemicals have been linked not only to dry skin but even depression, liver damage, and cancer. Petrochemicals, which are the chemical products obtained from refined petroleum, are also very common chemicals that can be found in commercial products. Just think about the effect that these products can have when used over the course of a lifetime!
  

So what's the alternative?
 
Natural, handmade soaps are made of ingredients only found in nature, like pure plant-based oils, natural pigments and clays, oats, honey, and goat milk. Because natural soaps do not contain artificial ingredients that are intended to affect color, consistency, or shelf life, they also won't dry skin like a chemically based soap. There is nothing synthetic that can be absorbed by the body.
 
Our line of essential soaps are real, natural products — plain and simple, no chemistry degree required.
  
All of our soaps are crafted by hand, in small batches, using coconut oil, Shea butter, olive oil, sunflower oil, RSPO certified-sustainable palm oil, as well as other base oils to provide products that are naturally moisturizing, good for your skin, and that contain vitamins that help your skin stay elastic like it's supposed to be. We use organic ingredients wherever we can, and only use natural fragrances and essential oils to achieve our scents (or with unscented soaps, just the natural scent of the products used to make the soap).
  
We hope that you'll enjoy our full line of skin care products as much as we do. And just remember — we get exposed to enough chemicals in our every day lives as it is, we don't need to literally bathe in them! :)