There are a ton of different soaps on store shelves, both liquid and solid. What do they have in common and how do they differ?
Both liquid and bar soaps are chemically defined as salts of fatty acids, which, very simply put, foam when in contact with water. Liquid soaps are potassium salts of fatty acids, and bar soaps are sodium salts of fatty acids. Liquid and bar soaps are made by the same process, which is called saponification (combining fat and lye).
A few decades ago, we knew only hard soaps in our homes, which housewives had not only for washing their bodies, but also for washing their clothes. They were made from pork fat and lye, which was most often obtained from ashes. These were ingredients that used to be in every house.
Times have changed and because of going to work, there was no more time to make your own products at home. Hard soaps appeared on store shelves and they were cheap. As the pharmaceutical industry has advanced technologically in the last 30 years, new products have arrived on the shelves, including liquid soaps. These were easier to make and, due to the feeling of a larger bottle, also seemed cheaper for the buyer. Thus, the soap bars that we had on every sink slowly disappeared from our bathrooms, and the amount of plastic packaging began to increase sharply.
Nowadays, bar soaps have resurfaced and are gaining popularity. Many people want them back in their hygiene products, and some have never stopped using them completely.
The advantages of natural bar soaps come from the way the soap is prepared: the saponification process is very mild in the preparation of bar soaps, the temperature does not exceed 45°C, which preserves the naturally occurring ingredients in butters and oils (such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, sterols, tocopherols, antioxidants, etc.). Bar soaps must then mature slowly over 4 to 6 weeks, which means that the saponification process is completed evenly throughout the soap.
So, if you have a choice, choose a natural bar soap for washing your body, because there is NO comparison in quality with synthetic industrial soaps! At the same time, by reducing the use of plastic packaging, you will also contribute to the better health of our planet!