What Is Soap?

The questions that we are usually asked are:

"What is the difference between Handmade Soap and what I buy at the grocery store?"

"Just what is soap anyway?"

"Do you have to have lye to make soap?"

"What's that thing called on the back of my sink that you pull up to stop up the water?"

We hope that we can answer your thought provoking questions.

Although there are many stories about how soap may have come about, we do know that it's been around for a long time.   Since the earliest records of soapmaking the technology has undoubtedly advanced.

Soap was generally known to be made from animal fats, such as lard or tallow, and the water leached from wood ash also known as lye. That's until a French chemist by the name of Nicolas Leblanc (1742-1806), a few years before the French Revolution, made a significant discovery! He discovered a consistent method for producing soda from Glauber's salt, sodium sulfate, made from common salt and sulphic acid and calcinated limestone and coal. Even though Leblanc's process was pretty much correct, it still had some nasty side effects.  It left behind some toxic byproducts that were indisposable.

Then along comes Ernest Solvay, a Belgian chemist (1836-1922). He started with Leblanc's method, but developed a process where sodium hydroxide, caustic soda, is extracted by hydrolysis from water and salt
(seawater) which utilized all the byproducts of the chemical reaction. His invention, Soda Solvay, was industrially trademarked and is what we use in modern soap production today!  It's very rare that modern soap makers are making their own wood ash lye in their backyards thanks to Leblanc & Solvay!  

And yes, you must have lye to make soap!  Every type of soap including melt & pour at one time or another had lye in it.
No lye? No soap. No lie.

Soap is the sodium or potassium salt of a fatty acid!
Got it? No, really. It's quite simple!
When we make our handmade soaps we take our fatty acids which are our fats and oils such as wonderful Coconut Oils, Olive Oils, Shea Butter, among many others and mix these with an alkali which is our lye.  By carefully using our calculations we mix our oils and lye together in perfect harmony which together creates a chemical reation called saponifciation!
Saponification is what happens when a fatty acid meets an alkali. The alkali first splits the fats or oils into their two major parts, fatty acids and glycerin. After this splitting of the fats or oils, the sodium part of the alkali joins with the fatty acid part of the fat or oils. This combination is then the sodium salt of the fatty acid.

Wait, let me make it simpler. Each molecule of oil attaches itself to a molecule of lye until each molecule has a partner.  We like to have a few extra molecules of oil floating around which is what keeps our soaps feeling so luxurious!  Once each of the molecules have joined with each other in their unique dance, they have created something special or what we call, lye free SOAP!

When soap is made, there is a natural byproduct formed called glycerin. Back during World War II, commercial soap companies found that by extracting the natural glycerin, they were able to use this substance to make nitroglycerin. It was useful during the war. They also found other household uses for it as well. Because glycerin is a natural humectant, meaning that it draws moisture to the skin, the commerical soap companies had to somehow create a replacement for the missing glycerin. They did this by adding chemicals to their process. Because they could use chemicals instead of natural ingredients, the commcercial companies could mass produce these detergent bars at lower prices, which at the time, was helpful to the consumers.

Jump forward some decades and consumers have now realized that commercial soap may not be all that great for the skin!   People started getting dryer, itchier and flakier skin. Some people decided that they could do something about it! They made their own soaps, just like their ancestors did and lo and behold, their skin seemed to be healthier, softer, younger looking! There are more and more people making their own soaps today.  We have decided that there is something better for our skin and bodies.  Have you read the label of a commercial soap bar lately?   Usually, the first ingredient is Sodium Tallowate which is Tallow or Beef Fat. Ours is Olive Oil. The next ingredients are usually ones you can't understand or need a chemistry dictionary to figure out, such as; Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate? Cocamidopropyl Betaine? Tetrasodium EDTA?  You won't find anything like that on our labels!  We don't need to put any additional surfactants or detergents in our soaps to make them lather more or to moisturize better. The oils are naturally present!

Yes, handmade soaps can be a little pricier than what you purchase in bulk at the grocery store.  If you consider what goes into our Handmade Soaps and Bath Products, you will realize that you are getting all natural ingredients, made by hand, with the utmost personal care and not mass produced!   The old saying goes "You get what you pay for" and at
After The Rayne, you know you are getting the best of the best!

We hope you will enjoy browsing around our sight as much as we delight in making all of our incredible items for you!

Oh, yes, and the answer to the last question....it is called the stem!!

Nikie Brown
Savonier Extraordinaire!