What, exactly, is "soap"?

If you mean the regular “soap” you buy in the store, then it is a bar of detergent consisting of some or all of the following:

· parabens (methyl, propyl, butyl, ethyl), synthetic fragrance, synthetic colorants (labelled as FD&C or D&C), petroleum derived ingredients (petroleum, mineral oil, Vaseline), sodium lauryl sulphate, sodium laureth sulphate, formaldehyde, aluminum, toluene, phthalates, polyethylene glycol compounds, and synthetic alpha hydroxy acids.

The fact that “soap” in the store is actually detergent is made clear by the Food and Drug Administration. If you want all the gory details, read “All that Lathers is not Soap” on the FDA site: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/cos-215.html

Old-fashioned or home-made soap consists of oils and animal fats that have reacted chemically with lye so that they are “saponified” to become something that is neither fat nor lye. . . . but soap!Soap is not found in nature, but neither is wine, glass, bread, and other stuff humans create. When a fatty acid meets a strong alkali (e.g., lye), the alkali splits the fat molecules into fatty acids and glycerin. After that, the sodium or potassium part of the alkali joins with the fatty acid part of the fat. This newly combined substance is “soap.”

If you want a thoroughly nerdy explanation offered by a chemical engineer, go to http://www.waltonfeed.com/old/old/soap/soapchem.html .What, exactly, is in Black Crow soap?As you might guess from reading above, the list of what is not in our soap is far longer than what is in it.The simplest soap recipe we use is as follows:2 pounds of lamb tallow or well-rendered beef fat1 pound of coconut oil1 pound 10 ounces of safflower oil~8 ounces of lye~23 ounces of distilled water

That’s it.

Of course, we rarely do simple. We use specialty oils, such as grapeseed, olive, tea tree, neem, jojoba, and other oils to make soap that is particularly emollient for the skin.

We also add natural cosmetic-grade oxides for color and cosmetic-grade essential oils (purchased mostly through www.wellingtonfragrance.com if you are curious).

We are also learning how to include natural antioxidants, such as rosemary and vitamin E, so we can keep those brown spots from appearing if the soap sits around unused for days.Commercial soap—even the “organic” stuff—has preservatives added to it in order to keep the lawyers at bay. Since we are not chemical engineers, we want to stick with ingredients we could eat.Why use this home-made stuff instead of good old lifeboy?

The answer we came up with is “because we know what is in it, and it makes our skin feel better.”You can read many research articles on the topic and will learn that commercial detergent cleanser (i.e., “soap”) strip the skin’s natural pH balance and typically kill off the harmless bacteria on our skin that is there for a reason. . . . Again, we are not doctors or chemists, so all we can do is repeat what we’ve learned and stick to ingredients we could eat.What about that pure-looking glycerin soap sold in the stores?Glycerin is also precious soap ingredient, and when we make a batch that forms droplets of glycerin on the top, we know we have a great recipe on our hands.Alas, the clear “glycerin soaps” on the market are not made from pure glycerin. Those bars are just ordinary detergent soap mixed with other ingredients, such as alcohol and sugar, to make it translucent.

While we could eat both sugar and alcohol, we elect not to use either in our soap.Is it easy to make soap?Yes—and fun. But you have really got to find it relaxing and engaging to make it worthwhile because there is a LOT to learn and a fair amount of equipment to assemble.Making soap can also take over your kitchen and living room pretty readily!

Rather than give a slew of URL references, we suggest doing an online search for soap making techniques. You probably want to look for “cold process” techniques. You definitely do not want to be fooled into thinking you are making soap by melting and pouring into molds so-called “melt-and-pour” soap.

“Hot process” techniques simply refer to cooking the soap longer. It’s not particularly hard once you get it right, but, overall, we find that the cold-process technique results in a better product.