Soap

          In our daily life, besides food and water, we have to bath, wash and clean ourselves.

          What do you use for these activities? The answer is SOAP! Soap, or body shampoo is so important that we use it at least once a day. It ensures cleanliness and personal hygiene being taken care of. Maintaining personal hygiene in a survival situation is much more important than just a mental or emotional boost. Humans, for instance spend most of their time outdoors and for sure, one come across many elements that we can visually see namely animals, plants, soils, and many many more and its hard to list everything out so these are the few examples. Without realising, there are unseen foes attacking us too – the bacteria, dirts and many more. Keeping your body clean helps to fight off and avoid diseases and infections that are easily spread through the air and can be serious enough to kill ones life, in a dangerous survival situation!

          And again, soap of course, is the key to that battle.

          For children, soap is just another thing for them to play with because it produces bubbles when you rub on it.

          In this modernisation era, soap undergoes lots of improvements. We have a variety of choices of soaps. Like other products, soaps have different functions too. Over the years, the product itself has been categorized into several types, depending upon the usage that it is meant for. For now, let’s just see this few examples of different types, brands and functions for the product we are doing before we proceed to the explanation part:

          Soap is useful not only to clean our body, but also dishes and clothes. In short, soaps are useful to:

• Remove dirts and germs in our body
• Whitening
• Provide protection for kids
• Wash dishes
• Ensure the clothes are clean

          Most soaps mentioned above are already being introduced earlier. Some might wonder why there is kitchen and laundry soaps. Yes, these soaps exist, and we are unaware about it.

          There are two types of  kitchen soaps: cleanser and detergent. Cleanser are often made with mild abrasives and are formulated mainly to eliminate heavy oils or solid particles and hard-to-remove stains. Detergents, in this case dish detergents are made to remove tough grease and release the solid dirt particles in the foam that is produced by the detergents.

          Next, for laundry soap, just like its name, it is used to remove dirts, grease, solid particles and organic compounds found on clothes. They can be found in liquid, powder and also gel form.
Cleaning soaps have different formulation to clean grease and oil. The major difference between cleanser and cleaning soap is that cleaning soap does not contain harsh abrasives and is suitable for skin.

          Personal soap is a kind of soap that is made in many forms and special formulations for specific personal hygiene needs. The most common personal soap is the antibacterial soap that is made to prevent bacteria and viruses from spreading.

          Novelty soaps are specially formulated for kids. This includes the soaps in various shapes of various items. They are made not only to clean dirt, but also for amusement and joy as well.

          Perfume soaps are produced by adding a few additional ingredients and perfumes in it. This is formulated for those who wants to smell good without applying any perfumes.

          Guest soap are made specially in many attractive shapes and to be used by guests in hotel bathroom. The most popular shape used are flowers, seashells, or just a normal round-shaped soap and I am pretty sure you have come across one of this!

          Beauty soaps are produced to feature attractive fragrances, for different types of skins. They can feature glycerin or specially oil blends.

          Meditated soaps are quite similar with the original soaps but they are not the same. Meditated soaps has the addition of antiseptic and disinfection. This includes the soaps for those people with sensitive skins who often experience redness and itchiness and can never use soaps that are perfumed.
As it turns out, making soap is not as difficult as you think. But now, you know soap is made of a compound of natural oils or fats with sodium hydroxide or another strong alkali, and typically having perfume and colouring added in them to make them smell good.

          In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid. Soap is substances that, when dissolved in water, possess the ability to remove dirt from surfaces such as the human skin, textiles, and other solids. For sure there have some chemical inside it so that it can to do so.

          The chemical reaction to produce soap is called "saponification". It is a process by which triglycerides are reacted with sodium or potassium hydroxide to produce glycerol and a fatty acid salt, called 'soap'.  When sodium hydroxide is used, a hard soap is produced. Using potassium hydroxide results in a soft soap.

1. Water

Keeps the soap from becoming too brittle.

2. Hydrogenated tallow acid, coconut acid, and glycerin 

• Serve as skin conditioners
• Keep the skin from becoming too dry after the soap is washed away.
• The composition of the fragrance is unspecified. It could be a mixture of many different chemicals. 

3. Sodium chloride (ordinary table salt)

Remains in the product after salt is added to precipitate the soap after saponification.

4. Pentasodium pentetate (chelating agent)

• Normally used in cosmetics and beauty products
• Prevents minerals such as calcium and magnesium in hard water from binding to the soap and affecting the foaming and cleaning performance.

5. Pentaerythrityl tetra-di-t-butyl hydroxyhydrocinnamate (antioxidant) 

Inhibits reactions promoted by oxygen that could cause the unsaturated fats in the soap to become rancid.

6. Titanium dioxide 

Gives a lighter colour to the soap and modify the colour obtained from the use of the green dyes (D&C green No. 8, FD&C Green No. 3).

Nowadays, many people also try to make soap by themselves. It will be a Handmade All Natural Soap For Face & Body. Now you also can have a try!

          The one thing in homemade soap you can’t substitute is lye. You should always use 100% sodium hydroxide, or lye in crystal form. Don’t substitute liquid lye or drain cleaners. These may cause inaccurate measurements or have bits of metal in them.

          Lye is caustic. Always be extra careful when using lye. Use gloves and eye protection and a mask if can. lye will heat up and fume for about 30 seconds to a minute When you mix with water. It may cause a choking sensation in your throat. Don’t worry, it will go away after a few minutes. Always add lye to water (not water to lye), and start stirring right away. If allowed to clump on the bottom, it could heat up all at once and cause an explosion.

           Even though lye is caustic and dangerous to work with, after it reacts with the oils in your soap (through a process called saponification), no lye will remain in your finished soap.

Ingredients:

• ⅔ cup coconut oil – to produce good lather 
• ⅔ cup olive oil – which makes a hard and mild bar 
• ⅔ cup other liquid oil – like almond oil, grapeseed, sunflower of safflower oil 
• ¼ cup lye – also called 100% sodium hydroxide 
• ¾ cup cool water – use distilled or purified 

Methods:

Step 1:

Cover your work area with newspaper. Put your gloves and other protective wear on. Measure your water into the quart canning jar. Have a spoon ready. Measure your lye, making sure you have exactly ¼ cup. Slowly pour the lye into the water, stirring as you go. Stand back while you stir to avoid the fumes. When the water starts to clear, you can allow it to sit while you move to the next step.

Step 2:

In the pint jar, add your three oils together. They should just make a pint. Heat in a microwave for about a minute, or place the jar of oils in a pan of water to heat. Check the temperature of your oils – it should be about 120° or so. Your lye should have come down by then to about 120°. Wait for both to cool somewhere between 95° and 105°. This is critical for soap making. Too low and it’ll come together quickly, but be coarse and crumbly.

Step 3:

When both the lye and oils are at the right temperature, pour the oils into a mixing bowl. Slowly add the lye, stirring until it’s all mixed. Stir by hand for a full 5 minutes. It’s very important to get as much of the lye in contact with as much of the soap as possible. After about 5 minutes, you can keep stirring or you can use an immersion blender The soap mixture will lighten in color and become thick. When it looks like vanilla pudding it’s at “trace” and you’re good to go. 

Step 4:

Add your herbs, essential oils or other additions at this point. Stir thoroughly to combine. Pour the mixture into mold(s) and cover with plastic wrap. Set in an old towel and wrap it up. This will keep the residual heat in and start the saponification process. Saponification is the process of the base ingredients becoming soap.

Step 5:

After 24 hours, check your soap. If it’s still warm or soft, allow it to sit another 12-24 hours. When it’s cold and firm, turn it out onto a piece of parchment paper or baking rack. If using a loaf pan as your mold, cut into bars at this point. Allow soap to cure for 4 weeks or so. Be sure to turn it over once a week to expose all the sides to air (which is not necessary if using a baking rack). For a DIY soap drying rack, I took an old potato chip rack and slid cardboard fabric bolts (from a fabric store) through the rungs.

Step 6:

When your soap is fully cured, wrap it in wax paper or keep it in an airtight container. Hand made soap creates its own glycerin, which is a humectant, pulling moisture from the air. It should be wrapped to keep it from attracting dust and debris with the moisture.

Cleaning up
You can neutralize the lye with white vinegar, then wash the equipment well as you normally would. For the rest of it, let it sit for several days. Why? Because when you first make soap, it’s all fat and lye. You’ll be washing forever and you could burn your hands on the residual lye. If you wait, it becomes soap and all it takes to clean it is a soak in hot water.