Before we can talk about the ingredients in our soaps, we need to understand what soap is. Remember chemistry? Ugh, you say? Trust me, if I could have learned chemistry by making soap, it would have been a fun class! Soap is a salt. When sodium hydroxide (lye) combines with fatty acids through a process called saponification, a salt (the soap) is produced along with glycerin and a small percentage of unsaponifiables. Some of what we buy at the store and we think is soap is not really soap but rather detergent bars. They are not made of fatty acids and sodium hydroxide but with detergents. Next time, check the label. Only real soap can be labeled soap. Detergent bars...
I am obsessed with soap. I think other soapers on the forums say they are addicts. It does seem like that's what I am. I think about it, read about it, talk about it, and now I'm writing about it. I do want to make sure that this "good thing" doesn't take the place of Jesus. I'm afraid that at the moment it may be. I'm hoping that documenting a little of my journey will get some of it out of my system. I'm also hoping that it will encourage those of you who are afraid to start, who think they will make too many mistakes, to get soaping. I will be honest about my mistakes so you can see...
Showers and baths were always sort of dull routines as far as I was concerned. Wash hair, wash body, shave--all it meant was that once I got out I would possibly be cold (if it was winter) and I would still have to go through the process of drying and fixing my hair, putting on makeup, continuing a routine that was boring. Bubble baths didn't help much. I'm a reader and that would have been nice in the tub if I could have kept my book from getting soapy or wet but I wasn't very successful at that. So, sitting in the water while it got lukewarm and trying to look like the relaxed women in all the movies just...
