WHAT IS CAUSTIC SODA AND WHY IS IT USED IN THE CREATION OF NATURAL SOAPS?
Welcome back to our blog, we are delighted to see you here and we know exactly what you are looking for, not because we read your mind, but because surely you have already read our instagram post about caustic soda and want to know more about it. Well you're in the right place. Here we can explain everything to you in detail, so that you can be more aware of what soda is, how it works, what it is for and why it is safe to use in natural and organic soaps.
What is the origin of soap? It is said that soap was discovered in ancient Greece by women who washed their clothes in the Tiber River, at the foot of Mount Sapo, because they saw that their clothes were much cleaner when they washed them in those waters. The reason was that on that mountain animals were incinerated in the bonfires and the animal fat together with the ashes that were generated were washed away by the rain until they reached the river and right there a chemical effect called saponification was produced; the mixture of animal fat, ashes and water gave rise to soap. This is the reason why the clothes of those women came out much cleaner and whiter.
Thanks to this curious discovery, we know that for soap to be produced, a chemical process called saponification must be created, which is only achieved by mixing three ingredients: • An acid (animal fat) • Base or alkaline solution (ashes) • Aqueous medium (water ) In the 7th century, the Spanish and Italians wanted to carry out this process and began to use goat fat and beech tree ash to create their own soap that was later marketed and the Americans began to produce caustic soda dripping rainwater through a barrel filled with hardwood ashes which they then boiled and mixed with whatever animal fats were available at the time.
This is how what they would call "Grandma's soap" was created. Already in the 18th century this procedure stopped being used since in France they discovered a method to extract soda from common salt and in the city of Marseille the popular Marseille soap was created. , based on olive oil and bay leaf, which was so successful that it spread throughout Europe, and still enjoys a good reputation today. And as we already said on instagram, it is very important to understand that when this chemical process occurs these three ingredients stop being an acid, a base and water to become a new one that we call soap, that's why despite having used soda caustic for its production, it is not present in the product because it has already been transformed.
When we create artisan soap at Maybeez, we use organically produced oils and other ingredients and cause that chemical transformation with caustic soda and water, then let our soap sit for forty days of curing until the saponification process is complete. We follow this entire process so that the final product is totally safe for the skin and the soda has already been transformed into soap and glycerin.
Now you no longer have any excuse to continue enjoying our exquisite Maybeez natural soaps. Tell us here or on instagram if you knew the story of the origin of soap and what you thought, we always read you.
Love, Maybeez
