Medtopicwriter

Behold the love child of oil and water.

I love soap. Did you know it’s an acronym? SOAP = Super, Oh-my-gosh, Amazing, Product. OK – just kidding. Most people, with a general respect for personal hygiene, use soap every day, so you might as well take a moment to learn about it.

Sacrifice, Ashes, Water – Soapy Ancestors

Soap is an ancient product – of course, like all good things, someone discovered it by accident. According to historical accounts, people discovered soap on Mount Sapo  – a mountain where the natives sacrificed animals.  The tallow (animal fat) from the burnt animal bodies mixed with ashes from the sacrificial fires and water to make the first soap recorded in history.

Crazy, huh?

Today, some soap still contains tallow or lard. Personally, I think that’s pretty disgusting and choose to make our Sweets Cosmetics soaps with vegetable fats and oils. In general, I try to avoid using anything that contains animal products, but that’s a whole different “soapbox.”(pun fully intended). At Sweet Cosmetics, we’re sweet to animals – we don’t use them in any way to create our products.

Soap – Water and Oil’s Love Child

Ever since I started making cosmetics, I learned the same lesson over and over – there are oil-based products and water-based products. Oil-based products include things like lip balm, mascara and candles. Water based products include things like lotion and bubble bath.

Soap is actually a combination of both – it requires an emulsifier to combine the water and oil used to make it. Soap works perfectly for breaking down wax-based products. This is why you need some sort of soap or soap-based cleanser to wash your face at night. Only soap or soapy cleanser can properly remove your makeup – because makeup contains oils and (sometimes) even wax.

Why Does Soap Lather?

The degree to which soap lathers depends on the ingredients it contains – no, not how hard you rub. If you use a soap that contains sulfates or sulfites (which you shouldn’t), it will lather like crazy. If you use a natural soap, coconut oil in the soap usually creates a nice, thick lather.

For the most part, marketers associate the image and idea of lather with cleanliness to make people believe the soapy lather gets them clean. It’s a clever psychological trick. Don’t buy it. In other words, you don’t need lather to get clean when you wash you hair or body. You need an effective cleanser.

But…

When you shave, lather actually does play an important role. In the shower, the warm water softens up the hair and makes it easier to shave. Lather helps even more because it holds the water on top of the hair follicles, making your hair softer and allowing the razor to glide smoothly to give a clean, close shave.

LifeSoap – Bliss Marries Global Outreach

Each box of LifeSoap gives you joy and clean water to a child in need.

I recently met Aaron and Juwon, owners of a company called LifeSoap. These young men hope to provide moments of bliss to customers and solve a serious global problem at the same time. It would mean a lot to me, and to them, if you would take a look at their website and consider championing their humanitarian cause by becoming their customers. I’ve tried their soap and it is seriously top notch. You’ll fall in love with these inspiring men and their company – trust me – just read their story.

About the Author: The Medtopicwriter team is honored to welcome Katie Barstow, owner and co-founder of Sweets Cosmetics, to the bleeding edge. Katie’s all natural, hand and home made cosmetic products are divine – the bleeding edge team uses them, of course.