[Maximo]

Originally Posted by Mermaid1

Shampoo without soap? Not sure what that means; Soap or any other surfactant basically dissolves oil to cleanse. Dirt, bacteria, etc. attach to the skin and sticks to the oils naturally produce by the skin to protect it = sebum. Anything that bubbles is basically a surfactant. Have you heard of WEN shampoo = no suds, it is more like a lotion, does not strip oils. Natural soap is probably better than anything containing sodium laureate sulfates or the likes. Soap is created when fats and sodium hydroxide (lye) or potassium hydroxide are mixed together. to produce good soap all the lye must be utilized. Some soap makers super fat their soaps so that all the lye is utilized and some oil is left in the final product/soap to make it more moisturizing. During the soap making process (saponification) fats/oils (vegetable or animal fats/oils), water and lye mix to produce 3 parts soap and 1 part glycerin (which is remove to resale on most commercial bars.) Lye is salt water treated with electricity. Sodium hydroxide/lye is used to cure olive, in pretzels, and other foods you may be surprise. Lye also occurs in nature when water passes through hard wood ashes, which can be used instead of electricity. Soap is not as bad as you may think as the skin replenished its sebum and protection rather quickly after you bathe. Sorry for such a long winded post, but I thought this information may be helpful on this post. The bad ingredients are those that are hormone disruptors, carcinogens, etc. I stay away from the sodium laureate sulfates, parabens, EDTA, fragrance, amonst others. Hope this helps.

Thank you for the explanation.

Originally Posted by Sunnydayz

Here's a gross fact about most soaps and what they are made of, well at least one ingredient I know about. As a teenager, I worked at McDonalds and they used to save all their fryer grease, because they would sell it to soap companies :-( yes, used fast food grease is one of the main ingredients in most soaps !!!! I was so grossed out by it, that I never used soap based products ever again. Thankfully I am a licensed cosmetologist and can buy from wholesale companies that sell only top of the line products, for a fraction of what the cheap brands cost. But that always stuck in my mind how they sell that used fryer grease to all the different soap companies, and I also seen the soap companies come and pick up all those disgusting drums filled with the nasty stuff :-(

Now I am going to think of you and McDonald's french fries every time I reach for my cheap bar of soap.

During WWII when everyday items were rationed, my grandmother made her own laundry soap with saved cooking grease. I googled and it seems to be a common practice among enviros to use leftover cooking grease for everything from powering cars to making soaps/toiletries.