Soap 101 – Sodium What?
As I mentioned in the previous article, the ingredient list on a bar of soap can be difficult to interpret. Cosmetics and beauty products aren’t held to the same standards as food when it comes to ingredient lists, so companies try to keep more of their ingredients secret to protect themselves from competition, and to hide the presence of certain ingredients from customers.
The following list includes ingredients I’ve seen on soap labels, along with an explanation of what they really are.
- Saponified oils of… – The oils listed after this phrase have been reacted with lye.
- Sodium cocoate – Could be either coconut oil or cocoa butter that has been reacted with lye.
- Sodium palm kernelate – Palm kernel oil that has been reacted with lye.
- Sodium palmate – Palm oil that has been reacted with lye.
- Sodium tallowate – Tallow that has been reacted with sodium hydroxide. This could include vegetable or animal tallow. I’ve seen saponification numbers for beef, venison, goat, and even bear tallow!
In general, soap labels list the substances that result from the soapmaking process rather than the original ingredients. That makes the labels accurate, but if food products listed their ingredients that way, the ingredients in a loaf of bread would be listed as “heat-treated bread dough mixture, water, salt”, or something similar.
I’ll add to this list over time, so if you’d like me to add an ingredient you’ve seen on a soap package, comment below.
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