Soap

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A collection of decorative soaps used for human hygiene purposes. This type of soap is typically found inside hotels.

Soap is a surfactant used in conjunction with water for washing and cleaning that historically comes in solid bars but also in the form of a thick liquid, especially from soap dispensers in public washrooms.

Historically, soap has been composed of sodium (soda ash) or potassium (potash) salts of fatty acids derived by reacting fat with lye in a process known as saponification. The fats are hydrolyzed by the base, yielding glycerol and crude soap.

Many cleaning agents today are technically not soaps, but detergents, which are less expensive and easier to manufacture.

Contents

  • 1 How soap works
  • 2 Soapmaking
    • 2.1 Lye
    • 2.2 Fat
    • 2.3 Process
    • 2.4 Purification and finishing
  • 3 History
    • 3.1 Early History
    • 3.2 Roman History
    • 3.3 Arab History
    • 3.4 Modern History
    • 3.5 Commercial soap production
  • 4 See also
  • 5 Notes
  • 6 References
  • 7 External links

[edit] How soap works

a diagram of the function of soap

Soaps are useful for cleaning because soap molecules attach readily to both nonpolar molecules (such as grease or oil) and polar molecules (such as water). Although grease will normally adhere to skin or clothing, the soap molecules can attach to it as a "handle" and make it easier to rinse away. Applied to a soiled surface, soapy water effectively holds particles in suspension so the whole of it can be rinsed off with clean water.

(fatty end)  :CH3-(CH2)n - COONa: (water soluble end)

The hydrocarbon ("fatty") portion dissolves dirt and oils, while the ionic end makes it soluble in water. Therefore, it allows water to remove normally-insoluble matter by emulsification.

[edit] Soapmaking

Handmade soaps sold at a shop in Hyères, France

The most popular soapmaking processes today is the cold process method, where fats such as olive oil react with lye. Soapmakers sometimes use the melt and pour process, where a premade soap base is melted and poured in individual molds, but this is not really to be considered soap-making. Some soapers also practice other processes, such as the historical hot process, and make special soaps such as clear soap (glycerin soap).

Handmade soap differs from industrial soap in that, usually, an excess of fat is used to consume the alkali (superfatting), and in that the glycerin is not removed. Superfatted soap, soap which contains excess fat, is more skin-friendly than industrial soap; though, if not properly formulated, it can leave users with a "greasy" feel to their skin. Often, emollients such as jojoba oil or shea butter are added 'at trace' (the point at which the saponification process is sufficiently advanced that the soap has begun to thicken), after most of the oils have saponified, so that they remain unreacted in the finished soap.

[edit] Lye

Reacting fat with sodium hydroxide will produce a hard soap.

Reacting fat with potassium hydroxide will produce a soap that is either soft or liquid. Historically, the alkali used was potassium hydroxide made from the deliberate burning of vegetation such as bracken, or from wood ashes.

[edit] Fat

Handicraft made Marseille soap

Soap is derived from either oils or fats. Sodium tallowate, a common ingredient in many soaps, is in fact derived from rendered beef fat. Soap can also be made of vegetable oils, such as palm oil, and the product is typically softer. If soap is made from pure olive oil it may be called Castile soap or Marseille soap. Castile is also sometimes applied to soaps with a mix of oils, but a high percentage of olive oil.

An array of quality oils and butters are used in the process such as olive, coconut, palm cocoa butter, hemp oil shea butter to list a few. Each oil chosen by the soap maker has unique characteristics that provide different qualities to handmade soaps including mildness, lathering and hardness. For example olive oil provides mildness in soap; coconut oil provides lots of lather while coconut and palm oils provides hardness.

[edit] Process

In both cold-process and hot-process soapmaking, heat is required for saponification.

Cold-process soapmaking takes place at a temperature sufficiently above room temperature to ensure the liquification of the fat being used, and requires that the lye and fat be kept warm after mixing to ensure that the soap is completely saponified.

Unlike cold-processed soap, hot-processed soap can be used right away because lye and fat saponify more quickly at the higher temperatures used in hot-process soapmaking.

Hot process was used when the purity of lye was unreliable, and can use natural lye solutions such as potash. The main benefit of hot processing is that the exact concentration of the lye solution does not need to be known to perform the process with adequate success.

Cold process requires exact measurement of lye to fat using saponification charts to ensure that the finished product is mild and skin friendly. Saponification charts can also be used in hot-process soapmaking, but are not as necessary as in cold-process.

Hot process

In the hot process method, lye and fat are boiled together at 80 – 100 °C until saponification occurs, which the soapmaker can determine by taste (the bright, distinctive taste of lye disappears once all the lye is saponified) or by eye (the experienced eye can tell when gel stage and full saponification have occurred).

After saponification has occurred, the soap is sometimes precipitated from the solution by adding salt, and the excess liquid drained off.

The hot, soft soap is then spooned into a mold.

Cold process

A cold-process soapmaker first looks up the saponification value of the fats being used on a saponification chart, which is then used to calculate the appropriate amount of lye. Excess unreacted lye in the soap will result in a very high pH and can burn or irritate skin. Not enough lye, and the soap is greasy and oily. Most soap makers formulate their recipes with 3-15% excess oil so that all of the lye is reacted and that excess fat is left for skin conditioning benefits.

The lye is dissolved in water and the resulting solution mixed with fat. Once it has cooled to about 80-90 degrees Fahrenheit, this lye-fat mixture is stirred until "trace", that is, the two thin, clear substances become cloudy and thicken. (Modern-day amateur soapmakers often use a stick blender to speed this process.) After much stirring, the mixture turns to the consistency of a thin pudding.

Essential oils, fragrance oils, botanicals, herbs, oatmeal or other additives are added at light trace, just as the mixture starts to thicken.

The batch is then poured into molds, kept warm with towels or blankets, and left to continue saponification for 18 to 48 hours. During this time, it is normal for the soap to go through a "gel phase" where the opaque soap will turn somewhat transparent for several hours before turning opaque again. The soap will continue to give off heat for many hours after trace.

After the insulation period the soap is firm enough to be removed from the mold and cut into bars. At this time, it is safe to use the soap since saponification is complete. However, cold process soaps are typically cured and hardened on a drying rack for 2-6 weeks (depending on initial water content) before use.

[edit] Purification and finishing

The common process of purifying soap involves removal of sodium chloride, sodium hydroxide, and glycerol. These components are removed by boiling the crude soap curds in water and re-precipitating the soap with salt.

Most of the water is then removed from the soap. This was traditionally done on a chill roll which produced the soap flakes commonly used in the 1940s and 1950s. This process was superseded by spray dryers and then by vacuum dryers.

The dry soap (approximately 6-12% moisture) is then compacted into small pellets. These pellets are now ready for soap finishing, the process of converting raw soap pellets into a salable product, usually bars.

Soap pellets are combined with fragrances and other materials and blended to homogeneity in an amalgamator (mixer). The mass is then discharged from the mixer into a refiner which, by means of an auger, forces the soap through a fine wire screen. From the refiner the soap passes over a roller mill (French milling or hard milling) in a manner similar to calendering paper or plastic or to making chocolate liquor. The soap is then passed through one or more additional refiners to further plasticize the soap mass. Immediately before extrusion it passes through a vacuum chamber to remove any entrapped air. It is then extruded into a long log or blank, cut to convenient lengths, passed through a metal detector and then stamped into shape in refrigerated tools. The pressed bars are packaged in many ways.

Sand or pumice may be added to produce a scouring soap. This process is most common in creating soaps used for human hygiene. The scouring agents serve to remove dead skin cells from the surface being cleaned. This process is called exfoliation. Many newer materials are used for exfoliating soaps which are effective but do not have the sharp edges and poor size distribution of pumice.

[edit] History

[edit] Early History

Soapnut Tree (Reeta / Sapindus tree)

The earliest known use of a natural soap-like substance was the powder of the Reeta(Sapindus) nut, which was used by Indians since antiquity. Hindus in India were obliged to bathe at least once a day, every morning, in accordance with Ayurveda. Evidence of manufactured soap use are Babylonian clay cylinders dating from 2800 BC containing a soap-like substance. A formula for soap consisting of water, alkali and cassia oil was written on a Babylonian clay tablet around 2200 BC.

The Ebers papyrus (Egypt, 1550 BC) indicates that ancient Egyptians bathed regularly and combined animal and vegetable oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like substance. Egyptian documents mention that a soap-like substance was used in the preparation of wool for weaving.

[edit] Roman History

It is commonly reported that a soap factory with bars of scented soap was found in the ruins of Pompeii (79 AD). However, this has proved to be a misinterpretation of the survival of some soapy mineral substance, [citation needed] probably soapstone at the Fullonica where it was used for dressing recently cleansed textiles. Unfortunately this error has been repeated widely and can be found in otherwise reputable texts on soap history. The ancient Romans were generally ignorant of soap's detergent properties, and made use of the strigil to scrape dirt and sweat from the body. The word "soap" (Latin sapo) appears first in a European language in Pliny the Elder's Historia Naturalis, which discusses the manufacture of soap from tallow and ashes, but the only use he mentions for it is as a pomade for hair; he mentions rather disapprovingly that among the Gauls and Germans men are likelier to use it than women.[1]

A story encountered in some places claims that soap takes its name from a supposed "Mount Sapo" where ancient Romans sacrificed animals. Rain would send a mix of animal tallow and wood ash down the mountain and into the clay soil on the banks of the Tiber. Eventually, women noticed that it was easier to clean clothes with this "soap". The location of Mount Sapo is unknown, as is the source of the "ancient Roman legend" to which this tale is typically credited.[1] In fact, the Latin word sapo simply means "soap"; it was borrowed from a Celtic or Germanic language, and is cognate with Latin sebum, "tallow", which appears in Pliny the Elder's account. Roman animal sacrifices usually burned only the bones and inedible entrails of the sacrificed animals; edible meat and fat from the sacrifices were taken by the humans rather than the gods. Animal sacrifices in the ancient world would not have included enough fat to make much soap. The legend about Mount Sapo is probably apocryphal.

[edit] Arab History

The Arabs made soap from vegetable oil such as olive oil and some aromatic oils such as thyme oil. Lye (Al-Soda Al-Kawia) was used for the first time, and the formula hasn't changed from the current soap sold in the market. From the beginning of the 7th century, soap was produced in Nablus (West Bank,Palestine), Kufa (Iraq) and Basra (Iraq). Soaps, as we know them today, are descendants of historical Arabian Soaps. Arabian Soap was perfumed and colored, some of the soaps were liquid and others were hard. They also had special soap for shaving. It was commercially sold for 3 Dirhams (0.3 Dinars) a piece in 981 AD. Al-Razi ’s manuscript contains recipes for soap. A recently discovered manuscript from the 13th century details more recipes for soap making; e.g. take some sesame oil, a sprinkle of potash, alkali and some lime, mix them all together and boil. When cooked, they are poured into molds and left to set, leaving hard soap.

Historically, soap was made by mixing animal fats with lye. Because of the caustic lye, this was a dangerous procedure (perhaps more dangerous than any present-day home activities) which could result in serious chemical burns or even blindness. Before commercially-produced lye (sodium hydroxide) was commonplace, potash, potassium hydroxide, was produced at home for soap making from the ashes of a hardwood fire.

Castile soap was produced in Europe as early as the 16th century.

[edit] Modern History

1922 magazine advertisement for Palmolive Soap

In modern times, the use of soap has become universal in industrialized nations due to a better understanding of the role of hygiene in reducing the population size of pathogenic microorganisms. Manufactured bar soaps first became available in the late nineteenth century, and advertising campaigns in Europe and the United States helped to increase popular awareness of the relationship between cleanliness and health. By the 1950s, soap had gained public acceptance as an instrument of personal hygiene.

Rarely, conditions allow for corpses to naturally turn in to a soap-like substance, such as the Soap Lady on exhibit in the Mutter Museum.

A bar of blue-white offenbach soap

[edit] Commercial soap production

Until the Industrial Revolution soap-making was done on a small scale and the product was rough. Andrew Pears started making a high-quality, transparent soap in 1789 in London. With his grandson, Francis Pears, they opened a factory in Isleworth in 1862. William Gossage produced low-price good quality soap from the 1850s. Robert Spear Hudson began manufacturing a soap powder in 1837, initially by grinding the soap with a mortar and pestle. William Hesketh Lever and his brother James bought a small soap works in Warrington in 1885 and founded what is still one of the largest soap businesses, now called Unilever. These soap businesses were among the first to employ large scale advertising campaigns to sell the output of their factories.