On September 12, Molly and Bess on Moshe Hess wrote a letter to Supersol asking whether our soapless soap was indeed soapless. Guest blogger, Brian Immerman, responded with his Top 5 Extremely Important, Possibly Disturbing Facts about Soap:

1. Soapless soap is actually soapless. (In the US, it’s rare that you’ll see a product actually with soap on the label, because, i’m sorry to say, it isn’t.)

2. Soap is really just oil that has been saponified to separate the materials that creates soap. Glycerin + lye = soap. Maybe some fats to keep things looking shiny and smooth.

3. There is only one product I know about, Dr. Bronners soaps, which are actually soap. Everything else is: Shampoo, body wash, scented this, amazing that…but not soap.

4. I hate to tell you, but guess where most of your “soap” comes from? See that Sodium Laurel (and Laureth) Sulfate? That’s processed petroleum. Yup - you are putting black gold on your skin and hair. All those other things you can’t pronounce? Smell, lather (so you think you are getting clean), color, texture, preservatives and well, water is still water. Maybe it makes your skin soft, but that’s only because they add ingredients to counter act the effect of the other stuff.

5. Unfortunately, the preservatives they use are almost always called Parabens, which are thought to increase your risk of breast cancer, and make our water not so nice. While these studies are not fully conclusive, Parabens are used extensively in the beauty product world.

Thanks Brian for clearing that up!