What Real Soap Is Made Of: A Friendly Guide to Cold Process Soap

Most of us grew up picking soap off a supermarket shelf without giving it much thought and there is nothing wrong with that. But once you have spent a few weeks with a bar of real cold process soap, it becomes surprisingly hard to go back. People often ask us what makes it different, so we have gathered here everything we would tell a friend over a cup of tea here in Goa.

So what exactly is cold process soap?

It is soap made the way soap has been made for a very long time. Plant oils and butters are mixed with a lye solution at a gentle temperature and over the following hours and days a natural reaction called saponification slowly turns them into soap. Nothing is melted down from a ready-made base, because every bar is built from its raw ingredients. That is why we like to call it real soap.

Wait, isn't there lye in it?

There is no soap without lye and that is true for every bar of real soap in the world. The good news is that the lye does not stay in the bar. During saponification it reacts with the oils and becomes soap and glycerin, so by the time a bar reaches your bathroom there is no lye left in it. A good recipe also includes a little more oil than the lye needs, which means every bit of lye has something to react with and a touch of nourishing oil stays behind for your skin. Soapmakers call this the superfat.

Why does handmade soap need to rest for weeks?

Once the soap is cut into bars it sits on a shelf to cure. Ours rest there for four to six weeks. During this time the water slowly evaporates and the bar becomes firmer and milder, which also helps it last much longer in your shower. There is no way to rush this part and we have learned to enjoy the waiting.

What is glycerin and why does everyone talk about it?

Glycerin forms naturally during saponification and it is lovely for skin because it draws in moisture and helps hold on to it. In cold process soap all of it stays in the bar. This is a big part of why a good handmade soap leaves your skin feeling soft and comfortable after a shower rather than tight.

What can go into a bar of natural soap?

This is our favourite part, because a bar of soap can carry so much more than just cleansing.

The heart of every bar is a blend of oils and butters and each one brings something of its own. Olive oil makes a bar gentle, coconut oil gives it a generous lather, castor oil makes that lather creamy and butters like mango and cocoa help the bar stay firm and silky.

Clays bring soft natural colour and a silky slip to the lather. French pink clay gives a delicate blush, Brazilian purple clay a soft lilac and French green clay a muted sage, while kaolin is the gentlest of them all and keeps a bar creamy and pale.

And then there are the little additions that give each bar its character. In our range that means oats for a soft exfoliating touch, organic turmeric for a warm golden colour, activated charcoal for a deep dark tone, organic aloe juice used in place of all the water and dried lavender scattered over the top of the bar.

Scent is the finishing touch. We use quality fragrance oils, which let us create scents that would be hard to capture any other way, like the soft clean-laundry freshness of Egyptian Cotton.

What is nice to see on the label?

A short ingredient list where you recognise most of the names is always a good sign. Look for oils and butters listed by name and for colour that comes from clays, spices or plants. You will usually also see sodium hydroxide or the words saponified oils, which simply tells you that what you are holding is real soap.

And what doesn't need to be there?

Many bars sold as soap are actually what the industry calls syndet or beauty bars, made with synthetic detergents such as sodium lauryl sulfate. They clean perfectly well and they are simply a different kind of product. If what you are after is real soap, then synthetic detergents are something it does not need and neither are bright synthetic colours or a long list of preservatives. A well cured bar of soap is naturally solid and stable, so it can do without them.

We also chose to keep palm oil out of our soaps and every bar in our range is vegan.

What does it feel like to use?

The lather is creamy and soft rather than a cloud of big airy bubbles and the bar feels smooth and silky in your hands. A good bar should leave your skin feeling clean and comfortable, with that soft feeling that makes you want to reach for the same soap the next morning.

Why does every bar look a little different?

Because nothing in it is made to look identical. Clays and botanicals vary slightly from one batch to the next, handmade bars are never quite identical in shape and a soap can deepen or soften in colour as it cures. Sometimes a fine white film appears on the surface of a fresh bar, which soapmakers call soda ash. It is completely harmless and disappears after the first wash. We see all of this as proof that the soap was made by people rather than a machine.

How do I make my soap last longer?

The secret is keeping it dry between uses. Rest it on a soap dish that drains well and keep it away from the stream of water, so it is not sitting in a puddle. This matters even more in humid weather and anyone who has lived through a Goan monsoon will understand. If you like, you can also cut your bar in half and keep one piece aside while you use the other.

Where do I start?

Start with whatever draws you in first, whether that is a colour you love, an ingredient you are curious about or simply the bar that looks best next to your sink. Real soap is one of the easiest everyday pleasures to bring home and it tends to turn a quick shower into a small moment that is entirely yours.

If you would like to try one of ours, you will find the whole range in our soap collection.