| Not all natural products are made equal
A quick browse around your local supermarket or browse on the Internet and you'll find an increasing number of products that are promoted as pure, natural and organic. Unfortunately these words do not have a strict cosmetic definition; therefore products that contain as little as 2% natural ingredients can be sold to you as 'Natural'. The important thing to remember is that the remaining 98% can include anything else, including chemical ingredients.
To prevent you wasting money on poor quality products, we've put together a little information that we hope will help you feel confident when choosing natural handmade soaps.
What types of handmade soap might I come across?
Traditional natural soaps are usually made using a similar, energy efficient process to the one that we use; this is called the cold process method. An alternative process used by some soap makers involves heating the soap in an oven, therefore, this is called hot process soap making.
Both of these methods involve turning natural vegetable oils into soap by mixing in an alkali solution to cause a chemical reaction that results in solid soap.
Another type of soap that you may find is commonly sold under many names such as vegetable glycerine soap, SLS free, pure or natural is what is simply called melt and pour soap. As the name suggests, this product starts out as a bulk bought soap base purchased from a craft shop. It is then simply melted (often in a microwave) and extra ingredients added such as fragrance, flowers and colours. The soap base then just sets for a few hours before being ready for sale. Whilst this type of soap often has a wonderful novelty value, it should not be confused with the luxurious soaps that traditional soap making methods can produce.
What to look for when choosing a natural soap or skin care product.
The most important thing to look at when you are judging the quality of a natural product is the ingredients label. All ingredients must be listed in quantity order, so the product will contain more of the ingredients at the start of the list than the ones at the end. Some ingredients such as essential oils and fragrances are only permitted for use in limited amounts so you would expect to find these towards the end of the list. Natural products can still contain a high level of chemical ingredients and so it's important to know what these ingredients are and why they are used. |
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