Soap Memories
From Sondra -
When I first realized I was going to have to make soap if I wanted a product that didn’t have ingredients that could worsen or irritate certain skin conditions, I looked up the subject. It’s not as if it was something I had given much thought to previously. In fact, I have no memory of shopping for any particular brand of soap at all!
My husband grew up in a different time and place. Back then in the early 1940s, in his little town (Coats, North Carolina), people still made their own soap. At least his grandmother did. Many times he has described to us how, as a little boy, he gathered sticks for the outdoor fire on soapmaking day. His grandfather would place the large pot on it and he’d watch his grandmother stir for what seemed like hours. When she had finished, his grandfather would lift the pot off the fire and carry it into the wash house to cool. There it sat, full of soap which hardened into one big lump. When his grandmother wanted to wash clothes, she hacked out a chunk of whatever size she needed.
The earliest soapmaking factory was discovered well over 4,000 years ago. The ingredients inscribed on the containers they put their soap mixture into was simply oil and ashes, which is basically what soap (real soap) is made of today. Larry’s grandmother would probably have been able to purchase commercially produced lye, but her grandparents would have had to make their own, a process done with wood ashes and water for the thousands of years.
I suppose, like most folks who grew up in the 1950s, the brands I remember were Palmolive, Dove and Ivory. As I wrote the name “Palmolive” just now, I suddenly wondered if possibly that was derived from “palm” and “olive” oils and I was right! Here’s what I found: In 1898 the B.J. Johnson Soap Company (no relation to us!) introduced Palmolive soap, a formula created using palm and olive oil!
Apparently not much has changed in soapmaking! At least not in quality soapmaking.
There have been considerable changes, though, in industrial soapmaking through the years. For one thing, the fats used now aren’t real plant fats for the most part, and the natural glycerin that would be created as the plant fats cook is now created by one or other chemical to substitute for the emollient and healing attributes of the natural glycerin.
Soap companies have gone to great lengths to try to make their soaps feel good while using ingredients that are all chemical. Dove soap, for example, now is made from stearic acid, lauric acid, sodium stearate, sodium isethionate, tetrasodium EDTA, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium palmitate, sodium tallowate, water, titanium dioxide and sodium cocoate.
Not one natural plant or plant oil.
And yes, all soap, even commercial soap, is made with lye (tetrasodium). Lye is a reagent, so that the end product does not contain any lye (if the process is done correctly).
Until I began making soap I never thought about ingredients just so long as it smelled good and got the dirt off. No soap of the 1950s seemed to be able to remove the dirt from the feet of my friend Susie, who spent half her life barefoot! She could only clean her feet with a scrub brush and, of all things, toothpaste! We laughed about that as 8 year olds.
Soap has always been important in history. Old Brown Windsor soap was popular with Queen Victoria, Napoleon as well as Lewis and Clark. Chances are this soap was popular because it’s ingredients had real herbs and spices that would fight bacterial and fungal issues. We make a similar version of that soap today and call it “Napoleons.”
Unlike Napoleon, I never had a favorite soap. At least not until I began making my own.
Hmmm. Come to think of it, I still don’t have a favorite soap! My favorite often is the one that’s just been made! Think I’ll wander down to the shop and see what’s cooking!
