Making soap "in the style" of
Dr. Bronner's
Soap has been made for millennia. Along with making fire and cooking food, transforming oils and fats into soap is one of the oldest and simplest chemical reactions known to humankind. It is believed that the first soaps were made by accident as a result of grease dripping onto ashes.
Soap results from a chemical reaction called saponification, which occurs between a fat and an alkaline compound (a base). A fat is composed of triglycerides, which consist of three fatty acids with carbon chains of different lengths, simultaneously linked at the same end, glycerin. The most commonly used base for producing bar soap is sodium hydroxide, while potassium hydroxide is used for liquid soap. The base is produced by passing electricity through salt water.
The saponification process is a simple chemical reaction with no waste generated: glycerin is separated from fatty acids, which, combined with sodium or potassium, form soap, while the hydroxide transforms into water. The result is soap, glycerin, and water (no residue of the base remains in our soaps).
The house where the Heilbronner family made soap. Laupheim, Germany .
Unlike most soap manufacturers, who distill the glycerin from the soap to sell it separately, we retain it in our soaps for superior hydration. We enrich our bar soaps to create a smoother, softer lather and use natural vitamin E from sunflower seeds and citric acid (both non-GMO) to protect freshness. We add no chelating agents, dyes, bleaches, or synthetic fragrances – only the purest organically certified essential oils.
We make our soap using only vegetable oils sourced from sustainable agriculture: coconut, palm, olive, hemp, and jojoba. (Photo by Rapunzel Naturkost)
Making quality soap involves choosing the right proportions of the most suitable oils. Coconut oil produces a lot of lather but can be a little drying to the skin. Olive oil produces a soft, rich lather but in smaller quantities. By using the right proportions of coconut oil and olive oil, Dr. Bronner's soaps offer the best of both worlds: abundant lather that is gentle on the skin. Our soaps also contain hemp oil and jojoba oil, which have the characteristic of mirroring the skin's natural oils, leaving it soft even after rinsing.
Our soaps are three times more concentrated than most liquid soaps on the market, which means more soap per package and less waste in packaging material.
