What’s Natural Soap? Get the Dirt on Natural Suds

Most guys probably spend more time choosing a sandwich than studying a soap label. But understanding what goes into soap can help you make more informed choices about something that goes on your body, which is arguably just as important as what goes inside it.

“Natural” can sound reassuring on the front of the package, but what exactly does the term mean? Consider this your essential guide to understand what natural soap is. We’ll explain how it differs from synthetic soap, what ingredients are inside a bar, and which benefits come with choosing a naturally derived formula.

What’s Natural Soap?

Natural soap is a type of cleanser made with naturally derived ingredients like plant oils, clays, and mineral colorants. Because U.S. regulations don’t have an official definition for “natural,” the term describes a formulation philosophy rather than a specific recipe or government-mandated soapmaking method.

What’s Natural Soap Made Of?

Here are the main natural soap ingredients and what they do:

• Plant oils like sunflower, olive, and coconut oil comprise much of a soap formula’s fatty-acid profile. Different profiles influence qualities like bar hardness, solubility, and the kind of lather the soap produces.

• Natural butters like cocoa or shea butter are also fats, but they’re solid at room temperature. Their fatty-acid profiles give a formula more structure by changing the bar’s hardness and feel.

• Lye (sodium hydroxide) is the alkaline reactant in natural soap bars. Potassium hydroxide (or potash lye) is more often associated with liquid soaps and some body washes.

• Essential oils like lemon, lavender, and cedarwood are concentrated aromatic compounds obtained from plants. Their primary job in soapmaking is to give the bar a pleasing fragrance.

• Natural colorants like kaolin clay, bamboo charcoal, and annatto can add color to a bar without affecting its cleaning base. Even soap deserves a little personality.

• Botanical ingredients like herbs, flowers, and leaves can bring recognizable pieces of the source plant into the bar. Think lavender flecks or calendula petals.

• Natural exfoliants include coarse ingredients like oatmeal, sand, or sea salt. These add physical texture to the bar. Unlike a color or fragrance, the particles create friction as the bar moves across your skin, helping remove dead skin cells.

How’s Natural Soap Made?

At its core, natural soap combines naturally derived fats or oils with an alkali like lye. The oils or fats provide the fatty acid salts that form the soap’s foundation, while lye creates a high pH that transforms those whole fats into soap. Here’s how soapmakers transform those ingredients into bars:

• Mixing oils and lye: Soapmakers blend the oils and fats and dissolve the sodium hydroxide in water separately. Different fats require distinct quantities of lye to react properly, so “close enough” won’t cut it here.

• Saponification: This is the chemical reaction that turns fats or oils and lye into soap and glycerol. 

• Adding natural ingredients: After saponification, soapmakers add fragrances, colorants, and botanicals so they distribute through the batter without disrupting the base formula. They also add exfoliants at this time.

• Pouring, setting, and cutting: Once the batter is ready, soapmakers pour it into molds, let it firm up, and cut it into bars.

• Curing: Soapmakers leave the bars alone for several weeks so excess water can evaporate and the soap can harden and stabilize.

Synthetic soaps, on the other hand, use petroleum-based foaming agents like sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES). A little bit of lye at the end balances out the mixture, but it doesn’t transform whole oils into soap. Instead, it stabilizes a synthetic detergent.

Is Natural Soap Better?

Natural soap for men is just as effective as synthetic cleansers at cleaning and hygiene. Its soap molecules have one oil loving end to trap dirt and one water loving end to carry grime away. 

Here are a few benefits of natural soap based on how it’s made and what goes into the formula:

• Rich in glycerin: The saponification process naturally creates glycerin, a humectant that draws moisture from the environment into your skin. Cold-process soap preserves glycerin in the finished bar, which means you reap its benefits without needing to add an extra product to your routine.

• Velvety soft feel: Cold-process recipes can include a technique called superfatting, where formulators intentionally add extra plant oils or butters that won’t be saponified to help create a softer skin feel during use.

• Luxurious scents and colors: Essential oils, botanicals, and plant-based pigments add pleasant scents and fun colors to natural soaps, which may enhance your sensory shower experience.

Why Ingredients Matter in Natural Soap

“Natural” on the front of the wrapper tells you far less than the ingredient list on the back. “Naturally derived” usually describes where an ingredient originated from, while “synthetic” describes an ingredient made through chemical synthesis.

Synthetic detergent formulas may use surfactants like sulfates with other additives, but synthetic doesn’t automatically mean harmful any more than natural automatically means safe. Even the FDA cautions against assuming plant-derived ingredients are inherently healthier.

Instead, look at what each ingredient does within the formula. Cleansing agents, fragrances, colorants, and botanicals all have specific jobs, no matter where they come from. Choose a formulation that fits your needs best. 

Make Your Next Soap Natural With Dr. Squatch

You don’t need to become a soap expert to choose your next bar. But it’s good to know what’s in your soap’s formula before the suds start flying. If you’re looking for a soap with naturally derived ingredients, explore Dr. Squatch’s Natural Bar Soap Collection to meet your match. We have plenty of fragrance options available so you can find your signature scent.