Best natural soaps

[Predict]

I have been using mikes and mystic water a lot lately. I love how great my skin feels and like the fact that I'm not using harmful chemicals. So, what your favorite natural soap?

[SliceOfLife]

Vintage colgate. It was the most natural shave soap ever.

"Ingredients: Soap"

My guess is someone at the colgate HQ didn't think much of new restrictions making them put ingredients on the product.

[VT_Hokie]

I would say that the RazoRock Artisan series has a fairly short and natural list of ingredients...

This is from the Chianti Lavender

Stearic Acid, Tallow, Water, Cocos Nucifera, Potassium Hydroxide, Sodium Hydroxide, Fragrance (Lavender), Potassium Carbonate.

[eyebright]

Vintage colgate. It was the most natural shave soap ever.

"Ingredients: Soap"

My guess is someone at the colgate HQ didn't think much of new restrictions making them put ingredients on the product.

It is still true that if you don't make any cosmetic or drug claims for a soap, you don't have to list the ingredients at all. Most people do, either because they're proud of their product or as a courtesy to the consumer who might have an allergy to one of the ingredients.

[luvmysuper]

Just for frame of reference, what are the ingredients in an unnatural soap?

[michiganlover]

Just for frame of reference, what are the ingredients in an unnatural soap?

+1

I was just about to comment that we really need to define just what an all natural soap is, before we can offer any helpful suggestions.

For example do ingredients derived via commercial processing still qualify as all natural? So would glycerin removed during the commercial production of soap still be considered an all natural ingredient when re-added into a artisan product?

I saw on Ebay a shaving soap being marketed as vegan: a rather pointless distinction, since just about all soap that is devoid of tallow, and beeswax could by rights be called vegan, as it wouldn't feature any animal by products.

[SliceOfLife]

Just for frame of reference, what are the ingredients in an unnatural soap?

This stuff.

[luvmysuper]

This stuff.

Well, THAT stuff is tallow soap.
Ok, the source of the tallow is distasteful, but it is tallow nonetheless.

I ask because while we as a forum are generally very specific about our little disorder, this aspect is the other side of the spectrum. There is almost no agreement on what is and what isn't natural.
What is to some people, isn't to others, and some generally accepted natural ingredients aren't from natural sources, and other un-natural ingredients are chemically identical to their preferred natural counterparts.

It can be very confusing to folks reading these threads.

I'd rather see people asking as has been done in other threads about "SLS free products" or "alcohol free products" - whether you personally want to avoid those ingredients or not, at least you know what it is the individual wishes to avoid.

That really isn't so with the "all natural" craze that seems to be sweeping across western civilization.

[takeshi]

I saw on Ebay a shaving soap being marketed as vegan: a rather pointless distinction

It's not pointless to vegans. Be careful assuming that your preference/situation/need is universal no matter what the topic.

I'd rather see people asking as has been done in other threads about "SLS free products" or "alcohol free products" - whether you personally want to avoid those ingredients or not, at least you know what it is the individual wishes to avoid.

That really isn't so with the "all natural" craze that seems to be sweeping across western civilization.

I'd agree that such discussions would be more useful than discussions on "natural" products. Consider the SLS can be naturally derived. Plenty of harmful ingredients can be natural or derived from natural sources. There are plenty of natural toxins, irritants, etc out there,

[SliceOfLife]

I think there can be a fairly reasonable line drawn on natural though. The problem is that very few people will understand this line. For instance: hexadecanoic acid and octadecanoic acid. Spooky, nasty chemicals those guys. Why someone could post how terrifying they are and how they will bring about the doom of all mankind and give you beard cancer. Of course you could also call them "50% of what makes tallow".

You know, perspective.

[michiganlover]

It's not pointless to vegans. Be careful assuming that your preference/situation/need is universal no matter what the topic.

I think you missed the point I was trying to make.

Products are frequently marketed on what makes them unique. It would seem to me that just about any soap devoid of bees wax (certainly not a common ingredient in the first place), and tallow could be labeled as Vegan. So just about any veggie based soap could be labeled as vegan. As such, labeling your product Vegan doesn't make it unique, as there are surely 1000's of other soaps out there that can share the same label.

While I fully agree it is useful to Vegans to know that your soap is in fact Vegan, this fact is not a huge selling point, as it would seem a soap being Vegan is not at all an oddity.



(my argument of course assumes there are not other animal derived ingredients common to soap that I am unaware of)

[quickie-cookie]

Just for frame of reference, what are the ingredients in an unnatural soap?

This is a good example:
http://www.codecheck.info/kosmetisch...e_Go_fresh.pro

Soap-imitate.

[SliceOfLife]

Kind of
That bar is about 50% detergent + hardeners, 50% soap.

[Greyzer]

Martin de Candre Unscented.
Ingredients: Stearic Acid, Aqua, Coconut Acid, Potassium Hydroxyde, Glycerin.

Cella is good as well...

[Predict]

Martin de Candre Unscented.
Ingredients: Stearic Acid, Aqua, Coconut Acid, Potassium Hydroxyde, Glycerin.

Cella is good as well...

This is my next soap to try.

[Cochese2323]

This is my next soap to try.

You will not be disappointed. It is a great soap. Hard to find something with less ingredients.

[nomoore]

What constitutes "natural" is definitely debatable. That being said, my wife is very picky about what she puts on her skin but she uses Mama Bears' shave soap scented with only EOs and Absolutes. We both agree that it lathers VERY easily and provides a great shave. The ingredients are listed on her web site. It looks like she makes sure it is vegan friendly.

If you aren't quite as picky you might find Cella to have a pretty good list of ingredients. (tallow is natural right?)

[quickie-cookie]

Natural = natural oil and fat

synthetic = synthetic tensid (sodium lauryl sulfat, sodium laureth sulfat, whatever...)

[SliceOfLife]

I wonder how many people would consider industrial electrolysis that spews out Chlorine gas a natural process.

[luvmysuper]

I wonder how many people would consider industrial electrolysis that spews out Chlorine gas a natural process.

Are you saying that the ingredients in a natural product must have had no interaction with any industrial process? That's a pretty narrow window to fit in.