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Issue No. 5
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March,2012
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Click here to visit our past issues.
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When we first started making soap I quickly realized that there is a great deal of confusion, misunderstanding, and misinformation out there about soap: what it is, how it's made, and how soaps differ from each other. Much of the confusion I shared! But over time I have come to understand and appreciate the process and the product, and I will try to answer the most common questions and clear up a little confusion in this edition of the Coyote Cove Newsletter.
What is soap? Let's start with the basics; the composition of soap. In its most basic form, soap has only 3 ingredients: fat, lye, and water. Lye is a base, an alkali (high pH) and fats are an acid (low pH). Water is the solvent in which to dissolve the lye. When the alkali and the base are combined they bind to each other in a chemical process called saponification, and form soap. The story goes that the very first soaps were made in 1000 BC at a place called Sapo Hill, in Rome. It seems there had been some animal sacrificing going on at the top of a hill. The animal fat soaked down through the layers of wood ashes and the whole business washed down the hill and into the river at the bottom. People would wash their clothes in the sudsy river water because they came cleaner there than at other spots along the river. If you know that wood ash is an alkali you can see the three ingredients of soapmaking in this scenario: animal fat, wood ash, and river water. Eventually people figured out how it was done and began to make soap deliberately instead of accidentally.
By my grandparents time most rural families made soap using water, lard from their own pigs, and purchased lye. Wood ashes were used up until about 1850 when lye became widely commercially available. This old fashioned "lye soap" is notorious for its harsh smell, brittle texture, and (sometimes) the burning sensation it left behind on your skin! When you know that it takes 3 molecules of alkali to onee molecule of fatty acid to make the perfect soap, you realize the importance of ratio, of proportion, of precise measuring to the finished product. You can then see why our grannies, standing in the back yard pouring lye into buckets of melted lard, sometimes may have gotten just a little too much or too little of any of the 3 ingredients into the mix!
So what is "lye soap"? Doesn't all soap contain lye? Good question. Yes, all soaps contain lye. No lye, no soap - no lie. There are some small soapmakers who do not list lye as an ingredient on their packaging because it sounds so artificial, so "chemically", it doesn't go with their all-natural reputation, etc. Their rationale is that during the process of saponification each molecule of lye is bound to the fatty acid, becoming a different chemical product altogether, so therefore no free lye remains in the finished product. This is technically true but at Coyote Cove we list the lye on our labels as an ingredient. It may not be technically wrong to omit it, but it seems - to us at least - a little shady.
So, although all soaps are made with lye and the chemical composition of our soap is the same as Granny's, when people ask for lye soap they are talking about her plain unscented cakes of soap made with lard. We make lye soap - lard, lye, and water - and sell it at a few county fair type shows throughout the year. It sells well and people attribute all kinds of wonderful properties to it. It's been said to cure dandruff, warts, mange (in dogs!), head lice, poison ivy, and to repel mosquitoes and heal their bites. We've even been told it stops cussing! I'm not sure about all that, but it is great for washing clothes, which is what I do with the leftover bars.
Do you have goats milk soap? Goats milk soap is very trendy right now. We get asked this question at every show we do. No, we don't make goats milk soap, but if there is another soapmaker at the show who does, we direct them there. Goats milk is moisturizing, but if you don't own goats it doesn't make sense to include it in your soap. Goats milk is expensive to buy, spoils easily, and can cause the bars to go rancid if not handled correctly. We use a specific combination of 8 different oils formulated to be rich and moisturizing, and to make a hard bar with a good lather. I promise you won't miss the goats milk!
What about glycerin? Okay bear with me. We're going back to chemistry for a minute. When the alkali and the fatty acid bind together to make soap, the acid splits. The fatty acid itself binds with the alkali and the glycerin is released. So homemade soaps have plenty of free glycerin in every bar, it is a natural byproduct of saponification. Commercial soapmakers have equipment that can remove the free glycerin, which they then sell as a separate product. Glycerin is a humectant, a moisturizer. This is one of the reasons why commercial soaps are so drying to your skin, and homemade soaps are not. As for the little clear bars of glycerin soap? They are very cute, but contain lots of artificial colors to get those bright hues, they dissolve extremely fast, and they are generally made from "melt and pour" type kits. It would be safe to say that real soapmakers don't take them seriously.
I hope I have answered your questions. Now I must come clean - here at Coyote Cove my husband Mike is the soapmaker. I don't even get to stir. All I do is watch, sniff to make sure he is using enough essential oil, and occasionally tape on a label. He uses 8 different oils to make our soap: coconut, palm kernel, sunflower, castor, avocado, olive, wheat germ, and shea butter. Each was chosen for a specific property that it brings to the finished product. It's a delicate balance and there is a very precise ratio of each oil to the other 7, and to the lye/water mixture. He measures the amounts of each carefully to the tenth of an ounce. But the combination makes Coyote Cove the best soap I've ever used. Try it for a week, then use your old bar for a week and you will notice the difference. In addition to our superior oils we use of course only real essential oil. There are no preservatives, artificial color, or scent in any Coyote Cove soap. (I recently saw an "all-natural" homemade soap that was navy blue. Really.) Mike adds botanicals to many of the soaps - real ground lavender in the Lavender soap, patchouli in the Patchouli soap, peppermint leaf in the Peppermint Sage, and a few others.
We love coming up with new soap scents to try, and many of our best ideas have come from our customers. If you have any other questions, or suggestions for new soaps or other products, we'd love to hear from you!
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You might remember that SC Johnson rather firmly suggested that we rename our Bugoff. It seems they have a trademark on the name. Our contest to rename the Bugoff is ongoing. We've gotten so many good suggestions we haven't chosen a winner yet. There's still time to send in your ideas. Remember the winner gets a $50 Coyote Cove gift certificate, and will be announced in the April newsletter. For now it's on the website as Insect Repellent. And, although the folks at SC Johnson seem to have overlooked our Deep Woods soap and spray, we thought it best to proactively change their names also. They're now called Green Forest. Same great woodsy scent, nothing has changed but the name.
Sincerely, Kathy Stephens
Coyote Cove |
Coyote Cove
PO Box 304
South Pittsburg, Tennessee 37380
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