I mentioned in my first post on this blog that I am new to soap making and my reasons for giving this a go. I have only ever used 'normal' store bought soaps so it occurred to me that I should probably try out a couple of handmade soaps so I have something more to compare mine to when they are ready for use. So I took to eBay... of course I ended up spending a silly amount of time browsing many different types (plus getting sidetracked with almost everything else on there!), but finally settled with a bar of homemade castile soap (olive oil, lye and water). This has been dispatched but shouldn't be too long in arriving, however once I get an idea in my head, I find it hard to be patient! So I went shopping...
The only shop (that I am aware of) near where I live that sells handmade soap is Lush, so I went there yesterday to have a look. I must confess that I have never been in this shop before as I have always been put off by the extremely strong fragrant smell that lingers outside as you walk past. On entering, I found the table of soaps and was pleased to see that beside each soap there was a sign listing all the ingredients of each. I quickly noticed that almost every soap contained sodium lauryl sulpfate (SLS) which is one of the many added synthetic substances in store soaps that I was hoping to avoid. SLS is a detergent and sufactant which basically acts as a foaming agent producing lather making the cleaning more effective. It is very cheap and can be present in reasonably high amounts in soaps and other cosmetic goods. The main reason I want to avoid SLS and other synthetic additives is that these can be irritants and I want to keep my soaps as simple and natural as possible.
Anyway, a very helpful sales assistant approached me as offered help. I told her that I was looking for something as natural as possible and wanted to avoid things such as SLS. She said that 'they' (lush I assumed - but did wonder if she was being a tad bold by speaking for whole company!) had tried making soap without SLS but it doesn't really work as SLS is actually the soap! I smiled politely but added that I would still prefer something without this, and it turned out that they did in fact have 2 soaps that were SLS free - despite what she had just told me! After some further discussion about colours and fragrances, I realised that I wasn't going to get anything that was simple and completely natural, but since I had now invested so much time and effort into this visit I wasn't going to leave empty handed! I opted for a bar of a green vegan soap called parsley porridge:
So home I went and after a trip to the gym, I ran a bath to try it out! The first thing I would say, is that the bar felt ever so slightly sticky... or perhaps a little oily. I was quite pleased about this as my own soaps that are curing, also currently feel very slightly oily to touch. The soap does have a very distinct smell... its quite a clinical smell, not unpleasant though. I found it lathered well and was quite pleasant to use, and I did feel and smell very clean by the end of my bath. I had left the soap in a soap dish but there must have been some water in the bottom of it, as when I went back in bathroom later there was a small green puddle of soap under the soap. This is prob to do with the softness of the bar, so I might see this with other handmade soaps. In summary though, I like the soap and seems to be fine on my sensitive skin (but its only been used twice so far!), but I am looking forward to testing the castile soap and comparing it to my own (which I made a batch of other night and hope to unmould later today!).
A final point... I was quite surprised at the price of the soaps in lush - although handmade and I would expect to pay more for a handmade bar, I was still shocked that the size of the bar I picked up cost me £5.44!
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