Produced by Unilever, Dove soap is part of an extensive body care line that includes not only beauty bars but lotions, body washes, antiperspirants, hair and facial care products. First launched on the American market in 1955, Dove soap was initially produced in The Netherlands under the name of De Duif, which means the dove. Then and now this beauty bar is advertised as containing one fourth moisturizing cream, which explains the softness and hydration of the skin after usage. A dermatological study conducted in the late 70s confirmed the fact that Dove soap did not irritate or dry the skin the way regular soaps do.
Based on such scientific data, the company started an even more aggressive marketing promotion of Dove soap, winning over many other users. The composition of Dove soap as such has nothing impressive about it: the ingredients mainly include synthetic surfactants and some vegetable oil extracts. The good effects on the skin are associated primarily with the balanced pH of the soap that ranges somewhere between 6.5 and 7.5. Lots of Dove soap varieties are presently available on the market, each with a different specificity: there is Dove soap for dead cells exfoliation, Dove for sensitive skin, nourishing Dove, anti-aging Dove and several energy glow versions.
The skin re-hydration properties of Dove soap seem to be justified and proved if we think about how soft it leaves the skin afterwards. Unfortunately, this achievement is not the merit of some herbal or essential oil action but that of chemicals that act as foaming and wetting agents; this is the role played by the main ingredient in Dove soap: Sodium Cocyl Isethionate. The action of this component is supported by the fatty Stearic acid derived from plant and animal fats that cover the same emollient function. Therefore, the cream bar, as Dove soap is usually called may not totally justify its higher price.
Presently, there is a very intense Greenpeace campaign carried against Dove producers who are being criticized for purchasing palm oil supplies from Indonesian sources that massively deforest the South Asian globe areas. Greenpeace has even come up with some advertising parodies in which the Dove soap beauty instances are replaced by images from Indonesia, with trees being massively cut down. Yet, the solution is not that of changing customer’s mind about whether to buy or not but to get a modification in the company’s policy concerning ingredient supplies and suppliers.
The Western world uses glycerin soap only from the late 1850s but the manufacturing tradition may have been a lot older in the Eastern cultures. Glycerin soap has always been easy to recognize in comparison with other commercial products, thanks to its translucent look; yet, there are other properties that make such a compound stand out such as skin moisturizing for instance.
Glycerin soap is more expensive to produce, which is why many industrial soap manufacturers eliminate it from the production of basic commercial soap brands and only preserve it for the making of more exclusive and therefore luxurious items. The glycerin soap content prevents skin dryness and leaves the skin soft and smooth even in long term use; this is also the reason why most shaving soap brands rely on a high glycerin content.
High quality clear glycerin soap has a 15% or 20% glycerin concentration, and it is often known as the melt and pour soap because of the low melting point and the rapid solidification properties. However, the glycerin content has a downside too because such soap will dissolve a lot sooner as compared to commercial soap. Moreover, if you leave a bar of glycerin soap in open air it will attract moisture from the atmosphere.
Glycerin soap is translucent but not transparent, and if you come across such nice looking products, check the package and you’ll see that they contain alcohol or sorbitol, both with very unpleasant effects for the skin. This means that instead of hydrating the tissues, the soap will actually make it even drier. In order to be sure that you purchase a good glycerin soap, it is best to shop from stores that sell handcrafted products that read glycerin and herbs on the package.
To be sure that you really buy glycerin soap, always go for the handmade products that contain this substance abundantly. The hydration properties result from the fact that glycerin attracts moisture to the skin, not to mention that the compound is all natural and organic. Moreover, there is one other use of glycerin soap that has nothing to do with body cleaning: hobbyist crafts.
Lots of people choose glycerin soap for all sorts of carving projects since it is the softest soap to work with, not to mention that it can be remodeled by the melt and pour procedure we’ve touched upon briefly in the lines above. You can order the soap online in as large bars as you need, depending on the crafting purpose.
ABC soaps like General Hospital, Port Charles or All My Children make the largest television audience, for a particular viewer sector at daytime. There is glamor, richness, day-to-day disputes, love and betrayal, gain and loss, happiness and distress, in a mixture one doesn’t too often come across in real life. Besides the ABC soaps as such, there is a whole supportive media powered by people’s need to learn more. Thus, magazines and web pages tackle with the actors and actresses on the shows, providing sneak peeks into upcoming episodes or bringing more exciting news about various events related to the ABC soaps.
Interviews, quizzes, season story-line, recaps and plenty of other things are available on the official ABC soaps web site as well as in the pages of the ABC Soaps in Depth magazine. The soaps do come to an end eventually, but depending on the market success, some are broadcast for years on end, with new episodes being shot as the action moves on. The average viewers of ABC soaps are stay-at-home moms and retired people, and although women make the largest audience, statistics indicate there is also a large number of male viewers as well.
Photos, news videos and uploads are also available on the web page that tackles exclusively with ABC soaps. Moreover, you can watch some episodes online too, but actually their number is pretty limited, and they are usually meant as a form of promotion for new visitors on the web page who want to see what the ABC soaps are like. The interactive option is also available, meaning that you can post your questions or get in touch with people from the ABC team to obtain the information you need. Newsletters as well as the community parts of the site enjoy a good popularity level too.
The ABC soaps phenomenon has reached such an extent that there is an annual love fest organized for soap stars and fans at Disney World: this is the Super Soap Weekend, an event that has been around for thirteen years now. Moreover, from 2009, ABC plans to use stars for soap promotion in the Soap National Tour. Thus, daytime celebrities will visit various corners of the US all year round. In order to learn when they are getting to your town or neighborhood, check with the official ABC soaps site for details and events schedule.
Soap massage is very inviting if we think about how much we depend on a good bath for relaxation and vigor. Although often associated with sexual connotations and Thai massage salons, soap massage is a very common type of body care anyone can perform at home. Some soap manufacturers produce special types of soap that contains minerals and nutrients meant to eliminate the dead cell deposits and leave the skin soft and smooth. The effects of soap massage are also tributary to the calming action of warm water that eliminates the tension in the muscle and brings about a state of well-being.
In the Western world soap massage draws its popularity from the so-called Turkish Bath that was held in high esteem in many spas in the 20s. And since the first purpose of soap massage is the state of relaxation and the promotion of good health, only organic products should be chosen. The whole effect would be ruined if you rely on a detergent-based soap that would leave the skin drier afterwards, not to mention that fake smelling chemicals have absolutely no value for the matter. You can have a look on the Internet and see which are the soap brands most recommended for massage.
Coconut oil for instance works wonders for soap massage, it is totally organic and balancing for the skin thanks to the high vitamin E content. It is important that this ingredient be used in the extra virgin state so that all the nutrients may be preserved and passed into the massage soap. One doesn’t have to be a massage expert to discover the tense spots on the body; tension in the muscles is therefore the clue for the locations where you have to insist to relieve stress. It is worth mentioning the fact that soap massage should not be tiresome, therefore, stay as relaxed as possible, spread soap foam and knead the feet, the legs, the arms and the back.
Soap massage can also contribute to the detoxification of the pores, but for such a purpose the bar has to contain some scrub salts that eliminate the dead skin cells and the bad energies. The clear indicator of the soap massage efficiency is the state of well being after bathing; you’ll feel energized, less stressed and ready to enjoy everything that comes. You can choose to make the soap massage either in the morning to prepare for a tough day at work or in the evening to eliminate the tension accumulated over the day that often prevents good night rest.
Few people enjoy producing their soap at home while the majority prefer to leave it to professional manufacturers. Soap making is no longer in the same development stage as in the times of our forefathers; nowadays, the diversity of products both for organic and commercial soaps is so high that one wonders whether the market is not over-saturated. This is probably the reason why soap making is a flourishing business for those smart enough to bring an element of surprise to their products. In fact it is a long way to go from the detergent-based products to the aromatherapy to the spa and antibacterial soaps.
A popular modern soap making process is the cold method that involves a reaction between fat oils and lye. Some soap producers still use the melt-and-pour process, as this is also the only way to create the clear glycerin soap. The major differences obvious in soap making processes are actually those between the industrial and the handmade production. The former involves the extraction of glycerin at the end of the process, which usually leaves only a detergent or a not so skin-friendly kind of product. With handmade soap, the glycerin remains in the composition of the soap and it makes it a great moisturizing agent.
People who choose manual soap making need to be careful with dosing the amount of essential oils or lye in the composition of the soap since over-fattening is a common occurrence in non-professional soap production. The inconvenience of too fat soap is that it leaves the skin greasy as if you could not rinse it properly. A low lye quantity is another soap making mistake that could trigger the same over-fattening problem; therefore, make sure to stick to the right quantities and avoid improvisations and approximations.
Besides the basic soap making process, the purification and the finishing stages are just as important. In the industrial mode, these involve the removal of some chemical such as the sodium hydroxide as well as the removal of water as such. Only when the moisture level has reached a maximum 12% level is the soap dry enough for compacting and finishing. In industrial soap making this is in fact the stage when fragrances and all sorts of other ingredients are added to give homogeneity to the soap as such. Sand or pumice are sometimes blended in for those soaps meant to serve to exfoliation, or the elimination of the dead skin cells.
Homemade soap has regained much of its former glory with the large number of people interested in organic skin care products and great health promotion. Some even choose to make their own soap, as the recipes are plentiful and the ingredients required remain pretty easy to find and use. In industrial soap manufacturing, all the processes are automated including the determination of the right ingredients amount; variations or errors in dosing are rarities and usually caused by some technical failure. Not the same precision is possible with the homemade soap, which is why bars from different production lots can often be clearly distinguished.
Homemade soap is easy to make even in the absence of specialized equipment, which is why many individual soap makers will go for the cold processes that require no heating, and thus stay simple. For this process, the sodium or potassium hydroxide is mixed with lye and fat or essential oils. From case to case, homemade soap can be personalized by the adding of fragrances, herbs and all sorts of ingredients that often combine therapeutic effects with great scent. Once the making process is complete, the soap is poured into molds and left to harden for as long as necessary.
For the homemade soap produced by the hot process, the lye, the fats and oils are boiled and stirred until the composition reaches the right density. Afterwards, the solidification stage is sped up by adding a salty infusion to the mix. Moreover, the melt and pour method should be mentioned here since it is widely used for homemade soap. This is actually the easiest way to get the soap you like without the trouble of going through all the stages: a ready soap mix is melted and combined with various oils and herbal extracts, then poured in molds and left to dry and harden. Craftsmen often choose this procedure to create some very artistic soap shapes.
The first advantage of homemade soap is the low cost, but the health dimension is surely the more important. In fact, high quality homemade soap is not only skin-friendly, but it also contributes to the fight against all sorts of dermatological conditions such as acne, psoriasis, eczema, fungal infections at the nails level and so on. The therapeutic efficiency becomes more significant when the concentration of herbs and essential oils is higher. Therefore, when you order or buy homemade soap, check the ingredients first and foremost to get an idea about the expected efficiency.
People who’d go for making soap at home ought to be aware of some tips, tricks and techniques on which the success of the project depends. In case you have never made soap before, you should first run a short but conclusive experiment and test a basic soap recipe on a small quantity of ingredients. If you are a more experienced soap maker, then, in the preparatory stage you need to decide what color and fragrance you want to give to the soap. Then, make all the calculations for the lye-fat proportions to insure a good consistency of the finite product. The tools are very important and there should be nothing missing once you start the concoction.
The most common equipment items when making soap include spoons, pots, gloves, molds or containers, as well as the oil, the fats and the lye. Variations are possible depending on the soap making technique, thus, the hot procedure will usually require more items than the cold one. Making soap definitely involves a lot of attention too since the caustic soda or the lye used in the composition could be very toxic when fumes are inhaled. Moreover, if any of these chemicals come into direct contact with the skin, they burn the tissues with the risk of causing serious tissue damage.
Making soap involves some hand rolling in case you do not use molds and you stick to the cold method. Many home business owners produce very high quality soap as the ingredients they use are many times purer and in the organic form. Thus, when making soap at home one can add essential oils, natural glycerin, herbal extracts, milk, honey, algae, natural fragrances and other elements that give the finite product superior skin care properties. Although the cost of handmade soap is often higher, the price is worth paying if you get to use something natural and chemical free.
In case making soap is not an individual option for you, the range of choices is not at all limited. On the contrary, the possibilities to buy quality bars are manifold. Plus, the variety and abundance of brands on the market make the selection even easier. One can go for the all-natural labels or stick to the commercial soaps that are by far a lot more numerous than the rest. The difference between natural and commercial is noticeable after using a soap bar just once as you’ll feel the skin moist or dry depending on the skin care product used.
Until lye became available in regular household supply stores, lye soap was produced with ingredients available at home. Lye was made from the wood ashes remaining in the stoves, while lard, another basic ingredient necessary for soap making came from the hogs usually killed in fall to create a meat source over the winter. Lye has very powerful caustic properties and this is the reason why it has been banned from many states because of the danger it poses to the skin. Yet, well-made lye soap uses a carefully established amount of lye that is not too concentrated for the soap to burn the skin nor too little to prevent it from reaching the necessary hardness.
Lye soap is made by mixing lard and lye over an intense heat source; the process involves continuous stirring, and it could extend over several hours. When the boiling process gets complete, the lye soap is poured into metal, wood, glass or plastic molds where it is left to dry and harden. This remaining part of the process could last up to a month. Afterwards, the lye soap is good to use for a variety of purposes, and it is according to the household needs that one chooses to cut larger or smaller soap bars.
Lye soap is more and more rarely produced at home due to the huge amount of work it involves. You can nevertheless find it with soap manufacturers that sell their products in specialty bath shops or on Internet sites. The classic lard-based recipe of the lye soap is often substituted by the variant with vegetable oils and fragrances included that not only clean but also soothe the skin. Coconut, jojoba and aloe oils and extracts are just a few examples of the lard substitutes available with many skin care products.
Besides the basic cleaning properties, there are some further advantages to the use of lye soap. Thus, it is well known that the use of lye soap reduces the itching caused by insect bites, but it is also recommended in the treatment of dermatological skin conditions such as psoriasis, acne, eczema or athlete’s foot. Last but not least, many people still hold lye soap in high esteem and prefer it for clothes bleaching and stain removal. In this form it is considered more suitable than other rather harmful bleaching agents that could deteriorate the fabric and cause skin problems too.
Milk has always been known for its great effects in the care of dry skin types. As a matter of fact, in the past, people who could afford it, bathed in milk to preserve youth or make the skin soft. Nowadays, the nutrients in goats milk, for instance, have long been under study in the skin care manufacturing world, so that this rather basic dairy product becomes an active principle for a wide range of beauty treatments. From goats milk soap to creams, lotions and shower gels, the range of choices is impressive.
Goats milk soap makes an excellent choice for anyone interested in providing the best skin care possible. Many handmade soap types include goats milk among the ingredients because this component has great moisturizing properties thanks to the high content of lipids. Moreover, goats milk soap also contains a significant amount of proteins, vitamins and minerals that increases skin softness and reduces the dryness discomfort during the cold season.
There are other ingredients in goats milk soap that contribute to the quality of the product, but most of the time the blend varies from one recipe to another. Thus, coconut oil, Shea butter and palm kernel oil are some of the basic elements to complement goats milk in the composition, while clays, honey, herbs, natural clays and oatmeal make the modern alternative to classic soaps. Yet, one should be aware of the difference between milk and goats milk in the composition of skincare products.
Thus, milk in general contains proteins, lactic acid and vitamins A and D that bring strength and smoothness to the skin. However, goats milk soap is favored over other milk-based products due to its high tolerance level: it has the closest pH to human skin and it can be safely used by people with allergies to cow’s milk. In fact, even as a basic food, goats milk is better tolerated given the resemblance to human milk in the small molecular structure.
One further aspect that deserves a shopper’s or user’s attention is the rest of the composition in a goats milk soap, since milk alone is not enough to make soap, and the preponderance of other ingredients is pretty high. Always read the label or the package and see what else the product contains and what exactly the concentration of goats milk is. This will give you a clue about how soft the soap is and whether it is appropriate for your type of skin.
People willing to learn how to make soap can choose from free Internet instructions, tutorials, e-guides, books and real classes, as methods to get the knowledge of the various steps necessary for very basic soap production. Who wants to know how to make soap? You’d be surprised to know how many people are interested in personal soap production for the sake of living a healthier life. There is quite a trend to produce soap at home for family use as this is considered the more economic, organic and environmental alternative to commercial, detergent-based soap. In some cases, soap making can evolve to a real home business depending on the availability, skills and goals of the maker.
A common tutorial or training program that teaches how to make soap basically covers common recipes, hot and cold manufacturing techniques as well as crafting. People are often interested in the more special recipes that imply the use of herbs, essential oils and other nutrient extracts that promote good skin health. Thus, among the most popular soap recipes, you’ll often common across Shea butter soap recipes, salt-body scrub soap recipes as well as spa mineral soap tips. Once you know how to make soap, improvisations are possible and the variations appear more than doable.
Many soap making businesses nowadays owe their reputation to some small workshops where their forefathers knew how to make soap and taught others the basics of the craft. It is pretty easy to imagine how the industry actually grew out in time so that the market is not dominated by large industrials, although there remains room enough for smaller producers to sell their handmade products too. Anyone can learn how to make soap, but they should know that it takes time and patience to prepare everything and get some nice organic bars.
In case you take the tips for how to make soap from the Internet, make sure to check their reliability from several sources to make sure that you got it all right. Sometimes, beginners make common mistakes such as adding too much lye or too much fat and oils. The results may therefore not be the expected ones, but persistence in developing the skills for the craft may be very rewarding when you have great scented bars to offer to your family. As for books that teach how to make soap, they should also be carefully consulted at least for the first few times you melt and pour.
