Turn over almost any bar of soap and you will find an ingredient list. On some it is long and hard to pronounce. On others it is short. Most people never read it, and that is understandable, because the labels are not written to be easy.
We think it is worth a minute, though. A soap label can tell you a fair amount about what you are buying, if you know what to look for. Here is how we read one, using our own Heritage Bar as the example.
First, Is It Soap?
This sounds like a strange question, but many of the bars sold for washing are not technically soap. Soap is made by reacting fats or oils with lye. A lot of store bars are made from synthetic detergents instead, and they are often labeled as a "beauty bar," "cleansing bar" or "body bar" rather than soap.
Neither one is a moral failing. They are simply different products. If you want to know which you have, look at the ingredients. True soap will list a lye, such as sodium hydroxide, or fats in their saponified form, such as sodium tallowate or sodium cocoate. A detergent bar will usually begin with longer chemical names you won't find in a kitchen.
Read the Order
Ingredients are generally listed from the largest amount to the smallest. Whatever comes first makes up most of the bar. On the Heritage Bar the list begins with tallow, then coconut oil, olive oil, castor oil, shea butter and beeswax. That tells you the bar is built mostly on fats, with tallow doing the heaviest lifting.
Further down are the things used in smaller amounts. For us that means sodium hydroxide (lye), milk, colloidal oatmeal and essential oils. If you want to understand why lye is on the list at all, we wrote about it in Issue No. 6.
Look at How It's Scented
Scent is one of the places labels differ most. Many bars list only "fragrance" or "parfum," a single word that can stand for a blend the maker doesn't have to spell out. Others list essential oils by name.
We scent with essential oils only, and we name them. The Heritage Bar uses sweet orange, lavender and cedarwood. The Rugged Coast Bar uses cedarwood, Siberian fir, sweet orange, lavender and Haitian vetiver. You may prefer one style of scenting or the other. Either way, it helps to know which one you are buying.
Notice How Long the List Is
A long list is not automatically bad, and a short one is not automatically good. But a short list is easier to understand. You can read each item and know roughly what it is and why it is there. We keep ours short on purpose, because we would rather be able to explain every ingredient than ask you to take it on trust.
What the Label Won't Tell You
Some of the most important things about a bar aren't on the ingredient list at all. A label won't tell you how the soap was made, how long it was cured, or who made it. Those details are usually found on the maker's website, or by asking.
For our part, every bar is cold process, made in small batches in Greenville, SC, cured a full eight weeks and beveled by hand. Andrea makes the soap. Zach helps in the workshop and writes these issues. If you have a question about a bar, you can ask the people who made it.
Weight and Size
One more practical thing to check is the weight. Bars vary more than you might expect, and price only means something next to size. The Heritage Bar is 5 oz for $12, and the Rugged Coast Bar is 5 oz for $15. Comparing price per ounce is a fair way to see what you are actually paying for.
A Word of Caution
Reading a label can tell you what is in a bar. It can't tell you how that bar will suit your skin. We can't tell you that either. If you have concerns, patch test first and ask your doctor.
Reading Ours
The next time you pick up a bar, ours or anyone else's, take a moment with the back of the box. Is it soap? What is it made from? How is it scented? It only takes a minute, and you will know more about what you are buying.
If you would like to practice on ours, the full ingredient lists are on each product page in the shop.
Welcome back to The Provision Press, our journal of craft, intention, and the art of making things well.
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