Thread: Best Natural Soaps for Hippies Like Me ?

I work on the administrative end of hazardous waste as well. What exactly are you looking for in a "natural" soap.

All soap out there will have Lye (either NaOH or KOH) so thats not much of an option to leave out. Some of the creams have Potassium Carbonate which is also an alkali, but is mainly used to help keep the soap more fluid. Even fewer creams will have Sodium Lactate in them, which helps impart creamyness (sp?).

From there you can choose if you want a soap with animal products or not. Tallow (predominately beef sourced) and Lard (pig sourced) make for great shaving soaps, but thanks to modern chemistry we have isolated the "good aspects" of these and can source these from plant concentrates (such as stearic acid.... which can also be sourced from animals so read the labels well). Coconut and Palm oil are very good plant based oils for shaving soaps. Castor oil is a popular addition, but is usually only a small percentage.

Finally, you have your coloring and scents. From what I have observed, most wwet shavers are not as concerned about the color of thier shaving soap/cream as they are about the performance and scent. Scent additives are an area I haven't spent much time looking at yet, but a lot of the options are man made and not extracted from actual fruits, flowers, or animals.

There is also the addition of clays, butters, and others but I have rambled a bit much as it is.

Definitely try out Queen Charlotte Soaps! You can see their list of ingredients here

There is one chemical that you definitely want to avoid and that is Dihydrogen Monoxide.
Go to DHMO.org to learn how you can protect yourself.

You ALMOST got me with that!

Originally Posted by Utopian

There is one chemical that you definitely want to avoid and that is Dihydrogen Monoxide.
Go to DHMO.org to learn how you can protect yourself.

Los Angeles Soap Company makes vegan shave soap products. Havent tried it myself yet though

I couldn't help but think of this after reading this thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7Z2BWjpZSo

Thanks MattCB,

I knew that "natural" would be a vague term, but I just wanted to get the ball rolling on some brands I could research. I'm no chemist, nor do I deal on the remedial side (so not as smart as the scientist minds out there). I deal with legal/liability issues in Superfund, but generally I try to stay away from ingredients I'm not too familiar with, or haven't really researched yet. My Mom is battling cancer and I'm trying to just be more aware of things I use on my body (puts things into perspective).

Thanks again for your thoughts. If you ever want to ramble on about any of this, I'd love to hear it. I'm a newbie in this process and anything helps.

Darren