Thread: Greener Soaps?

Originally Posted by LuckyCynic

Currently I use Williams. I am just starting out so I think that Williams and the boar bristle brush are excusable while I familiarize myself and practice on working on necessary skills.

Also I know that palm oil is not good stuff at all. IIRC, Palm Oil is also known as Sodium Lauryl Sulfate.

Why is palm oil bad? Palm oil is natural and comes from sustainable farming operations. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is NOT palm oil, it is not even related to palm oil, it is produced by reacting lauryl alcohol with sulfuric acid. It is a surfactant, and may be used in place of or in addtion to soap in some products, but it is not soap, and not palm oil. Palm oil is often used to make soaps because it produces a hard cake. Once the oil has been saponified, it is usually referred to as sodium palmate.

Originally Posted by fccexpert

Why is palm oil bad? Palm oil is natural and comes from sustainable farming operations. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is NOT palm oil, it is not even related to palm oil, it is produced by reacting lauryl alcohol with sulfuric acid. It is a surfactant, and may be used in place of or in addtion to soap in some products, but it is not soap, and not palm oil. Palm oil is often used to make soaps because it produces a hard cake. Once the oil has been saponified, it is usually referred to as sodium palmate.

No it does not. I know that Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is used a lot in tooth pastes and somehow there is a connection or that it is derived from palm oil. Palm oil is not always sustainable and as people consume more and more of it, more and more forests are cut down to grow the palm needed and thus aminal habitats are thrown right out the window.

Ah here we are!

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate | Seventh Generation

Palm oil bad, as is most SLS.

Originally Posted by LuckyCynic

No it does not. I know that Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is used a lot in tooth pastes and somehow there is a connection or that it is derived from palm oil. Palm oil is not always sustainable and as people consume more and more of it, more and more forests are cut down to grow the palm needed and thus aminal habitats are thrown right out the window.

Ah here we are!

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate | Seventh Generation

Palm oil bad, as is most SLS.

I suppose you could buy free trade, forest safe Palm oil... but any oils salable for mass market requires quantities that necessitate farming.

That means deforestation of native plants in favor of your crop plant. Kind of a losing proposition really.

As far as "green hones" goes...get a vintage from ebay or someone on the forums. It's the ultimate in recycling!

Originally Posted by LuckyCynic

No it does not. I know that Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is used a lot in tooth pastes and somehow there is a connection or that it is derived from palm oil. Palm oil is not always sustainable and as people consume more and more of it, more and more forests are cut down to grow the palm needed and thus aminal habitats are thrown right out the window.

Ah here we are!

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate | Seventh Generation

Palm oil bad, as is most SLS.

Any fat (vegetable oil) that is produced in commercial quantities is going to be produced in farms, and to get these farms, land must be cleared of its natural vegitation and planted with the economic crop. It does not matter if it is palm oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, or rapeseed oil, it all comes from a farm and farms are pretty much the same the world over. I don't see how palm farms are any different.

All I said was that sodium lauryl sulfate is not palm oil (you said it was). Lauryl alcohol, one of the chemicals used to make sodium lauryl sulfate can be produced from palm oil, or coconut oil, but then so can soap. The soap is not palm oil, and neither is sodium lauryl sulfate.

If you don't want to use products that contain palm oil, that is your right. I just don't think it makes much sense to single out palm oil since it is no more or less "green" than any other commercially produced vegetable oil. Hence, the designation of palm oil = bad is silly at best.

Originally Posted by LuckyCynic

{snip}

Also about the Body Shop's cream... can that be applied with a brush? I tried another shaving 'cream' and it just would not lather up so I thought that it wasn't made with that in mind... don't want to have to buy a whole can of the stuff and find out that it renders my brush useless...

The Body Shop Maca Root cream is an EXCELLENT brush cream. I would put it up with the top English creams in terms of quality.

Wood ash plus water = base
Rendered animal fat = oil

Mix together in the right proportions with heat till the fat sopinifies.

You could use the ashes from your wood fire for rendering the fat.

It does not get greener than that.

Charlie

Originally Posted by JimR

The Body Shop Maca Root cream is an EXCELLENT brush cream. I would put it up with the top English creams in terms of quality.

Okay guys I just came back from the mall. Thankfully I live like 9 miles away from a huge major mall and it has all sorts of really high end and nice stores. There's a Lush which carries a lot of green products but not much for shaving. There is also The Body Shop which I got to feel their nice synthetic brush which was good, especially for $11 and their cream looks good too. I also went to a crabtree and evalyn which frankly was nothing I was looking for. Hardly anything was natural or organic and everything was still pricey... still, I got to check out their brushes and I saw the "best" badger hair brush for $35 which seems quite popular but the synthetic from Body Shop seemed softer... more springy, but definitely comparable.


Now what sucks is that I am stuck with my $7 boar hair brush that I JUST bought. :P

Oh well, maybe I can move it or hand it off to someone here. But yeah, I think I would definitely like to work with a Body Shop line of soaps and products. They aren't 100% organic or natural, but they sure are better than other companies out there and they aren't "Bleeding from the eyes" expensive either!

So okay guys, a bit of an update. I managed to go to the mall which I am thankful that I have a huge one near by that has all kinds of exotic and nice stores.

I checked out Lush for soapy goodness and they hardly have anything appropriate for this type of shaving. However, the Body shop had what felt like a really good synthetic for $11 and it was really nice and soft and worth it I felt. Also it seems that their shaving cream would be a best bet because they do have one that actually lathers up. Then I checked out a Crabtree and evelyn store which hardly had stuff that appealed to me. Hardly anything in that store was green or all natural or organic or anything, though they did have their $35 "Best" badger hair brush but it wasn't particularly softer then the Body Shop's.

Trouble is, I have a whole bar of Williams to work through and also this new boar hair brush... $8 from a drug store but I fear that if I get my synthetic, then I doubt it would get much use... oh well. Maybe I can offer it to someone here if they want it.

Originally Posted by LuckyCynic

So okay guys, a bit of an update. I managed to go to the mall which I am thankful that I have a huge one near by that has all kinds of exotic and nice stores.

I checked out Lush for soapy goodness and they hardly have anything appropriate for this type of shaving. However, the Body shop had what felt like a really good synthetic for $11 and it was really nice and soft and worth it I felt. Also it seems that their shaving cream would be a best bet because they do have one that actually lathers up. Then I checked out a Crabtree and evelyn store which hardly had stuff that appealed to me. Hardly anything in that store was green or all natural or organic or anything, though they did have their $35 "Best" badger hair brush but it wasn't particularly softer then the Body Shop's.

Trouble is, I have a whole bar of Williams to work through and also this new boar hair brush... $8 from a drug store but I fear that if I get my synthetic, then I doubt it would get much use... oh well. Maybe I can offer it to someone here if they want it.

LuckyCynic, get the Body Shop cream (I put a link to my review in my previous post, but didn't make it obvious--looking back, that was a bad move, sorry. try clicking the word "cream"--I love that stuff, more than most people probably), and use the Williams in the shower or as a face wash or something (there's also no law against trading off between cream one day, and soap the next). Your face will thank you for it, and you won't be wasting anything. As for the boar brush--keep it for travel or give it to a newb in need if you'd rather use the synthetic. There are plenty of people who need a starter brush!

The C&E BBB is actually a very popular, and fairly high quality, brush. It's made by Edwin Jagger, a good old English Brand. It was too soft for me (I much prefer Boar to badger...but don't tell on me! ) but many people love it. If you catch one of C&E's frequent sales, you can often get it for less than $30, though if yoU7re worried about animal issues then I would certainy not recommend using badger--they are harvested in China, and no matter what anyone tells me about "humane harvesting" and "people eat them", I have no faith in Chinese animal husbandry and humane treatment.

Thanks Jim. I did see your review and thought it was pretty extensive. I think I am pretty much decided that I will go ahead and just grab everything from the Body Shop. It is like $40 for the brush, a huge tub of cream and also a tube of balm... Not bad at all.