Thread: Greener Soaps?

Hey there guys, I'm still fairly new around here and the hobby of straight razor shaving. One of the bigger reasons why I am attracted to the old school art of straight razor shaving is because it is so green. No blades or cartridges to have to buy and then later throw away, so it saves money and also time and effort.

Now I am still exploring the world of straight razors but I was curious if there were any greener soaps for lathering up available? I say greener because I don't think anything can be truly green by being 100% organic and natural and made from sustainable sources and performs well. Its like asking for your cake and eating it too, just looking for something a little bit more natural than whats already offered unless the stuff I already use is already fairly green considering it seems like many of these soaps are no-nonesense in their manufacturing processes.

Any suggestions?

What are you using now?
I would recommend non-palm oil (palm oil bad!) based soaps, and maybe try to get some of the Fitjar soaps from Norway--they seem to be very environmentally conscious.

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.

There are of course two schools of thought on this

1) manufacture the soaps on industrial scale - that brings the cost down which is also lesser enviromental impact (the cost of doing nothing is zero and that nothing has of course no impact whatsoever on the environment by definition)

2) get it from a small manufacturer - usually they are more conscious about the quality of the soap, the ingredients and the process. being made on a much smaller scale and without the necessity for lowest cost and highest profits allows use of more natural ingredients.

of course it's almost impossible to rank various soaps by that quality, since there is so much going into it and things can vary. going to a manufacturer who advertises 'green' is one option, as long as you actually believe they know what they're doing and there's some substance behind the marketing. of course if those soaps have to be shipped to you from the other side of the world even if they're really green over there, they'll probably be considered pretty gray by the time they land in your bathroom.

colleen @ thegentlemensquarter.com makes really nice soaps and i believe she grows some of the stuff herself. not the main ingredients though - the fat and the lye. i think last year she was considering getting some certificate for 'all natural' or something of that sort. if you have time check her thread in the vendors corner - it's easy to spot it's the longest running thread on srp

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.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "excusable". Boars are certainly a renewable resource; and Williams, being tallow based, is probably mostly fairly low impact. Unless, of course, you're a vegan, in which case you have some soul searching to do.

I'm just not too into animal products. For some necessary things like a leather strop where a synthetic would be difficult, I won't complain too much but having beef fat (tallow) in my soap is kinda "ew" in my opinion and as far as I have gathered, synthetic brushes work somewhat in between the stiff boar hair and the soft badger hair, but retain the water well as if badger hair.

*shrugs* I'm just looking to make the best choice knowing that someone somewhere has to lose. Either a badger goes bye bye, or some nylon from the brush lasts for a thousand years, refusing to decompose. :P

But the point of this thread was just finding greener and hopefully cleaner products. Right now I am checking into "method shaving" and it seems to appeal to my intentions.

Okay! A bit of an update. It seems Method shaving is probably not right for me. While it does put an emphasis on more organic and less artificial products, it requires even more products than not going with this particular method and besides, many of these products have palm oil and require one another... a shame, it looked promising. -_-;

I suppose I will just now pretend that I did not even consider Method shaving and continue learning stuff as you guys preach it. I guess now my goal in a soap is to A: Go sans Tallow, B: The closer/more convenient the better, C: More natural goodies, less artificial crap, and D: preferably decent packaging, no super thick plastic shrink wrap around a thick plastic bottle. I know I must sound kinda whiny about this but I'm just trying to make a good choice out of what seems to be an ocean of products.

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!