Thread: The Chemistry of Soap

As always great info, interesting read and very educational. Than you Colleen

WOW! Colleen, this is fantastic and starts to shed some light on why my skin reacts so strongly to some "Soap" and dry out so much. Thank-you so much for starting this thread, please keep the goods coming!

X

You Bet!

The first time I read that store bought soap....doesn't say "soap" on the label, I had to go look myself...and sure enough, it doesn't say soap! I about fell over. Our brains are conditioned to see it as "soap"...so we don't even look at the label anymore. Which I also thought was kinda interesting. Some strain of Psychological Marketing....

XXWarm Regards, Colleen

The trick is in our minds, the marketing just recognizes and capitalizes on it. I'll also have to take a look at it to satisfy my own curiosity lol.

Evenin Everybody!!

It doesn't seem like there would be much to say about Hard Water or Soft Water, unless you like to talk about Beer or Whiskey...lol. But we'll start with the water.

Hard Water is water that has a high mineral content (water with a low mineral content is known as soft water. This content usually consists of high levels of metal ions, mainly calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) in the form of carbonates, but may include several other metals as well as bicarbonates and sulfates. Generally causing a nuisance in the home from clogged pipes due to scaling, (mineral build up) and poor lather quality from bath and body products and household cleaning items.

The simplest way to determine if water is hard or soft is the lather/froth test. If the water is very soft, soap will tend to lather up easily when agitated, whereas with hard water it will not.

The precise mixture of minerals dissolved in the water, together with the water's acidity or alkalinity (ph) and temperature will determine the behaviour of the hardness, so a single number on a scale does not give a full description. Descriptions of hardness correspond roughly with ranges of mineral concentrations:

Soft: 0 - 20mg/L as calcium
Moderately soft: 20 - 40 mg/L as calcium
Slightly hard: 40 - 60 mg/L as calcium
Moderately hard: 60 - 80 mg/L as calcium
Hard : 80 - 120 mg/L as calcium
Very Hard: > 120 mg/L as calcium

*Now I'm pretty sure we all understand that Hardness of Water affects your shaving soaps and creams and of course bath soaps and shampoo's so I thought what would be interesting; was to list the quality of water for different areas.

HARD WATER IN AUSTRALIA

Association shows a range from very soft (Melbourne) to very hard (Adelaide). Total Hardness as Calcium Carbonate mg/L are: Melbourne: 11.3 - 14.0; Sydney: 39.4 - 60.1; Perth: 30 - 198; Brisbane: 100; Adelaide: 101-216; Hobart: 6 - 50; Darwin 22 - 38.

HARD WATER IN CANADA

The Laurentian shield does not leach many minerals into the water, resulting in very soft source and surface water. However, the moraine material on the which the prairie provinces are located (mainly Saskatchewan and Manitoba) contain high quantities of calcium and magnesium, often as dolemite, which are readily soluble in the groundwater that contains high concentrations of trapped carbon dioxide for the the last glaciation. In these parts of Canada, the total hardness in mg/L calcium carbonate equivalent frequently exceeds 200mg/L, if groundwater is the only source of potable water.

some typical values: Calgary 165mg/L, Saskatoon < 140 mg/L, Toronto 121 mg/L, and Vancouver < 5mg/L

HARD WATER IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Information from the British Drinking water Inspectorate www.dwi.gov.uk/ shows that drinking water in England is generally considered to be "very Hard", with most areas of England, particularly the East, exhibiting above 200 mg/L as calcium carbonate equivalent. Wales, Cornwall and parts of North-West England are softer water areas, and range from 0 to 200 mg/L. In the brewing industry in England and Wales, water is often deliberately hardened with gypsum in the process of **Burtonisation.

HARD WATER IN THE US

According to the United States Geological Survey, 85% of US homes have hard water. the softest waters occur in parts of the New England, South Atlantic-Gulf, Pacific Northeast, and Hawaii regions. Moderately hard waters are common in many of the rivers of the Tennessee, Great Lakes, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska regions. Hard and very Hard waters are found in some of the streams in most of the regions throughout the country. Hardest water (greater than 1,000 mg/L) are in streams in Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Arizona, and southern California.

ON A HAPPIER NOTE

Hard water is considered to be ideal for brewing certain styles of beer (compared to the pilsner style of beer, the brewing of which requires very soft water). In addition to beer, Kentucky's distinctive Bourbon whiskey owes its flavor in part to the high calcium content of its groundwater.

**Burtonisation comes from the name of the town "Burton upon Trent" which had several successful breweries due to the chemical composition of the local water. Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a large town straddling the River Trent in the east of Staffordshire, England. It originally grew up around the monastery of Saint Modwen, and had grown into a busy market town by the early modern period. It is said of Burton's great bridge over the Trent served as **" a comen passage to and fro many contrys to the grett releff and comfort of travellyng people", according to the abbot.

*but I expect it had something to do with the beer....

All above info comes the "Wikipedia"
Warm Regards, Colleen

Colleen, Thanks for this very useful info. I can vouch for the UK water, at least in the part we lived in - you wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) what we had to do to the toilet when we moved out of our flat - push the water past the s-bend, dump some sort of acid down there and scrub. Not that I shave in the toilet much anymore...

James.

Hey There!

I'm glad its of interest to folks. It certainly is an issue with shaving!!

Initially I was dumbfounded when a soap would work for one and yet not someone else! It wasn't until a few months in, that someone mentioned the "Hard Water" factor to me and then the light came on so to speak. When I was growing up we apparently shared the same Bathroom... lol. We had well water, and it was "Very Hard" so I know exactly what your talking about. And after moving into to town and being on "City Water" I never gave it another thought, until I came to the forum. Up until about six months ago, I thought if you were on City water then the water was treated so as to be moderately soft, but its apparent from the shaving stories that this is not the case.

I found the different levels of mg/L calcium carbonate for different areas to be of interest and thought you would too. I like to read quite a bit, and find lots of different articles on Soaps and Shaving that I hope will be of interest to Gents.

XXWarm Regards, Colleen

Colleen,
Thanks for your informative articles - very interesting reading!

For a future article, I would like to learn a little more about the actual soap making process (as I know absolutely nothing!).

Thanks

Thats a very timely request!

Next weekend, I'll start with commercial soap making and then go thru the different processes that home soapmakers use. Please remember that anything I write are articles from my research when I was learning to become a Soapmaker, and while I have a fairly good base of knowledge regarding the other methods of making soap, Cold Process is my forte'. I'll be sure to list my resources.

I'll probably post a few more glossary words, and then after all of that I can post a really simple cold process recipe for those of you who are more adventurous and you can try your own hand at making a little soap. (if anyone is interested) If you like to cook, you'll enjoy making soap.

XXWarm Regards, Colleen

Do you think it would be a good idea to collect these articles together into a tutorial or something?