FACT FILES ON HANDMADE, PURE ORGANIC SOAP

There’s my brain searching and sifting for relevant information again, and it’s fired back this children’s lullaby immediately…possibly as an appropriate parody- in that what you pay for, is not always what you get.

I raised the issue over dog shampoo effectively being a rip-off in my opinion, briefly last week. Product marketing has led us to believe that a dog’s skin is particularly ‘sensitive’. The pH of dog skin falls within the range of 6.2-8.62 (pH 7.3 average), depending on the breed of dog. A German Shepherd dog has a more alkaline skin than a Maltese Terrier dog for example- but for this purpose, we'll go with the average pH value.

The accepted neutrality point on a pH scale is water at 7- although be wary of bottled water brands, as tests have indicated readings as low as pH 4. Anything below pH 7 is acidic- anything above, is alkaline.

Human skin has a pH range of 4.5-6, depending on ethnicity, area on body and diet. Therefore, if you were to use a shampoo pH balanced for our use, the product would be too acidic for a dog’s skin and cause irritation. It’s not that a dog’s skin is ‘sensitive’ as such- as you’ve just seen, a dog’s skin is closer in range to being of neutral pH than human skin is.

This is why I believe that we’ve all been manipulated through commercial marketing. Commercial shampoos, soaps, body washes, dishwashing liquids, clothes washes etc are all based on petrochemical by-products. There’s not a hell of a lot of difference in the base product- it’s how they are then chemically manipulated for a desired purpose that achieves the end product. All of these products are synthetic detergent based.

What’s that…detergent based? Hmm…wonder what the pH of detergent/dishwashing liquid is? The pH values vary between brands, but the pH value of Palmolive dishwashing liquid happens to be 7.3. Isn’t that interesting…dishwashing liquid would be perfectly suitable for use on a dog’s skin (pH 7.3 average) as a shampoo! A commercial dog shampoo might have some other beneficial ingredients blended in, but you’re essentially buying dishwashing detergent at a dramatically increased price…the power of marketing and manipulation!

I’ve been manipulated by the marketing…spending a small fortune on dog products. I wouldn’t have considered paying the associated prices for our own shampoos…but for our dog, I did without hesitation because her ‘sensitive skin’ required 'specialised' care! Then one day, I was sold a neem oil based soap as the latest and greatest dog grooming product. It was expensive too- about three times the price for weight over our organic soaps…yet I handed over the cash on the premise of it being a specialised dog care product.

So I washed our dog Lucy with this neem oil soap. It was highly fragranced, didn’t lather very well, and did nothing to improve her irritated skin or coat condition.

By this time, I’d been making organic soap for a long time for our personal use. I took a step back and read the neem soap ingredients, and realised that I’d been manipulated into buying a cheap, commercial soap- no different to that sold for us at the supermarket- with a small amount of neem oil thrown into the mix. In fact, later I would realise- after making our own organic neem seed oil soap and becoming experienced with the strong odour of neem oil- that the percentage of added neem oil in the soap must have been very minimal, or an extreme amount of cheap fragrance compounds were added to mask the odour. Neem oil has a unique and strong odour...reminiscent of fried curry powder with onions!

It was at this point that I took a step back and actually researched the pH range of dog skin…and what an eye-opening exercise that was, as you’ve seen. A far superior product to wash our dog with would have been our organic soaps...any of them! Our neem seed oil soap has the maximum amount of neem seed oil added that is recommended in an oil blend for soap. Soap generally has a pH of 9- higher than that of dog skin…but that didn’t seem to be of any concern by the manufacturers of the commercial ‘neem’ dog soap that I’d purchased. There was nothing in the ingredients that would have altered the achieved pH of the soap. So they were hanging their claims on the benefits offered by the neem oil only in their marketing.

Given the above, I’d recommend using our ‘nimi’ organic soap as a dog wash for the natural properties that neem seed oil offers: antiviral, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, antimicrobial, anti-septic, insecticidal and a skin soother through its various fatty acids. Following the bath and rinsing, I’d recommend applying a mix of 100 mL apple cider vinegar in 400 mL water in a nozzled sauce bottle, and working it through the coat evenly whilst the coat is still wet. This will reduce the final pH, and also act as a natural flea deterrent. The vinegar smell will dissipate when the coat is dry.

However, if you’d prefer to mix up a cheap dog shampoo, to 200 mL of water in an old squirter/shampoo bottle, add 1 tspn Palmolive dishwashing liquid and 1/2 tspn vegetable glycerine- shake well to mix. You could also add 1 tblspn of pure aloe vera gel as a skin soother. I don’t recommend this option though because the dishwashing liquid is a petrochemical…but your choice. Hmm…I’ve paid $20-30/200-250 mL for dog shampoos! Aren't you feeling incredibly manipulated through commercial marketing now?

Back to the lullaby, Hush Little Baby- I must have sung this lullaby to our children hundreds of times during their infancy…
”If that diamond ring turns brass,
Mama’s gonna buy you a looking glass.”
Indeed!

FACT FILES ON HANDMADE, PURE ORGANIC SOAP

Guess you’re wondering what the title has to do with soap. Nothing- it’s just how my brain associates things…sorting and sifting information- this time centred around numbers and pH values of personal care products…numbers being the associating factor.

The Thunderbirds TV series is a favourite from my husband’s childhood…that continues. A few years back, the series was being screened at 4.30 AM on Saturday mornings…so we’d go to bed with the TV tuned in. BAM...the minute the introduction countdown would begin, he’d be bolt upright and alert. This response was from a man who sleeps through our security system alarm blasting the neighbourhood…but to the sound of “5-4…”, he’d be wide awake in anticipation- imagining he’s Scott Tracy (TB1 pilot, modelled on Sean Connery). He sees me as Lady Penelope without question…a female puppet version of MacGyver in his eyes. I don't know whether I should take that as a compliment or not. I believe my husband’s dream job would have been as a set/model maker for this series.

We had a market customer on Sunday who bought our soaps for a neighbour’s son to try in the management of his eczema. “Eczema”…it’s a tag placed against a very broad range of largely unidentified skin rashes. Most skin irritations can be sourced back to metabolic issues- usually food allergies. Anything applied topically might assist in soothing skin irritations, but the problem will not be resolved until the source of irritation is identified through the skilled resources of a competent nutritional and environmental doctor.

Other factors leading to skin problems can indeed be irritations caused by personal care product ingredients. The customer above said that her neighbour was about to try ‘baby soap’ on her son. I mentioned in the last blog that I’d done an ingredient analysis of many commercial soaps- one of which is JOHNSON’S “Baby Soap”, as listed:
- Sodium Palmate- saponified palm oil
- Sodium Palm Kernelate- saponified palm kernel oil
- Mineral Oil- petrochemical
- Fragrance
- Titanium Dioxide- white pigment
- Water
- Tetrasodium EDTA- synthetic chelating agent- skin irritant, allergen & suspected carcinogen
- Etidronic Acid- bisphosphonate & chelating agent- skin irritant

Its main ingredients are cheap, harsh palm oils- in combination with the petrochemical irritant mineral oil- further enhanced by fragrance irritants of an unidentified source, to conceal the smell- with a potential carcinogen added, to combine the ingredients successfully. Hmm…does that really sound like something that you want to use on your baby now that you can identify what the ingredients actually are?

I don’t know if they still do it, but I remember being given a gift pack of baby products when leaving the hospital after having our children. I was told that these were the best and only products that I should use on my babies. Oh, to have the opportunity for an encore in life over that moment, knowing what I now know! We generally accept what we are told by those supposedly in authority of a subject. We accept, as they accept, nothing more than marketing blurb put forward by commercial companies- put forward by artful copywriters, to promote a product to the retail market. Oh dear- I started my career in Graphic Design/Advertising. One core subject of study was Copywriting- trust me, there’s nothing substantial to the process beyond the creative use of words…”secret ingredient XPY will…”

Marketing has led us to believe that baby’s skin is “delicate” requiring “gentle, mild” product ingredients. Shall we reflect on the ingredients in JOHNSON’S Baby Soap again? A very simple relevant fact is that baby’s skin actually has a pH 7…the same as water- the neutrality point on a pH scale. Adult skin has a pH range of 4.5-6 - depending on diet, ethnicity and the body area. So if marketing were to be true with reference to pH scales, a more appropriate statement to make with regards to personal care products would alternatively be “Harsh enough for use on adult skin”!

Other pH values to reflect on: human blood pH 7.4, dog skin pH range 6.2-8.62 depending on breed (pH 7.3 average), dishwashing liquid pH 7.3 (Palmolive), black coffee pH 5. Are you noticing something? Despite all the marketing claims used for baby and dog care products, dishwashing liquid would prove a good pH match to use on their skins. Hmm…guess that’s a bit alarming to promote- especially when two thriving, profitable industries have been built around specialist care products- promoting these skins as being sensitive and delicate.

However, we would not recommend using dishwashing detergent in either scenario, mainly because of its toxic petrochemical ingredients- but that is essentially what you are buying as the ingredients in these products. If I told you that instead of paying $20 for that 250mL bottle of dog shampoo, that you could make your own at a cost of lets say 10c a bottle maximum…you’d be feeling a little manipulated, cheated and angry- more on that next week!

Soap has a pH 9…alkaline in range. There are two outlooks with regards to the pH value of personal care products. Adult skin is in fact acidic. Most argue that any higher variation to this range creates a breeding ground for bacteria. Others argue that bacteria can’t breed within a more alkaline range. I’m a supporter of alkaline ranges for health generally.

Very simply, commercial products that have been “pH adjusted” have had other chemicals added to reduce the end pH value…further adding to the chemical cocktail. One chemical produces undesirable side effects, so another is added to buffer it. Those 'gentle' baby shampoos that don't sting 'sensitive' eyes have another chemical buffer added to do so. Somehow, I find it alarming that products are produced that intentionally negate the natural instinct to protect one's eyes from a chemical element by closing them. No matter what the pH range of a product is, the skin will regain its natural pH again within 2 hours of use.

Here’s an ingredient list of another commercial product, frequently recommended for use on irritated skin-

REDWIN “Sorbolene Body Wash”, as listed:
- Water
- Sodium Laureth Sulphate- synthetic foaming agent & surfactant- skin irritant
- Ammonium Lauryl Sulphate- synthetic foaming agent & surfactant- skin irritant
- Glycerin- synthetic petrochemical
- Cocamidopropyl Betaine- synthetic surfactant
- Sorbitol- sugar alcohol & humectant
- Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate- synthetic surfactant- skin irritant
- Cocamide DEA-synthetic surfactant
- Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer-polyester resin- skin irritant
- Sodium Chloride- salt
- PEG-7 glycerol Cocoate- synthetic binder- skin irritant
- Citric Acid- organic acid & chelating agent
- Triticum Vulgare (Wheat Germ) Oil- but at this end of the descending listing, it's an insignificant amount to achieve any benefit
- Tertasodium EDTApolyamino carboxylic acid & chelating agent- organic pollutant
- Methylchloroisothiazolinone- preservative- skin irritant
- Methylisothiazolinone- preservative- mutagenic neurotoxin that can change DNA structure- 100% skin absorption

After reading that list, do you really think there is benefit to be gained through its use on an irritated skin? Yet go into a pharmacy and ask for guidance- you’ll be offered this or a similar product. Sorbelene…that’s purported to be mild, right? That might have been the case many years ago in its initial formulation, but the ingredients drastically changed over the course of time. Once you start reading labels and understanding what the ingredients actually are, you’ll begin to think very differently about products, marketing and advice given at pharmacies.

Commercial soaps are fairly harsh- being made from cheap oils and/or petrochemicals. Our handmade soaps are mild, moisturising and offer the beneficial qualities of the organic plant oils used. All of our organic soaps are chemical, colouring and fragrance free...the primary irritants used in most personal care products. Because we superfat our soaps- whereby not all of the oils are converted into a solid soap salt- a layer of the suspended oils used is applied to the skin with use. Our soaps are rich in natural glycerine content, as a by-product of the cold process method of soap making used. Glycerine is the most regarded moisturising ingredient in the cosmetic industry- being a humectant, attracting moisture to the skin.

It is not the pH range of a product that is generally an irritant to the skin, but more so the ingredients used. Our bodies were very simply never intended to process petrochemicals. The use of petrochemicals has developed through economics…a cheap waste product of the petroleum industry being put to use.

By caring for your skin with the natural nutrients of the organic plant oils that we use in our soaps, instead of synthetic chemicals, your skin will become healthy, naturally balanced and moisturised through the one simple daily task of bathing.

The resounding message is that our organic soaps are “F.A.B.”...the Thunderbirds' affirmative radio code for 'fabulous'!