Homemade Soap Benefits

Homemade soap definitely have an edge over factory produced bars - it's gentle on our bodies and a lot cheaper. Thanks to the natural ingredients used in making homemade soap. Start making soaps and you can enjoy healthy, safer soaps with all your favorite scents and ingredients.

The Glycerin Gap

A bar of commercial bath soap can last you two weeks but a bar of clear glycerin soap has a lifespan of three to four days. Commercial bath soaps are harder because the naturally-occurring glycerin, a by-product of the soap preparation is removed and used in beauty creams and shampoos. Animal or vegetable fat and lye is the major ingredient in basic and easy soap making.

Animal and vegetable fat contain naturally occurring glycerin; lye is the by-product of ash and water. In commercial preparation, salt is added to lye and animal or vegetable fats concoction to separate and extract glycerin. In contrast, homemade soap preparation leaves the glycerin in the mix. The glycerin removed from commercial soap is used as an important ingredient in creams, lotions, and shampoos because glycerin keeps the skin and hair soft and smooth.

A commercial soap bar does not contain glycerin whilst your homemade soap is loaded with this important natural skin softener. Try using commercial bath soap on your hair, and you have dry coarse hair. To solve the problem, you lather your hair with expensive shampoo. However, glycerin soap can be used on the hair aswell and you get fantastic results.

Glycerin is a natural humectants. It is non-oily sweet-tasting liquid that attracts moisture in the environment. It is also colorless. When mixed with water or alcohol, it dissolves easily but not when combined with fragrant oils. This explains well why glycerin soap melts faster than commercial soap and why it is a favorite with scented creams, moisturizing gels and lotions.

Humectants keep the skin smooth and supple. Since this is not a man-made chemical, glycerin is does not irritate the skin. In fact glycerin soap is always recommended for individuals with sensitive to dry skin. As beauty soap, it keeps the facial skin smooth and clear. Hence, glycerin spells the big difference between commercial and homemade soap.

Baby Care

Babies and young children benefit from homemade soap because it does not contain toxic chemicals such as sodium lauryl sulphate or SLS. SLS causes the foaming in soaps. This chemical is used also in shampoos and degreasing agents to remove grease from engines. If this chemical can remove grease, it can remove the body's natural oils, causing dry skin which leads to skin rashes and irritations, and eczema. Also, would you want your baby's tender and sensitive skin to absorb this chemical? Definitely not.

Therefore, making soaps gives you complete control in deciding what ingredients to use. You can choose ingredients that are safe for baby's hair and scalp, too. High quality organic ingredients are always used for homemade soap. You can make them yourself or order these online from experienced homemade soap makers.

Vivel - Luxury Soap Range For You!

Vivel’s new Luxury Creme range (comes in 2 variants – Shea butter and Olive butter) comes in a fabulously rich packing that I’m yet to see for any soap in India!

A few observations before showing you how it looks.

1. For a ‘luxury’ soap, INR 25 seems mighty low. So the perceived value for a customer may be quite high, at that price.

2. Again, for that price, the packing is nothing short of brilliant! Most soaps in India come in paper packing that you discard after removing the soap. Some (like Dove) come in cardboard cartons, but are also usually priced much higher.

3. At 72% TFM (the Shea butter variant; strangely the Olive butter one comes with 74% TFM), it seems mighty low (for a luxury soap; but that perhaps explains the price) in comparison to the highest TFM I’ve seen among Indian soaps – the old (original) Cinthol…at 79%. That Cinthol happens to be my all-time favorite soap…I seem to go back to it after trying out new soaps occasionally.

4. Also in comparison, ITC’s premium range of soaps with the Fiama Di Wills (Skinsense – soft green) brand name retails for INR 45 and DOES NOT mention any TFM rating in its carton. I wonder if some soaps are exempt from mentioning the TFM rating. Most importantly, this INR 45 soap comes in a normal looking carton!

5. This soap’s carton comes shrink-wrapped and there’s a handy strip to start peeling the wrap too – you may open the entire thing in the least clumsy manner and have an intact carton after removing the soap. When you peel off the wrap, there are helpful instructions on the side, with perforation. You just need to use your finger tips to cut through it and voilà…you have a perfectly opened pack of soap box! For a INR 25 soap, that’s a LOT of effort in terms of product packaging design, but yes…it all looks beautiful and perfect!

6. The soap smells good – you thought I’ll never come to the actual point of the damn soap, huh?