... discover the true beauty of real soap ...
I’ll let you in on a little skincare secret that few people know about .. Real Soap is the foundation of healthy skin .. but what is real soap and what is fake soap?
Oil Soap = Real Soap = castile
In the past, soap was made from fats and vegetable oils.
Today we refer to all kinds of foaming, cleansing products as "soap" - these are not soap, they are synthetic detergents. When they were first introduced they were CALLED "soap" by the manufacturers so that people would adopt them. And they did!
Today few of us know what REAL soap is, how it is made, and its unique restorative properties.
In the past, a soap made from just Olive Oil by secretive Soap Guilds in the Castile region of Spain was called "Castille" Soap. The guilds carefully guarded their secret recipes and crafted very expensive, delightful soap. Available only to the wealthy.
Today we call any soap made with just vegetable oils "Castille" soap. Castile on the label is one of the ways you can be sure you are purchasing REAL soap and not a complex blend of synthetic detergents.
Real soap can be either a liquid or a bar. In the past, our ancestors made rustic soaps made with animal fats for laundry and cleaning chores. They were harsh and not used for bathing (which was not a daily habit anyway). Today's finely crafted oil soaps are a far cry from those. Soap makers like me, using accurate scales and calculators, and with thousands of plant seed oils and butters, botanicals, essential oils, and natural pigments to choose from, can make perfect soaps, super-fatted to be deeply conditioned and emollient. Olive oil still makes one of the most delicious soaps of all time.
The true beauty of real soap lies not just in its power to gently cleanse, but in its unique ability to assist the body in restoring the skin's Acid Mantle, a thin protective film created by the body on the surface of the skin. Vital skin functions are performed here. It is also home to our skin's microbiome.
The Acid Mantle barrier is disrupted when we bathe. How fast it is restored depends on many factors including age, skin condition, nutritional status, and the pH of the water. When you use real soap the barrier is fully repaired and functioning in about 3 - 5 hours.
But when you cleanse with a synthetic detergent (some are worse than others) it can take up to 7 hours to restore it!
Our skin can not perform optimally during the time it's repairing itself. So reducing the frequency of washing and returning to the use of real soap) is a simple, effective way to help reconcile our modern lifestyles with the biological needs of our bodies’ largest organ.