Clean Beauty gives pride of place to solid products, such as shampoo or toothpaste in pebble form, because they are more ecological. But solid soap does not necessarily mean clean soap (good for the skin as well as for the planet ). Explanations.
Clean soap, clean manufacturing
With a little marketing, any soap can appear natural and eco-responsible. Beyond the packaging and ingredients, you have to look at the manufacturing and favor ancestral methods such as cold saponification , a real " slow production ", difficult to achieve on a large scale. A process very different from industrial soaps made from soap beads, often coming from Asia. After melting, these beads are kneaded in a machine in which dyes, preservatives and perfumes are added.
Another advantage of cold saponification is that the gentle moisturizing and nourishing glycerin produced during manufacturing is preserved in the formula, unlike hot saponification (used for Marseille soaps for example) which removes it to sell it separately. Bonus for the planet: we heat little and use little water. In addition, the soap resulting from this cold saponification is very stable, completely biodegradable, so that it does not require polluting, poorly biodegradable or ecotoxic synthetic preservatives. This cold saponification, which requires at least 4 weeks of drying, guarantees a real desire to produce a clean soap.
Clean soap, clean ingredients
Soap is the result of a chemical reaction between oils (or vegetable butters) and a base, such as soda. The biggest enemy of clean soap? Palm oil, which can be found even in so-called traditional soaps, such as Aleppo or Marseille, because of unscrupulous manufacturers. Clean soap is therefore palm oil-free, vegan, preservative-free, paraben-free and 100% natural. Its manufacturing process, directly linked to the ingredients, requires butters such as shea, olive or coconut oil. To be completely "clean", vegetable butters must ideally be eco-sourced or from responsible production. Obviously, no sulfate in a clean soap, because this surfactant, used to make foam, strips the skin and dries it out.
A zero waste, local and short circuit soap
These artisanal soaps are rarely sold in supermarkets. They are found in " zero waste " distribution channels or in organic stores. They are easily spotted by their irregular and greasy appearance. They can sometimes be found in bulk and cut, sold directly from producers, or in organic stores where they are generally packaged in a minimalist cardboard box . Be careful with the cardboard packaging of organic soaps which can make you forget that there is palm oil in the composition.
Clean soap is therefore mainly produced by cold saponification – a process which guarantees 100% biodegradability – with non-polluting ingredients which respect the balance of the skin.
