Until a few years ago all Haslinger soaps were tallow. However, shaving soap is a very small catagory of what Haslinger offers. They have been systematically moving their products to vegetable base for years, long before the EU movement. The shaving soap line was the latest to move and I believe it took this long because the shaving soap line is their smallest product catagory. I doubt 5hey make a great deal of revenue from shaving soap and I am glad they put such great effort into getting the new formula right. They might just as easily have dropped the line altogether.
“New formula” Haslinger?!
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Until a few years ago all Haslinger soaps were tallow. However, shaving soap is a very small catagory of what Haslinger offers. They have been systematically moving their products to vegetable base for years, long before the EU movement. The shaving soap line was the latest to move and I believe it took this long because the shaving soap line is their smallest product catagory. I doubt 5hey make a great deal of revenue from shaving soap and I am glad they put such great effort into getting the new formula right. They might just as easily have dropped the line altogether.
Report back on your thoughts. I think you’re getting a great soap!
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I definitely will I’m getting it side by side with cella and a whole slew of artisan samplers... $45 minimum for free shipping and all that...
Absolutely correct.
For a product to be properly characterised a Vegan, it must, at the very least, be touted, or claimed to be by its manufacturer. Merely being vegetable-based is not sufficient. And, not all products claiming to be Vegan, meet with the approval of the Vegan Society.
Theoretically, two products could have the exact-same vegetal-base, one being Vegan and one not.
The Vegans are a philosophical, ethical, political movement, started in the 1940's by Leslie Cross, who took ethical vegetarianism to it's limits by objecting to the use of animals for food, work, hunting, vivisection, or any other use or exploitation by man.
Thus, any vegetables or vegetable product could objectionable to Vegans if grown or procured in a manner which violates their principles, such as using oxen to till or sow the fields. Even the cow manure reference earlier, which sounds far-fetched at first blush, could be objectionable to Vegans if the cows in question are "enclosed" and thus not free and wild.
Yep, all there shaving soaps were, not the rest of their line. The current head honcho at haslinger commented in a message to a member at another forum that that the shaving soaps were brought into line as a nod to the founder of the company (evidently an ancestor) who it seems had some sort 'all natural, animal based' ethos himself.
I'll second all of this, there's really no logical reason a soap should differ at all whether it's stearates are derived from tallowate or palm oil. Having said that haslinger is the exception; most reforumated soaps (think 3t's) did decrease in quality. This whole imbroglio was epiphenomenal; the soaps were actually reformulated in conjunction with moving to a new supplier, rather than some intrinsic quality of tallow/cost cutting shenanigans/beaurocratic interference.
So, to answer the original question - it depends. If you're hung up on minutiae, consult a rabbi.
Some general rules are:
If you are making soap that is only intended for shaving, I wouldn't worry. It really only becomes an issue if you intend to eat the soap for pleasure/benefit. Meaning, not only do you intend to eat it, you intend to enjoy the food (e.g. eating a cake or sandwich vs. swallowing medications or a spray for a sore throat). The tallow doesn't need to even be from a kosher animal. You can shave with pig tallow all you want.
The issue of kashrut comes more into play if you plan to use to soap to wash dishes (which will come into contact with food you intend to eat) and, in some instances, to do laundry that may include kitchen towels (depending on who you listen to). There are hechshers for soap but only to designate the soap as pareve (not meat or dairy). Soaps that don't use animals fats are better options for general cleaning.
Also, halal and kosher are not the same thing. Something halal is not necessarily kosher, although something that is kosher is necessarily halal. This is because kasrut laws are more stringent than halal ones. Likewise, a "halal" designation can include meat and dairy that is not kosher (e.g. camel, rabbit, shellfish).
Hope that helps.
Some general rules are:
If you are making soap that is only intended for shaving, I wouldn't worry. It really only becomes an issue if you intend to eat the soap for pleasure/benefit. Meaning, not only do you intend to eat it, you intend to enjoy the food (e.g. eating a cake or sandwich vs. swallowing medications or a spray for a sore throat). The tallow doesn't need to even be from a kosher animal. You can shave with pig tallow all you want.
The issue of kashrut comes more into play if you plan to use to soap to wash dishes (which will come into contact with food you intend to eat) and, in some instances, to do laundry that may include kitchen towels (depending on who you listen to). There are hechshers for soap but only to designate the soap as pareve (not meat or dairy). Soaps that don't use animals fats are better options for general cleaning.
Also, halal and kosher are not the same thing. Something halal is not necessarily kosher, although something that is kosher is necessarily halal. This is because kasrut laws are more stringent than halal ones. Likewise, a "halal" designation can include meat and dairy that is not kosher (e.g. camel, rabbit, shellfish).
Hope that helps.
There are people who take this stuff seriously. I mean --- really seriously. Like, ULTRA seriously. Like...imma blow up my house and start over level serious...
However, you're right the response is a little over the top.
Anyone who seriously cared about this topic would have called their rabbi and not posted on Badger & Blade
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