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Triple milling, soap formulation, phases of the moon.

Soooo, how does the moon play into all this? :biggrin: Seriously, just got into Wet Shaving and bought some soap; this was very informative as to what the heck I had bought!
 
Jim,

As always you enlighten us on the path to "shaving nirvana." LOL!

Seriously, I love reading your posts Sir...always learn something I didn't know before and I think I've read your original soap compilation a dozen times. Thanks so much for what you do for this site!
 
I had to look up the term DETERGENT in the wikipedia, maybe this is helpful for other B&Bers also:


Sometimes the word detergent is used to distinguish a cleaning agent from soap. During the early development of non-soap surfactants as commercial cleaning products, the term syndet, short for synthetic detergent was promoted to indicate the distinction. The term never became popular and is incorrect, because most soap is itself synthesized (from glycerides). The term soapless soap refers to a soap free liquid cleanser with a slightly acidic pH. Today, soapless soaps are used in an array of products. There is no universally accepted term for detergents not made of soap other than soapless detergent, non-soap detergent or soap-free cleanser.

The term detergent by itself is sometimes used to refer specifically to laundry detergent, as opposed to hand soap or other types of cleaning agents.

Plain water, if used for cleaning, is a detergent. Probably the most widely-used detergents other than water are soaps or mixtures composed chiefly of soaps. However, not all soaps have significant detergency and, although the words "detergent" and "soap" are sometimes used interchangeably, not every detergent is a soap.

The term detergent is sometimes used to refer to any surfactant, even when it is not used for cleaning.
 
A good summary. I would have added that the term "glycerin based soap" is actually a misnomer since the soap is not based on glycerin. The correct term is glycerin soap or soap with added glycerin. The translucent appearence that many associate with glycerin soaps actually has nothing to do with the presence of glycerin. This translucency is achieved by adding alcohol and sugar to the soap. These added chemicals prevent crystylization of the soap and drive out water causing it to harden in an amorphous translucent form.

Glycerin is actually produced during the saponification reaction so unless it is removed, soap will always contain glycerin. The glycerin is removed in most commercial soap production so that it can be sold or used in more profitable products. This is done by adding salt (sodium chloride) to the batch. this causes the glycerin to separate so that it can be decanted. This is why you will often see sodium chloride in the ingredients in many commercial soap products.

Oh, tallow can also come from sheep.
 
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