Castile Soap (Liquid)

A true soap can only be made through the saponification process. If saponification does not occur, it ain't soap! Saponification occurs by mixing fats or oils with an super strong alkali - lye (sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide). This part went way over my head, as I do not have a science degree, but the chemical reaction between these components transforms them into soap molecules and glycerine. Yes glycerine!!

True soap is biodegradable and breaks down easily in the environment. It's does not have all the synthetic detergents, fragrances, and additives commonly found in commercial cleansers.

The pH is around the 8-9 mark, which means is alkali (so don't mix with vinegar or Citric acid ok!) - neutral pH is 7.

One other thing I would love to share about soap, it's how it actually cleans. It fascinates me. A surfactant breaks the surface tension of water - what the? Imagine a drop of water of a surface and you tap it with you finger and it expands out and the area it wets a larger area. Surfactants essentially making water wetter! Not only that, it releases the, what I call 'tadpoles' (disclaimer: i made up that technical term) as they reminded me of a tadpole, with one water loving end and the other end, water hating!

The water hating end, hides away as close as it can to dirt molecules so it has less contact with the water. All the little tadpoles do that until they form a complete ring around the dirt. Then when you rinse, the water loving ends take charge and pulls towards the water, taking the dirt along with it. Hence the importance of rinsing!!

Want more, have a read of this blog: About surfactants

In a nutshell, if something needs cleaning Castile Soap can probably handle it. As I always say, you can wash your dishes to your bum with it! It’s that versatile.

Here’s how I use it in my own home to give you the full picture:

• I keep a bottle of Castile under the bathroom sink, squirt about a tablespoon into my amber glass spray bottle, top it up with tap water – done. That’s my sink, toilet and tub taken care of.
  
• Same applies for under the kitchen sink, I eyeball a dash of Castile into my spray bottle, add some essential oils - kitchen surface spray done! Good for chopping boards, degreasing range tops and ovens too.
  
• One squirt into a foaming pump bottle, fill with water – luxury foaming soap in seconds. Which you can customise with essential oils or other oils like vitamin e. I use this in the bathroom for hand wash and face wash.
  
• I make a 1-2L batch at a time using 10% Castile and 90% water, then thicken it with a bit of glycerine and xanthan gum to turn it into gel, then I use this for my dish and dog wash! This is perfect for regular (non foaming) soap pumps.
  

You can use it straight from the bottle if you like, but it’s concentrated – so diluting it is the way to go for most things. Once you start, you’ll see why this bottle should end up under every sink in the world.

Soap and detergent are not the same thing! While both human made, soap is much for eco-friendly and has lasted the test of time. Learn more about the difference between soap and detergent in this blog, it also goes int more detail about the environmental benefits. Soap V Detergent

Its just soap, safe as houses, but please do not drink it or rub it in your eyes. Also not suitable for washing someones mouth out!

"Soap and detergent are the same thing"
The terms are used interchangeably however they are not the same at all. Soap is made from oils and fats and detergents are made from synthetic chemicals. Soap is a much more eco-friendly solution.

"I can dilute hard soap to make liquid soap"
Sorry, not possible! Both a hard and liquid soap require lye (a super strong alkali) for the saponification process to occur but different types. Liquid soap uses potassium hydroxide while hard soap used sodium hydroxide - this means the hard soap will always try and get hard again. When you dilute a hard soap you have soapy water, not liquid soap.