Coconut Soap Flakes (Organic)

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

Firstly I want to start of by saying, pure coconut soap can be a little drying for the skin, keep it to your cleaning products.

I use these soap flakes in my laundry powder and cleaning paste recipes. However, its sits in a jar under the kitchen sink too. I can sprinkle some into the sink for dish washing, even mould it into a little bar for my soap swisher cage.

You can dilute it in warm water and have a soapy solution to clean windows, walls or anything that needs a gentle clean.

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

Just be careful when opening the container not the breathe in the raised dust. Also do not eat 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.