Bye bye cosmetics! Learning about skin and hair pH. page 7

[catdance62]

I make goats milk soap. I use lye in my recipe--you have to use some kind of caustic/Alkaline ingredient to make saponification happen. Lye is the most commonly used ingredient. To tmake soap you have to have 3 fatty acid molecules attached to a glycerol molecule and then combined with the alkali. The glycerol is freed and either left in (as is the case with my soap) or washed out (as is the case with commercial soaps).
The soap I make is non-drying. What commonly dries out the skin of people living in 1st world countries is living in processed air. I live in Central America part of the year without living in processed air and I never, ever had to use moisturizers. Ever.
that said, I do wash my hair with shampoo about twice a week. I keep my hair very short and cutting it regularly keeps it soft and smooth. The ends of your hair are merely layers of keratin that have accumulated. the longer they are exposed to the environment (even without chemicals) they will become de-laminated and start to look "frizzy". Putting stuff ON your skin will affect the external layer of keratin, but it takes a (sometimes expensive) delivery system to cause deeper changes. And of course nothing (except radiation, which is detrimental) can change the DNA of your cells.
Of course having a healthy diet will make your body processes more efficient and cause sloughing of dry skin cells to become more regular causing a healthier-looking skin.
Some of it has to do with genetics. Look at you mother and you can see what your skin will be similar to (although not exactly the same) when you age.
Skin and hair looks aren't magic, it is just biological science.

[bloodorchid]

when i say soap base, i mean plain lye-made soap bought in bulk from a supplier

re-batch means you take a bar, grate it down (like on a cheese grater), and gently melt it down

these
HONEY COLOURED; Lavender, Neem, calendula and camomile soap; ING;
hemp,coconut,neem and olive oils, shea and cocoa butter, calendula and
camomile herbs, essential oils of Lavender.

are everything they put in their soap

let's say i made a batch of plain goat milk soap. i don't like how they look, so i grate them down, melt them in a pot and add in lavender oil, chamomile flowers, shea and cocoa butter for extra skin goodness. then i pour it all into a soap mold and let it dry, then cut it into bars

i rebatched the goat milk soap

if they say they don't use lye, they're either lying about that, or they buy a pre-made soap and rebatch it. either way, at least in america, you have to list all of the ingredients and lye (or its technical name, 'sodium hydroxide') should be listed

they're being disingenuous at best

[Ayla2010]

Thanks BO, that makes more sense.

[JoanieL]

You all are making me feel like a dinosaur. I've used Ivory soap since I was a little girl. In the 80s when deodorant soaps were popular, I tried two of them (Dial and that green swirly one) and I broke out. Whenever I've tried healthier soaps, I felt greasy after my shower.

Is there anything wrong with bentonite clay for every other week facials? (I'm one oily Eye-talian; I think there's olive oil in my blood.) I also use a commercial scrub because I've read that the jagged edges on some more natural scrubs (crushed peach pits for eg.) can do more harm than the artificially made little balls that are in more mainstream brands.

I won't even tell you what shampoo I use because I've already read the Eco-reviews, and apparently I'm an ignorant earth killer for even considering using it, but again, my hair is very oily.

Any words of wisdom are greatly appreciated - I'm always willing to learn.

[catdance62]

the only other alkali I can think of is potassium hydroxide (lye is sodium hydroxide) and that is usually used in "soft" or "liquid" soap.

[Ayla2010]

Sounds like after what ZB said, I don't need to be concerned about it being in the soap anyway.
If its the worst thing I use then I am not worried. All our cleaners are natural cleaners, and I don't use nasty oven cleaners or fly sprays or anything.

[zoebird]

we use natural soap in our home -- for hand washing after toilet and before cooking. It's habit, mostly. DH uses way too much soap, and his hands are dried out all the time. I tell him to stop; he never listens.

Anyway, i like having a bit of soap around for cleaning, too. I love peppermint castile soap because it is an amazing cleanser. Just unbelievably good. Wash your dishes with it -- amazing.

[Ayla2010]

I only use the soap on my under arms really, but my husband uses it all over. Plus we don't use it on our children, so its all good really I guess.

[bloodorchid]

Thanks BO, that makes more sense.

glad i could help soap making is seriously one of the easiest things in the world and i used to do it

i've gotten lazy, however

You all are making me feel like a dinosaur. I've used Ivory soap since I was a little girl. In the 80s when deodorant soaps were popular, I tried two of them (Dial and that green swirly one) and I broke out. Whenever I've tried healthier soaps, I felt greasy after my shower.

Is there anything wrong with bentonite clay for every other week facials? (I'm one oily Eye-talian; I think there's olive oil in my blood.) I also use a commercial scrub because I've read that the jagged edges on some more natural scrubs (crushed peach pits for eg.) can do more harm than the artificially made little balls that are in more mainstream brands.

I won't even tell you what shampoo I use because I've already read the Eco-reviews, and apparently I'm an ignorant earth killer for even considering using it, but again, my hair is very oily.

Any words of wisdom are greatly appreciated - I'm always willing to learn.

i don't see why you couldn't use clay weekly or twice weekly if you have excess skin oil

and i use earth-killing, store bought Aussie shampoo and conditioner it smells good and makes my hair and my dogs fur feel good

as far as exfoliation goes, the little beads never did much for me so i wash my face with a wash rag and hippie made soap and when i feel excessively grody i used a face buff

Sounds like after what ZB said, I don't need to be concerned about it being in the soap anyway.
If its the worst thing I use then I am not worried. All our cleaners are natural cleaners, and I don't use nasty oven cleaners or fly sprays or anything.

yeah, seriously hand made soap is super gentle and not harmful at all if made right

and when it's made wrong, it robs stores and drinks and causes all kinds of mayhem