COMMERCIAL SOAPS...FRIEND OR FOE?

Soap is one of the most basic toiletry items. You will find it in every person's house. All of us use it and most of us use it quite frequently but how many of us know what a soap bar is really made up of? Long gone are the times when soap making was first discovered and regularly used in private households and at that time it generally meant mixing animal fat with lye from ash to result soap for all household cleaning purposes(laundry, body, hair, face etc.) This might sound shocking to most but what is even more shocking is that the soap we use nowadays isn't really soap at all. The more accurate way to put it is that it contains some soap but even while possessing this knowledge many will still have so much good faith in our cosmetic manufacturers that they'll believe all the ingredients are probably necessary and safe...I mean, they must be, right???

How about I tell you that your good old bar of soap is most probably neither safe nor are many of its ingredients necessary. The cosmetic industry nowadays focuses mostly on what feels good rather than what actually is good for you. You'd actually be better off washing yourself with dirt, that's right...and let's see why.

Among the multitude of ingredients found on the label of your soap (most of which we're unable to even pronounce, let alone recognize) here are some mainstream ingredients that are proven to be harmful, toxic or even carcinogenic:

TRICLOSAN (commonly found in antibacterial soaps)

-is a pesticide (source FDA)

-is used for its antibacterial properties

-increases likelihood of breast cancer( Environmental Protection Agency)

-it acts as an endocrine disrupter and affects hormone levels

-products containing triclosan are falsely marketed for purposes of getting rid of all germs when, in fact, they only kill bacteria, not fungi and viruses (which are also germs)

-using triclosan containing products excessively has lead to the multitude of resistant and much stronger bacteria strains, a problem of great importance that we are yet to acknowledge

SULFATES (SLS, SLES)

-are foaming agents

-they bond with other common soap ingredients and form carcinogenic nitrates

-permeate skin easily (high absorption rate) and make skin more permeable for other harmful ingredients

-animal tests have resulted in skin irritation, organ toxicity, hormonal disruption and susceptibility to mood disorders ( no wonder the world is going crazy!)

DIOXANE

-derived from coconut and frequently mistaken to be safe

-is carcinogenic

-toxic to brain, liver, kidneys

DIETHANOLAMINE (DEA) and TRIETHANOLAMINE(TEA)

-aids consistency

-easily absorbed

-interferes with choline absorption (necessary for unborn babies)

-disrupts hormones

-binds with nitrates preservatives and forms potent carcinogens (increases risk of liver and kidney cancer)

FORMALDEHYDE or chemicals releasing it (i.e. diazolidinyl urea, bronopol, quaternium 15 )

-commonly used in soaps as preservative

-weakens immune system (reduces resistance to disease)

-linked to chronic fatigue syndrome, frequent headaches, irregular heartbeats

PARABENS

-synthetic preservatives

-high absorption rate

-disrupt hormonal balance due

-declared potential carcinogenic by the Department of Health and Human Science

-linked to birth defects and cell mutation

-toxic effect on nervous system

FRAGRANCES

-not all fragrances are bad but they may be made up of thousands of chemicals and no one tells us what they are

-here is an informative article on the topic of synthetic perfumes

So here are just some of the questionable ingredients found in our daily used soap bars. Seems hard to believe, right? Something that is meant to keep us clean and safe actually has the potential to harm us. I actually believe that it does harm us but it's really up to each of you to do your ow research and reach to your own conclusions. This post was only meant to help raise awareness and take you out of your sweet smelling soapy comfort zone to a place where no one should tell you what's good for you, if you let them it's on you.

I've been making and using my own natural soap for many years now. Would you like o give it a try? Click here to purchase online.