What is Soap?
Soap, or ‘sapo’ in Latin, is an age-old cleansing agent that dates as far back as ancient Babylon. Throughout time, soap has been a core element of laundry, household, and personal cleansing routines for many civilizations and although soap-making methods have evolved over time, it is still essentially a mixture of fats and oils that have been combined with an alkali.
Origins
Historians aren’t in complete agreement about exactly when soap was discovered, yet there is evidence that the Sumerians – an ancient civilization that resided in Southern Mesopotamia, now known as south Iraq – used a soap-like substance to strip grease from cloth and wool before dying them. The substance, which archaeologists discovered in inscribed clay vessels, was slippery and the inscriptions on the vessels described how the Sumerians boiled ashes and fats to form it. Excavated tablets also describe this early method of creating different types of soap-like substances, although their exact usage is not quite clear.
Throughout the ages
Following the Sumerians, evidence of soap-making has been found from discoveries of the ancient German, Roman, and Egyptian civilizations. A historical medical document called the Ebers Papyrus; details how ancient Egyptians combined oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like substance they used not only for cleansing purposes, but to also treat skin diseases. Throughout the ages civilizations combined fats with alkali as a soap-making method, and soap manufacturing processes still do the very same thing today.
Soap Refinement
In the middle Ages, soap-making became an art that attracted a lot of interest. Craftsmen used trial and error to refine their recipes as they experimented with ashes from plants, animal and vegetable oils, and fragrances. Dedicated guilds were established to safeguard recipe secrets which were passed down amongst generations. With the advent of laundry, shampooing, and shaving soaps, soap became more than an agent for personal cleaning routines.
Product of Luxury
As the variety expanded, soap-making became a prosperous business. In countries like Spain, France and Italy, early soap manufacturers were established, made possible due to the abundance of natural raw ingredients like olive oil, which gave their soaps an extremely unique quality. High production of soap eventually led to a huge decrease in reserves of tallow – an essential material for candle-making that was heavily relied on – which drove the tax and price of soap sky-high. The purchase of soap became possible only for the rich, leading it to become a luxury item the poor could not afford. Innovative recipes were developed to eliminate the use of tallow in soap production, allowing soap to once again be enjoyed by both the rich and the poor.
Manufacturing advancements
The 18th century brought about the Industrial Revolution, when the commercial manufacture of soap thrived. Mechanical and steam-power equipment meant that soap could be produced at speeds and in volumes like never before. With the advancement in equipment came scientific discoveries of the chemistry combination of fats, glycerin and alkali. French chemists developed methods to reduce the use of alkali, which significantly decreased the cost of making soap while increasing its quality. The combined developments in soap-making led to the rapid growth of the industry.
Le Soie Cosmetics has taken soap production back to its roots, utilizing traditional soap-making methods that use only natural ingredients. In an era of mass production, the art of soap-making has been lost, and that is why we handcraft our soaps in an array of shapes, sizes and fragrances. We merge the old with the new to ensure our soaps are unlike the slippery substance of our ancient predecessors, but instead appeal to both the senses and the skin.
Soap, or ‘sapo’ in Latin, is an age-old cleansing agent that dates as far back as ancient Babylon. Throughout time, soap has been a core element of laundry, household, and personal cleansing routines for many civilizations and although soap-making methods have evolved over time, it is still essentially a mixture of fats and oils that have been combined with an alkali.
Origins
Historians aren’t in complete agreement about exactly when soap was discovered, yet there is evidence that the Sumerians – an ancient civilization that resided in Southern Mesopotamia, now known as south Iraq – used a soap-like substance to strip grease from cloth and wool before dying them. The substance, which archaeologists discovered in inscribed clay vessels, was slippery and the inscriptions on the vessels described how the Sumerians boiled ashes and fats to form it. Excavated tablets also describe this early method of creating different types of soap-like substances, although their exact usage is not quite clear.
Throughout the ages
Following the Sumerians, evidence of soap-making has been found from discoveries of the ancient German, Roman, and Egyptian civilizations. A historical medical document called the Ebers Papyrus; details how ancient Egyptians combined oils with alkaline salts to create a soap-like substance they used not only for cleansing purposes, but to also treat skin diseases. Throughout the ages civilizations combined fats with alkali as a soap-making method, and soap manufacturing processes still do the very same thing today.
Soap Refinement
In the middle Ages, soap-making became an art that attracted a lot of interest. Craftsmen used trial and error to refine their recipes as they experimented with ashes from plants, animal and vegetable oils, and fragrances. Dedicated guilds were established to safeguard recipe secrets which were passed down amongst generations. With the advent of laundry, shampooing, and shaving soaps, soap became more than an agent for personal cleaning routines.
Product of Luxury
As the variety expanded, soap-making became a prosperous business. In countries like Spain, France and Italy, early soap manufacturers were established, made possible due to the abundance of natural raw ingredients like olive oil, which gave their soaps an extremely unique quality. High production of soap eventually led to a huge decrease in reserves of tallow – an essential material for candle-making that was heavily relied on – which drove the tax and price of soap sky-high. The purchase of soap became possible only for the rich, leading it to become a luxury item the poor could not afford. Innovative recipes were developed to eliminate the use of tallow in soap production, allowing soap to once again be enjoyed by both the rich and the poor.
Manufacturing advancements
The 18th century brought about the Industrial Revolution, when the commercial manufacture of soap thrived. Mechanical and steam-power equipment meant that soap could be produced at speeds and in volumes like never before. With the advancement in equipment came scientific discoveries of the chemistry combination of fats, glycerin and alkali. French chemists developed methods to reduce the use of alkali, which significantly decreased the cost of making soap while increasing its quality. The combined developments in soap-making led to the rapid growth of the industry.
Le Soie Cosmetics has taken soap production back to its roots, utilizing traditional soap-making methods that use only natural ingredients. In an era of mass production, the art of soap-making has been lost, and that is why we handcraft our soaps in an array of shapes, sizes and fragrances. We merge the old with the new to ensure our soaps are unlike the slippery substance of our ancient predecessors, but instead appeal to both the senses and the skin.
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