Teach Soap

Can a soap be considered all-natural if you use fragrance oils, such as Dragons Blood or Bonsai? Or would you have to use essential oils or herbs for it to be considered all-natural?

Technically, there is no legal definition of "all natural". People interpret it to mean pretty much whatever they want.

However - fragrance oils definitely cross that line - they are not natural by ANY definition.

The word "natural" has lost its meaning. What I would do is label the soap with a % of natural ingredients. So if you use 80% natural ingredients, label your soap as "made with 80% natural ingredients". It would not be "all natural" however.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Hmm....ok. So the way I do my labels now, say for Bonsai soap, is to put "Handmade, All-Natural, 402 Soap Co." at the top, then Bonsai below that in larger letters. Maybe I ought to change it to "Handmade, Natural, 402 Soap Co." Then under the ingredients say, for example, 90% natural ingredients? Would that be correct, 90%? My recipe is olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, shea butter, water, lye, and fragrance, for the most basic recipe. Anything else I put in, like oats, honey, bentonite clay, that's all natural. So how would I go about figuring out the percentages of natural ingredients?

Thanks a bunch, by the way, for helping me!

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

If you weigh your fragrance oil in grams instead of 7 tsp. (not very accurate) or ml's, it would be easier to calculate your %. Fragrances have different molecular weight and not all weigh the same in ml's.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

Ok, here is your %

Lye 9.06
distilled water 24.25
olive oil 26.81
coconut oil 20.46
palm oil 17.85
shea butter 28 1.26
Fragrance 0.32

Subtract water (which evaporates with cure), lye which is not natural and your fragrance oil and your % comes to 66.38% natural.

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Irena
Closed minds are like faulty parachutes; they refuse to open.

It all really depends on what *exactly* you mean by 'natural'. For instance, apart from water (at a push as it is distilled and therefore processed), there is absolutely nothing in that list that occurs in nature on it's own.
All the butters and oils from various plants have to be (sometimes heavily) processed from their raw plant state. I would argue (playing devils advocate) that the lye is in fact the most 'natural' non-water chemical in there as it is a very simple molecule and exists in nature as a solution occasionally, whereas nothing else does.......

However, to my limited knowledge, the FO's are completely synthetic and as such are not found in any shape wihtin 'nature'.

And if you are worried about 'chemicals', then every single thing around you is made out of a single, or combination of, chemicals. Chemicals are neither good nor bad, they just are. It is how they are used that counts. Similarly, just because something is 'natural' does not mean it is safe and harmless - there are many natural posions out there, including some that occur in the same plants we use for soap

Cheers,
Adam

Hehe yep, castor oil and ricin for example. Nice lathering oil, one of the most deadly poisons (with no cure!). Ahhh nature!

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~~Heather~~
Mad [soaping] Scientist