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About
Soap – Did you know? 

We often hear the term
‘Soap is Soap’. We wanted to talk more about this statement and offer advice
about soap in this did you know post. 

This is a gentle post
talking about soap from our experience. We don’t have the laboratory
facilities to test and provide stringent evidence. However,
you can find a lot of this information through thorough research. 

                     

How does pH have an effect? 

It is basic science
that pH value has various effects on the immediate environment. With very
high pH ingredients such as caustic soda, being destructive to organic
material of all kinds, not just germs. As well as neutral-to-mildly acid pH
ingredients being ideal for most personal care products. 

A naturally saponified
soap is what we term as ‘proper soap’. Did you know that all naturally
saponified soaps, that undergo no further modification, have a pH of 9+. But
soap is not always soap… 

Modern cleansing and
moisturising bars, and many other soap-like products are often essentially a
collection of surfactants and emmolients. These ‘soaps’ tend to have a
balanced pH, down to around 5.5, so they match the pH of our skin. Generally
this is considered to be a good thing as it closely matches your skin’s
natural pH and maintains your skin’s natural biom, but for actually killing
bacteria it isn’t ideal. 

When you pH balance a
soap-like product you then need to add a preservative. This is so it doesn’t
‘go-off’ in the wrapper or bottle. Then, when you
use it, the pH of the skin remains at 5.5. Which does not kill bugs, hence
all the antibacterial additives we often see, especially in ‘hand soaps’
these days. 

Washing with products
that have a pH lower than 9 is generally kinder to the skin and will clean
the skin more gently. However it is less effective at killing bugs, as the pH
of the skin when washing remains unchanged. Also the quantity of
preservatives they use in these products are designed to preserve it for
shelf life purposes, not when it’s actually being used. So once being used
with added water the preservative is not strong enough to effectively kill bacteria
in the wider world, hence again, the added anti-bac stuff we see in products,
especially hand soaps. 

 .Due to their high pH value soaps bars
are naturally antibacterial. This is
because bacteria cannot propagate on a pH of 9 more more. 

Coronavirus 

It is proven
the best way to prevent transmission of Coronavirus is by washing your
hands, thoroughly, with soap. 

After hand washing with
a saponified soap bar, the pH of hands will be significantly higher.
Therefore contributing to the viral inactivation of COVID-19. With
Coronavirus the soap works to disrupt the fatty acid outer layer of the virus
(not bacteria). Causing it to dissolve, break apart and
consequently wash away. 

For more informed information visit: World Health
Organization