Are All Natural Soaps Equal?
Coconut oil and palm oils are the most popular oils used in soap making. They are inexpensive and predictable in the saponification reaction of soapmaking. This allows inexperienced and hobbyist soapmakers the ability to produce soap with a minimum of cash outlay and experience.
However, all soaping oils aren’t created equal. Many “natural” oils are actually RBD oils. An RBD oil is an oil which is Refined, Bleached and Deorderized. After the RBD process the resulting oil is anything but natural.
The crude coconut and palm oil is treated with alkali solvents such as Hexane to remove free fatty acids and remove carcinogenic Aflatoxins which accumulate on the crude plant material during crude and unhygenic shipping and storage methods. Hexane is cheap and abundant, as it is a petroleum product and is produced during the production of gasoline. The combination of extremely large availability, very low cost, and simple effectiveness have led to hexane's popularity. However, this has come at a cost to the consumers and the environment.
Hexane has been categorized as a hazardous air pollutant (HAP) by the US Environmental Protection Agency, and is included on the agency's list of toxic chemicals (Inform, Vol. 9, No.7, July 1998:p 708.) By inherent design, even the newest oil processing facilities lose hexane into the environment. It has been estimated that an average sized coconut, soybean or palm facility loses 6,000 pounds of hexane per day to the environment through atmospheric leaks. At this rate, an average oil producing facility would release one tanker truck (40,000 pounds) of hexane into the environment every week.
In addition, some residual hexane remains in the oil. Hexane forms an extremely strong bond with certain proteins. Therefore, hexane released during digestion is free to bond with proteins and other hydrophobic molecules in the body, a phenomenon supported by over 30 years of research.
A scientific study of six hexane-extracted cooking oils found higher than expected levels of pentane, hexane, heptane, octane and benzene derivatives in all the oils. This means that humans and livestock may be ingesting greater amounts of petroleum derivatives than previously thought through hexane-extracted oils and meal.
Hexane is a very efficient oil extractor, and extracted up to 5% of unsaponifiable materials. This means the resulting oils contain these unwanted materials, which then need to be removed to get odorless, colorless oil that pleases the public. The bleaching and deorderizing process includes thermal processing and chemical additions, mainly sodium hydroxide and results in toxic waste sludge and greatly degraded unsaponifiables. Furthermore, the oil no longer contains the oil-soluble nutrients and vitamins.
There are options to hexane extracting, including mechanical presses and traditional extraction procedures. However, hexane continues to be the major extraction method, and new hexane oil processing plants continue to be constructed. This is especially troubling in lower income countries, where these plants replace traditional extraction methods at a high environmental, social and economical cost.
In addition to the harsh chemical processing which coconut and palm oils are subjected to, coconut oil has the same number of carbon molecules in it's backbone as the human acid mantle of the skin does. When saponified coconut oil come in contact with skin, it stripes all of the protective acid mantle from the skin and replaces itself on the skin. This is often noticed by skin developing a dry patch or dry rash. This rash or dry area is know as contact dermatitis, and is the skin's way of trying to protect itself from the assault of the coconut oil.
At Raincoast Soak Factory we use only organic ethically harvested expeller pressed, cold pressed and steam distilled oils. We do not use any coconut or palm oil in any of our products. Non of our oils are harvested by using petrochemical solvents, harsh chemicals, enzymes or high heat. Our oils are natural, pure and rich in valuable nutrients for your skin.
However, all soaping oils aren’t created equal. Many “natural” oils are actually RBD oils. An RBD oil is an oil which is Refined, Bleached and Deorderized. After the RBD process the resulting oil is anything but natural.
The crude coconut and palm oil is treated with alkali solvents such as Hexane to remove free fatty acids and remove carcinogenic Aflatoxins which accumulate on the crude plant material during crude and unhygenic shipping and storage methods. Hexane is cheap and abundant, as it is a petroleum product and is produced during the production of gasoline. The combination of extremely large availability, very low cost, and simple effectiveness have led to hexane's popularity. However, this has come at a cost to the consumers and the environment.
Hexane has been categorized as a hazardous air pollutant (HAP) by the US Environmental Protection Agency, and is included on the agency's list of toxic chemicals (Inform, Vol. 9, No.7, July 1998:p 708.) By inherent design, even the newest oil processing facilities lose hexane into the environment. It has been estimated that an average sized coconut, soybean or palm facility loses 6,000 pounds of hexane per day to the environment through atmospheric leaks. At this rate, an average oil producing facility would release one tanker truck (40,000 pounds) of hexane into the environment every week.
In addition, some residual hexane remains in the oil. Hexane forms an extremely strong bond with certain proteins. Therefore, hexane released during digestion is free to bond with proteins and other hydrophobic molecules in the body, a phenomenon supported by over 30 years of research.
A scientific study of six hexane-extracted cooking oils found higher than expected levels of pentane, hexane, heptane, octane and benzene derivatives in all the oils. This means that humans and livestock may be ingesting greater amounts of petroleum derivatives than previously thought through hexane-extracted oils and meal.
Hexane is a very efficient oil extractor, and extracted up to 5% of unsaponifiable materials. This means the resulting oils contain these unwanted materials, which then need to be removed to get odorless, colorless oil that pleases the public. The bleaching and deorderizing process includes thermal processing and chemical additions, mainly sodium hydroxide and results in toxic waste sludge and greatly degraded unsaponifiables. Furthermore, the oil no longer contains the oil-soluble nutrients and vitamins.
There are options to hexane extracting, including mechanical presses and traditional extraction procedures. However, hexane continues to be the major extraction method, and new hexane oil processing plants continue to be constructed. This is especially troubling in lower income countries, where these plants replace traditional extraction methods at a high environmental, social and economical cost.
In addition to the harsh chemical processing which coconut and palm oils are subjected to, coconut oil has the same number of carbon molecules in it's backbone as the human acid mantle of the skin does. When saponified coconut oil come in contact with skin, it stripes all of the protective acid mantle from the skin and replaces itself on the skin. This is often noticed by skin developing a dry patch or dry rash. This rash or dry area is know as contact dermatitis, and is the skin's way of trying to protect itself from the assault of the coconut oil.
At Raincoast Soak Factory we use only organic ethically harvested expeller pressed, cold pressed and steam distilled oils. We do not use any coconut or palm oil in any of our products. Non of our oils are harvested by using petrochemical solvents, harsh chemicals, enzymes or high heat. Our oils are natural, pure and rich in valuable nutrients for your skin.
posted by Kathleen Higgins at 3:50 pm
