In Defense of Soap

Lately, I have been spending far too much time reading about soap and how it is terrible for your skin, especially your face. In fact, it feels at times that the marketing and sale of commercial soap is a cause for what is rotten in western civilization.

So why the bum rap? I’ve spent my whole life washing my face and body with soap and water and have lost no friends as a result. There was a period of time back in the ‘90s when I washed my face with a cleansing cream. I wanted to try it. It was fine, but honestly, I did not feel any cleaner or healthier using it than I did after washing with soap and water.

Water

Let’s start with water, the part of the process that avoids the bad press. By itself water has a hard time removing dirt off the face. That’s because you have oils on your face and the dirt is mixed in with these oils (Infused is the technical word for it.).  So, you’ve got water and oil, and I am sure you have heard the expression that oil and water don’t mix.

Why don’t they mix? It has to do with the fact that their molecules are literally polar opposite. Oil molecules are non-polar, and water molecules are polar. In a solution, a polar molecule cannot be mixed with the non-polar molecule. That’s why water can’t bond with oil.

Of course, in the real world, I can hose down my kids after they’ve played in the mud and the dirt will rinse off. But the dirt that has infused with the skin’s oils, that is another matter.

Soap

The Sapulpa Times recently posted an article titled: “Nerd Knowledge: The science of soap.” This paragraph gives a clear explanation as I have read:

“Soap works by breaking up the oil into smaller drops, so it can mix with the water. This is accomplished because soap is comprised of molecules with two very different ends. One is hydrophilic (mixes or dissolves in water), the other end is hydrophobic (does not mix with water, and thus is repelled by it). Since soap molecules have properties of both nonpolar and polar molecules, the soap acts as an emulsifier (a substance that diffuses one liquid into another unmixable solution).

When soap and water are mixed, the soap molecules position themselves into tiny clusters. The hydrophilic part of the soap molecules points outward, the hydrophobic components clump together on the inside of the molecule. The hydrophobic parts don’t contact the water, due to the repulsion.

These collect the oil particles in the center and are trapped in the soap, and then when water is washed over your hands, the hydrophilic parts are attracted to water, taking the soap, and the grime connected to the soap with it.”

(And in case you are wondering as I was, Sapulpa is a town of about 20,000 people, just outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma.)

But back to soap and water.

In reading this explanation I conjured an image of soap acting like foamy Pacmans, gobbling up the dirty oil molecules in their path – chomp, chomp, chomp – and then waiting for the water to wash them away.

So, your face is undeniably cleaner than it was before you washed with soap, but you’ve also removed the oils from your skin. And that is where the negativity begins. You want your skin’s natural oils. The soap critics say soap can negatively impact the naturally occurring bacteria, or microbiome. And everyone knows that the microbiome is this very hot topic that everyone wants to understand. My advice is don’t mess with anyone who brings up the microbiome as a reason why they are right.

Not worth arguing about it

Most of what I’ve read is that you don’t need soap to get clean, that you can rely on water mostly, that there are other ways to rid your skin of dirt (like dry brushing or actually applying oils before you shower).

There are also bad and not so bad soaps out there, and that washing occasionally with soap is not really going to cause an issue.  The bad soaps are made by mixing fat or oil with an alkali such as lye, and over time they can wreck skin by changing its pH.

The better soaps are less harsh and use higher-quality fats and oils during the saponification process. Look for soap with base ingredients like shea butter, coconut oil, or olive oil.

I am not going to argue with the anti-soap folks.

But what I am going to point out is that it’s the quality of ingredients that matter and that a bar of soap made with gentle ingredients, infused with essential oils is not really that bad, and you smell good after (an important factor for keeping friends as inferred earlier).

There is a whole industry of soap alternatives, like body washes, shower gels, and cleansing creams. They use the same cleansing mechanism to get dirt off your skin but they are gentler. Think less noisy or sudsy Pacmans.

Knowing that they remove oils, they often contain a mixture of ingredients meant to help treat common skin conditions. And just so we are clear, these may not be natural ingredients. Some of these washes include oils that are beneficial to the skin.

This is the part of the blog post where I subtly introduce Soak It Up!™ facial skin oil. The reason why we make Soak It Up! with jojoba oil is that the chemical makeup of jojoba is really similar to the oil (sebum) your body naturally produces. And that’s great news for those of you who wash with a good soap or a gentler wash.  Adding Jojoba after you wash regulates your sebum production which means it’s not going to build upon your skin and clog your pores. It soothes and moisturizes your skin while sending a signal that your skin doesn’t need more sebum for hydration.

And that means you can still wash your face with a good, natural, and gentle soap. Which means you can continue to reap the other benefits of soap – keeping your friends. Win, win.