Ingredients
Activated Charcoal in Soap: What It Does and What It Does Not
Charcoal soap is sold as a detox. The real story is smaller and more useful: what activated charcoal does in a rinse-off bar, and which claims to ignore.
Section
Buying Well
Reading labels, judging a bar, and making the one you bought last.
Buying Well
How to Make a Bar of Soap Last Longer
Most bars do not wear out, they dissolve. Six habits that slow that down, from the soap dish to the cure, and why a handmade bar rewards them more than most.
Buying Well
Why Handmade Soap Costs More Than a Supermarket Bar
A handmade bar can cost several times a supermarket one. Where that money goes: the oils, the weeks on a curing rack, the glycerine, and the work done by hand.
The Craft
Why Real Soap Is Alkaline, and What pH-Balanced Bars Really Are
True soap always tests alkaline, usually between pH 8 and 11. Here is why that follows from the chemistry, and what a bar sold as pH 5.5 actually contains.
Buying Well
How to Read a Soap Label Without Being Sold To
Saponified oils, INCI names, syndet bars and the word natural. A practical guide to telling real cold process soap from a decorated commercial base.