Petroleum Products: Soap

Contrary to what Tyler Durden would have you believe, most soaps these days are not made from animal fats. Instead, specially engineered petrochemicals known as surfactants do the trick the fats used to.

You may remember the term surfactant from our previous article on detergents, so now we’re going to tell you how it works.

Surfactants in soaps, cleaners and detergents are basically chemical compounds or chains in which one end is hydrophilic, or attracted to water, and the other is hydrophobic, or repels water.

When you have oil and dirt on your body or clothes, the hydrophobic end of the chain will attract it and loosen up the grime. At the same time, the hydrophilic end pulls in the opposite direction, thus lifting the dirt and grime and suspending in the water. Then, presto! Clean body and clothes.

Here’s a link to a local soap maker, who specializes in making all-natural products. http://www.kzenostar.com/ Read about her in a previous article here.