Sodium Stearate

A bit of education on soaps. Soaps are made up mainly of things called esters and the esters used in soaps come from plant based oils in the modern day. In days past they used to come from animal sources instead of plant.  Its these group of esters that make soap a soap. In this case we start with something called stearic acid derived from plants and react it with sodium hydroxide (lye) to make our final product. In making soap you always add a little more oil to ensure all of the lye is completely used up. Our stearic acid comes from palm oils. 

Why do we use Sodium Stearate in Grandma's Approved products? This is one of the components that makes soap a soap. It is a surfactant first and foremost. The surfactant property is what allows it to help get dirt and oil off of our skin. This has the added bernefit of being a emulsifying agent as well which helps to build the lather of our soap.