Natural, Palm Oil and SLS-Free Soap - Fact or Fad?

With so many commercial producers relying heavily on artificial additives, palm oil, plastics, detergents and preservatives, what’s different about our Cosy Cottage products and how do they work?

This is the next in our series of blogs going into more detail about why our Cosy Cottage products are different and how they work. This this time we're going back to where it all started: natural, handmade, palm oil and SLS free soap.

Not only are our soaps palm oil and SLS free, they’re additive free too. We don’t use artificial colours, preservatives or fragrances either. Our soaps contain only essential oils made from steam distilled flowers, fruits and plants or gentle aloe vera. We’re all about the gentle scent of a summer garden, rather than the perfume counter! 

Soap, SLS, Palm Oil and the Cleaning Bubbles Fairytale

Let’s start with SLS, SLES and all their other sulphate based detergent cousins, including the cunningly titled isothionates and cocoyl compounds. They’re all great at making lots of bubbles and they do that very cheaply … a little goes a long, bubbly way. This enables producers to use the very cheapest oils and fats (palm oil for example), add a bit of SLS and hey presto … bubbles galore.

SLS and SLES do come with several rather less desirable effects however,  such as drying skin and hair for one … why not read our blog on SLS here.

At Cosy Cottage we create our soaps and shampoos using a carefully created blend of ethically sourced, high quality oils, butters and fats. We use no palm oil nor palm oil derivatives in any of our products. Our luxurious soaps are the result of numerous experiments to ensure that the structure of the underlying molecules clean gently and create beautiful bubbles, without the need for any nasty SLS-style detergent additives.

Bubbles help our hands, sponges and cloths move the dissolved soap around on the surface of our skin, but despite popular belief, they’re not necessary for the cleaning process itself! Soap removes dirt from skin and other surfaces by breaking it down and creating microscopic spherical structures which are then washed away by water. Bacteria and other microbes are washed away within those microscopic spherical structures too.

Soap and the fight against Bacteria and other Microbes

In addition, the alkaline pH of soap discourages the growth of bacteria and fungi, keeping the soap and the dish in which it is stored clean and germ-free.

So while our soap will bubble gently, enabling it to be moved freely around the skin while washing, the super-foamy SLS-style froth won’t appear … and you know what! It doesn’t matter; soap still cleans without it. Moreover, without SLS and other artificial additives, our soaps are gentle on your skin and our environment.