History of Soap

There are discoveries that indicate the usage of soap can be dated back to 600 B.C. The word soap itself comes originates from the word “sapo”. Sapo was a salve that was produced and used for cleaning by the ancient Gauls. They created this salve using animal fats and the ashes from wood. We also know for sure that Romans and Greeks made cleaning with soaps part of their day (for those who could afford it). The Greeks and Romans lived near volcanic areas of land, this created ideal situations where volcanic water run offs, combined with boiled down animal fats or olive oils created a caustic reaction. It is that caustic chemical reaction that creates soap. This would lead to the discovery that simple burnt ash from wood could provide the same reaction. This process was expensive and time consuming. It wasn’t until 1790 when a French chemist named Nicholas Leblanc invented a way to create caustic soda (sodium hydroxide, aka, lye) from common table salt. This invention introduced a cost effective way to produce soaps. The soap making industry continued to grow as the production became cheaper, and the demand for a clean life increased. The process got better, people experimented with different fats and oils. Fragrance in soaps became popular, and demand grew abundantly to the common day consumer.

Soap making remained natural until World War I. At that time many primary ingredients that soap makers used for soaps were in shortage, and thus diverted to war efforts. So they had to adapt and create alternative synthetic solutions. This is where the detergent and petroleum based soaps were born. These alternative soaps were even cheaper to produce, so after the war not much changed. Same goes for today, most commercial soaps you can purchase are not made with traditional methods and not created with natural ingredients.