Our Soap

Our bar soap and soap flakes are made by our soapmaker in northern Minnesota. She uses four simple ingredients: sunflower seed oil, coconut oil, water, and food-grade sodium hydroxide (sodium hydroxide is consumed by the saponification reaction so that none remains in the final product—this is discussed in more detail below).

Let’s look at each ingredient in turn.

Sunflower Seed Oil

Our soapmaker resides in northern Minnesota, and she sources sunflower seed oil from a local farmer. The oil is cold pressed, which means that the seeds are mechanically pressed and filtered, without the use of chemical solvents. It is unrefined, which means that the oil does not undergo bleaching, deodorizing, or other chemical processing. The oil is not certified organic, but it is non-GMO, and the sunflowers are not sprayed with pesticides or herbicides (however, a pre-emergent herbicide may be applied to the fields to kill weeds before the sunflowers are planted).

Coconut Oil

Thoughtfully sourced from Malaysia or the Philippines.

Water

The water used for our soapmaking is reverse osmosis filtered, which removes all tap water contaminants.

Sodium Hydroxide (Food Grade)

Sodium hydroxide is not a nice sounding ingredient. Because in its raw form—before it reacts with oils to make soap—it is quite harsh.

But all soapmaking requires an alkali—sodium hydroxide is used for solid soap, and potassium hydroxide is used for liquid soap—to react with the acids in the oils and thus create soap. When that reaction occurs, the alkali is fully consumed so that none remains in the final soap product.

If all soap is made with an alkali, then why is “sodium hydroxide” or “potassium hydroxide” not listed on every soap label?

It takes effort—and an interested consumer—to explain that sodium hydroxide is (1) necessary and (2) not present in the final product. And because soap labeling is flexible, it can be simpler to avoid the topic, altogether, by not mentioning this ingredient.

We choose to list our starting ingredients, including sodium hydroxide, for at least two reasons.

First, we are one of the few companies offering soap made with food-grade (as opposed to industrial-grade) sodium hydroxide. Industrial-grade sodium hydroxide can contain contaminants, like heavy metals. And although the sodium hydroxide is fully consumed by the saponification reaction, contaminants like heavy metals are not, and they remain in the final soap product.

At the time of this writing, food-grade sodium hydroxide is six times more expensive than industrial-grade sodium hydroxide, which is why the food-grade version is less common in soapmaking. But we think it’s worth it!

And second, our primary mission at Start with Soap is to share information so that we can all be more discerning in our product choices. When we are transparent about our ingredients, we are implicitly providing tools to evaluate other products and brands, as well.