Recently I spent a night out of town in a popular hotel chain while busing the School’s Speech and Debate team to their district finals.  The hotel room and amenities were nice enough and, even though I do not like spending time away from the homestead, I decided to try to relax.  I happened past the sink where I caught a glimpse of the soaps and a facial bar that was nicely packaged and laid out by the housekeepers.  Since Fasching Farm makes its own soap and shampoo I was curious as to the soap this chain hotel was stocking in their rooms.  

The Citrus Facial Bar reads “Natural and Organic Bodycare”. Then I looked at the ingredients and was shocked at some of the ingredients. This is the actual ingredient list – sodium tallowate, sodium cocoate or sodium palm kernelate, water, glycerin, sodium chloride, limonene, citral, pentasodium pentetate, tetrasodium etidronate, Butyrospernum Parkii, benzyl salicylate, and tocopherol.  

The bar touts “…natural and nontoxic product with the benefits of aromatherapy”. Those with sensitive skin could easily react to one or more of these ingredients.  And let’s be frank, the listed ingredients are not all natural nor organic (some are).   The ingredient list does, however, provide a * by the Shea butter ingredient differentieating it as the “natural ingredient”.

Well, put your chemistry hat on!  This is what the bar actually contains, in layman terms –

     Sodium tallowate – a combination of animal fat and lye.
     Sodium cocoate – a combination of hydrolyzed coconut oil and lye.
     Sodium palm kernelate– a combination of palm oil and lye.
     Glycerin– a moisturizer.
     Sodium chloride– table salt.
     Limonene– colorless oil derived from citrus peels (mostly oranges) used as a food additive.
     Citral– a chemical aroma compound, flavor for fortifying lemon oil.
     Pentasodium pentetate – a chemical used in cosmetics, hair dye, etc.  It is considered an eye irritant and when tested (in on labs on shaved rabbits and rats) produced a moderate rash in an area or overall.
    Tetrasodium etidronate – a chemical to prevent changes in color.
    Butyrospernum Parkii – this is Shea Butter extract (fat) derived from the Shea tree.
    Benzyl salicylate – used in cosmetics.  This is actually salicylic acid benzyl ester.
    Tocophenol – an antioxidant and form of vitamin E.
Glycine Soja (soybean) oil –

Compare those ingredients with Fasching Farm goats milk soap, truly all natural ingredients –  saponified raw goat milk, lard, coconut oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, distilled water, and essential oils.  

• 

• 

This is just one of the many reasons why we decided to “homestead” and make our own food, raise our own meat, and make our own household products.  Which would you rather use?