Green or yellow soft soap, yellow soft soap or green soft soap—which is the difference?
Sara IdenforsGreen soap or yellow soap – does it matter?
The short answer is: no.
What is the difference between green and yellow soap?
The difference between green soap and yellow soap is mainly the color. Today, the two products are identical, but the green variant gets its color from a green dye added to the yellow soap.
Why are there two different colors?
Traditions surrounding the colors vary across the country. Green soap is often preferred in southern Sweden, while yellow soap is more common in the north. The choice of color has therefore largely become a regional custom or matter of taste.
What was previously used to color soap?
In the past, it was common to saponify animal fat. This produced a very useful soap. It also made use of all surplus, so nothing went to waste. A sustainable method for self-sufficiency. The soap became slightly milky; animal fats never produce completely transparent soap.
What is yellow soap made from?
Yellow soap has traditionally been made from tall oil—tall oil is a by-product of the paper pulp industry. The brown mass that smells like a “paper mill” is purified and saponified. This produces a yellow, effective, slightly “sharp” soap. This soap is excellent for everyday cleaning, for example in the bathroom. It is also a form of reuse that creates an environmentally friendly cleaning product.
One thing to bear in mind is not to choose pine soap for nourishing wood, as it does not have the caring properties of, for example, linseed oil soap. This is because it lacks excess fat. If you are allergic to pine, you should also remember to wear gloves, as residues of resin may remain in the product.
What is linseed oil soap?
Linseed oil soap is a yellow soap—usually a little more expensive, but very good for all wood products. Linseed oil soap nourishes and re-oils wood very effectively. It is made by saponifying linseed oil.
Which soap should you use for a patio?
The answer is that you should use an overfatted soap; the key to achieving a beautiful patio or wooden deck is as much fat as possible. The goal is a natural gray patina and a velvety surface that does not attract pollen, dust, grass, and leaves. Beautiful and easy to clean. The decking becomes soaped in the same way as an old-fashioned scrubbed floor.
As you can also read all about here on the right, it is very difficult to find genuine green soap today. There is a high chance that the soap in your hand is dyed. Read the label: if it says saponified hemp oil, it is genuine green soap—otherwise, it is something else.
What is genuine green soap?
Green soap was made from hemp oil (hemp seeds—a by-product of rope manufacturing), which gives the soap its green color. When hemp cultivation was banned in Sweden from 1970 to 2005, green soap naturally disappeared. There was simply no oil to saponify. Since there was still a market for green soap, yellow soap has been dyed green ever since.
It has the green color but lacks the caring properties of genuine green soap. So if you buy green soap today, there is a good chance you are buying dyed pine soap; you might as well choose the yellow pine soap and avoid the dye.
Dyed green soap is also perfumed differently from yellow soap to create the illusion of genuine green soap. Today, farmers are legally allowed to grow certain varieties of so-called industrial hemp with a THC content below 0.2 percent. I cannot currently find any information indicating that anyone manufactures genuine green soap in Sweden, but perhaps real green soap will return one day!
Photo: Wikipedia
Soapa is yellow. Soapa is made from corn/canola oil—cooking oil that is purified and saponified. Canola and corn oil are very similar to linseed oil, so Soapa has the caring properties of linseed oil soap as well. This means it contains excess fat, making it easy to dissolve greasy dirt with greasy soap while also re-oiling and caring for wooden floors, furniture, and all other wood.
Order natural cleaning products here: Soapa