What exactly is soap?
Sara Idenfors
What exactly is soft soap?
Soft soap is the everyday name used in common speech.
If we are more specific and more knowledgeable about chemistry, soft soap may also be called potassium soap, potassium fatty acid salt, crystal soap, or the potassium salt of fatty acids. Soft soap is usually made from vegetable fats, but it can also be made from animal fats. Making soft soap from animal fat was common in the old farming society, where everything was put to use. Fat from animals slaughtered in the household was saponified into soft soap for washing and cleaning the home and barn.
Soft soap is used as a cleaning product, to assemble pipes, or to move or push heavier objects along poles. Other traditional uses include combating aphids, foot baths, and treating conditions such as ingrown toenails. Soft soap can be either a thick, jelly-like product packaged in a jar or wrapped in a package (like butter), or a liquid. Its production involves cooking vegetable or animal fat together with potassium hydroxide—saponification. This distinguishes soft soap from hard soap, which is made from fat and sodium hydroxide.