Traditionally, soft soap had a wide range of uses, but in modern times it has been considered old-fashioned and outdated.
In recent years, soft soap has grown in popularity as we have become more conscious consumers. We talk about reducing plastic in our homes and eliminating harmful chemicals, trying to minimize the amount of chemicals we have around us at home, in preschools and schools, and in the workplace. Only now have we begun to connect poor health with everyday materials and chemicals. Strong cleaning products with unclear ingredients have therefore begun to be questioned.
Soft soap is used for almost all cleaning.
It is gentle not only on the environment but also on materials such as lacquered wood and wooden floors. Soft soap is gentle on the hands, unlike more modern scouring products. Soft soap is also used for hand-washing textiles and for felting.
Soft soap is a compound of fatty acids.
Soft soap is produced by saponifying fat (almost all fats can be used) with the help of an alkaline solution of potassium hydroxide (lye). In the past, people used all the fat they could obtain, often animal fat. Lye was made from birch ash. This produced a gray, opaque soft soap that did not lather very well but worked effectively for cleaning the home.