Aha, yes, of course! This just underscores the difficulty with taking a rigid approach to pH in assessing skin irritability. The pH of our soaps will stay alkaline, even if superfatted, from the very nature of being soaps. Because the oils we superfat with don't technically have a pH, their...
Wow, yes!! I read something about that!
For anyone who is curious, you can find some info here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/magazine/my-no-soap-no-shampoo-bacteria-rich-hygiene-experiment.html?_r=0
and
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/julia-scott-on-going-suds-free-for-28-days/
Yes, unfortunately, I do feel discouraged and glass-half-empty about this. :cry: Truly, there were SO MANY studies out there about how soap is "irritating" and "harsh" and "drying" compared to syndets; it felt like being the last person standing in a dodge ball game against a full team. There...
The Update
Well, I feel really beat down by what I’ve found out in my research and in my internet searches this past week. It looks like people are convinced that soap is bad, it’s incredibly easy to back it up with the pH studies out there, and there’s no perfect science to back up our...
I make "small" master batches of my lye solution (and it has really been a game-changer!). I use wide-mouth 2000 mL bottles, and I can fit about 900 grams of NaOH and 900 grams of H2O in each bottle with a comfortable amount of room to spare.
I've never made enough lye solution to use a...
Hello again my fellow soapers and generally awesome people! I am going to put together a scientific-cite-filled knock-out write-up for all of us to have in our arsenals for any "just in case" situation. It may take me a little while, as life tends to be distracting, but when I finish it, I...
You guys are SO right about the sourness of this person I encountered. You should have heard her accuse me of "putting words in her mouth" when I said that if a person is only concerned with pH, then swimming in the ocean (8.1 pH) would be disastrous to our whole bodies.
I think a great...
Everyone, you've been amazing! All this support has put some sort of dust in my eye that is making this watery substance to come out. I guess I didn't realize how very much this person threw me off my game and made me question everything. And you've all come up with really amazing points and...