Why is Dr Bronner Baby Mild so soft

[max_ime]

Please, has anyone figured out why Dr Bronner liquid soap is non-drying?
It shouldn't be considering the high % of coconut oil.
If you look at the order in which the ingredients are listed you can see that there is no way this soap could be this soft on skin, non-drying with the amount of coconut oil present. Even the 2nd oil used (extra Virgin olive) is after the KOH, and after the Essential Oils in the scented versions. So this tells me the soap is likely to be super high in coconut. Olive oil may represent 3-7% of the oils, hemp maybe 2-3 and jojoba 1-2%. They told me they were using Virgin unrefined coconut oil as well and no fractionated.

And they use water and not glycerin, Lisa Bronner said it's 61% water. :-|

 

[LBussy]

I've tried to take apart some ingredient lists recently and I've come to the conclusion they (lots of folks) may strategically report it wrong.

 

[max_ime]

is it legal to lie? lol

It is not legal to lie on your ingredient list as far as I understand the law. So far I've had bad result, (skin drying) soap with refined coconut oil, now I bought Virgin organic oils, I will see with my next batch how much of a difference that makes.

Maybe they lied to me when they said they did not use fractionated, but for the ingredient list I highly doubt they are lying there. It would make sense that fractionated would be less drying to skin since all of the lauric acid is gone..

 

[Susie]

No, but the federal government is not going to take the time or resources tracking down what could be a 1-2% difference. So, it becomes what they can get away with.

 

[LunaSkye]

Why would liquid soap be harder if it utilizes KOH in addition to a lot of CO? I never made a liquid soap with KOH, just a snot-like liquid soap from residual NaOH soap as an experiment.

 

[max_ime]

not talking about texture here, when I said soft, I meant soft to the skin, in other words : not drying.

 

[shunt2011]

If you're finding your soap too drying, try lowering the CO. Too much Co makes a drying soap for some. That or up your lye discount (superfat) which may help a bit too.

 

[Seawolfe]

If I'm not mistaken, the OP wants to know how Dr Bronners soap can be so gentle, so moisturizing, with coconut oil listed as the first ingredient.

I have to admit, it has me stumped as well. Can you highly superfat a liquid soap successfully if you add an emulsifier?

 

[max_ime]

you are correct and not mistaking, I may be wrong but I don't think the superfat can be much higher than 6% cause otherwise the soap will be cloudy and legally speaking there should not be any emulsifier in dr bronner because it is not listed in the ingredient's list. From my experience with refined coconut oil, upping the superfat %(even up to 40%!!) does not suffice to make the soap non-drying.

It's so weird, nobody on the internet seems to know how to make dr bronner's soap, even if this soap lists only a few ingredients and is widely sold since a long time. It is one of the most popular quality soaps. Their annual sales are not far from 100 millions US dollars !

 

[Susie]

OK, just so we are all talking about the same list of ingredients here, I copied the list from the Dr. Bronner's site.

Water, Organic Coconut Oil*, Potassium Hydroxide**, Organic Olive Oil*, Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Citric Acid, Tocopherol
* CERTIFIED FAIR TRADE INGREDIENT
** None remains after saponifying oils into soap and glycerin

I see more that makes me scratch my head than CO being first oil ingredient.
I have not yet managed to make any liquid soap with more than 5% jojoba oil in it, without it being cloudy. So, either the jojoba is <5%, or they used something to clear it up. It has also been neutralized with citric acid.

And, of course, even though CO is the first ingredient, they still call it Castile, even though we all know it is not.

 

[LunaSkye]

Edit: I looked at the ingredients on the website after reading Susie's post. I doubt Dr Bronners uses more lye than any of the other oils (KOH was the second ingredient listed. With that, they probably use a lot more OO in their soaps.

 

[IrishLass]

Please, has anyone figured out why Dr Bronner liquid soap is non-drying?
It shouldn't be considering the high % of coconut oil.

Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, 'non-drying' is in the skin of the bather...... or something like that. lol You may find it to be non-drying to your skin, but I know others who cannot use it because it makes their skin very dry indeed. My brother and my sister-in-law are two that immediately spring to mind that find Dr. Bronner's liquid soap extremely drying. They had bought a huge gallon of it to use in the shower, but found it so drying that they opted to use it to wash their dishes instead (so that it didn't go to waste). lol

IrishLass

 

[Obsidian]

I'm the same, Dr. Bronner's is extremly drying to me. Its some of the worse soap I've ever used.

 

[Susie]

Edit: I looked at the ingredients on the website after reading Susie's post. I doubt Dr Bronners uses more lye than any of the other oils (KOH was the second ingredient listed. With that, they probably use a lot more OO in their soaps.

I am not smart enough to know how to link, but I am expert at copy/paste!

 

[max_ime]

Edit: I looked at the ingredients on the website after reading Susie's post. I doubt Dr Bronners uses more lye than any of the other oils (KOH was the second ingredient listed. With that, they probably use a lot more OO in their soaps.

taking in consideration that the color of the soap is light, and that it does not smell like olive oil soap, it is probable that it does contain less OO than KOH

Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, 'non-drying' is in the skin of the bather...... or something like that. lol
IrishLass

The puzzling thing is that I cannot use my own soaps made with CO because they're too drying but I can use Dr Bronner's.

I notcied that Dr Bronner I buy is usually 3 - 4 months old.
My soap are 2 months old, maybe that is why?
Or maybe the organic Virgin oils make the difference to some, I used conventional refined.

 

[FGOriold]

It is quite simple - "Marketing". There is nothing about Dr. Bonners soap that makes it any different than the liquid soaps without additives we all can make. They market this one as baby/mild because it has no added fragrance/EO's and such that are added to their other soaps. Remember, just because a product is marketed a certain way, does not mean squat in reality.

How many products have we all purchased based on "promotional/marketing claims" that failed us?

 

[Susie]

It is quite simple - "Marketing". There is nothing about Dr. Bonners soap that makes it any different than the liquid soaps without additives we all can make. They market this one as baby/mild because it has no added fragrance/EO's and such that are added to their other soaps. Remember, just because a product is marketed a certain way, does not mean squat in reality.

How many products have we all purchased based on "promotional/marketing claims" that failed us?

Well said!

 

[max_ime]

FGOriold, that is for sure!

I'm telling you their soap doesn't dry my skin, and my attempts at producing a similar soap does. Just trying to understand how they come up with a soap that pleases me and millions, with CO in high %. In theory it should be drying? But anyway I'll just let this thread go the way it will, I'm starting to repeat myself

 

[IrishLass]

I'm telling you their soap doesn't dry my skin, and my attempts at producing a similar soap does.

I hope you didn't get me wrong, for I completely believe you when you say it doesn't dry your skin. I was just trying to point out the fact that individual skin-type plays a major role in how soap feels to our (individual) skin.

For what it's worth, I make a glycerin liquid soap (my creamy cocoa/shea formula) that the same brother and sister-in-law that I mentioned in my above post absolutely love to use, and believe it or not, its main ingredient is coconut oil. lol My sister-in-law loves it so much that I've promised to show her how to make it. She says it's one of the few liquid soaps she can use that doesn't dry her out and make her skin all red and bumpy. Here is my recipe (I don't mind showing it, because I've posted it out in cyberspace a few times before already):

35% coconut oil
30% castor oil
20% cocoa butter
10% olive oil
5% shea butter (refined)

By the time I'm done diluting and adding all my other goodies to it, it ends up with a 7% superfat. For what it's worth, my ingredients list- when all is said and done- looks like the following in decreasing incremental order (although I use equal amounts of a few of the ingredients): Distilled Water, Glycerin, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Stearic Acid, Sodium Lactate, Meadowfoam Seed Oil, Tetrasodium EDTA, Polysorbate 80, Fragrance.


IrishLass

 

[Booko]

Well, Kirk's Castile oil isn't castile either.

I've found Dr. Bronner's to be unusally helpful when I had to call about ingredients and how they were sourced, so I'd be surprised if their label was intentionally inaccurate.