Latest Fact Sheet

Season 3, Ep 9 - Soap

It is believed that humans have been using soap for over 4500 years - there is evidence that Babylonians were making soap back in 2800BC.

Today bars of soap are made by reacting an animal or plant fat with caustic soda. Traditionally soap was made using a combination of ash and animal fat.

Both soap and synthetic detergents contain surfactants – molecules with a water-loving head and an oil-loving tail. The tails attaches itself to bits of dirt and oil, forming a cluster around them. The water-soluble head allows the clusters to then be rinsed away.

Synthetic detergents are used in a lot of soaps and cleansers available today – Sodium Laureth Sulfate is one of the most popular types. Synthetic detergents were developed during World War II due to a shortage of the ingredients required to make soap.

An advantage of synthetic detergents is that they are easily rinsed off. Some soap stays on your skin even after it feels like it’s been rinsed off and this can leave skin feeling quite dry.

Bubble baths contain a high level of detergent and shouldn’t be used regularly – the detergents in bubble bath can be very drying to skin, especially for children who are prone to eczema.

Hand washing is an important way to help control the spread of disease. Washing your hands should take around twenty seconds as should drying them afterwards.

Hand sanitisers can be a good method of cleaning your hands when you’re on the run but they aren’t as effective as washing your hands with soap or detergent.

Antibacterial soaps may be handy for extra protection if you are unwell but generally they don’t work much better than ordinary soaps do.

There are also a couple of disadvantages of antibacterial soaps. One problem is that they don’t discriminate between bacteria, washing away good bacteria as well as bad. Good bacteria on our body can actually help prevent us from getting colds and flu.

Some antibacterial products contain ingredients like triclosan which some bacteria could build resistance to. These bacteria have the potential to become superbugs – bacteria that are resistant to a range of treatments, leaving us with zero options when it comes to treating them.

Face washes differ from hand and body washes in that they tend to have lower levels of detergent so they are gentler on the more sensitive skin found on the face. Face washes may also contain moisturising ingredients to help prevent skin from drying out.

Exfoliating can help maintain the condition of the skin because it results in the removal of the top layer of dead cells on our skin.

Some exfoliating cleansers may contain microplastics that get washed off our face, down the drain and into the ocean where it can become a part of the food chain. Scientists have found microplastics in sub-Antarctic seals.

If you’d like to avoid products that contain microplastics, avoid exfoliants that have ‘polyethylene’ in the ingredients list.

Acne is the result of our pores getting blocked by a mix of dead skin cells and the oil our skin naturally produces. A type of bacteria that lives on our skin and is usually harmless can flourish in the oily environment and cause inflammation.

Anti-acne ingredients work in different ways. Salicylic acid is a popular ingredient that helps treat acne by unblocking the pore. Benzoyl peroxide and antiseptic face washes reduce the amount of bacteria and the inflammation associated with acne.