You'd think I would be the one getting the beauty packages in the mail, but this time my mamasquirrel received her very own to review as part of a review squad she's on. Disclaimer: these were sent free to us to review.
So I got a chance to comment on the variety of soaps that arrived from Virginia Soaps and Scents. They are made by a homeschooling family with nine children in rural Virginia and tout their products as "real old fashioned hand made soaps".
So I got a chance to comment on the variety of soaps that arrived from Virginia Soaps and Scents. They are made by a homeschooling family with nine children in rural Virginia and tout their products as "real old fashioned hand made soaps".
After a thorough review of the literature provided with these real old fashioned soaps, (which is much more detailed than anything I was able to find on their website), I was able to summarize their thoughts on soap quite easily: soap is good, detergent is bad. Coconut oil gives a fabulous lather. We make absolutely everything ourselves. We use absolutely no chemicals whatsoever and everything is all natural. Chemicals are bad. Our soap has overcome wrinkles, acne, stress, skin dehydration, dandruff, overproduction of sebum, dry hair, hair colour stripping, and anything else you care to think of. (Let me point out a contradiction right there: if it's moisturizing, it's not going to simultaneously counter oil production. Even the big cosmetics companies make this claim and it's a rather muddled statement.) I would also like to point out before I even begin this review that my qualifications to make my statements are this: I am a hairstylist apprentice and a chemistry student. I know my soap.
Well. After such a scintillating product push, you would think I'd be just raring to try the VSS soap. But after finally finding my epidermis's one true love with Avon shower gels, not to mention all the reading I do...and some interesting articles with titles like "Is Natural Really Better" and "Hidden 'Natural' Toxins", I was actually quite skeptical. And it's true. Natural is not always better.
Instead of dragging out my introduction, I'll just tell you what happened to my family after trialing these soaps. My mother tried the shampoo bar (the next best thing since--well--shampoo) and found that it was indeed not a one-size-fits all product, but an extremely poor fit for her fine hair. She was faced with limp, greasy feeling roots, and dry shaft (she didn't use conditioner since with a supposedly moisturizing product she shouldn't need it with such fine hair). She also was surprised with some lovely scalp buildup. Unless you have ridiculously dry hair, there is no reason to use such a moisturizing product on your root and scalp area. This will only result in buildup and a heavy feeling. The bulk of your moisturizers should be in your conditioner, not your shampoo. I didn't even bother trying the shampoo bar because I've had similar problems just from lightly moisturizing shampoos.
Then I tried their Coconut Lemongrass soap. The pamphlets I read said that the coconut oil used in the product gives a luxurious lather. I could hardly get it to lather at all and it was rather a lot of work to use this soap. I spent the next day fervently itching. I rolled up my sleeve and looked at my elbows, which were covered in dry scales...highly unusual for me. I will point out that I did not follow my VSS bath with moisturizer, because I never have to with the product I'm currently using and I wanted to make a fair comparison. Finally I took my shirt off and was shocked to find that I, of all people, who isn't even allergic to forty volume peroxide with bleach, had broken out in hives/pimples all along my back. I haven't had any kind of skin reaction to anything since I can ever remember. In fact, even the cheap dollar store (non-detergent, as are the VSS) soaps that I've used haven't given me dryness like I experienced with this soap.
My father decided to pull out another bar (Oatmeal something or other scent) just for general hand-washing purposes that same evening. Mere minutes after washing his hands with it he reacted with a horrible burning sensation. At first we thought of his coconut allergy, but since this wasn't the Coconut Lemongrass like I tried, and the coconut oil itself is no longer coconut oil after the neutralization reaction that makes soap, it must be one of the fragrance oils that he reacted to, although we couldn't pinpoint it.
I realize this post is getting long, but I really feel I must give my opinion some of the statements made by the VSS company. They have said a few things which irk me.
Firstly: soap is good, detergent is bad. This particular soap (which I am going to assume is lye and oil based, since they list absolutely no ingredients, but say they don't use glycerin soap base) is the same type of "real old fashioned" stuff that the pioneers used. Detergent based cleansers were not just invented, as we are told, when housewives turned in their scrap fats to the war effort and a cheap alternative was necessary. Soap is not an effective cleanser. It clogs drains, dries out skin, and leaves hair coated. Ever heard of a "bathtub ring"? I could hardly get the soap I tried out of the tub. The same effect occurs on your skin and hair when you use soap which is why it doesn't work very well. Detergent based cleansers are designed to rinse off and dissolve: the detergent molecule has a lipophilic (grease-attracting) end and a hydrophilic (water-attracting) end. It's very effective because it's been designed that way.
Secondly: said company uses no chemicals. I suppose they have a completely different definition of chemical than I do. The fragrance oils are definitely under my definition of chemicals, and according to chemical labeling regulations even if they were squishing up actual lemongrass and adding it to their soap, any fragrance is listed as "fragrance". If they wanted to be more specific, they could, but as of now they don't even include ingredient labels on their soap, which I think would be a wonderful gesture to those of us with sensitivities such as my father, in order to avoid what we know could irritate us. But forget fragrance oils for a second. How is soap made exactly? One standard type of chemical reaction is what is known as a double displacement. You can visualize how this works by going to a dance with someone, and switching partners, thus leaving with a different person. There is a certain type of double displacement called a neutralization which utilizes this switching to take an acid (in this case a fatty acid, olive or coconut oil) and a base (sodium hydroxide, commonly known as lye) and they are neutralized to produce an ionic salt and water. What does neutralized mean? pHs are brought from the extremes of the pH scale to meet at the midpoint, 7...the pH of distilled water. The ionic salt in this case is pure soap. Unfortunately, this neutralization is partly why pure soap is so terrible on your skin. pH is a huge part of hairdressing and aesthetics curriculum these days, and after multiple assignments and reports I can safely say that the acid mantle of skin and hair falls between 4.5 and 5.5. Occasionally you may see these numbers as 4.5 to 6.5. This means that soap has a higher pH and is more basic/alkaline than skin, which, essentially, means it is drying. As an aside, these may not look like large jumps incrementally, but a jump of one whole number is actually a jump to the power of ten. A pH of 7, for example, is ten times more basic than a pH of 6, and one hundred times more basic than a pH of 5. Where else am I going with this point? Soap is considered a chemical. Sodium hydroxide (lye) is something I commonly work with in chemistry class and we have to wear goggles at all times when working with it because it's hygroscopic: it sucks water out of the air, making an extremely concentrated solution of itself which can burn your skin right off. I'm not saying that it's wrong to make soap out of sodium hydroxide. It's completely neutralized afterward. I'm just saying that it is indeed a chemical, and so is soap, because it results from a chemical reaction.
To wrap things up: I can certainly believe that some people enjoy the VSS products who have a different skin type or hair type. And I can understand that honestly, it' s just soap, those who chose to use soap can use soap and those who like detergents can use detergents. But I do feel that the statements made by the company are somewhat misleading, and I also know that I have never broken out like that from anything else. Sadly, I will have to give these soaps a major thumbs down. I wish I could at least give them brownie points for having an ingredient list.
Disclaimer #2: Yes, some of you reading this blog may notice that this post was edited. I was asked to remove anything that would infer that I thought the VSS company was lying, or could be construed as libelous slander against them. I really hated to do this because I think that I reviewed it as fairly as I review other products on this blog, but it boils down to this. My mother asked me to edit this, and I do respect my mother such that I do what she asks. I would like to say that I do not think the company is lying, per se, but they have made some rather misinformed statements on their website and in the literature my mother received. Countless companies make these same exact claims when they tout natural or organic products, and whether the production of misleading statements is intentional or not is beyond my judgement. I personally have nothing against VSS, but perhaps (I only recommend this) they should review some wording used, specifically their definition of a chemical. I have given my chemical argument for this above.
My father decided to pull out another bar (Oatmeal something or other scent) just for general hand-washing purposes that same evening. Mere minutes after washing his hands with it he reacted with a horrible burning sensation. At first we thought of his coconut allergy, but since this wasn't the Coconut Lemongrass like I tried, and the coconut oil itself is no longer coconut oil after the neutralization reaction that makes soap, it must be one of the fragrance oils that he reacted to, although we couldn't pinpoint it.
I realize this post is getting long, but I really feel I must give my opinion some of the statements made by the VSS company. They have said a few things which irk me.
Firstly: soap is good, detergent is bad. This particular soap (which I am going to assume is lye and oil based, since they list absolutely no ingredients, but say they don't use glycerin soap base) is the same type of "real old fashioned" stuff that the pioneers used. Detergent based cleansers were not just invented, as we are told, when housewives turned in their scrap fats to the war effort and a cheap alternative was necessary. Soap is not an effective cleanser. It clogs drains, dries out skin, and leaves hair coated. Ever heard of a "bathtub ring"? I could hardly get the soap I tried out of the tub. The same effect occurs on your skin and hair when you use soap which is why it doesn't work very well. Detergent based cleansers are designed to rinse off and dissolve: the detergent molecule has a lipophilic (grease-attracting) end and a hydrophilic (water-attracting) end. It's very effective because it's been designed that way.
Secondly: said company uses no chemicals. I suppose they have a completely different definition of chemical than I do. The fragrance oils are definitely under my definition of chemicals, and according to chemical labeling regulations even if they were squishing up actual lemongrass and adding it to their soap, any fragrance is listed as "fragrance". If they wanted to be more specific, they could, but as of now they don't even include ingredient labels on their soap, which I think would be a wonderful gesture to those of us with sensitivities such as my father, in order to avoid what we know could irritate us. But forget fragrance oils for a second. How is soap made exactly? One standard type of chemical reaction is what is known as a double displacement. You can visualize how this works by going to a dance with someone, and switching partners, thus leaving with a different person. There is a certain type of double displacement called a neutralization which utilizes this switching to take an acid (in this case a fatty acid, olive or coconut oil) and a base (sodium hydroxide, commonly known as lye) and they are neutralized to produce an ionic salt and water. What does neutralized mean? pHs are brought from the extremes of the pH scale to meet at the midpoint, 7...the pH of distilled water. The ionic salt in this case is pure soap. Unfortunately, this neutralization is partly why pure soap is so terrible on your skin. pH is a huge part of hairdressing and aesthetics curriculum these days, and after multiple assignments and reports I can safely say that the acid mantle of skin and hair falls between 4.5 and 5.5. Occasionally you may see these numbers as 4.5 to 6.5. This means that soap has a higher pH and is more basic/alkaline than skin, which, essentially, means it is drying. As an aside, these may not look like large jumps incrementally, but a jump of one whole number is actually a jump to the power of ten. A pH of 7, for example, is ten times more basic than a pH of 6, and one hundred times more basic than a pH of 5. Where else am I going with this point? Soap is considered a chemical. Sodium hydroxide (lye) is something I commonly work with in chemistry class and we have to wear goggles at all times when working with it because it's hygroscopic: it sucks water out of the air, making an extremely concentrated solution of itself which can burn your skin right off. I'm not saying that it's wrong to make soap out of sodium hydroxide. It's completely neutralized afterward. I'm just saying that it is indeed a chemical, and so is soap, because it results from a chemical reaction.
To wrap things up: I can certainly believe that some people enjoy the VSS products who have a different skin type or hair type. And I can understand that honestly, it' s just soap, those who chose to use soap can use soap and those who like detergents can use detergents. But I do feel that the statements made by the company are somewhat misleading, and I also know that I have never broken out like that from anything else. Sadly, I will have to give these soaps a major thumbs down. I wish I could at least give them brownie points for having an ingredient list.
Disclaimer #2: Yes, some of you reading this blog may notice that this post was edited. I was asked to remove anything that would infer that I thought the VSS company was lying, or could be construed as libelous slander against them. I really hated to do this because I think that I reviewed it as fairly as I review other products on this blog, but it boils down to this. My mother asked me to edit this, and I do respect my mother such that I do what she asks. I would like to say that I do not think the company is lying, per se, but they have made some rather misinformed statements on their website and in the literature my mother received. Countless companies make these same exact claims when they tout natural or organic products, and whether the production of misleading statements is intentional or not is beyond my judgement. I personally have nothing against VSS, but perhaps (I only recommend this) they should review some wording used, specifically their definition of a chemical. I have given my chemical argument for this above.
