Everything you need to know about cold process saponification.

The cold saponification is a traditional method used to make soap. It involves the transformation of fatty substances (in our case, vegetable oils and butters) into soap through the action of a strong base (lye for the creation of solid soaps or potash for solid soaps). In addition to soap, this chemical reaction also produces vegetable glycerin, a fatty substance naturally present:

Fatty substance + Strong base (sodium or potassium hydroxide) = Glycerin + Solid or liquid soap.

This traditional soap-making method is a slow chemical reaction, which takes place at room temperature (between 80.6° and 113°F), followed by a long and natural drying process. It is the combination of the fatty acids from the melted oils and fats with lye (sodium hydroxide) that generates heat and thus facilitates the saponification process. This step takes approximately 48 hours. This is the necessary time frame for the chemical reaction to occur on its own, naturally.

Furthermore, this transformation is referred to as a "complete reaction", meaning it will cease once one of the reactants used is exhausted (oils or lye/potash). Generally, for a cold-process soap to be used, there should be no trace of lye left. The reaction will therefore stop when all the lye has been consumed and there is an excess of oils: this ensures that there is no more lye in the final soap.

The resulting soap is then referred to as "superfatted" due to the excess of non-saponified oil. This superfatting can be explained in two ways: either by reducing the lye , which involves using less of it, or by adding oil or vegetable butter at the end of the preparation. At Typology, we have chosen the second method: thus the indication "8% superfatted" means that the soap is composed of 8% of fatty substances not transformed into soap and glycerin. This provides greater softness, and nourishing and softening properties to the soap.

1. Firstly, butters and solid oils are melted and then allowed to cool to room temperature. The lye, diluted in a liquid (water or hydrosol), is then added and mixed into the still liquid preparation, at room temperature. Upon contact with the lye, the mixture begins to thicken and a soap paste forms: this is what is referred to as the "trace".

2. It is at this point that it becomes possible toadd other ingredients to the preparation (essential oils, exfoliants, colorants, antioxidants, clays, milks, etc...) and even to add melted oils or butters to achieve a "superfatted" soap;

3. The mixture is then placed into a mold before it hardens and is left to rest for 24 to 48 hours so that the reaction can occur on its own, naturally, over time. Once the reaction has completed, the soaps are ready to be unmolded and cut;

4. After unmolding, the soaps then need to undergo a drying period (or "cure" time) of a minimum of 4 weeks, allowing the water to evaporate and thus extend their lifespan. In addition to letting them harden, this also allows time for the saponification process to fully complete and for the soaps to stabilize their pH.

Unlike cold saponification, hot saponification involves the use of heat: the mixture (fat + lye/potash) is heated to a very high temperature (around 120°C) for 10 days, which accelerates the chemical process. However, this results in the loss of a significant portion of the properties of the ingredients used in soap making. Moreover, the lye is not entirely converted into soap and to completely eliminate it, one must wash the soap with large amounts of water at the end of the manufacturing process. Additionally, this step extracts almost all of the glycerin.

There are several advantages to cold saponification. Firstly, it allows to preserve the entirety of the naturally produced glycerin, thus giving the soap a moisturizing power. Moreover, some ingredients do not react with the lye and are therefore preserved, such as tocopherols (vitamin E), phytosterols, terpenes, or even squalene: these are the unsaponifiables. They have antioxidant, nourishing, and protective properties. A cold saponified soap will thus contain an unsaponifiable portion of the oils used and allows to benefit from their advantages. Finally, thanks to the surplus of fatty matter, the skin retains its hydrolipidic film after the shower and is therefore not dried out. At Typology, we offer you soaps exclusively cold saponified allowing to preserve the properties of the used vegetable oils and butters.