Liquid sulfate-free french soap?

[Oskimosa]

I have recently discovered a liquid soap that is sulfate free. It has the ingredients listed and it just looks like plain homemade soap! But it's liquid. Although it is thinner than normal dish washing detergent or hand soap, it is otherwise the same. I've been washing my hair with it and getting similar results to using shampoo bars, but since it's liquid and not a hard bar, I don't have so much residue and there is no waxy feeling afterward. I do use a vinegar rinse but even without it it's not too bad. Shampoo bars didn't work for me because of the waxy feeling and insane buildup.

The website is http://www.savondemarseille.com/, but I got the soap at like 75% off at a closeout store.

I couldn't figure out how this was possible, since I thought if you just added water to regular soap, it would spoil. So I researched the ingredients (here is the list btw: Water, potassium cocoate, fragrance, glycerin, hydroxyethylcellulose, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, tetrasodium EDTA, BHT, polyglyceryl-3 caprylate, citral, citronellol, limonene, geraniol, hexyl cinnamal, linalool).

Looks like the hydroxyethylcellulose is a thickening agent, and the tetrasodium EDTA acts as a water softener. It basically helps the soap to clean and rinse better, since I have hard water. I couldn't find whether or not this stuff was dangerous like sulfates.

I wanted to post this because I searched the forums and hadn't seen anyone else talk about this product or brand. It is working amazingly for me and appears to have safe ingredients. At the very least, maybe others will have success with it as well. I know since giving up Dairy Whip for lack of knowledge about its contents, I hadn't found anything else to work for me and I'm happy about this. Also, if anyone can shed more light about these ingredients, I'd welcome it. :)

[melikai]

All I can really give information about is that it is referred to as Marseille soap, although it isn't true Marseille soap. Marseille soap is another term for Castile soap, which traditionally is made of 100% olive oil, as the oil part to make the soap. Many companies label their soaps as being Castile, but use other oils (in this case, coconut oil) in place of olive oil, presumably because it is cheaper.

The ingredients are okay, but you can find even more simple ingredients in Dr Bronner liquid soaps, which I think use coconut, olive, and hemp oils as their base (they also refer to their soaps as "Castile"). These are also extremely inexpensive! :)

ETA: Although one thing with the Dr Bronner's soaps are that they are considered by some to be a bit harsh, as they don't retain as much of the glycerin by-product in their soaps as some other companies do, so they aren't as moisturising. I did a very lengthy search for pure 100% olive oil liquid Castile soap with nothing else in it and was only able to find a couple of companies on Etsy and eBay.

[Fractalsofhair]

Congrats! Yeah, the reason why it's liquid is that it's made with potassium hydroxide instead of straight up lye with sodium hydroxide.

[Sara Smile]

I have found a few companies on Amazon and by searching Google that sell liquid pure Castile soap. Unfortunately, the cheapest company appears to be having some trouble (the website is not taking orders because of illness), but others have it for slightly more. ETA: I've purchased both Countryrose Soap liquid Castile soap and Castile body wash from Brigit True Organics.

I have been trying to transition to 100% biodegradeable stuff in our household, for environmental reasons, and I've been using Castile soap as a body wash and hand soap, as well as a delicates wash for cashmere, silk, and lingerie. I haven't tried it on my hair yet. I am also not using it as a Tide-replacement, or Dawn-replacement, since it is pricey, and Seventh Generation makes reasonable replacements that are biodegradeable.

[Moonstruck]

Fractals got it - even though it's "real soap" and undergoes the saponification reaction, you use a different kind of lye (KOH instead of NaOH). Everything still applies the same way, but liquid soaps tend to be a little more on the drying side. If it were a bar soap, it'd say sodium cocoate instead of potassium cocoate, that's all.

It won't be as "dangerous" as you put it as sulfates, it's just not quite as mild as stuff made with NaOH. Basically, all saponified (true soap) things have one fatty tail and one alcohol tail. Sulfates have FOUR alcohol tails, so they steal away stuff and wash away junk even faster. That's not bad if you're cleaning your toilet, haha, but it's overly harsh to the skin. Potassium and Sodium soaps disassociate at different levels to make the things work better or worse. Essentially, sodium cocoate would have sorta one out of every 2 molecules have the tail able to bind, whereas potassium cocoate might have every molecule have the tail be able to bind. Does that make sense? It's still a lot milder than sulfates, though! And it's much nicer, environmentally.

[GrowingGlory]

You mght like A la Maison de Provence liquid soap (available through Amazon). It's ultra-moisturizing (contains glycerin), has a short natural ingredient list, and is detergent-free. Plus it smells wonderful.