Remember al-Razi.
The Persian scholar who, in the year 925, described how glycerin is released from olive oil during the soap process. He wrote it down in Kitab al-Asrar — the Book of Secrets. He knew what the reaction was. We’ve just forgotten it.
When soap is saponified — fat meets lye, and the reaction happens — two things arise. Soap and glycerin. The glycerin isn’t a side effect. It isn’t waste. It’s part of the reaction. And it’s the substance that makes traditional soap moisturizing.
Glycerin binds water. It works its way into the upper layer of the skin. It leaves skin in better condition than it found it.
It’s built into soap. It’s there for free. It arises automatically.
Industrial soap production has a continuous process that does one thing al-Razi didn’t know about: it removes the glycerin.
The glycerin is sold separately. For cosmetics. For medicine. For explosives. For moisturizer.
You can buy a moisturizer. It contains glycerin. The glycerin was extracted from industrial soap. The soap sitting in your bathroom. The one that dries your skin out.
It’s the same company that produces both products.
It’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s a business model.
Glycerin is literally one of the soap industry’s largest extra revenues. A global market of over three billion dollars a year. And you’re offered the solution to the problem they created, in a separate bottle right next to it.
Two products. Two price tags. One reaction that originally delivered both.
Al-Razi knew where the glycerin came from in the year 925. We’ve just forgotten it, because the industry would rather we did.
When a cold-process soap — like the ones we make — contains glycerin, it’s not because we added it. It’s because we didn’t remove it.
That’s the whole difference.
Sources og noter
- al-Razi (854-925) — Kitab al-Asrar (Bog om Hemmelighederne), beskriver glycerin-udskillelse
- PubChem — Glycerol — kemisk struktur og dannelse via saponifikation
- Grand View Research — Glycerin Market Size — globalt marked >$3 mia. årligt
- Industriel salt-out proces: glycerin trækkes ud via saltning, sælges som biprodukt
- Wikipedia — Saponification — den kemiske reaktion