1. How is Soap Made?

2. What is Soap?
We all use soap every single day. But have you really thought about what soap is and what its made of?
Soap is a chemical compound that is very common in our society. As you already know we use soap for:
But that doesn’t answer everything…
Cleaning Ourselves
Washing our Pets
Washing our Dishes
Washing our Clothes

3. Saponification
The answer to the question asked on the first slide is Saponification.
The chemical reaction that occurs when making soap is classified as “Saponification” because it is specifically used for making soap. The chemical equation for saponification is:
Fat
Base
Glycerol
Soap
Saponification occurs with the help of “Hydrolysis”. Which is basically chemical reactions that occur with the help of water.

4. Saponification cont.
Saponification can be very much compared to Neutralization.
This is because the fat neutralizes the lye to make soap and glycerol.
Saponification is also said to be exactly like neutralization.

5. Chemical Formula (Balanced)
The official chemical formula for saponification is: O CH2 O C(CH2)14CH3 O 3 NaOH CH2 O C(CH2)14CH3 Sodium Hydroxide A Fat (Triglyceride)

6. Chemical Formula cont.
CH2 OH CH OH 3 CH3(CH2)14CO2Na Soap Glycerol

7. To Understand Better
I made my own visual representation of the chemical formula for soap.

8. How do we know this is a Chemical Reaction?
Heat is needed to make soap, therefore, HEAT causes the reactants to cook.
Usually when heat is added to a compound or to an equation it causes a chemical change that is usually irreversible.

9. Famous People who have looked into this topic….
This is Deshawn Marie. She is a soap maker form Tampa, Florida. She gaining popularity in the U.S. because of her unique scent combinations and designs . Watch out for her!

10. Finally…
After learning about how soap is made, you may have realized that its not very hard to make your own soap.
All you need is:
A Fat (ex: oil)
A Base (commonly used bases are KOH (potassium hydroxide) or NaOH (sodium hydroxide))

11. Links
Here are some links to videos where you can learn to make your own soap: