Does my soap have animal fats in it?

You might think that most soaps sold nowadays are made from vegetable fats, but this is not quite true. A basic Palmolive Lavender & Chamomile soap which I recently read the ingredients list of while shopping happens to have sodium tallowate as the main ingredient. 

If you don't know yet sodium tallowate is the sodium salt of tallow acid. Tallow is the fat derived from fatty tissue of cattle and sheep. Long time ago it was the main ingredient for soap making, but for a lot of people (including me) it comes as a shock that it is still used so often in cosmetics. If you are not a vegetarian this might not bother you, but if you are it might be useful to know that this ingredient 'sodium tallowate' is actually an animal derived product. 

What is sodium tallowate used for in cosmetics?

It works as a surfactant (cleaning agent), foam booster and viscosity increasing agent. It can be found in cosmetic products such as soaps, shaving creams, lipsticks, shampoos, and others. 

For those who do not mind animal ingredients in their cosmetic products (and I have actually even come across vegetarians who do not mind using tallow to make their own soap so everyone has a different approuch  you should know that there are reports which clam that sodium tallowate may cause eczema and blackheads due to its high contents of fat. 

Of course not all store bought soaps have sodium tallowate, that is why if you would like to avoid it always read the product ingredient list.

Are you ok with animal fats in your body products? Let me know what you think!

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