Soap & Glory USA
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 Soap & Glory USA facts

• Household uses for soaps include washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping, where soaps act as surfactants, emulsifying oils to enable them to be carried away by water
• In industry they are also used in textile spinning and are important components of some lubricants
• Soaps for cleaning are obtained by treating vegetable or animal oils and fats with a strong base, such as sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide in an aqueous solution
• Fats and oils are composed of triglycerides; three molecules of fatty acids attach to a single molecule of glycerol
• The alkaline solution, which is often called lye (although the term "lye soap" refers almost exclusively to soaps made with sodium hydroxide), brings about a chemical reaction known as saponification
• In this reaction, the triglyceride fats first hydrolyze into free fatty acids, and then these combine with the alkali to form crude soap: an amalgam of various soap salts, excess fat or alkali, water, and liberated glycerol (glycerin)
• The glycerin, a useful by-product, can remain in the soap product as a softening agent, or be isolated for other uses
• Soaps are key components of most lubricating greases, which are usually emulsions of calcium soap or lithium soap and mineral oil
• Many other metallic soaps are also useful, including those of aluminium, sodium, and mixtures of them
• Such soaps are also used as thickeners to increase the viscosity of oils