The short answer is: yes, it does! In fact, much better soap.
We use pure distilled water in all our Pure Herba soaps and it’s created through a process called distillation. Distillation is a procedure that involves the removal of contaminants found in rivers, lakes, well water, rain and tap water. The contaminants include metals, minerals, inorganic materials and more. Although your tap water may be safe to drink and bathe in, it can include contaminants that produce inferior quality soap. Water that contains these types of contaminants is often called hard water.
What is distillation?
During the process of distillation, water is heated past its boiling point to create steam. That steam is collected and cooled separately to cause it to change back to its liquid form. After that process is complete, the contaminants that remain in the original chamber are left behind and the pure clean water that has been collected has been distilled.
Calcium and magnesium are left behind as the water boils out. Other contaminants that are removed include chlorine, lead, nitrate, fluoride, manganese, iron, sodium and more. The process of distillation can also inactivate microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and protozoans.
Contaminants in undistilled water cause poor quality soap and undesirable characteristics. These include microbial contamination, decreased lather performance, decreased cleansing abilities, soap scum, oxidisation and more.
What is the difference?
Mineral, filtered or bottled water is also inferior to pure distilled water in soap making. Bottled water companies purify the water and then add ingredients back. The ingredients they add back include magnesium sulphate, sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride, potassium bicarbonate and magnesium chloride. These are some of the same chemical compounds that can form soap scum and can cause oxidisation.
If you compare a bar of hard water soap made with a high concentration of magnesium and calcium stearate to our soap made with pure distilled water, hard water soap will be more prone to oxidisation, have fewer voluminous bubbles, have a poorer lather performance and may feel slimy or leave more residue.
Pure distilled water does cost more than regular water because of the distillation process. But if you want the best possible soap, always make sure it’s made with pure distilled water.
Reader Interactions