Handmade Soap Nirvana

Soap was also used by physicians in the treatment of disease. Galen, a 2nd century physician, recommended bathing with soap would be beneficial for some skin conditions. Soap for personal washing became popular during the later centuries of the Roman era. Animals were sacrificed on Mount Sapo, a religious site for early romans. As rain washed a mixture of melted animal fats and wood ashes down into the Tiber River below, it was discovered that the soapy mixture was useful for washing cloths as well as people. The Roman baths were built around 312 B.C. They were luxurious and popular. It is believed that the Romans acquired the knowledge of soap from the Gauls. Today Gaul is known as France were french milled soap still receives a premium price . Pliny, the Roman historian, described soap being made from goat's tallow and causticized wood ashes. He also wrote of common salt being added to make the soap hard. The ruins at Pompeii revealed a soap factory complete with finished bars.

The Celtic peoples are also thought by some historians to have discovered soap making and were using it for bathing and washing. Maybe due to increased contact with the Celtics by the Romans, using soap for personal washing care became popular.

There is an interesting legend surrounding the discovery of soap making. This legend accords the discovery of soap to the Romans so it must be a Roman legend to confront the Celtic claim to soap making. Probably both of these inventive peoples discovered soap making independently. The legend says soap was first discovered by women washing clothes along the Tiber River at the bottom of Sapo Hill. The women noticed the clothes became cleaner with far less effort at that particular location. What was happening? The ashes and the grease of animals from the sacrificial fires of the temples situated on the top of Sapo Hill mixed with the rain, making soap which ran down the slope in the streams of rain water giving the women a wash day bonus. You can see at a glance saponification, the chemical name for the soap making reaction, bears the name of that hill in Rome long ago, which caused one Roman washer women to comment to another, "My wash is cleaner than yours".