Sodium stearate

Description

Sodium stearate is the sodium salt of stearic acid. This white solid is the most common soap. It is found in many types of solid deodorants, rubbers, latex paints, and inks. It is also a component of some food additives and food flavorings.

Description

Humans began to use cleaning substances that resemble modern soaps almost five millennia ago. Early crude soaps were made from natural fats and oils and available alkaline materials such as wood ashes. During the Industrial Revolution, manufacturers began to make more refined soaps from purified fatty acids and alkalis such as lye (sodium or potassium hydroxide), quicklime (calcium oxide), or slaked lime (calcium hydroxide).
Sodium stearate is the most common fatty acid salt in today’s soaps. Common sources of the starting material, stearic acid, are vegetable triglycerides obtained from coconut and palm oils and animal triglycerides from tallow. The names stearic and stearate are derived from stéar, the Greek word for tallow.
Besides being a major soap component, sodium stearate is used as an additive in other cosmetic products to form solid “stick” shapes. According to Acme-Hardesty, a Blue Bell, PA–based manufacturer of biobased products, sodium stearate has a wide range of additional uses, including
Many Web sites provide recipes for making soap at home. But all scratch recipes require lye, which is better off being handled in the lab. If you are willing not to make soap from scratch, you can purchase a “melt and pour” soap, in which the desired oil or fat is already treated with lye. Happy soapmaking!

The Uses of Sodium stearate

sodium stearate is a fatty acid used as a waterproofing agent. Sodium stearate is one of the least allergy-causing sodium salts of fatty acids. It is non-irritating to the skin.