"Natural" is becoming such an overused, abused, and in itself an obscure word. After all, who doesn't like the word "natural". It has such a nice sound to it in contrast to "synthetic", "chemical", "man-made", etc. What justifies the use of the "natural" is not always regulated, and even when it is, it is still abused.

Alright, so to the question: Is soap really natural?

There is no such thing as a soap tree or soap plant, so therefore there is no such thing as natural soap. After all, a basic definition of natural is "present in or produced by nature". Soap does not qualify, therefore, as "natural". So how is it justifiable to call some soap natural? Here's how it works: the two ingredients necessary for soap are oil and lye. Oil is natural and lye can be derived from nature, thus soap when made in it's most simple form is considered natural. So, if no synthetic fragrances, preservatives and colors are used, it will be considered "natural soap".

So, if fragrances are synthetic, how do I get "good smelling natural soap"? Don't worry, you can still get "good smelling soap" by looking for essential oils and essential oil blends. What are essential oils? Essential oils are plant fluids extracted from various plants, trees, flowers and herbs. Unfortunately there are only a few fruits that can be extracted from with positive results. So, in the end, there really is such a thing as "natural soap" that actually smells nice too!

When looking at handmade soap, you usually only need to look for two things to be sure you are getting the "natural soap": first look at the title to see if they mention that the soap is natural. Then, look at the ingredients for "fragrance" or "essential oil" which I mentioned earlier. These are good ways to determine if "smelly soap" is all natural or not. Grocery store type soaps usually are over processed and use other synthetics.