how can soap which is made of GREASY OIL, clean your skin?

Answer 1

The soap is made from GREASY OIL, but also from a POLAR GROUP. In fact each soap molecules can be considered to be a long chain with a hydrophobic tail (greasy oil) and a hydrophilic head (usually a charged group such as Na+ or SO4--). What happens is that the greasy tail attracts the greasy dirt (and other hydrophobic dirt). Then you wash off the soap with water, a thing you are able to do because the hydrophilic part of the soap is attracted by the water molecules which are washing off you skin. In the end the whole of the molecule, hydrophobic tail, hydrophilic head and the attached dirt is swept off your skin by the action of the water.

Answer 2

Actually grease is made of soap and oil. Soap is saponified fat involving alkalies. A cadaver at the bottom of some lakes will turn to soap. Soap forms a lather of tiny bubbles which are films in which soap and water molecules align into a particular orientation with positive and negative polarity. Soap films and anything (like dirt) covered with a soap film will repel each other suspending dirt until it is rinsed down the drain.

Answer 3

Soap is made of oils, but it is then mixed with chemicals which allow it to harden and become soap. Most store bought soaps are made with horrible fillers like tallow (cheap animal fats), which can clog pores. Also, store bought soaps are packed with surfactants and other detergents that promote all the lather, which is very drying to the skin. Old fashioned soaps (the type our great grandmothers made with beef fat and lye/sodium hydroxide) is better for the skin because it's natural, and the sudsing/lather comes from the saponification process, where the oils are mixed with the lye (which is essentially drain cleaner, but back in the day it was made from ash).

I've been making old fashioned lye soap for quite some time now because my husband has sensitive skin and my skin has always been quite dry. Old fashioned handmade soap is wonderful for the skin as it's made with oils like coconut, shea butter, jojoba, castor etc. It moisturizes, cleanses and lathers without added chemicals and detergents.

Answer 4

Soap is not greasy oil, but it is the sodium salt of certain fatty acids. Yes, these were obtained from fats and oils, but these salts are now soluble, and attach themselves to dirt and lift the dirt off clothes, skin and so on.