What’s the difference between liquid hand soap and body wash (if any)?

Question

Hands are a body part too?!?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

For real soap rather than detergent (which is what most products marketed as soap actually are since it is cheaper/easier to produce), oils (veggie oils or tallow, butters, etc.) combine with an alkaline solution (eg. lye and a little water) which causes saponification, the process where soap is created. For solid soap, lye (aka sodium hydroxide) is needed. For liquid soap, you need potassium hydroxide.