Aleppo Soap - Compagnie Générale de Cosmétique

Aleppo Soap (Savon d’Alep) is famous throughout the world for its remarkable qualities and historical background.

Aleppo Soap was the first hard soap ever to be created. Small-scale production methods and ingredients that have not seen change since they were created in Aleppo in the 8^th century have been preciously preserved to this day, through generation after generation of Aleppo Master Soap makers.

Made of Olive Oil and Sweet Bay Oil, with no artificial colourings, synthetic fragrances, preservatives or other chemical additives, Aleppo Soap is a 100% natural product, with properties that have been recognised as being good for the skin.

Aleppo Soap is a unique product in the fact that it combines the oldest possible production methods (mainly hand-crafted) with the most natural ingredients possible. This combination of History, ingredients and production methods makes Aleppo Soap unique, standing out from all other soaps in the world.

Aleppo Soap is an authentic product, with its origins dating back thousands years. The production of the soap was known at the time of the Phoenicians (3^rd Millennium – 13^th century B.C.), who probably developed it in North-West Syria.

But at this time it was just a simple soapy emulsion in a semi-liquid state.

Knowledge about soap dates back an extremely long time, as it was mentioned in two books of the Bible (Jeremiah and Malachi) and by authors such as Theocrities (sapônion), Paulus Aegineta (sapôn) and even Pliny the Elder, who described soap (sapo) in his "Natural history".

It was in Aleppo that two major innovations led to soap as we know it today to be made: Causticizing and the use of Olive Oil. This is how the first hard soaps were made in the 8^th century in Aleppo - where outfits for making soap have since been created and become organised.

Following the Crusades, production of this soap was extended to the whole Mediterranean area. The first European soap-making outfits were created in the 12^th century in Spain (Alicante, Malaga, Carthagene) and in Italy (Naples, Savone, Genoa, Bologna, Venice) and then, in the middle of the 15^th century, in Marseille, for which the Soap - Savon de Marseille - is a replica of Aleppo Soap. To put it broadly, Aleppo Soap is at the origin of all hard soaps throughout the whole world.

The Composition of Aleppo Soap
A composition that excludes artificial elements...

The genuine Aleppo Soap, which is considered as the purest of all soaps, is exclusively made of Olive Oil, Laurel Sweet Bay Oil, sodium hydroxide and water.

It contains no artificial colourings, synthetic fragrances, preservatives or other chemical additives and no animal fats.

Symbolic of the plant. - One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, “Be our king”. But the olive tree answered, “Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and men are honored, to hold sway over the trees ?”.
Judges, Chap. IX, vers. 8-9. Apologue of Jotham.

The Olive Oil. - Since Ancient times, Olive Oil is appreciate by all populations of the Mediterranean area. Not only it plays an important nutritive role, people used to rub their bodies after bath to smoothen their muscles and articulations. From all the oils, the most keen to make a natural soap, thanks to it’s high quality, is the Aleppo Soap.

The Sweet Bay Oil. - The Laurel produces a fruit rich in grease material: Laurel Sweet Bay, which it's Oil is extracted by distillation.

The distillation is a method of separation, based on boiling temperature differences of liquids composing the mixture.

Traditional ingredient of Aleppo Soap. - The Sweet Bay Oil (the fruit in it's botanic definition) perfumes naturally and traditionaly Aleppo Soap. The Laurel Sweet Bay leaf is impregnated with aromatic oils.

The Soda (usual name of Sodium Hydroxyde) is the soluble neutralizer used in Aleppo Soap fabrication.

The Manufactoring of Aleppo Soap
A handcraft coming from an old-age tradition...

The soapmakers of Aleppo still use the hot process, the traditional method of making soap. This process has been historically used since the creation of the first hard soap. Aleppo Soap is a mixture of salts of fatty acids which are derived from oils (Olive Oil) reacting them with an alkali (sodium hydroxide) at 80°-100°C in a process known as saponification. The fats are hydrolyzed by the base, yielding soap and glycerol.

Depending on the alkali’s type used, the given soap is said « soft » (if added by potassium) or « hard » (if it is sodium). Aleppo Soap is the first hard soap in the world

The manufacture of Aleppo Soap is composed of three stages: the preparation of raw materials first, the saponification (making soap) next and the finishing at last.

1° The Preparation of raw materials: Olive Oil and Sweet Bay Oil are severely selected. Natural soda must be treated.Natural soda is not directly used because of it is weak reaction with grease materials. It must be white-washed to obtain « caustic » Soda. It is probably in Aleppo area that caustification has been invented and then on hard soap expanded.

2° The Saponification in cauldrons (used in the old manner): Hot process is the traditional method of making natural soap (saponification), still used in Aleppo. The procedure lasts for more than a week and includes four successive stages: the pasting, the draining, the boiling and the washings.

2.1. The pasting: It is a beginning of the hot process of saponification. Olive Oil is boiled with soda, and the two ingredients are blended in the cauldron. It is a very delicate operation that requires all the Master Soap Maker's knowledges and skill. Because the boiling might stops or, on the contrary, accelerates abruptly.

2.2. The draining: The saponification reaction produces soap and glycerine, which it’s exceeding amount hampers the soap drying. So the two products are separated and glycerine is expelled.

2.3. The boiling: It is the saponification itself. The soap dough is highly heated during many hours with alkali in excess to garantee the total transformation of the grease material (Olive Oil) into soap. After resting, water is extracted from cauldron.

2.4. The Washings: It eliminates soda excess left in the soap dough, by boiling the soda with water, afterwards extracted.

3° The finishing: The finishing phases of Aleppo Soap are the cut, the solidification and, if needed, the moulding and the packaging. These different phases are all entirely manual.

3.1. The Cut: After resting for a day [photo n° 1], the soap dough is passed from a liquide state to a more solid one.

From the moment the soap gains much thickness to support a man’s weight, it can be cut into cubes.

After tracing horizontal and vertical lines on the soap’s solidified surface, the cutting is made with a multiple knives rake [photo n° 2] hold by a Soap worker having rackets on his feet (to save the soap from crushing it).

At the close of this cutting [photo n° 3], every Aleppo Soap is individually stamped with the Master Soap Maker hallmark (the estampage).

3.2. The solidification: Aleppo soaps, now cut

into cubes [photo n° 4], are piled

in staggered rows and then wented on pallets [photo n° 5] before being transfered, to dry naturally to air, in the most airy room of the Soap Factory. They cooled slowly, partly lose their amount of water and solidifies little by little, while the crust’s colour evolve.

The Aleppo soaps will remains in this airy room for seven months, the time to be perfectly dried, harden and having it’s colour moved progressively from green to brown.

To these constitutive stages of Aleppo Soap ancestral manufacture, two additional ones can be added, if need be, specifics to the COMPAGNIE GÉNÉRALE DE COSMÉTIQUE®:

3.3. The moulding: The Traditional Aleppo soaps so obtained are reduced in thin Flakes in successive steps. From these Flakes that are handmade - and piece by piece - the Moulded Aleppo soaps. The manufacture is very long, because every piece of soap is scrupulously inspected and it's surface checked. Indeed, the handmade induce a disparity between pieces, that is corrected by inspection.

3.4. The packaging: Every Aleppo Soap is individually packaged in a cardboard box. The packaging of the Compagnie Générale de Cosmétique products is done by our qualified employees in our own workshops in Aleppo.

3.5. The Stocking: All the products of the Compagnie Générale de Cosmétique are finally packaged on european palets (80x120 cm) with crush-proof boards as protection against rough handlings, then stocked in our aleppian warehouse before being transfered to our french warehouse.

Aleppo Soap is a noble product which it's composition is natural raw materials. This composition gives to the Aleppo Soap it's authentic dermatological qualities and makes it the true natural soap.

The high quality Aleppo Soap copes perfectly with healthy skins thanks to it's alkaline ph and it's oils. Olive oil doesn't dry the skin, which stays soft. Bay-laurel oil- which was greatly used for medical purpose - has a reputation for it's tonic and stimulating qualities.

Aleppo Soap is gentle with skin and doesn't provoque skin allergies (eczema, psoriasis,…etc.). It is particularly recommended for daily hygiene, baby bath and as a course of treatement of dermatosis.

For the face and the body. - Aleppo Soap is used daily much for the face than for the body. It cleans deeply the skin, eliminates the peeled cornea layer, the sebum and sweat (which tarnishes the complexion of face), dust and other micro-bodies of the environment. It’s an excellent make-up remover. Getting washed with Aleppo soap prevents infection and gets rid of the foul odours. Lastly, the absence of all artificial colouring or other chemical additives is the reliable guaranty from allergies or other attacks that may harm the skin if rubbed by an industrial soap.

Elimination of sebum. - It is advisable to remove frequently the hydrolipid exceeds of the skin. However, the soap used must be neither too detergent nor too anti-septic. Also, Aleppo Soap is the most natural and the less aggressive for this elimination and gives the chance for a perfectly cleaned skin.

Many dermatologists recommend the use of Aleppo Soap Flakes to wash the linen in contact with sensitive skins. The Flakes are recommended for the baby clothes and lingerie because it has the advantage of being harmless for sensitive skins.

Anti-clothes moths. - Furthermore, Aleppo Soap has a an unknown (or Forgotten) quality in the Western world but known in the Eastern world, which is a true anti- clothes moths. That is why the Aleppeans places them in their cupboards to preserve their clothes from clothes moths.

The phosphates (especially sodium pyrophosphate or potassium pyrophosphate) are used as additives for artificial detergents thanks to their ability to smoothen water. These phosphates, expelled to the sewers, have such an ability to smoothen water that they produce in lakes and damps an exaggerated amount of weed which decreases the amount of oxygen dissolved in water. The aquatic system, unable to breath properly, perishes. This phenomenon is called “eutrophisation”. This pollution is due to partly domestic detergents. The protection of the eco-system implies to reduce the phosphated detergents and the usage of natural products which are, as Aleppo Soap, totally freed of phosphates.

The properties and specificities of Aleppo Soap
The benefic effects of this therapeutic complement...

Aleppo Soap was used in the old times so much for it’s therapeutic as it’s hygienic properties. However, this therapeutic usage has decreased in the second half of the twentieth century, in the benefit of more specific and much less natural soaps.

Aleppo Soap is not a medicine and do not constitute, by itself, a medical treatment. It is a therapeutic complement, that constitute an adjuvant and complementary help to the classical therapies.

Aleppo Soap is recommended for Febris Pimple (Labial Herpes), infant buttock Erythema, skin burns and small skin wounds, the Heel edge's cracked Keratosis, the Legs Ulcer, the Stomies' hygiene, the Hemorrhoids, the Pruritus, the Hands Dermatitis and the Atopic Dermatitis (Eczema), the Bacterian Dermatosis (Impetigo, Ecthyma, Superficial Folliculitis or Osteofolliculitis, Vulvar Sycosis, Furoncle), the Candidiasis… Aleppo Soap also prevent some common Dermatosis (Favus, Herpes Tonsurans, Pityriasis, Microsporia).