Sodium laureth sulfate is in just about every shampoo and foam bath, as avid readers of ingredient lists can confirm.  The name tells you pretty much what it is, if you know about these things.  It is the sodium salt of sulfated lauryl alcohol, which has been ethoxylated.  If you had hadn’t ethoxylated it, it would be sodium lauryl sulfate.  If you hadn’t added the sulfate group it would have been sodium laurate.  And sodium laurate is a form of soap.  So in a sense it is souped up soap.  Soap that has an increased ability to foam at the cost of reducing its ability to cleanse. Continue reading →