What is Glycerin and Why is It Good for My Skin?

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You may have noticed that Packer’s Pine is a fan of nature. Whether you’re familiar with our giveback program or have simply noticed that all of our products are made from safe, natural ingredients, we feel that Mother Nature did it best. One of the most important ingredients in our natural formulations is glycerin. Today’s blog will take a closer look at this key ingredient and why we use it.

What is glycerin?

Glycerin, also called glycerol or glycerine, is a naturally occurring substance that can be found in both plants and animals. In animals, including humans, glycerin is a component of triglycerides, a type of fat found throughout the body. It is formed from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. In the old days, soap was made with animal fats, which supplied glycerin to the formula. When combined with lye, these animal fats underwent a chemical process called saponification, which results in soap.

Why is glycerin important?

One reason is that the soap making process doesn’t work very well without it. If you want to know why glycerin is important for your skin health, strap in because there’s lots to talk about. While most of our blogs talk about the importance of pine tar in our products, glycerin is a key player in our strategy to keep our customers’ skin looking and feeling great.

Glycerin keeps your skin hydrated

Glycerin is what’s known as a “humectant.” In the skin care industry, this means that glycerin is a moisturizing ingredient. While some moisturizers work by sealing your skin and preventing insensible moisture loss, glycerin actually pulls moisture from the air and draws it into your skin. It can also keep the moisture in your skin from evaporating once there.

All of this works to keep your skin moisturized, which keeps it feeling soft to the touch and comfortable to live in. Dry skin can lead to itching and irritation, as well as exacerbations of skin conditions like psoriasis or eczema. By using glycerin in our soap, Packer’s Pine offers natural relief for eczema, psoriasis, and dry skin.

Glycerin is antimicrobial

Glycerin is also a great ingredient for protecting our skin against viral and bacterial infection. Glycerin’s antimicrobial properties make it a common ingredient in medical products designed specifically to protect wounds and compromised skin. Bandages and large sheets soaked in glycerin and other ingredients are used to protect wounds from infection, as well as to keep the wounds adequately moisturized to promote healing.

Is glycerin safe?

Not only is glycerin safe to use topically, it’s safe enough to eat. Now, we’re not recommending that you eat any of our products, but glycerin is used in the food industry as a sweetener, a thickener, and as a way to keep certain packaged food products moist. Glycerin is classified by the food industry as a sugar alcohol and, while safe to consume in small amounts, large quantities may cause some gastric distress. Again, please do not eat our soap. We love the taste of pine tar as much as the next guy, but soap is really meant to be used on the outside of your body.

Which Packer’s Pine products use glycerin?

Glycerin is an ingredient in both our bar soap and our liquid body wash. We feel that glycerin is an important ingredient in our fight to keep our customers feeling great in their skin. In addition to glycerin, we use pine tar, another natural ingredient to treat a variety of irritating skin conditions. Packer’s Pine is a natural soap that’s gentle enough for sensitive skin, but manly enough to handle the sweatiest lumberjacks.

Why does it matter that glycerin is a natural ingredient?

One of the benefits of using all natural ingredients is that our soap is completely biodegradable. For men of the outdoors, Packer’s Pine is safe for your body, as well as the forest. As we mentioned above, glycerin is a compound that’s found naturally in plants and animals. That means when you use Packer’s Pine while camping, you don’t have to worry about any negative effects on the environment you’re trying to enjoy. You can bathe in streams or shower in the rain with confidence that everything you’re putting on your body will break down into the soil it came from.

Pine tar soap has been a top choice for outdoorsmen for exactly this reason, not to mention its natural mosquito and tick repellent properties. Washing with Packer’s Pine in the wild gives you peace of mind knowing you’re protecting yourself and the environment at the same time.

If you are interested in Packer’s Pine, try one of our bundles and experience the full spectrum of pine-protection. With three bars of soap, body wash, and shampoo, you can spend each day with lusciously soft skin that smells like the towering forests of the North. Keep your skin clean with the power of the forest and Packer’s Pine.