What Is Glycerin?

Answer:
Glycerin is in the humectant family, and it

attracts moisture to the skin. It is a natural byproduct of the making of soap, although commercial soap manufacturers remove the glycerin for use in lotions and creams. Handcrafted soap will have the glycerin in the soap.

Physically, it is a colorless thick liquid that becomes a gummy paste when frozen. Glycerin can be dissolved into water or alcohol, but it will not dissolve into oils. Also, many things will dissolve into glycerin easier than they do into water or alcohol, making it a good solvent as well.

Another interesting feature of glycerin is that is it very hydroscopic, meaning that it will absorb water from the air. If you opened a jar of glycerin and left it alone, it would continue to absorb water from the air until it became 80% glycerin and 20% water. Because of the way that it will absorb water, if you place even a small amount of pure glycerin on your tongue, it will create a blister from dehydrating the tongue. However, if it is diluted with water, glycerin will soften your skin.

In 1889, a way to separate glycerin from soap was discovered. At that time, the biggest use of glycerin was in making nitroglycerin, which was used to make dynamite. Soap is made from fats and lye. When the fats and lye mix, they form soap, and glycerin is a byproduct. However, they are both blended together.

Commercial soap makers will add salt to the mix. This causes the soap to curdle and float to the top of the mix, leaving the glycerin and other impurities at the bottom. After skimming off the soap, they will then distill the leftover mix to remove the glycerin.

Besides explosives, some other uses for glycerin include: making preserves, base for lotions, keeping hydraulics from freezing, lubricating molds, in some inks, candies, cakes, and preserving specimens in labs.