süper

Såper is the plural form of the noun såpe in Norwegian and Danish, and is used to refer to soaps in general. The term covers cleansing products used for personal care, as well as for cleaning fabrics, dishes, and household surfaces. In everyday language, såper can denote bar soaps, liquid soaps, and specialty cleansers.

Most traditional soaps are produced by saponifying fats or oils with an alkali such as sodium hydroxide (lye) or potassium hydroxide. The chemical reaction yields glycerin and the salts of fatty acids, which act as cleansing agents. Modern soaps often blend natural or synthetic surfactants with fragrances, colors, and moisturizers. They can be sold as solid bars, as liquids, or as specialized products such as dish soaps and hand soaps.

Common categories include personal soaps (hand and body bars or liquids), laundry soaps, and dish soaps. In Nordic languages, there is also a term for a floor-cleaning soap used on wooden floors (såpa), illustrating regional variations in product naming. Soaps are typically formulated to be biodegradable, though some cleaning products marketed as detergents may contain synthetic surfactants with different environmental profiles.

Historically, soap-making has ancient roots, with early processes derived from saponification of fats with ashes. By the Middle Ages, soap production spread across Europe and progressed with industrial advances in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, the market includes a wide range of soaps and related cleansing products designed for different uses and skin types.