Why do soaps dissolve grease

We are now able to describe the way soaps clean the skin. Soaps were first mentioned on p. 239, when we introduced the action of aqueous alkali on the skin, 

We also need soaps for cleaning the crockery after a meal of chips, pizza or greasy sausages. Such cleaning can be difficult and time-consuming unless we first add to the water an effective soap or detergent such as washing-up liquid . 

Having disguised each particle of oil or grease, it can readily enter solution while sheathed in its water-attracting overcoat of surfactant. And if the oil particles enter the solution, then the oil is removed from the plate, and is cleaned. 

After leaving the plate, the grease particle remains encapsulated within the micelle, surrounded with the oil-like hydrocarbon chains of the soap monomers. The soap cleans the plate by allowing the grease to enter solution. 

A compound able to dissolve grease by forming micelles is called a detergent. Naturally occurring detergents are also called soaps. 

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