Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) is a detergent which is commonly used as a cleansing agent in all sorts of personal care products. It appears in toothpastes, shampoos, bubble baths, shaving creams -- any product that requires suds. It is very effective and also very cheap. Most SLS is made from coconut oil because it is rich in the fatty acid called lauric acid.
The production of SLS begins with heating coconut oil in water in the presence of sodium hydroxide. This converts the coconut oil into fatty acids (lauric acid and glycerin). The fatty acids are next converted into fatty alcohols by a process called hydrogenation. These fatty alcohols (lauryl alcohol) are waxy materials that are excellent moisturizers. For example, cetyl alcohol is a commonly used and effective moisturizer in lotions and creams. Lauryl alcohol is then converted into lauryl sulfate by a process called sulfonation. In the final step, lauryl sulfate is reacted with sodium hydroxide to produce sodium lauryl sulfate. When lauryl sulfate is reacted with ammonia instead of sodium hydroxide you have ammonium lauryl sulfate. Likewise, when triethanol amine (TEA) is used, you have TEA lauryl sulfate. Both of these are also commonly used cleansing agents.
There have been safety issues raised about the use of SLS. Some of these issues are valid and some are clearly erroneous. The reports and rumors that SLS can cause blindness as well as cancer are not substantiated and simply not true. I know of no legitimate studies or publications which support these reports. Typically, such a rumor appears on the internet or in a sales sheet produced by a company trying to capitalize on a "we don’t use SLS" claim. The real problem with SLS is that it is too strong a cleansing agent which too easily strips oils from skin and hair. This can be a genuine problem in bubble baths. Because SLS is so cheap and makes such great bubbles, manufacturers tend to use a lot of it in these formulas. The result can be skin irritation for a child (or anyone) who frolics too long in their bath.
Shikai does not use sodium lauryl sulfate in any of their formulas because of this. There are other cleansing and sudsing agents which work just as well. In the lauryl sulfate family, they prefer TEA lauryl sulfate. This is considerably more expensive but is much milder and less irritating to the skin.