An interesting article entered my email inbox the other day from the environmental blog Treehugger.
It was about the change that’s occurring in the way people buy soap.
Bar soap sales are declining and liquid soap sales are gaining.
I was sorry to read this. From a toxics viewpoint, soap is one of the few products that can be very pure.
I love to buy soap from a local soap maker who doesn’t even put a wrapper on the soap. They just stamp the information right into each bar. Whenever I drive in that direction, I stop and buy a few bars.
One of my pleasures in life is buying all different kinds of handmade soaps at various craft fairs and trying them out.
But I can understand about soap in a bottle.
Reading about this, I took a conscious look at whether I was using bar or bottle soap. I hadn’t really thought about it.
What I observed was that I use bar soap in the shower and bathroom sink, and liquid soap in the kitchen.
For me, the issue is soap melting all over the soap dish. In the kitchen I often need to wash my hands because I have been cutting up chicken, and I don’t want to put bacteria on the soap. A squeeze of foaming soap from the bottle seems to be much more sanitary in that regard.
But it makes sense to stick with bar soap. We certainly don’t need yet another plastic bottle.
What do you think about this?
TREEHUGGER: The Sad Slippery Slope of Bar Soap
I also use bar soap except in the kitchen – for the same reason you do – when working with chicken etc, I don’t want to touch the bar soap and just use liquid soap to pump it out. The bar soap that I use on my face and body is Carter’s Olive Oil soap.
I know what you mean, Debra. One way I reduce (at least to some extent) the amount of plastic involved in soap bottles for handwashing in the kitchen and bathroom is to use a foaming soap pump, which I refill with Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap and water. I prefer the “baby mild” (fragrance-free) version of Dr. Bronner’s liquid for handwashing, but if a person is okay with essential oils, there are other options from Dr. Bronner’s that might be preferred. I purchased a glass foaming soap pump bottle from The Container Store, and I am reusing a plastic foaming pump in the bathroom. I use a small quantity of the Dr. Bronner’s liquid – I believe it’s about 1 part soap to 4 parts water, though other recommendations for proportion are available online. More soap = thicker foam. Less soap = thinner, runny foam. “Recipes” are available online; some like to add essential oils or other things, but keeping it simple seems to work just fine. The Bronner’s liquid does come in a plastic bottle, but I can buy their larger size bottle, and using it in this fashion, it lasts a while — definitely longer than a typical hand soap would last. So it seems that this uses less plastic than if I were buying a new plastic soap bottle (and plastic pump) each time. It also seems much more economical, since I use so little soap to fill the pump bottle each time. I have found the best price for Dr. Bronner’s via Thrive Market (online). I also use Dr. Bronner’s baby mild bar soap for showering.
Great tips. Thanks!
My asumption has been that liquid soaps are more drying to the skin than certain very gentle bar soaps. I have several plastic soap dishes sitting in a corner waiting to be washed, a tedious job that I hate and put off because sending all the extra gunky soap down the drain eventually clogs it up, so I have to work around that. I would be delighted if you can recommend gentle brands of liquid soaps, unsented please. And yes, I care about the environment, but my time and energy are valuable, too, and how many hours a year do I spend cleaning soap dishes.
Totally understand. I’ve been using Earthview Foaming Hand Soap and really like it. Unscented. Made for MCS.
I also like the organic foaming hand soap from Terressentials, which are scented, but with 100% certified organic essential oils.
Mary, I think it depends on the type of liquid soap, as well as whether it’s a full-strength or diluted version. In the past, I used Branch Basics and never had issues with my skin drying out, despite how many times a day I was washing my hands (staying home with a baby, it’s amazing how many times a day one needs to wash hands!). Using the diluted version of Dr. Bronner’s as I mentioned in my other comment, I don’t tend to have issues with drying. BUT years back I recall trying Dr. Bronner’s and thinking it didn’t work for me because it was too drying…but I think it was just too concentrated and needed to be diluted (which is actually what they recommend doing with their product when using it as hand soap). I do find their bar soap can be too drying for me. One product I’ve seen great reviews of lately and am interested to try is Miracle II. I saw it’s available on Amazon and would like to try it soon. Apparently even people with major sensitivities have done well with it. Also, I’ve found that some liquid dish soaps can be incredibly drying, whereas others don’t seem to give me trouble at all. So I don’t think it’s always a liquid-versus-bar issue, since some liquids (even grease-cutting dish soaps) seem fine for me and some gentle bar soaps are drying.