Natural bar soap is making a comeback and I couldn’t be happier about this trend. Yes, because I make soap, but also because I know how great it is for your skin when made with the purpose of not only cleansing but nourishing your skin. I started making soap in 2013 and fell down a deep rabbit hole of experimentation, reading, youtube videos, trial and error, the endless possibilities of pigment and oil combinations and reactions of ingredients to each other in the process. I really wanted to know how good soap could be and all it could be effectively used for, so I rolled my sleeves up (okay they stayed down and I had really big gloves on because lye water is crazy hot).
I didn’t start with organic oils, just what we normally bought on a grocery run. I honestly didn’t think it mattered. After running out of the cheaper stuff and having that itch to make a batch of soap, I tried some high oleic fancy pants olive oil we bought from a local shop in my soap just to see if there was a difference and I was actually very surprised by how different the bar felt and how much nicer it hardened. It smelt nicer, it looked nicer, it just… felt nicer. Much like the raw oils themselves, think about what you would actually want to put on your skin – probably not olive pomace or canola oil, but extra virgin olive oil, shea butter or virgin coconut oil. What would you want to eat? I use food grade oils in all my skincare as I know what I put on my skin gets absorbed and why not use ingredients that have been harvested and processed in a way that they still retain natural vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, all the good stuff. When you make bar soap, you can choose a superfat (residual oil molecules that don’t bond with the lye to form salt crystals) that will ensure the good fats in the bar are still present to moisturize as it cleanses. And your skin knows the difference when you use a good bar of natural soap, they are not all created equal.
Natural bar soap retains glycerin. It is a humectant that attracts water molecules and retains them. It is such a valuable product, it is often removed from commercial bar soaps to make them harder and so they can add it to lotions and sell it as a standalone product. When you use bar soap that has the glycerin removed, it dries out your skin and then you need to buy the lotion to moisturize it. I am not going to say I never have to use cream, but generally just on my face, hands and feet which get more wear and tear and exposure to the elements. I have been using my bar soap for 7 years for face, body, and shampoo and very rarely do I feel dry enough to require a full body lotion rub, which used to be a large part of my after shower routine and I would constantly be changing the type of lotion I would buy. When I do moisturize these days, I use products without added water (which requires added preservatives) but choose a facial oil or a body butter with just the skin nourishing oils that won’t just evaporate.
Bar soap does not require preservatives either. It has a long shelf life (years!) and remains effective and even gets better the longer it cures. You can use a wood soap dish or a soap saver bag to ensure you get the longest life out of your bars. The soap saver bag is especially nice for when you get down to the last little bits of the bar and you can add them to the bag and use every last bit of it effectively.
For all these reasons and more, I choose natural bar soap for face, hair and body and I haven’t had to purchase any bottled skin cleansers for a long time, which reduces my plastic consumption & waste by quite a bit over the years. Thanks for following my journey as a maker and I hope to help you embrace a more thoughtful, and community based approach to skincare and connect you with artfully crafted products for your homes. Take care out there and I hope 2021 has better things in store for all of us!
Rebecca