Bar Soap Over Body Wash 🧼
Okay, I have a prediction for a future beauty trend. Bar soaps are making a comeback! A bar of well-made bar soap is so much better for your skin’s health, in my opinion. That means sudsing up with a bar soap vs. a body wash can lead to less dry, less irritated, and more radiant skin on our bodies. Bar soap is the main thing I’ve used to cleanse my skin for nearly a decade and my sensitive/reactive skin thanks me for it! Read more below to find out why I think you should make the switch from body wash to bar soap.
scrub me secret: I started making body care for myself in my early twenties because the skin on my body was always so dry, itchy, and sensitive, and got blemishes easily. Once I made the switch to cleansing with bar soaps that didn’t contain fragrance or perfumes and were chocked full of nutrient-rich oils, my skin showed a huge change for the better.
Bar soap can be better for your skin vs. body wash.
Body wash is a liquid skincare item that contains a certain amount of water. Because body wash contains water there is a necessary need for a preservative so bacteria doesn’t breed. A lot of preservatives can be sensitizing to certain skin types. Because bar soap is solid and does not contain water there is no need for the same preservative ingredients.
Body washes also often contain ingredients called surfactants and emulsifiers that are used to help the product have a certain look, texture, and feel. Certain surfactants can be harsh on the skin and leave it feeling dry or itchy. These extra ingredients are also unnecessary in bar soaps.
A well-made bar soap will have a shorter list of ingredients and they will all be items that will help your skin to be healthy and function properly. I also find that it’s much more difficult to find a body wash that contains only essential oils and no fragrance or perfume.
scrub me secret: bar soap is made by mixing an alkaline product called lye with fatty oils and distilled water in a very specific way. I know what you’re thinking, didn’t I say bar soap doesn’t contain water? It actually doesn’t! When the lye, water, and oils mix it creates a different compound called saponified oils. Even though saponified oils are made with water and lye, there are actually no traces of these ingredients left in the final product. Science! 🧪
More reasons I love bar soap ⤵️
🧼 Bar soaps require less packaging than body wash due to their solid form. Bar soaps often come in easy-to-recycle, paper packaging or reusable cloth/linen pouches, unlike body wash in a glass or plastic bottle. This means you’re creating less waste!
🧼 I love traveling with bar soap. It’s TSA friendly and you don’t have to worry about spilling it in your travel bag. I usually wrap up my soap in a clean washcloth and pack it with my other beauty items.
🧼 When you have a soap that’s made with essential oils it always acts as a nice air freshener for your bathroom. Unlike perfume or fragrance oil, essential oils are great for our senses.
scrub me secret: when I travel I like to cut a bar soap in half [safely] using a chef’s knife or my soap cutter so I can have enough soap for my trip but I don’t have to worry about bringing any home with me.
How to spot a bad body soap.
Product labels are difficult to navigate, so sometimes it can be hard to decipher if a skincare item is any good for your skin or not. I’m going to list a few things that you should look for on your soap label.
Avoid products with a really long list of ingredients, especially if the ingredients aren’t recognizable to you.
Avoid skincare with the preservatives Methylisothiazolinone, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, DMDM, and Phenxyethanol as these can be sensitizing for the skin and damaging to the body.
Avoid sulfates, as they can take moisture from the skin, leaving it dry and sensitive skin.
Avoid fragrances and perfumes as they can sensitize the skin and unbalance your skin’s barrier
Avoid soaps that contain cocamidopropyl betaine as it is known to be sensitizing when left on the skin
scrub me secret: The EWG (environmental working group) has a website with a database they have created that ranks skincare upon how many skin/body safe or unsafe ingredients it contains. I love looking up skincare on this website to learn about ingredients I’m unsure of and decide if my skincare is safe for my skin and body. You can CLICK HERE to access the website.
What to look for in a good soap.
Natural oils and butters like babassu oil, argan oil, jojoba oil, apricot kernel oil, olive oil, castor oil, mango butter, cocoa butter, shea butter, etc. are all great things to see on a soap label. (with the exception of any allergy you might have).
Additives like aloe, honey, oats, rosehip, calendula, chamomile, and other ingredients from the earth are also good things to see on a product label. Items like these have the ability to treat your skin without harming your body.
A short list of ingredients is better (I would shoot for less than 12). Simple soap is great soap.
My family and I have been in the soap business for over 10 years now, wow! I really do love a well-made bar soap so much and I believe it’s something thats helped my skin stay in more stable, soft, and healthy condition over the years. I hope this post provided you with some helpful tips for the next time you’re shopping for a product to cleanse your body with!
Are you interested in learning more about scrub me bar soaps? You can visit my blog post “scrub me loves bar soap: a reference guide to all our bar soaps”