Its 2018 and yes a lot of the population uses shower gels or liquid body washes when showering or bathing. This blog post is to highlight why you as a consumer should switch over to using bar soap - its better for your skin and better for the environment.
- Skin Health. Your skin is the largest organ in your body and one that you are responsible for taking care of daily. Do you really want to be stripping the natural oils away and applying chemically laden artificial foaming body washes to it? A natural bar soap gently cleanses away dirt and oils whilst replenishing the natural oils of your skins surface. When properly made, soap is actually kinder to your skin than other methods of cleansing. Body wash is basically a detergent, its not actually a soap at all.
- Packaging. Liquids need a container to hold them in when you buy them. This is usually a plastic bottle. Solid bar soaps can be sold naked or in small cardboard boxes which are easily recycled.
- Water saving. When using liquid soap it is hard to judge how much you need to clean the body. We often use twice or three times the required amount. This results in more lather than we need and more time spent in the shower rinsing away that lather. Bar soaps are different in that we lather them ourselves and can control the amount we use, therefore less lather and less time in the shower saving water.
- Carbon Footprint. Containing lots of water, body washes are also much heavier than bar soap, resulting in a significantly higher carbon footprint for transportation. Packaging for body washes are made of plastic that ends up in the landfill or our oceans. Bar soap has a clear edge in transportation, packaging and disposal.
- Chemicals. Lastly, lets take a look at what’s inside. Most liquid body washes are made of petroleum, while many traditional bar soaps are made of saponified plant oils. Liquid soaps need the addition of emulsifying agents and stabilizers to maintain their consistency. Although these chemicals may have been approved by the relevant authorities for use on humans, the testing procedures do not include the consequence of long term use or interactions between these and the myriad of other chemicals in our environment. For example, diethanolamine (DEA) is commonly added to confer a creamy texture and foaming action. It inhibits in baby mice the absorption of choline (not to be confused with chlorine), which is an essential nutrient necessary for brain development and maintenance. High concentrations of DEA were also found to induce body and organ weight changes, and mild blood, liver, kidney and testicular systemic toxicity in mice. A 2009 study also found that DEA is potentially toxic for aquatic species.