I hate bod wash. I don’t understand the appeal at all. Although I am a faithful recycler, everyone isn’t. Many of those plastic body wash bottles wilI end up in landfills or even worse, the oceans. **shudders**. I love bar soaps. In fact, I plan to start making my own soaps in the very near future.

Hello,
My name is Beverly. Switching to bar to gels(liquids) soap is a lifstyle choice and your boyfriend Isaiah Mustafa should use a product like Semina-turals. This product is 100% natural African Liquid Black Soap or Aloe Black Soap. The ingredients is very simple (promise you). I would love to send you and your boyfriend free samples. My company name is SANKOFA CREATIONS is based in New York City. If you are interested please send me a email. I would like to get feed back from you. Thanks for the discussion.

i’ve used bar soaps, tried body wash liquids, and switched back to bars.
i found that using liquid soap was both inconvenient and wasteful – i had to pick up the bottle, open it, squirt soap on my hand, then rub it around. in the process, a lot of soap would get wasted – i had to repeat this process several times each shower. it worked slightly better using a shower-wall-mounted liquid soap dispenser. i also tried using one those spongy-scrubber thingies. this worked and seemed to allow me to make more efficient use of the soap, however it took extra effort to wet the sponge, apply soap, squish it into the sponge, and rinse the sponge afterwards.
contrast to using a bar – you just hold it in your hand, do a little rubbing around and you end up getting the soap where you need it with little waste.
as an aside: i like a soap that leaves my skin squeaky clean. i’m not a fan of any kind of film left behind – moisturizers, oils, aloe, etc. nor of any strong fragrance. it seems like 99% of cleaners these days try to compete based on how many different kinds of stuff i don’t like they can pack in (moisturizers, especially), so its kind of hard for me to find soap i like.
i currently use basic/cheap safeguard bar soap. it comes in bulk packs in cellophane-wrapped recyclable paper boxes (vs. plastic bottles). it doesn’t seem to leave much residue in my shower, either (which some people seem to complain about with other bar soaps).

the only slight problem of bar soap is storing it. if you leave it sitting on a shelf in the shower or in an enclosed dish, it can make a mess. i use a soap dish that has a little drain spout that hangs over the shelf in the shower and works great. also of course, when the bar gets too small to use, just open another one and squish them together – easy and nothing gets wasted; you get to skip the ordeal of eeking the last bit of product out of a plastic bottle.
summary:
body wash: expensive, wasteful application, harder to use, takes extra time, wasteful packaging.
soap: requires you have a proper soap dish/tray, otherwise it can be a little messy.

I’ve always used bar soap growing up and I still do. I’ve tried body wash along the way and… meh… I don’t really like it. It SMELLS nice but… I always see that they are trying to moisturize my skin or something and maybe that’s why but it never feels …Clean. I want me skin to be squeaky clean. Body wash leaves a bit of… slipperiness in my opinion.

the fact is I won’t use body washes. I hate them. yes, I think they smell ok jut it seems like you use more, they cost more, and they don’t do as good a job. They just cover up and don’t clean up. To be honest, I didn’t think about the environmental impact, but now that it’s been brought to my attention that just one more reason I won’t use them.

As Flava Flav once “Don’t believe the hype” i’ve made the switch to bar soap about a year ago and I haven’t looked back since also with the invention of the soap saver mesh pouch I can extend the longevity of each bar I use. Also body wash seems to take longer to rinse off my skin than bar soap which means i’m wasting more water and I still don’t feel all that clean after the shower.

As Flava Flav once “Don’t believe the hype” i’ve made the switch to bar soap about a year ago and I haven’t looked back since also with the invention of the soap saver mesh pouch I can extend the longevity of each bar I use.

My husband and I are in the process of moving towards a 90% reduction of plastic consumption in our household. He has followed my lead and is only using bar soap now… and smells exactly the same! I also want to thank you for your inspirational Ted Talk. I have been wanting to experiment using soap nuts as my laundry detergent (given that the only waste is a nut shell!) and I stumbled upon a company – NatruOli – that sells some wonderful soap nut products. I was turned off by them, however, because they package their “green” laundry detergent and other soap products in plastic bottles. I did what you advised – I wrote into them and encouraged them to check out plastic free websites and to consider that they are negating their green movement by their choice in packaging. Thanks again for your inspiration and wisdom!

“Personally, I want my man to smell like a man it’s part of what makes him attractive. But what do you think?”

UMMMM … NO.

I think you might be one of the few girls on this planet who isn’t bothered too much by people’s body odors.

But as a man, I can tell you that 99% of women DON’T WANT YOU TO SMELL BAD. I’ve been in embarrassing situations before where girls have told me I needed to brush my teeth before we made out because my breath wasn’t very fresh or that I needed to use a stronger deodorant.

These were my younger high school and early college years so I was kind of stupid when it came to hygiene and I didn’t realize just how important hygiene is when you are dating or in a relationship.

Now that I’m in my late 20s I’m older and wiser and I’ve learned from those embarrassing situations. You need to find a balance between having good hygiene and using harsh possibly toxic chemicals like SLS (SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE or SODIUM LAURYTH SULFATE) which are actually carcinogenic chemicals that are used in toothpastes, shampoos, and body washes to create a stronger foam or lather.

There are many body washes out there that are much more natural and some are even completely organic and they come in very masculine scents or at least clean fresh gender neutral scents. Frankly, soap bars tend to be a little gross because they collect dead skin cells and bacteria. And if dropped on the floor or sink most people feel gross using it again. This is why body washes are becoming so popular amongst both women and men. They are just easier, faster, and cleaner to use. Not too mention that many of them come with exfoliating agents such as micro beads.

Body washes are the way to go, but finding a more natural one is important. Old Spice Scented Body Wash is just another low-quality commercial product loaded with toxic chemicals but packaged in a nice bottle and nicely advertised on TV.

Well, I am the nonconformist on this forum.

We use nothing but body wash in the bathroom primarily because it doesn’t leave soap scum. Although there is a residue, it is soft and washes off easily. Bar soap may be more environmentally-friendly but the chemicals you need to remove the scum aren’t. We use a wall-mounted soap dispenser and that probably cuts down on the waste; a bottle lasts us *months*. (I also itch less than with bar soap.)

As fo the EWG ratings, they are bogus if you have any respect for the FDA.

Not only do plastic bottles end up in landfills, but there is also the cost to the environment in manufacture of these bottles, and shipping them around to retail stores so that we can buy them. I switched to natural olive oil based bars from bottles a few years back, and am very happy. I buy local so that less oil is used or pollution created in the shipping process. Easy to find local, there are soapmakers everywhere. Shop around, find one with good, earth loving ingredients.

Not only is bar soap better for the environment, but less chemicals is better for us too. The soap I buy is about $5 a bar, good quality, and if I take care of it properly by using a soap dish that drains, it lasts for well over a month. It doesn’t leave a film on my skin or in the shower, and I would assume that the poster who claims all bar soap does is probably using a commercial bar that is full of chemicals and made from tallow.

I use bar soap for my face, body, and hair. I also find that using bar soaps, esp. those made with natural oils and essential oils for scent, to be a much more luxurious and sensual way to get clean.

So, lots of benefits. I try to include a nice, delicious smelling bar of pretty, natural soap with every gift I give, to turn everyone on to or back to the benefits of using bar soap.

i recently switched to bar soap and couldn’t be happier. i rub it on a loofah (i think mine is a mix of recycled plastic and bamboo… know any good natural loofahs?) and it lathers infinitely better than shower gel. i have heard people talk about the film left from bar soaps, but my “out of africa” brand soap made with organic shea butter smells sooo good and doesn’t leave any residue for me at all. i’ll never buy another body wash gel

Fascinating discussion! But are we having too much fun scrubbing each other down? I didn’t have time to read every entry, but one thing… “If we don’t buy it, they won”t make it”… maybe, but it’s better if we tell them why, lest they be confused and think we don’t like the smell or the color.
I want natural, sustainable, not wrapped in a ton of plastic kinds of products, and I can’t make everything myself. I want AB 1998 to pass the Cal. Senate and become law. I want schoools to teach the truth about recycling.
Many plastics cannot be reused or remanufactured. Virgin plastic is cheaper. They are thus landfilled and eventually end up in the ocean! The chasing arrows are meaningless. Doing my best to reduce plastic in my life. Thank you, Beth, for this forum.

I keep vowing to switch to bar soap once my supply of bodywash runs out, but I’ve also been making an effort to use as little as possible. We bought one Sams Club package (~half gallon) 3 years ago, and I’m only half way through!

My husband technically uses bar soap, but most of the time he just sudses up with his shampoo and washes with the bubbles that run down rather than a separate step.

I guess I’m saying we’re of the “use only enough” camp, rather than embracing a particular flavor.

I use Dr. Bronner’s peppermint for my hair, but I use a lemon verbena bar soap for my body. I like the lemon smell. Dr. bronners makes a lemon bar soap but I haven’t seen the liquid version yet, or I would probably buy it. A few posters mentioned refilling their Dr. Bronner’s. Are you talking about refiliing the 5 gallon jugs? I would love to be able to do that. Anybody know of anyplace in the Bremerton, kitsap area of washginton state that does that?

I just switched to bar soap from body wash to reduce my plastic consumption. My husband on the other hand likes using the body wash so he can use the poof and scrub his skin.

I used to body wash all the time but then I switched to wonderful bar soap — it’s locally made and all natural. It costs more than bar soap in the store but I also found that it lasts longer and has a wonderful lather.

Plus it comes post recycled cardboard that can be recycled again. I get it at the Farmer’s market.

Off-topic from plastic, but folks following this blog & amused by the Old Spice commercials might be interested. Wonderful video for a college library that uses same format as the Old Spice commercials and a handsome student with quite similar voice:
https://www.philanthropy.com/article/What-a-College-Library/226901

I use Dr. Bronner’s soap. I don’t like the film that the bar soaps leave on my skin. I think that there are WAY too many chemicals being emitted into the environment. There is no emphasis on the long-term effects of what the corporations do to the planet. Their only consideration is the profit of particular actions. What good will it do us if the corporations make record profits, but end up killing us all off? Or worse yet, if they end up maiming, crippling and sickening all the people here? It is not on the corporate list of priorities…

I have recently gone to using bar soap, lily de valle made right here near seattle, Ballard Organics, made in Ballard, a seattle community, or Dr. Bonner’s all in one bar soap.

I cannot stand the smell of Old Spice on men. I can’t believe how men are not being sucked into all the male fragrance and toiletry marketing hype. I only use unscented bar soap myself. Unscented soaps are a small kindness you can offer to people with chemical sensitivity.

I’ve recently switched to Rhassoul Clay for washing, and it’s great.

Piper, ugh, that’s disgusting. I’d have demanded a refund!

Great discussion, Beth. My husband and I buy handmade bar soap from our favorite B&B in Ashland, but we’re still using shampoo. Maybe next month on my summer vacation I’ll experiment with alternate ways of getting my hair clean. (I’ve tried shampoo bars and they left a nasty residue on my scalp. Blech.)

I used body wash as a teen and for a couple of years in college. I had gross idea about soap, mostly because the soap I pictured was the dirty slivers of Ivory soap found in neglected soap dishes around my parents’ house. Body wash smelled good and wasn’t Ivory. Then, I began to think about animal testing and started on my path to hippiedom, which became a lot more sudden when I became painfully allergic to nearly all of my body products. Bye bye, SLS!

I switched to soaps from Indigo Wild and Burt’s Bees, both of which smell great and don’t irritate my skin. They have some great scents for men and women, but I like my man to smell like a squeaky clean version of himself after a shower, not some chemical smell. It was easy to convert my boyfriend because he doesn’t want to think about his body products, so if I give it to him and it isn’t too weird (like my deodorant crystal) then he’ll use it. These bars of soap come in delicious scents and are pretty cheap considering the ingredients. I buy the one lb. “junk bag” from Indigo Wild, with the broken bars they couldn’t sell elsewhere (which usually comes in a plastic bag, unfortunately), and it takes forever to use up the whole thing. I put the ones I’m not using in my dresser drawers because they smell so good!

I keep a bottle of Method hand soap at my sink for guests, but I plan to refill the container with Dr. Bronner’s or something similar when I’ve used up the contents. It’s nice to have a pump when your hands are covered in something icky.

Actually, our bodies don’t really need soap to be clean. Just rinse in the shower and go. Perhaps scrub a little with a wash cloth or loofa. And it is cheap and non-toxic as well! Try it for a month.

About half a year ago I switched from using liquid handsoap to using bars (thanks to you and your blog). Those bars take forever to be used up, and unfortunately I haven’t found one yet that doesn’t dry my hands. At the moment I’ve got an olive soap that leaves a weird feeling on my hands. Since I believe in using up things that I’ve got I’m not going to throw it away though.

I love liquid shower gels. I especially have a huge weak spot for the Bodyhsop Mango one. However I’ve decided once my current stash of liquid soap is gone, I’ll try to find a moisterizing shower bar. I only use a little bit of soap when showering, so one bottle will last me between 6 to twelve months. I have successfully weaned myself off of shaving cream (in cans), and even though I know the Bodyshop soap contains crappy ingredients, it does a very good lather for shaving.

My parents still belong to the ‘bar soap’ generation, but all of my friends use only liquid soaps. I can’t even tell you why – perhaps it’s because you can just close the bottle and don’t have to deal with a slippery thingie in the shower, or because there actually way more different liquid brands (trying out is fun) in the stores.

I’ve used a lot of different soaps/body washes, both in bar and bottle form, and I’ve found that bar soap universally (at least, every type I’ve ever used) leaves a dry, waxy, filmy feeling on my skin, like it’s too tight. Usually, I buy a large jug of liquid body wash and use it to fill up a more manageable bottle. I use bar soap on vacations or trips on which I can’t take a checked bag, since I’d feel absolutely awful buying a travel size bottle, but my favorite part of getting home is always the fact that my skin no longer feels like it’s a size too small.

I honestly don’t know what it is. It might just be me–I have weirdly sensitive skin, and can only use unscented soap/wash/lotion, so it might just be a byproduct of my weirdness–but I’m not willing to switch to bar soap long term because of it.

Over the years I’ve tried many different bar soaps and shower gels of the “natural” variety. I’ve been unsatisfied with almost all of them. Bar soaps always seem to be either drying or leave a weird texture on your skin. Shikai shower gel is the only thing that really works for me, and every time I try something different I wonder why I bothered.
I’m surprised that no one mentioned refilling your plastic bottles. Maybe it’s not that common in other places, but I have at least 3 local stores where I can and do refill my bottles. I plan to keep doing that until they wear out (will that ever even happen?). After that, stainless steel or glass bottles.

Another bad thing about bottled body wash is that most people usually end up using a plastic loofah or sponge of some sort with it. There are a ton of excellent, all-natural scented and unscented bar soaps at places like Whole Foods. For my husband, I prefer the ones that have warm scents like cinnamon or cedar. Tea tree oil or peppermint are two other nice scents for men.
I think bar soaps travel better too. I just wrap one of in a washcloth instead of using a plastic container. And I don’t have to worry about the airline rules about liquids or about the containers coming open in my bag.

This is a great dicussionand I don’t have too much to add except that Avenno oatmeal based soap leaves no hard to remove residue and isn’t too drying. And I second that washclothes are great – easy to knit too if you’re into that sort of thing!

We use bar soap in the shower and bath at home, but both of us prefer liquid soap in a gym shower situation, for convenience coming, going and washing as well as safety in the shower and cleanliness in the gym bag. Not essential I agree but most of this useage is from stuff we already have and aren’t buying more of.
We also use diluted liquid hand soap (which we buy in bulk) at home, my partner prefers it, its easier with complicated dirty hands, and not as messy.

I have incredibly sensitive and dry skin, and I am highly allergic to coconut and palm oils, and the chemicals derived from them, which basically includes everything in most soaps. The only “commercial” brand of soap I can use is Grandmas’s Old Fashioned Lye soap. It is wrapped in plastic, but one bar lasts my family a good six months, and I’ve been able to give up lotion most months out of the year by using it. This allergy has forced me to really look at the ingredients in all of the products out there – soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and food… It is RIDICULOUS what you’ll find when you really start paying attention. I also use it to make homemade laundry detergent which has been amazing for my clothes. You can use the bar sop as well to make a liquid version at home if you really want to do so. It’s a great use for those little bar “scraps” that are tough to use.

I was just about to do a post about how fabulous my hair looks since I started using bar shampoo. My ex husband had a thing for body wash, he wouldn’t even use bar soap when I bought it. I switched to bar because of the plastic, but now find bar soap much less irritating to my skin.

One time after surfing I took a shower at a friends house and all he had was old spice bodywash and I felt so totally weird smelling like him I had to take a second shower. It does smell good, but not on a woman, its weird.

I made a video about just this thing!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4MBVo4C3BE

I started using liquid soap because it didn’t leave soap scum in the shower. I switched back to bar soap because of the plastic. It’s hard to find bar soap that’s not in plastic now. I went with Dove for a while, but it started coming in plastic. I tried some from Trader Joes but that’s in plastic, too. Next I’m going to try some Coconut Castille I got for 99 cents. I hope it’s really wrapped in paper. Sometimes even the paper fools you.

I have no idea why men would choose what they choose but I’m reminded of going into this small shop last summer on a trip and there was a teenage boy working there, bored, spraying himself with that nasty body spray. The store reeked. His dad ordered him to scoop us some ice cream and he touched the cones with his hands. The ice cream tasted like body spray. Ugh. Definitely it has to be marketing because no way would a woman find that attractive and no way a teenage boy would spray that much perfume on himself without some kind of influence.

We like bar soap for the shower. It is easy to find ones that are all natural that smell nice and don’t irritate sensitive skin. I find bar soap for regular handwashing leaves too much of a mess to clean even if using a dish and especially with kids, so I put Dr. Woods Castile Soap diluted in a foam pump dispenser. The kids use this in the shower too. Next I plan to make my own, I found a huge glass bottle of olive oil at an ethnic grocer for a really good price.

I used liquid soap in college, with the dorm showers. Otherwise, I would get a mushy mess of a bar of soap.

At home, we use bar soap. Neither of them made me feel much different, however I do have a bottle of body wash for when I am at the gym, for teh same reasons.

Never had a thing for bath gels, but I’m not really a great fan of bar soap, either, despite growing up with it–don’t care for the scummy residue or the skin drying.

Because of a lifelong problem with seborrheic dermatitis, I’m pretty much addicted to washing my hair with dandruff shampoos daily. Since I’ve got all of that lather going on on top of my head anyway, I just go ahead and steal some of it and move it to other areas of my bod as I shower. Works just fine. Not proud of the plastic, but it sounds like I at least get better mileage out of my shampoo (a bottle lasts 3+ months) than others get with the gels.

My husband uses bar soap.

And I have to say, I have totally mixed feelings about this campaign. Especially it’s current iteration on Twitter and YouTube. The marketing and the response videos are BRILLIANT. But I wish that it were for a better product.

Intelligent response Jessica. If we don’t buy it they won’t produce it. Buying liquid soap in a plastic bottle is a simple discretionary item that we can easily forgo for something more responsible like a good bar of handmade, cold processed soap. If we can’t do it there we’re not really making a good effort. At least make a commitment to use bar soap in one bathroom ~ that’s a good place to start.

I make my own soap from all natural ingredients including milk from my goats. I sell it too and would be happy to ship some to any interested parties. I don’t package it in plastic. After many long brainstorming sessions, I decided the naked bar is the way to go. I label each one using two straight pins and a tiny slip of paper. It lathers perfectly and rinses off easily leaving absolutely no residue. There is really no comparison to how wonderful this soap feels and leaves your skin feeling afterward.

Store bought soaps are different from homemade for many reasons one of them being the glycerin produced in the soap making process is removed from store bought soap and sold separately, thus making a harder and more drying bar…not to mention whatever weird stuff they put in it.

I live in the hot and humid southeastern part of the country. Moisture has never been a big problem as far as the soap is concerned.

I really think these types of choices are about how committed one is to living and inhabiting our planet in a less invasive way regardless of how convenient certain things may or may not be, like cleaning the soap dish vs wiping under the gel bottle.

By the way, men LOVE the soap I make on my farm. It’s brown for one thing and that makes them feel manly about using it.

i must admit, I can’t use bar soap. I’ve tried, but I have super dry skin and it just left me insanely itchy. I mean, painfully so. I still try periodically, but so far haven’t found any that work–I wish that I could find the kind of shower gel I need (usually the kind with added moisturizer dumped into it, which is followed by the Lush bar moisturizer in the shower, then body butter after just to stop it from being painful when I get out of the shower) but so far no luck.

Makes me wonder if there couldn’t be some sort of market for re-fillable shower gel. Sort of like a bulk bin system, you know? Perhaps different kinds. Yes, it’s still plastic, but you could use one plastic bottle for ages with that kind of setup.

I think its like the equivalent of the Lynx affect ads with bodywash. perhaps guys think they will be more diserable to women if they use it. In a sense, I reckon it is true that women are more attracted to men that smell good as a men to women who smell good. But I think there is also a difference between smelling good as in clean. and over the top scented which is obviously trying to overcompensate/mask stuff.

I think with the body wash trend too there is also a misconception that using bodywash is a actually “cleaner” than bar soap and people assume bar soap has more bacteria because people are sharing their soap.

Actually, scientists have done tests and found that used bar soap actually contains no harmful bacteria. Personally, I think that makes sense since soap is selfcleansing.

I’m willing to bet there would be more bacteria found on the plastic nozzles of bodywash and the loofers.

Like most people we never used anything except bar soap growing up. I only got into my loofah + shower gel phase because it was super cool as a high school girl to shop at Bath & Body Works (aka the over-whelming smells store). It was taken for granted that you used their shower gel and also gave it as gifts to all of your girlfriends for birthdays, etc.

Since then, I’ve moved into a ‘cheap phase’ and only bought the bar that was on sales, and then moved to what i am in right now, which is the good, handmade soaps phase. I think I’ll stay here for a while ;)

I mean, it obviously makes companies more money selling shower gel, so why not try to make it manly so the other half of the profit sector wants to buy it? I totally get it. Smart economically, yes. Smart environmentally, no.

Wow! Well, reading this post and all of the comments I think I realize how far I have traveled away from the “American norm”.

I lived in Norway 25 years ago… before American standards of “cleanliness” (AKA “toxicity”) had made it to the land of the fjords. My host family bathed about once a month, and they actually did an “intervention” on me because they thought my daily shower was incredibly unhealthy! I promptly took up swimming so that I could bathe on a regular basis, but nevertheless, it forever cured me of the morning shower that most Americans take for granted.

Here’s the thing. You really don’t need soap of any kind to get clean. In most cases water will do just fine. If you have hard water, any kind of soap will leave a film, and it will certainly dry your skin. Body wash will rinse clean since it is really detergent, not soap, but it is generally full of phthalates which are Gawd Awful petro-chemicals that mimic the effects of estrogen on the body. I just finished reading the book “Slow Death by Rubber Duck” (which I highly recommend) and I can tell you, I’ll never be putting that stuff on my body again!

I go through about 1-2 bars of soap per year. I use it for washing my hands after using the toilet and for the few obvious places that need a little in my twice a week bathing routine!

Come on people… embrace your humanity! We weren’t meant to smell like a perfume factory! Toxic is not clean!

Consumers have been hornswoggled into thinking suds= clean. Suds don’t do the cleaning. Manufacturers are selling illusion as much as anything else and most consumers are now convinced that no suds equals no cleaning.

Personally, I make my own soap. Not hard to do and I know exactly what is in it at the end.

Leanne, I love you.
<3 Zenith

Shower gels are a brilliant example of yet another product we never needed a decade ago, yet now we can’t do without.

Welcome to the world of sucker consumerism!

We don’t buy them.

If people have dry skin, I’m not surprised: the first few ingredients in those shower gels are all salt-based. They’re basically rubbing different versions of salt on their skin.

They’ll feel clean, and with the added chemical stinks (brand name: “fragrance”) they’ll smell like a factory walking past, but the gels will strip their skin of natural oils, send their skin pH off balance, and – as an added bonus – probably cause cancer, as most of the ingredients listed above have moderate to high risks as genotoxins and carcinogens.

Happy washing!

The alternative: use a plain, ordinary soap (which is fat and lye, no fragrance: you can make it yourself at home if you want), and follow up with some plant oil as a moisturiser e.g olive oil (if you have olive trees at home, you can make your own too). Easy, cheap, safe, and works well.

I forgot to add this: as far as the hairy bars go, washcloths do wonders. Works up a great lather plus no hair from rubbing the bar on your body. Just sayin’.

I was a body wash fan for a long time- but I was always having to change brands because after a week or two my skin would start to dry out & itch. So I learned how to make my own. I really liked it – no itching, etc. – and even started selling it. With our recent focus on reducing plastics use, the liquid had to go. There is no good way to package liquid soap that does not include plastic. So now, I am making the most wonderful bar soaps. I am a total convert. Since using just my bar soap, I have not needed to use any lotions or body butters to remedy the dry skin I once had. No palm oils or other undesireables, so no guilty conscience. And the wide variety of EO’s & FO’s available offer about any fragrance you can imagine. Or none. Also, I’ve begun making my own shampoo bars. My hair is clean, shiny & manageable without all those chemicals! My husband was a hard sell, but even he has survived the switch intact. Oh, I almost forgot – we don’t have soap scum issues anymore, either!

This is a good discussion! I clean for others sometime, and the showers with gels usually have a fragrance that seems synthetic. I open the windows to air the room out. I’m guessing that many gel and bar soaps must have animal fat in them, because that fat creates soap scum, something that takes time to clean. I sometimes use Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap, always diluted as it is a concentrate; mostly though I use Chandrika bar soap which is very refreshingly cleansing to me, esp. in this summer’s steamy heat. Here’s a description of the soap:
It’s is an Ayurvedic soap with a mild fragrance that is pleasing to me, probably because their are natural plant oils in it. It costs 99 cents a bar at our health food store; online purchases usually cost less.