Teach Soap

I frequently face an opposition to bar soaps from friends and family. The most common excuse being - "Oh, I dont use bars any more as liquid soap is so much more convenient and mess free. Also, it is difficult to travel with a soap bar. Cant you convert your bars into liquid soap?"

aargh.... How do I counter this???

but, it has got me thinking if it is possible to replicate the properties of a bar soap in a liquid soap.

Few things that I have read are:-
1. liquid soaps cant have a high percentage of superfat
2. liquid soaps have a shorter shelf life due to water content (I am not in favor of using any sort of a preservative)

Is this true? Please advice.

Hi Dazzle! I can't answer your questions, but I have to say that honestly I am in the same camp WRT liquid vs bar soaps. I've used bar soaps for many years. Most times when I went away, I just brought a small bottle of shampoo and used that as soap as well. A few years ago I made a more permanent switch to liquid soaps. Now I am experimenting with homemade bars (I haven't made my own yet) and while I love the concept, I still hate the bars in general.

My reasons are:
I can't use the soap dish in my shower for anything other than a razor. it must be in the wrong place as it gets hit completely with the shower stream and I lose the bar quickly plus then I'd have to get all the water out of it when I shut the shower off or the bar never dries.

I bought a suction cup soap holder a long time ago for the back wall of the shower. It's ok but every once in awhile (usually in the middle of the night) it falls off with a pretty big crash for a small piece of plastic. It also leaves a streak of soap scum running down from it and it does get filmy so I have to pull it off and wash it now and then. My bf puts his bar soap in there now.

Since I only have one of the above, now that I'm retrying bar soaps, I put mine on the outside ledge of the tub. I try to put it on its side so it dries well but now it's smaller and it falls over. Sometimes it shoots outside the tub onto the floor. Always long enough after I've cleaned the floor that it gets covered in cat hair <sigh>

I have small hands so I'm always dropping the damn thing in the shower. When I make my own I will cut them smaller. I also find that for some bizarre reason I will take the bar and scrub my left arm with it. But when I get to my right arm I tend to give it a swipe enough to get some lather, and then continue on with my left hand. It's as if my left hand doesn't like holding the bar. When I use liquid soap I just put a squirt in whichever hand I need to use and go from there. So if I have some exfoliating goodness in the bar, it seems the right side of my body won't get the benefit (yes this is a me issue but hey, it's one of my reasons I don't like a bar lol).

Travel is another issue, I travel as light as I possible can so I bring one small container of soap for my hair and body. I also am packed up and out of my room at 4:30 am. I find soap bars to be messy right after the shower. It's an extra step for me.

I'm not trying to knock the bars, trust me as I'm getting into this myself! But I can't figure out ways around my own objections yet and I'm hoping my insight will help you.

I still plan on making and using bars. But I really want to work with liquids too.

I hope this helps a bit!

My local market prefers liquid soap but frankly, I don't want the hassle of making natural liquid soap so I make mine up with synthetics.I did think about making one up using potassium cocoate, potassium palmate and potassium olivate, plus glycerin and aloe vera, but I could only find the first of the three soaps. I did try potassium cocoate as a hand soap and it is terrific, but too drying!

For liquid I buy the soap paste from Bramble Berry for DH. I just cook it up with water and add fragrance. I don't want to make it myself. I prefer bars as they are longer lasting for the money. For travel, I just cut off small slices of a bar and add to ziploc bag and if you have some that can double for shampoo, so much the better. Then you don't worry if you happen to leave it in a hotel and you have your own soap which is better than anything.