Why Natural Bar Soap is Better

The easiest way to start your journey into non-toxic skincare is to make simple switches for clean products, and a great place to start is with natural bar soap!

There are so many of us in this world whom are suffering with sensitive, reactive, broken-out, and otherwise unhappy skin, and you'd be shocked to know that the culprits are often what you are using in your every day hygienic routine!

What's in your shower right now?

Body wash? 

"Bar Soap" from the supermarket?

Those cleansers can be so, so harsh on our skin, and they usually require a good bit of stabilization and preservation to be shelf-stable.

Even the bar cleansers sold at the store are usually mass-produced surfactant systems - meaning they're detergents that have been formed into a bar, and they can be very drying! 

Now, I'm not knocking detergent-based products at all.

There are benefits to using detergent-based cleansers, as their pH is relatively adjustable, so it make them somewhat easier to tailor to sensitive skin types. The pitfall(s) of the average body wash or body bar that you find in the store is all the ingredients required to keep them desirable, but CHEAP.

These additives are often the culprits for any reactions we may experience.

I'm talking buffers, thickeners, harsh detergents like SLS, parabens, pthalates, dyes, and THEN you've got some companies that add a ton of "bloat" ingredients that are not entirely necessary to produce the desired outcome, but yet, there they are. Adding their "mystery" to the never-ending ingredient list. 

There are ways to make these products better, but these companies choose not to for the sake of their bottom lines.

I could rant all day, but I'm going to stop myself, there, because all that is not the point today!

Here's the thing about the humble bar of natural soap.

It requires zero preservation, zero stabilization, or synthetic ingredients to do its job - AND WELL.

Natural soap is formed by the chemical process of saponification where:

Alkali + Fat = Soap

So, if you see a product with soap on the label, and it doesn't have a cacophony of natural oils accompanied with sodium hydroxide (for bar soap) or potassium hydroxide (for liquid soap)...it's not true soap.

We'll save the science behind soap for another post, but for now, I'm trying to convey to you three main reasons why natural soaps can be so incredibly decadent and nourishing, despite what some propaganda would have you believe.

1. We can add beautiful exotic butters, botanical infusions, exfoliants, and any kind of clay or plant powder you can imagine to take our products to the next level!
2. Soaps cleanse your skin and deposit nutrients without utilizing PEG ingredients or added humectants. I say "added" because the chemical process that produces a natural soap, also naturally produces glycerin, a widely used humectant that's great for your skin. Natural soaps are inherently fabulous, beautiful, swirly blocks of heaven.
3. Bar soaps have been doing their jobs for hundreds - if not thousands - of years before modern technology ever came around and said we need body wash instead.

So, If you are looking for an easy toe-dip into cleaning up your skincare routine...

Start by switching to natural bar soap. 

You will not regret it.

I hope this post has left you feeling a little more informed. Even if you aren't ready to take the plunge and snag a few bars of soap, please do feel empowered to pick up that bottle a the store, and read the label. Always.

If your products aren't beautiful inside and out, you should demand better! 

To shop our collection of soaps, click here. If you have questions, shoot me a message via the little chat bubble to your right : )

Have a fabulous day, love!

TTFN,

Courtney

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