Olive oil soap isn’t new, but it’s very popular in the world of handmade, artisanal products right now. As an olive oil producer, I hate waste. I just knew we had to do something with the olive oil that we couldn’t put in a bottle. Most of the time, it’s what’s left over after we’ve poured off the oil. It has a lot of sediment in it, which makes it a heavy oil. It doesn’t have any problems, but it doesn’t last as long as it should.
I happened to run into a beautiful woman named Grace at my local butcher shop, of all places. In short, Grace now makes a small line of natural soaps from our olive oil. These include a lemon myrtle liquid soap castile, a lemon myrtle hand/body lotion and an unscented manuka and oat bar soap.
Grace and I have become good friends, and since we live in different parts of the country, we talk on the phone a lot. We’ve talked about bar soaps a lot, and we’ve asked a lot of questions. One that keeps coming up is: Why do some people love bar soap and others hate it?
I guess that nothing in this world is perfect and that everything has its pros and cons. Of course, we all want different things, so our needs are different. This is what we’ve come up with:
Wrapping
There is a big move towards less packaging. When you search for anything about plastic bottles on Google, the numbers are always in the billions and trillions. People around the world buy a million plastic bottles every minute. Only 9% of plastic is recycled, and it’s expected that half a trillion plastic bottles will be sold next year. To be honest, your soap bottles aren’t the worst, but every bottle counts, right?
Cleanliness
Some people can’t stand the idea of sharing a bar of soap with anyone. The truth is that I grew up in a family where that was normal, so I don’t think it’s gross to share soap. We all have bacteria on our bodies that are good for us. These bacteria are called our natural microbiome. The truth is that family members who live together usually have very similar microbiomes. We share bacteria because we sit in the same chairs, hang out in the same places, and live together.
When we share a bar of soap, it’s true that there may be some bacteria on it after we’ve used it, since we’ve rubbed it all over our bodies. If you leave the soap in a pool of water, those bacteria will only grow. Let the soap dry out between uses, and “Bob’s your uncle.” If you’re going to shower right after the last person, rinse the soap off quickly before you use it. You are going to get more germs from your phone than from your bar of soap. I get it; it’s not for everyone, but I guess sharing soap with family is just something I’m not very picky about. You can judge me all you want.
Soap Scum
When my parents were fixing up the house, they put in a new shower. They switched to using soap-free body wash the day they ordered the new shower. I haven’t seen a bar of soap in their shower since then, and I bet they aren’t the only ones. It’s the search for soap scum. Again, this isn’t something I’m very attached to.
People say that if you rub the surfaces of your shower, bath, and basin (but not the floors) with car or boat wax when they are new or very clean, the soap scum won’t stick to them. The surfaces stay cleaner for longer, and cleaning them takes a lot less time. You can thank me later for this. I don’t know; I just think that bathrooms need to be cleaned often, so you do it and then go on with your day. I would rather deal with soap scum than put a lot of synthetic chemicals and additives on my body, but that’s just me. To be fair, I also like natural liquid soap in my kitchen and bathroom sinks. It just helps keep the soap dishes on the counter cleaner.
Soap on the Skin
To be honest, I don’t know the answers because I’m not a chemist, chemist or dermatologist. I only use olive oil soaps on my skin because I know how good they are for it (bar or liquid). Be careful with soaps that say they are moisturising; they are probably less stripping than others. The truth is that you wash soap off your skin, so there isn’t much left to moisturise. I do find that a nice natural soap makes my skin feel soft and smooth, and I don’t need to moisturise as often to keep my skin from looking dry.
So, the soap you use is really up to you. The things that affect our choices the most are what we grew up with, the price, the effect on the environment, how well the product works, and what makes us feel good. I don’t know the answers, but I do love that we can make beautiful olive oil soaps that feel good, work well, and that so many of our customers like. What do you always do?
