Attention body wash devotees: bar soap is back. There's so much to love about switching to a bath bar from a loofah full of liquid soap—from lower plastic waste and a reduced carbon footprint from shipping what amounts to tons of water around the world to improved travel-ability and more moisturizing goodness—which is why so many people are lathering up like their great-grandparents did. But we know there are some myths and misconceptions surrounding bar soap that may be keeping some of you from making the soap swap. Let's get soapy!
1. Bar soap makes skin dry and dehydrated. Unfortunately, most of the bar soaps you’re familiar with—think Dove and Ivory—contain synthetic detergents that WILL dry out your skin, giving real, natural soap a bad reputation. If you’ve been dried out by soap in the past, we challenge you to try our moisturizing, bar soaps made with large amounts of skin-pampering shea butter and olive oil. In the shower, they build up a rich, soft lather that’s naturally powerful and gentle on skin. In fact, many of our fans report they don't need lotion after cleansing with our soaps in the shower.
2. Bar soap can't be used as a face cleanser or shaving cream, so you need extra products. First of all, please stop washing your face with your body wash... that can't feel good. Secondly, we beg to differ. Our shea butter soap and olive oil bar soap is used by tons of our fans as both face wash and shaving cream!
3. Bar soap passes on germs. As the great Alton Brown explains, bacteria can get on a bar, but there has never been proof that a bar of soap has reinfected someone, because bacteria and viruses hate soap!
4. Bar soap leaves a mess behind. We'll admit that nobody likes a bar of soap that leaves residue in the shower—that's why we're such big fans of our natural sisal soap saver bags! They allow soap to fully dry while hanging, meaning no mess on the shower tiles. There are also a variety of great soap dishes out there, but be sure to find one that allows the soap to drain quickly and not sit in a pool of water.
5. It's important to buy antibacterial bar soap to battle germs and viruses. According to the CDC, studies have shown that there is no added health benefit for consumers using soaps containing antibacterial ingredients compared with using plain soap, so you can go ahead and skip those synthetic antibacterial soap ingredients and opt for clean, natural soap instead!
At Peet Bros, we know that natural bar soap is only as good as the ingredients that go into it—which is why we refuse to use any useless and unsustainable palm oil fillers and palm oil derivatives. Shop our bar soaps and discover just how luxurious the humble bar soap can be!
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