A few weeks ago, we shared a blog post that answered some of our most commonly asked soap questions. You asked, and we answered, on topics ranging from the use of lye to soap safety with pets. (If you missed our previous post, you can find it here). But one post was simply not enough! You have many more great questions which need answers. So, here it is! All Your Soap Questions, Answered…The Sequel 😉
I’m More of a Shower Gel Fan…Can Bar Soap Work for Me?
Of course! We love to joke about “going back to the bar”, and even have the t-shirts to prove it. In fact, you may find yourself reaching for your bar soap over shower gel once you give it a try. There are several reasons to love bar soap over shower gel. For starters, due to the liquid nature of shower gel, it tends to be thinner and less hydrating than bar soap. Because it doesn’t stick to your skin in the same way, it doesn’t hydrate as well as bar soap does. Additionally, if you wish to be more eco-friendly or reduce your single use plastic consumption, bar soap is a great way to do that! If you are really missing the experience of your old shower gel and bath pouf, give one of our natural loofah soaps a try, or put your bar in a soap saver for a more lathery experience!
Can I Use This in My Hair?
Sure! Our soap certainly will not harm your hair. But, it likely will not feel the same way it does when washed with shampoo. This is because shampoos often contain other ingredients such as conditioners, detanglers, and other products which give hair a softer feel after use. While a conditioner can help with this, some experts also recommend rinsing hair with a water/vinegar solution after using bar soap, to help get your hair closer to that “shampoo” feel and texture. In a pinch, bar soap can definitely wash your hair and get the job done! However, we do not have experience with doing this long term, so we would suggest doing your own research and possibly consulting your hair stylist before going all-in on bar soap as shampoo.
Is This Tear Free?
Now here’s one that will probably change everything you believed to be true about soap: there is no such thing as “tear-free” soap. Yes! It’s true. The reason that soap stings when it enters the eyes is because soap is more alkaline than our eyes are, naturally causing our eyes to water in an attempt to flush the soap out. ALL soap is at least mildly alkaline, which means it can be great for your skin, but stings when in our eyes. Soap that is advertised as “tear free” is actually not soap at all, but a detergent, which has had the pH lowered through synthetic chemicals to cause less of that stinging reaction. So, while it might seem counterintuitive, it isn’t chemicals in soap that causes burning – it’s chemicals that prevent that burning from happening. These same chemicals also strip the skin of natural fatty acids, leaving it dry and irritable, and in some cases, prone to allergic reactions. “Tear free” is simply a marketing tactic and in no way indicates a soap is better for you. If you are looking for a bar of soap that would be gentle on your face or near the eyes, we suggest our Charcoal Tea Tree or Oatmeal Lavender. We also offer Baby Goat, which is unscented altogether. All of these make great facial bars and will gently cleanse your skin without being too harsh. Just be sure to close your eyes!
Do You Offer a Sandalwood Scent? How About Vanilla Frosting?
No and no, primarily because of our high standards when it comes to adding scents to our products! When it comes to your skin, we want you to have the very best – so we use ONLY 100% therapeutic grade essential oils in all of our products. We have a more in-depth blog post on this topic here. This means none of our products contain fragrance oils or other artificial scents, making the soap gentler on your skin and safer for those with sensitive skin! However, this does put some limitations on the scents that we can offer, due to essential oil availability and cost. For instance, sandalwood essential oil is very expensive (nearly $300 for 2 ounces!), so while we could make it, we would be unable to offer the bars at a reasonable price. We also aren’t able to offer scents like “vanilla frosting” or “pumpkin spice” due to the inherent nature of essential oils. Since essential oils are extracted from plants, there is no way to create an essential oil with a sugar cookie fragrance. However, we are sure you will be able to find one of our scents that you love! For a sweeter scent, try our peppermint, garden time, or lavender bars. For the spice lovers, we offer scents like chai tea, and cloves and orange.
What If I Have Allergies?
Unless you have a specific allergy to one of our product’s ingredients, we suggest giving our soap a try! Many of our customers who have endured years of sensitive and reactive skin due to skin conditions, chronic dryness, and more, have found great success using our bars. This is likely due to the many benefits of goat milk, and our commitment to using high quality ingredients with no artificial chemicals. Many of our long-time customers started out as skeptics with very sensitive skin and were quickly turned into Madd House Hill fanatics when our products worked for them! However, while we have seen great anecdotal success among our customers, if you are concerned about a serious allergic reaction, we suggest running the ingredients list past your doctor or dermatologist before giving it a try. All of our products have an ingredients list clearly printed on the label.
How Are Your Soaps Colored?
Again, we remain committed to using only natural ingredients in our products, so you won’t find any artificial colorants in our ingredients list! Subsequently, you may also notice that our bars don’t come in vibrant reds or deep teal blues. This is because natural colorants produce beautiful, but slightly more muted colors than artificial ingredients would. For instance, the charcoal used in our charcoal tea tree bar produces a darker gray color, versus the pitch black you might find commercially available. Other examples of natural colorants might include dried and powdered flowers, herbs, or other plants. You can rest assured that we are committed to providing an all-natural product, right down to the finishing touches and color of our soaps.
Can I Use This Outside the Shower? In the Kitchen?
Of course! PLEASE, use your soap. Occasionally we hear that it is “too pretty to use”. Never! We want you to use and love it however you like, whether that is in the shower or the kitchen sink. However, keep in mind that wherever your bar finds its home, it will need to dry out between uses in order to maintain the integrity of the bar. For this reason, we recommend using a soap tray or lift to give your bar maximum life. If you find that your bar is getting so much love it can’t dry out between uses even with a soap tray (for us, this is at the kitchen sink), we’d suggest giving our foam soap a try! The soap pump will give you the same goat milk benefits and scents you love, without the mush and mess of a bar in too much water.
Well folks, that’s it for now…thanks for reading, and we hope this has answered even more of your soap questions! As usual, drop us a line below in the comments, or on social media, and let us know if this post was helpful. Or, if you have a burning soap question you need answered, share it with us and we will work to answer it in a future Q&A post!
Until Next Time,
Madd House Hill