Soap

There has been a lot of trial and error in our house over the last 6 months. However the longest running trial so far has been in my search to find some good soap bars.

So if you haven’t found one you like yet, here are the soap bar options that I have finally chosen.

For a hand-soap I love the BECO organic soap bars. Not only do they use good ingredients (including sustainable palm oil), but the cardboard packaging is recyclable and the company has great values. The soap itself also lasts a long time and looks good right until the end. The main bonus for me though is how accessible it is as it is stocked by Waitrose, Sainsbury’s Boots, Co-op and Ethical Superstore.com.

The other hand-soap that I like is the Alter/native grapefruit and aloe vera glycerine soap. (The clear round one in the pictures). It looks really nice, smells nice, has no packaging, doesn’t go slimy and lasts a very long time too! This one I get from Bare + Fair.

In terms of actually using the soap bars, I am very happy to switch to these ones, however I do still find that I sometimes want to use a liquid hand-wash, especially in the kitchen and utility room. So for these occasions I do still use a liquid hand wash that I get refilled at Bare + Fair. (I keep both a soap bar and a liquid soap by these sinks.)

Now the latest change for me in terms of soap has been to use a bar of soap instead of shower gel. (For some inexplicable reason it took me a while to get my head around it and so delayed making the change.) However my husband and I now have our own body soaps (in different colours) and it works just fine. We use the Faith in Nature soaps for the body – grapefruit and orange for me and aloe vera (the green one) for hubby. These soaps have all natural ingredients, no packaging and use certified sustainable palm oil. I bought these from Noel’s Farm shop as he was the person who finally persuaded me to switch from the shower gel!

In terms storage I now also have a lovely collection of soap dishes around the house ranging from repurposed mini non-slip bath mats, plastic soap dishes that I have found in a sale, bamboo dishes (but I don’t use the frame as it doesn’t let the water escape) and some Smith’s soap savers which are an eco-vinyl mesh that you can cut to size, (I have used this for my very small downstairs toilet sink and I have also made my own soap dish for my face soap from a container lid with the mesh soap saver at the bottom). My favourite dishes however are the coconut shell dishes that I keep my shampoo and conditioner bars in as they are just so pretty. (They are from Peace with the Wild).

Now don’t laugh, but even if you don’t have the space for a soap dish in the shower or bath you can always try a soap-on-a-rope. I have recently been trying the IKEA Halmten soap-on-a-rope. It is a pure traditional Swedish soap which is free from palm oil and comes in recyclable packaging. It has quite a strong (allergy-friendly) fragrance of lemon-grass, pine and cinnamon but I personally think it is brilliant!

So I think I am finally sorted for my soaps. I will however still keep searching for an affordable shower gel refill to use as well. Not only because my husband still prefers a shower gel, but because it is also a bit easier to use on the kids. Although they are really enjoying using (and not losing) the soap-on-a-rope in the bath!