Plastic-free July just ended and maybe you’ve been thinking about bringing less plastic into your home. A great way to reduce your plastics is to switch out your liquid soaps for bars. If you’ve ever experienced that mushy bar of soap you might think this switch is jut too hard or annoying. But there are some simple tips to make the switch easier and there are some great reasons why you should try again.

3 Reasons Why You Need to Switch to Bar Soap and Stop Using Body Wash. Go Non Toxic and Eco- Friendly With Natural Bar Soap To Save Your Skin and Health

Why should you choose bar soap over liquid?

• It’s more eco-friendly!

 Think about it. If you have a large body wash, it comes in a big plastic container and every time you run out, you have to buy a new body wash in another plastic container! As we know, only about 9% of plastics are actually recycled. I recently heard it's being called wish-cycling because when we throw plastic into the recycling bin we’re wishing it gets recycled but it likely doesn’t. Ugh! Isn’t that frustrating? Most bar soap is wrapped in recycled paper or paperboard and totally recyclable! And when the bar of soap is gone, there’s ZERO waste!

• Bars last a lot longer than liquid!

When we were using body wash and liquid hand soap, we would go through that stuff like crazy. Probably a bottle of soap a month. A bar lasts us three months or longer! With a bar, you don’t end up squirting out more than you need and wasting it. This can often save a lot of money!

• Safer, Non Toxic ingredients!

This is because liquid soaps need more water and water needs preservatives. A bar soap is going to have ingredients that are really condensed. There's no water in it and It's a lot easier to create a bar soap, a bar shampoo or a bar dish soap without preservatives.

But what is a liquid soap? If you look on the label and read the ingredient label, you’ll often find water is the first ingredient. Liquid soap, body wash, and dish soap are really just soap mixed with water. Because there's that water, it needs more preservatives. 

Preservatives are often the ingredients that we have to pay attention to most. If you think about it, preservatives are there to keep the product fresh and to fend off bacteria. That's why most preservatives are unhealthy for us - they have to be harsh enough to kill bacteria within the dish soap, body wash, or liquid soap. But bar soap just doesn’t need those preservatives! 

Now, I'm not telling you to just go and get any bar soap! A quick walk down the soap aisle at Target will have your nose yelling “FRAGRANCE! Ugh, it gives me a headache! You still have to read your labels and grab yourself a toxin-free bar.

So you're ready to make the switch! Well, maybe not alllll my liquids…

Stop right there!

Body wash and face wash are an easy switch, sure, but things like dish soap and shampoo in a bar may seem a little strange. There are some things you can do to make using bar soap easy and effective.

• Get the right holder

A great soap dish should be able to drain. Stainless steel with a suction cup or a dish with a stainless steel drain over top. There’s also soap lifts which look like little sponges and they lift your soap up to keep it out of any water.

• Keep it dry!

You need the right soap dish because you need to keep the bar dry. It won’t get that slimy feeling and it will last a lot longer. Also, make sure you place your soap holder somewhere where it’s easier for it to dry. Don’t leave it directly under the shower head or faucet. 

• How you use it makes all the difference

  • Face and Body- These are pretty easy and most everyone has washed with a bar soap at some point. Most people do use too much. Just get the bar wet under the faucet and create a lather, then wash up. 

  • Shampoo- Have you tried a bar shampoo before? For me, this was a little more difficult. At first, I was just using my bar shampoo the same way I use my face and body bars, lathering in my hand and then trying to lather my thick hair. I felt like my hair and scalp weren’t getting clean enough. But I was doing all wrong. Rubbing the bar directly on wet hair and then creating more lather by massaging the scalp works so much better! I’ve been using the Crunchi Littles bar on my hair lately and loving the results!

  • Dish Soap- This was the hardest switch and I'll admit, my family did switch back to liquid after we tried it the first time. Again, we just didn’t know how to use it properly. My kids and husband help out a lot with the dishes (thank goodness), so I didn't want it to be a struggle. But after talking with the folks from Meliora for an upcoming episode (stay tuned!), I got some great tips. My new favorite way to use the bar dish soap is to put it in a coffee mug! The Meliora bar fits perfectly in the dish and I use a small circle scrub brush to create a lather to wash the dishes. If you want to fill your sink basin with water, simply run the bar under the water to create soapy water. I love Meliora as a company and I’m so proud to feature them in my online store https://www.detox.design/thebox

For my face and body, I use Crunchi. Removing the preservatives and endocrine disruptors from my skincare routine and what I use to wash my skin, has made a world of difference. I no longer have monthly hormone related breakouts. Woohoo! 

If you want to know more about it shoot me a message at megan@detox.design or visit me at detoxbydesigninsiders.com