Waste-Free Bathroom—Getting the Most from Bar Soap!
One of the simplest and easiest switches to reduce plastic in the bathroom is switching to bar soap, especially if you don't live close to a refill store to purchase liquid soaps package free. Bar soaps are great because they use less resources and energy during all stages of production and shipping, and a good soap lasts a really long time with proper care. A good soap is cured --- making it harder and drier, which equals longer lasting. A cured soap also means it will be a bit more expensive $10-14, but in the end that is truly pennies per use (the black soap featured in the image is a year old). Cold-pressed soaps are a good choice as well because it preserves the nutrients and integrity of the ingredients and botanicals used in the soap. Bar soaps are also easy to find artisan-made and locally produced, another amazing bonus, and often smell so good!!
Also pictured: plastic-free pear-wood nail brush.
But for such a simple switch, we often get quite a few questions in regards to using bar soap! Here are our best tips and tricks to get the most out of your bar:
- If you're worried bar soaps harbour germs consider that bacteria love a moist environment (it is the water not the soap they are attracted to), so make sure your bar drains and dries properly.
- Choose the right soap dish: make sure, above all, that water can drain from your soap. A grooved wooden soap dish is a good option (or this soap dish/nail brush all-in-one). We also like to arrange a handful of smooth stones into a pretty dish and set the bar on top (draining the dish very occasionally and rinsing the stones to remove soap build-up).
- To prevent your soap from melting in the shower, again, drainage is key. Don't keep the bar soap sitting on a shelf that collects water. Keep it in a soap dish that drains, as far from the shower spray as possible. Even better, transfer the soap out of the shower for proper air flow so it can dry between each shower.
- When you end up with soap fragments, use a soap satchel to use every last bit (soap satchels also make great exfoliators!).
ABOUT OUR SOAP
We love Skipping Stone soap. It smells incredible, but more importantly it is cured and cold-pressed in small batches in Toronto. They use the highest quality plant-based oils and butters such as olive, coconut, sweet almond, avocado, rice bran, cocoa butter and shea butter. Then mineral-rich clays or naturally nutritious ingredients like green tea and locally sourced raw honey are added to help give the soap its unique characteristics. Shop our selection!
Photos by Danielle Taylor for Sustain.
