For many people, the ingredients in soap are the furthest thing from their mind when they are at the local store or online. Many of us simply grab whatever is on sale or choose from a few “familiar” products and look for the lowest price amongst them. It’s soap, after all, and all it needs to do is get you clean, right? Well, it might get you clean, but it may also strip your skin and dry it out if you do not use the right product.
Virtually all “brand” soaps have some type of approach to sell the product. For instance, Dove stresses moisturizing as its main benefit. Irish Spring focuses on its fresh scent. We could go on and on here, but we are pretty sure you get the idea and/or are familiar with the advertised benefits of most brands of soap.
As briefly touched on earlier, bar soap is often associated with something that strips away dirt and grime. While there are obviously brands, such as Dove, that offer moisturizing, that is not the main perception of a bar soap. Most of the advertising we see shows mechanics getting their greasy hands clean or a man coming home after a hard day’s work and getting out of the shower smelling clean, in other words, a deodorant soap.
Liquid soaps and body washes are now the “go to” products for many people. Even if these products do not offer moisturizing benefits, the fact that they are “liquid” products will often come into play when consumers make their purchases. What they get, however, is a product offering little moisturizing benefits and that actually ends up drying out their skin.
Instead of concentrating on bar or liquid form, what you really need to focus on are the actual ingredients in the soap. If you want a bar soap offering moisturizing benefits, look for products that contain manuka honey, palm oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil, or tea tree oil. These are usually milder soaps that focus on both moisturizing and cleaning.
Is it time for you to switch bathing products and consider something like a honey soap? Are you starting to see dry, irritated hands? If you are using the same soap product for your face, is your t-zone overly dry? If so, then it is time to make a decision…do you want your soap to strip away the moisture from your skin or do you want a soap that will both clean and moisturize? If you would like the latter, then it might be time to try some honey soap!
