Long-time readers of the Eco Women know our position on liquid soap. Bottom line: what you use for soap matters when you’re trying to reduce your use of plastic and other resources. Bar soap is a better choice because it costs less, it’s generally less toxic to your body and the environment, and it produces less waste.
Enviro Girl is constantly astonished at how advertisements convince people to spend money on things they don’t need. Paper towels. Air fresheners. Fabric softeners. Liquid soap.
And in a failing economy, shower gels are outselling bars of soap. Shower gels that use tons more plastic packaging. Shower gels that cost ten times more than bar soap. Shower gels that are composed primarily of water. Seriously. Water is the main ingredient in most shower gels and liquid soaps. This NPR story, Lather Up: More Men Switching to Shower Gels made Enviro Girl shake her head in dismay. It’s the economy, stupid. It’s the environment, stupid. It’s simply not necessary, stupid. Those were her thoughts. Bad enough that Bath & Body Works and their ilk have sold shower gels to legions of teenaged girls and women who apparently want to smell like artificial fruits and flowers (Hello? “Pearberry” doesn’t exist outside of a fragrance lab!). Now Madison Avenue has convinced “real men” that shower gels are a manly option to bars of soap.
Take it from Enviro Girl, men. Real women love real men who use bar soap. Irish Spring. Ivory. Zest. Lever 2000. Dial. If you buy your soap minimally packaged and lather up when you’re sweaty and dirty, you’re as sexy and attractive as if you loofah down with your plastic-wrapped, faux-fresh-smelling shower gel.
Enviro Girl and all the men in her household lather up with bar soap. Reader, do you?
We use bar soap in the shower but liquid soap at the sink just because it is tidier. I also put soap gel in the guest shower because some people, like me, get grossed out at the idea of using the same bar of soap that someone who is not related to her used.
We are a combo household as well. Some of my choices are dictated by a plethora of skin conditions and what irritates them the least.
Irish Spring? Readily used. In my garden. To get rid of the deer. That stuff is nasty gross.
I bet the men switching over are jealous of the Old Spice guy…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE
We’re bar soap people and I would totally mock my husband if he ever used shower gel. (Not that he would; he’s a MAN.)
What’s driving me nuts is how difficult it is to find plain old soap. Just soap with no special “antibacterial properties” (it’s all antibacterial and I don’t want the extra chemicals), no extra moisturizer, and no added scents.