Bar soap is superior to liquid soap

Have you tried really natural olive one like Nabulsi soap? I found it so gentle, the moisturise with aveeno.

Which bar conditioner do you use please? I use soap and shampoo bars but haven't found a conditioner I get on with yet

Probably traditional soap is alkaline and good at washing away bacteria.

"Some bars seem moisturising, some don't, same as with liquid."

The bars that are moisturising (like the Dove one) aren't real soap.

@Twistybranch When I did A level Biology {Years ago!} I did a project on hand washing, using a 'safe' bacteria the tutor bought in for the purpose, and I tested different hand washing washes.

Povidone iodine, Hibiscrub, and cheap white bar soap and a few others.

What was astonishing was how effective the white bar soap was...an old bar, found in the college loos.

It definitely was quite impressive in my few tests on it.

Surgical scrubs were the best, but second place was the bar soap.

The unwashed hands, or just plain water were gross. They grew forests of bacteria on the agar gel.

At home I have liquid soap though, as soap dishes can get so messy.

Pears Soap, oldskool was lovely.

They make your shower gel last longer.

Personally, I use a loofah or often just my hands.

Someone up thread mentioned the magnetic holders and that’s what I came in here to mention. My granny had them in her house when I was small. Just a magnet that you pushed into one side of the soap bar, and a metal thing coming out of the wall above the sink that you attached it to. No mess and no mushy soap.

I like bar soap in theory, especially really beautiful posh bars - they look beautiful when new and obviously less packaging waste is great.

But the reality in my experience tends to be that it often goes soft and slimy and I find soap dishes messy and annoying.

I do have bar soap in my bathroom, but I find liquid soap nicer to use to be honest.

I have liquid soap in the kitchen and for that I buy one that comes in a recyclable aluminium can with a reusable pump - you buy the can, open the ring pull top and put the pump on top. Obviously still more packaging than a bar of soap, but at least aluminium is (infinitely) recyclable and the pump isn't a disposable one like on a plastic bottle.

I don't personally notice any difference in softness of hands between bar and liquid really. I think it just depends on the individual product ingredients. Some bars seem moisturising, some don't, same as with liquid.

I do really love beautifully wrapped, old school soaps from old-fashioned pharmacies, especially French ones, with a lovely vintage kind of feel to them. But I'm less fond of an average bar from the supermarket.

Sounds amazing, do you have a recipe? I’d love to give it a go.

Do you mean one of this plasticy netting things?

I don't understand why people like them?! Urgh!!

The idea if shower gel and a "netty thing" makes me recoil!

Natural bar soap and a nice flannel or natural sponge - lovely!

I am not a fan of bars of soap,

As they can look dirty. Fine at people's homes but not in a toilet in pub etc.

As to the dregs, add a bit of water. I do hate it when pump dispenser tubes don't touch the bottom which is silly as can't get to the bottom. DM has a few caps from various toiletries which she swaps when the bottom of the hand cream with pump is at its end. Puts a cap on - and rests it on its lid. If she doesn't have a cap which fits, rests the bottle upside down in a plastic pot or beaker.

This was a brilliant idea, @ThatOneUncomfortableEyelash .

You aren’t the first to have this thought. One of my undergraduate lecturers told us sbout similar experiments conducted - and published - in the 1960s or 70s.

I love bar soap. No one else in my house agrees with me. So I'm able to get lovely posh, handmade bars of soap and it's mine, all mine! 🥰

I often get some gorgeous soaps at Christmas as my family know I love it

I didn't use the liquid soap. My quote indicated that like a PP I use bar soap but put out liquid soap for guests.

I touched the soap bottle to move it. It never occurred to me that it could be contaminated and I didn't wash my hands after shifting it a few inches along the basin.

It was these people who popularised the famous Salem painting most older Welsh people have on their wall.
Salem (painting) - Wikipedia

You're not buying the right one

It depends on the soap. I've found a 30p value bar from asda that smells and feels lovely, and lasts for ages. I've had some supposedly luxury, expensive ones that were meh. Current bar is Nasti Dente pomegranate and its lasted all the way from Christmas when I was given it.
My skin prefers bar soap and immediately feels tight and itchy with shower gel, and we have soft water here.

Using hand wash gives me the ick. Far more risk of nasties.

" it creates a problem (dry skin) you need to fix by spending (moisturizer)."

Soap is drying, yes, but so is just water to some extent so some of us will need body lotion/moisturiser in any case.

• "looks pretty in a soap dish"

Oh no. You have to keep washing those things. They're difficult to keep clean and looking good.

• "less waste of product. I feel you use so much more than needed with liquid soaps and bar soap lasts an age"

That's why you use one of those netty things with your shower gel.

Bar soap tends to dry out the skin and shower gel is much easier for washing the whole body. Also, you never know what the last person in the shower did with the soap.

Oh for sure. Clothes are not covered in natural oils so stains etc get right in and you have to use soap to get rid of them. Our skin is amazing, you really really don't need petrochems so look after it.

I just swapped out all my shower bottles for bars. Solid shampoo, a lovely rose and geranium body soap, a tea tree face bar and a rose geranium solid conditioner. All natural, no chemicals and smell amazing.

Plant - do you use detergent for your clothes?

Lots of people know this

https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/is-soap-bad-for-skin#Conventional-soaps-can-damage-your-skin

People who think they dont smell and just use water really do smell. Its just no one has told them. Its rather like people who dont iron convincing themselves their clothes look the same as those that have been ironed.