Bar Soap

[AJPTaylor]

Genuine question as can't find the answer from a quick Google. Recently changed to bar soap ( well dd bought bars of soap and put them in the bathrooms). Can corona virus/other nasties remain on the soap and spread to the next user or does contact with the soap kill stuff?is it different depending on what kind of soap it is? (Ie whether it is carbolic vs unicorn glitter ?)

@Ellisandra . I am also old and am with you completely. Do you remember when 'cooking from scratch' used to just be called cooking.

Liquid soap is the one that needs the adjective, because it is new fangled and needs to be separated from soap

How long does it take before it is no longer 'new-fangled'? I only ask because it was first patented in 1865, and nobody is quite sure how long before that it was first created.

We have bar soap everywhere because most liquid soaps give my eldest terrible dermatitis (took me ages to connect him having just been to the bathroom with his complaints of his hands burning - which sounds ridiculous now I say it).

I made little crochet bags for it so it can hang up rather than sit and fester in a little soap dish (I don't have the discipline to clean soap dishes either).

We are making one change following reading up on this - apparently rinsing the soap away is the important bit to get rid of the viruses, and they recommend drying your hands on disposable towels, so just while this is all figured out, I've removed our hand towels and we're using that blue centre-pull stuff instead to dry our hands (which is at least compostable)

I’m old enough to have never got the trend for liquid soap
Brought up on pears soap
Now I love a bronnley lemon or lime and some fancy ones from tkmaxx

A little posh shop nearby sells gorgeous ones quite pricey but don’t care as tell myself am supporting environment and local business at same time 😁

I use soap, and check the ingredients for unnecessary additives like SLS. Lux is a good one, few ingredients, no SLS, etc.

Dove is not soap, it's also got plenty of ingredients in. I find my skin is less dry after using proper soap, and I'm currently crocheting little bags to keep the soap in.

I sometimes keep scented soaps in my clothing drawers, scents the clothes and also allows the soap to harden a little which makes it last longer.

Thanks MaidenMotherCrone I often laugh at my own ridiculousness.

I wash my hands thoroughly in hot water at others houses but I actually very rarely use other toilets. I never touch a tap not my own without tissue or a door handle for that matter. I follow up the hot water with hand sanitiser so I can't see myself leaving any germs but I will think what else I can do to mitigate that.

I'm the person in the public toilet (used only in emergencies on long days out, rare for me anyway) clutching a piece of tissue to open and close taps and doors.

'Please don't do that without adding a preservative. Liquid hand soaps have preservatives in them to prevent things growing in the water. Bar soaps have a high pH, and low to zero water content. As soon as you add water and leave it sitting around that becomes a ground for culture. Unless the pH is still really high. You can get mould and fungal growth that way. 1% by weight of a preservative like phenoxyethanol will work. Ideally just use the bar...?'

Thank you, @Starbuck85! These homemade household recipes do my nut! It's like the 'mix vinegar and bicarb as a cleaner' crap. All you end up with is water and salts, with no cleaning ability at all!

@Twenty2. Thanks for comment.

Soap is a salt, though.

(sorry, don't mean to sound shitty, I think I only half understand what you mean). I was referring to the risk of a person using soap shavings to make their own liquid soap by just adding water, but I didn't tag them (first time posting today). I think we're both on the same page. But if you're saying that vinegar and bicarb don't work, my hob and bathroom might argue with you ;). JK. Limescale in London is only held back by Domestos.

@Starbuck85 You carry on cleaning with salty water, if you're happy with the results

Liquid soap is the one that needs the adjective, because it is new fangled and needs to be separated from soap

Bar soap is a whole new way of referring to the solid version, too. Does anyone remember talking about a tablet of soap, or a cake of soap? Both were in use in my dim and distant childhood..

I love a fancy bar soap, but for those on tight budgets, I have found Aldi's packs of 4 tablets of soap for well under a pound to be very good and not drying to the skin.

I think if someone in your house has coronavirus you've got more to worry about than your bar of soap

I feel the need to share my recent discovery which I'm disproportionately pleased with. Rather than a soap dish I have these magnetic holders that you stick to the wall in your shower or above the sink, you then push a round metal disc into the soap bar. It stops the soap going all sludgy and means you don't get all that soap scum on the side of your sink or have to mess about cleaning soap dishes. Nobody else in my family seems at all impressed by them, so might just be me

DoctoreNicole my grandma used to have those!!! And she’d let me put the magnet on a new sofa which I thought it was amazing. I didn’t know they are still available. Where do you buy yours from? Do they come in a nice modern finish? Grandma’s was plastic but I’d like a nice looking on in chrome.
I’ve never taken to liquid soap and I’m not that old, it just doesn’t feel like it cleans properly. Traditional soap for me all the way, the more basic and not perfumed, the better, which I rinse after use (weird but I like a clean looking soap), don’t use soap dishes because they get grubby. I’m not convinced all these craft type home made looking soaps are proper soap.

Soap not sofa!

Bar soap is fine. The liquid handwash dispenser probably has more germs on it than a bar of soap that has been used; which obviously shouldn't be a problem if you wash your hands properly but few people do!

I changed to bars of soap about 6 months ago after using liquid gels and soaps for decades and while I wouldn’t say it’s revolutionised my life I’m delighted with how much healthier and cleaner my skin feels. I use it with a flannel in the shower and by the sink when I’m washing my hands. I use an Aldi one that has no perfumes, colours or additives and it’s quite hard. It’s £1 for 4 bars wrapped in paper with one thin plastic wrapper over all of them and each bar lasts about four times longer than one shower gel (so £1 instead of £16 and one plastic wrapper instead of 16 plastic bottles into landfill). I now understand why a fancy soap makes a great present and I’ll be eyeing up TK Maxx in the near future.

I have bar soap in the bathroom for handwashing but liquid soap in the kitchen, purely due to space issues.

I put the bar soap on a folded flannel, so I don't wash the surface, just swap out the flannel and put the soap caked one in the general washing. A time saver I nicked from my dad, believe it or not.

Oh, and Tesco do individual bars of soap for 25p or so which last ages.

In real life do people say "bar soap"? I say soap, or a bar of soap.

@Branster They're just from amazon, they were fairly cheap and are plastic, but look like chrome and are inoffensive enough to look at.

YHmall Soap Holder, 2 Pcs Soap Dish with Magnet for Bathroom https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07QN53HMR/ref=cmswwrcppapiii_tnUxEbXM2G6X3

In real life do people say "bar soap"? I say soap, or a bar of soap

I'd never heard 'bar soap' until this thread. It's been really irritating me!

The only place I have liquid hand wash (it's not soap) is in the kitchen, where I can pump it with my wrist and because Ds2, with asd and severe learning difficulties finds it easier to use properly (we even go so far as to buy a foaming one for him)

We've had proper soap in the bathrooms for years. We get the sainsburys fig and jasmine one which feels lovely and lasts forever.

I LOVE this thread, it has it all! Handy hints, thriftiness, batshitness, people tutting about the good old days (I mean I agree), debate about terminology...

Also i love bars of soap.

Question - is there an affordable plain soap that doesn’t have palm oil? We are just using simple which is plain and cheap. All the nice olive or other oil soaps are about £3/4 a bar, which is lovely for a treat but too much for all the time.

Off to search for Lux though - childhood memories!

I've not tried a non palm oik soap that doesn't turn to a soap dish full of slop within a week.