Scarcity of Soap

Sadly even L'Occitane soap has palm oil in it. Another fan of The friendly soap co.

Yes I have noticed how little choice we have. My son went to Belgium and he asked me if he could bring anything back and I asked for soap, it smells beautiful. Xx

PamelaJ1 it's a labyrinth trying to work out the best course of action! Things are rarely black and white. More Googling has revealed that palm oil has a very low environmental impact compared to other oils. The problem is in the way that it is produced but as you note, we can have an effect there by telling producers what we want.

Until we were given a stack of real, olive oil soap by a relative who bought a vast block of it from a factory in Marseilles that was about to close, I used to use Asda's Baby soap for my face. V cheap and v nice. Can't say I checked it for palm oil content though.

We still (mostly) use bar soap for bath and shower.

Lush might be eco-friendly, but their products are always so over-perfumed. Makes me feel ill just passing the shop door, can't bear to go in any more!

I use Cidal soap which I can buy from our local chemist. It,s a lovely refreshing soap but doesn't seem to be available in supermarkets.

SueD, it does seem to be lies, lies damn lies, but if we put pressure on the shops, manufacturers then maybe all palm forests will stand a better chance of being well managed?

The choice may get better as they're coming back into fashion, as has been mentioned. Have you tried a well-stocked garden centre? Some stock posh 'hand made' soaps which are a bit different, if rather pricey.

Thank you for this thread. I have ordered the Sandalwood soap from one village and a soapstone soap dish

I agree, Anja 'sustainable' palm oil isn't a cure-all. However, what guarantees are there that the alternatives are any less damaging?

@Lyndiloo
yes you have brought back memories for me of those
horrible plastic container things that tight people used to put old bits of soap in to make a 'new' bar-

it would take about twenty years worth of soap bits to make something that costs about 15 p to buy new - Lol

@GillT57 I like to buy L'Occitane lemon soaps they are so lovely to put in undies drawer-

Oh btw no germs or bacteria on hard soap bars-

There are so many lovely soap bars out there much better than liquid soaps-

I use sandalwood soap from onevillage.com. It is not expensive and smells lovely. It contains rice bran oil and pure coconut oil and sandalwood essence. It can also be used as a shampoo.

Sustainable source is not a guarantee at all. These certificates of sustainablity are being sold by corrupt officials. Look it up if you really care.

I agree that soap works out cheaper in the long run.

Never really gave up on soap bars except in the kitchen and, happily, have no problems so far in finding my favourites. Perhaps that's why I haven't noticed any shortage.

Think I need a trip to TKMax to get some of their Lavender soap as Sluttygran suggests. I do so miss Yardley's Lavender - which has lost its smell. (It used to scent the whole bathroom!) I wrote to Yardley's a year ago, complaining about this. Sadly - and rudely -no reply!

I use either Pears , from the supermarket, or body shop soaps which smell lovely

Just checked Nesti Dante soap. It contains palm oil from sustainable sources ??

SueD, thank you for that.
The products on there vary in price some of them fairly inexpensive.
May I remind everyone that a bar of soap will last a lot longer than a bottle of liquid before you jump on me and tell me a bottle of liquid soap is cheaper.
We can look out for products that contain sustainable palm oil. It is a bit of an effort though. I do wish manufacturers would make it easier.

I’m another fan of Nesti Dante soap - I get it on Amazon. It’s expensive but the bars are huge and last for ages. There’s a huge selection of fragrances and they’re all luscious.
I also buy from TKMAXX, they do Institut Karité soap, and the lavender one is divine. I unwrap it and shove it in with my linens which makes it very nice and fragrant.
To me, a bar of lovely scented soap is a real luxury, much better than slimy liquid. Like a previous poster, I much regret that neither Yardley Lavender, nor Pears soap smell how they used to. Yardley was always my favourite, but it all seems to have a nasty peppery chemical smell these days!

I wanted some highlt scented bar soap so I bought some Camay, Lux etc fro. Ebay. They didn't seem to have much perfume to them at all. It might be my nose at fault! Can anyone recommend some that sme nice, please. ( not too expensive like Roget and Gallet though)

There are products that use sustainable palm oil, which may solve that dilemma. www.ethicalsuperstore.com/category/beauty-health-and-wellbeing/bath-and-body/soap/sustainable-palm-oil.htm

There is also the conundrum that by shunning palm oil we will inadvertently contribute to even more deafforestation. Palm oil is in so many things we consume and would need to be replaced by another oil, all of which are produced less efficiently than palm oil, therefore leading to even more land being required. lovelygreens.com/avoiding-palm-oil-in-soap-making/

I keep a squirty soap in the kitchen ( mint and tea tree is my favourite as it gets rid of cooking smells on your hands) but have used “Pears” bar soap in the bathroom , since my 1st DGD was born 13 years ago. The children all love it and it smells like fresh babies .

I have some olive oil soap which I brought back from Greece; it doesn't lather as much as ordinary soap.

You could also try L'Occitane and large garden centres. Burford Garden Centre has bathfuls (literally) of them, lovely scented Italian soaps.

My favourite is Chanel Coco soap. It's hideously expensive so I ask for it as a present and it's so well made that you'll still have lots left even when the scent has worn away!

Yes, pure olive-oil soap should not contain palm oil. Olive oil is the moisturing content. (But probably best to check the written ingredients. For example, I'm not sure about Palmolive's ingredients.)