Scarcity of Soap

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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?

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

We went recently on a birding holiday in Costa Rica. When we got to the coastal area we drove through mile after mile of palm oil plantations. Our guide said there was no point in stopping as nothing lived in them.

At least their government is refusing permission for any more land to be put over to palm oil production. The trees are productive for around 35 years before they need replacing. Hopefully they may be replaced with something else in future.

Does anyone remember soap ‘leaves’ - very thin, rectangular slithers of soap, sold in some sort of cardboard casing, as I recall, just enough for one hand wash, and supremely portable. Some outdoors firms ,like Mountain Warehouse, now stock what seems to be the same product but in a plastic container, which would defeat the object of cutting down on plastic! I did enquire about soap leaves in a local healthy-Living sort of store, but the young manager hadn’t heard of them.

I do wonder if there’s some ingredient in the liquid soap that makes my nails peel no matter how much I moisturise.
Love Pears & WCT, IL much too strong/harsh. Bought a lovely lanolin soap from the Herriot Museum in Thirsk., using Dove bar in the shower.

Like many of us, I am trying to reduce my use of plastic bottles, as well as avoiding palm oil. I’m not unduly alarmed about diseases being passed on via solid bars of soap ( my soap is definitely not soggy and/or cracked, thanks to an effective soap dish) I can see that visitors might not want to share my bar - and vice versa. If guests are staying for the weekend, say, a little bar of soap, such as Friendly Soap sell online, along with the towels you give them is OK. However, what about more temporary visitors - one might call them one-off hand-washers? Has anyone found any attractive, eco-friendly and teeny-tiny soaps?

Neal’s yard remedies sell beautiful individual bars of soap £5 each which last for ages. They also sell bars of individual boxed fragranced soap which does not include palm oil at all, sadly these bars whilst being beautiful to use, last no time at all. I think the palm oil is added to soap for a reason tbh- wrong as it may seem to the environment.

GillT57 I too hate wrestling soap in the shower. I invariably drop it, and my dodgy hip makes it difficult to bend and pick it up.
Do you remember the 'soaps-on-a-rope that were all the rage, years ago? They came in all sorts of shapes and colours. Wondering if we can still buy them I did a Google search. Surprisingly, there are still lots of shops where you can!

Seventhfloorregular. OMG, I agree. My husband constantly buys bottles of shampoo. I could shampoo the entire street if I had to! So annoying because they are all 2/3rds full!

Oldfossil I found these www.amazon.co.uk/CRIVERS-Portable-Disposal-Disposable-Toiletry/dp/B07C7HY8ZB/ref=sr_1_12?s=gateway&crid=3OAA0UW7LXJYS&keywords=soap+leaves&sprefix=soap+lea%2Caps%2C157&tag=gransnetforum-21&qid=1557085468&sr=8-12

Go to TK Maxx was they have beautiful soaps. They might seem expensive but last so long you get bored of it.