Cracked soap.

Bars of soap harbour bacteria and soap in bottles providing tops are clean and is in date are safer from health infection protocols. As a district nurse I was not allowed to use bars of soap in patient's houses. If no hand gel was available we had small bottles of sanitising gel to use.

I second using the liquid soap, I have a few soap dispensers in my bathroom.

Ginny24 soap doesn't kill bacteria. It works by loosening the germs from the skin and they then get washed off when you rinse your hands with water.

Yehbutnobut the palm oil issue isn't as simple as that. Palm oil is actually a very good crop. No other plant produces as much oil. The problem lies with whether or not it is sustainably grown, not the oil itself. There's a lot about it online.

yeh,,, the Nivea and Chanel may have palm oil the Lavandé and the Framboise do not.

I gave up using soap in bathroom basin because it always cracked and got dirty looking. I now use liquid soap dispenser - even if less environmentally friendly. I use soap in shower, not bodywash in plastic bottles, most of which goes down the drain! Somehow that soap doesn't seem to crack - maybe because it's always in humid environment of shower.

Most of the soaps mentioned contained palm oil. Does no one care?

I watched programme quite recently in which a scientist, from somewhere in Oxford, said it's the water which causes bacteria to pop and die. Perhaps not the exact words she used, but that's what she meant. It doesn't have to be hot water either. Perhaps we use soap because it smells nice and softens the skin, but not absolutely necessary according to her.

I would move it from the bathroom sink but it is almost new, and my other ones are lavender, Raspberry and Chanel No 5.
Going to try scraping and soaking in warm water see if I can salvage it.
The Chanel one was moved when a male friend went back to work after a lunch here and got a lot of teasing from colleagues. Luckily his wife was also at the lunch !!!!

I used to use Valderma soap. Lovely clean smell and left the skin smooth. I don't see it in shops any more but it can be bought online. I bet it doesn't have the same smell though. Cuticura was another favourite of mine too.

I crocheted a little bag to put odd bits of soap in. I use it in the shower. The soap is invisible, but the cotton mesh gets up a nice lather (if you rub it well first). That way no one can see the soap in it and you can put scraps or broken bars in, too.

Well if you're not worried about dirt and germs, why bother with soap at all? Just tell your guests to have a quick splash under the tap and wipe their hands on the towel after they've been to the loo.

Good heavens- how many decades, centuries even, have people used bars of soap, cracks and all?
We’d be long extinct if we worried about a few germs.

That said, small bars of soap in guest bathrooms or cloakrooms and a fresh bar when guests are expected would be my recommendation.

Most of any germs on a soap bar will be ones that you deposited on there in the first place. Soap doesn't work by killing dirt & germs, it works by loosening them from your skin and allowing them to be washed away in the water.

Liquid soap containers can harbour bacteria too and the tops will have bacteria on them from when you press it with dirty hands to get out the liquid. Your washbasin, taps, plug and even your towels will have bacteria on them too - we can't get away from them, they're part of life!

I do remember reading somewhere that cracked soap harbours all sorts of germs and you might as well not bother with it if you are aiming to be clean and hygenic. I suppose that sends us back to the use of hand gel, shower gel etc in plastic bottles, but that's not ideal either.

My grandma used to put her old bits of soap in a sort of wire press that opened on a hinge and had long handles. The press squeezed the bits of soap together to eventually make a 'new' bar of soap, or you could use the handles to swish it through a bowl of hot water to do the washing or the washing up. This must have been in pre-Fairy Liquid days. Ingenious, or what?

I used to give him the 'ends' of my nice soap but he always commented 'it's a bit smelly'.
So Wright's Coal Tar should be acceptable.

Wright’s Coal Tar soap always smelled very ‘healthy’.

It is dear old fashioned Nivea


I have taken out the 'lines' in soap then soaked it a bit in warm water and remoulded it before now.

Just bought some Wright's Coal Tar Soap for DH to use when he comes in from the garden and I did wonder how long it would be before it gets those grey lines in it.
I love the smell but it's not very feminine.

I don’t put new bars of soap in my knicker drawer, I put the little left over bits from the bathroom.
Not much scent left, but somewhere to make a final bit of use for them.

It is dear old fashioned Nivea

And your point is ???

When I go out to craft fairs and other such events, I look out for the people who make and sell their own soap. I buy the small tester size soaps from them.

At the Great Yorkshire Show, I bought several little soaps from a local lady. They go into my bathroom, and are used up pretty quickly, the smell delicious too.

I asked DH to buy me a bar of soap when I was without any small ones. He brought me Dove. I don't care for it, so it's been put in the cupboard.

Old and stored soap usually does this, or if it's not in regular use. I've binned it in the past because the scent goes out of it too.

Speaking of soap, I won a box of 3 on Ebay at a brilliant price far less than half price. It's Mitsouko, a lovely smell if you like strong smelling soap, lovely texture too.

That would just freeze it, though, not slowly dry it, which is what putting it in your knicker drawer does.

I think we need a photo.