bar soap v. shower gel
bar soap v. shower gel
other than the obvious, is there a difference? i am specifically deciding between the nancy boy products, but in general, is there a reason (time), other than preference, one should be used over another? i have read that you should switch to a gel in the summer, but no reason was given. thoughts?
I prefer tallow-based soaps, but I use shower gels and body washes for utilitarian reasons. They don't leave nearly as much residue on the walls and tub that soap does, so I don't need to clean the shower tub nearly as often. I just swipe the walls and tub with a wipe once a week. It takes a minute.
Dave T
Dave T
I can't speak specifically about the NB soaps or gels, but I was a gel user for a long time. I recently switched to bars (Claus Porto and Yardley-US version). I have noticed 4 things since swtiching:
Regards
-Carrick
- My soaps last longer than gels (not scientifically tested however)
These particular soaps are of higher quality than most gels I've tried (again, subjective)
My skin feels better with a good bar soap lathered with a washcloth than with gel and a loofah.
So far , I like the scents of the soaps better than most gels (especially the CP!)
Regards
-Carrick
This is another area where you have lots to explore and enjoy.
I use both. Choice depends on mood. Generally, I prefer using one of those nylon net bath sponges/scrubbers and a liquid soap. Today, I tried Kiehl's shower soap pour homme. It's very liquid - not as thick as most body soaps, but just a little bit lathers up terrifically and does a great job. Nice, minimal scent.
I also enjoy the citrus (grapefruit and lime) body washes.
In bar soaps, I like C&E Sienna bath soap and Floris Cefiro bath soap. Good quality bar soaps will last a long time (3 weeks or so of daily use).
I use both. Choice depends on mood. Generally, I prefer using one of those nylon net bath sponges/scrubbers and a liquid soap. Today, I tried Kiehl's shower soap pour homme. It's very liquid - not as thick as most body soaps, but just a little bit lathers up terrifically and does a great job. Nice, minimal scent.
I also enjoy the citrus (grapefruit and lime) body washes.
In bar soaps, I like C&E Sienna bath soap and Floris Cefiro bath soap. Good quality bar soaps will last a long time (3 weeks or so of daily use).
Brent
Tondeo ergo sum.
Tondeo ergo sum.
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bernards66
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I only use high quality traditional soap, for the shower, to wash my face ( in the 'T zone' area ) and even to wash my hands ( except at the office ). Quality soaps have proven themselves to be much better for my skin. 'Shower gel' etc. are, afterall, detergent based and that doesn't work for me. Plus, traditional cakes of soap are much easier to use in the shower, at least I think so. Many new members who arrive at SMF, have never, I have found, used real quality soaps.
Regards,
Gordon
Regards,
Gordon
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rustyblade
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Shower gel is a part of a conspiracy to get men to use more product. The times I have used this rubbish required substantial amounts of it to get anywhere. Also, it requires the use of some sort of poofter, loofah or whatever to apply it all over your body. Then there are the issues of "how do I clean the sensitive bits of my body with a poofter?"
Give me a good milled soap bar and my bare hands, thanks.
Give me a good milled soap bar and my bare hands, thanks.
Richard
eric from nancy boy had the following response to my question:
Hi there, thanks for writing. On this issue, it is completely a matter of personal preference. Body wash was almost unheard of in the US market 25 years ago. I remember that was when I first lived in Europe for an extended period. I was, um, traveling with that hip and happening performing group Up With People and part of the joyous experience was living with families wherever we went. 90% of them only had body wash in the shower, and I remember thinking, "What a great idea!" mostly because it seemed a lot more hygienic than sliding a bar of soap around my body that had been god knows where. Through all the global consolidation that occurred in the health and beauty category since then, Americans got introduced to liquid soaps and the rest is history.
I will say that many body washes, even ours, can be more drying to the skin than good bar soap (our bar soap is among the best available, at any price). I know it seems counter-intuitive but to make the body wash lather up well and then rinse off easily, you have to put all this stuff in it that can end up being drying, but oddly, only for some people whose body chemistry is particularly sensitive. With our bar soap, though, because it's made with only a few high-grade all natural plant-based ingredients, it's exceptionally mild but gets the job done. The problem, on our side, is that soap base has quadrupled in cost in only the last 18 months. Bizarrely, it's all driven by the whole farm subsidy/crop-reallocation to so-called "clean burning" fuels like ethanol, yet another unintended consequence of our blighted non-energy policy. We are now just breaking even on every bar we sell, but if things continue as they have, we won't even do that. Not quite sure what to do because there's a limit to what folks will pay, especially in tough times.
Anyway, too much info. Let me know if you want any more!
Eric Roos
Co-Founder
Hi there, thanks for writing. On this issue, it is completely a matter of personal preference. Body wash was almost unheard of in the US market 25 years ago. I remember that was when I first lived in Europe for an extended period. I was, um, traveling with that hip and happening performing group Up With People and part of the joyous experience was living with families wherever we went. 90% of them only had body wash in the shower, and I remember thinking, "What a great idea!" mostly because it seemed a lot more hygienic than sliding a bar of soap around my body that had been god knows where. Through all the global consolidation that occurred in the health and beauty category since then, Americans got introduced to liquid soaps and the rest is history.
I will say that many body washes, even ours, can be more drying to the skin than good bar soap (our bar soap is among the best available, at any price). I know it seems counter-intuitive but to make the body wash lather up well and then rinse off easily, you have to put all this stuff in it that can end up being drying, but oddly, only for some people whose body chemistry is particularly sensitive. With our bar soap, though, because it's made with only a few high-grade all natural plant-based ingredients, it's exceptionally mild but gets the job done. The problem, on our side, is that soap base has quadrupled in cost in only the last 18 months. Bizarrely, it's all driven by the whole farm subsidy/crop-reallocation to so-called "clean burning" fuels like ethanol, yet another unintended consequence of our blighted non-energy policy. We are now just breaking even on every bar we sell, but if things continue as they have, we won't even do that. Not quite sure what to do because there's a limit to what folks will pay, especially in tough times.
Anyway, too much info. Let me know if you want any more!
Eric Roos
Co-Founder
There--a simple way of going about things...
I've rotated between a few body washes. Irish Spring, Old Spice Classic, and Nivia. I used to use Zest bar soap for years with a wash cloth. Here's what I think.
In terms of how clean it gets you, I don't know how you would measure that but it seems to me that both body wash and bar soaps clean pretty much the same.
Body wash is meant to be used with a Pouf. Some guy implied that a pouf doesn't have the right texture to properly scrub dirt off the body compared to using bare hands. A wash cloth can scrub the body better than anything else, without a doubt. I'd say second to that is a pouf, and after that is anthing else like a loofah or w/e although I haven't tried one. Your hands don't have any ridges and valleys or any kind of texture needed to give yourself a good scrub like a washcloth or pouf does, unless you consider your fingerprint to be good enough
.
In terms of what's more economical, we have to look at two different things. [Bar soap vs body wash] and [bare hands vs pouf vs wash cloth.] First, when you use a pouf, you have to rebuy the things every month. Although they're so cheap that I only looked at the price once and haven't looked at it again so I don't know how much it is. I'd say less than a dollar so it's really not that expensive, but it's still money spent compared to using your hands. As for the wash cloth, well you're gonna have to spend money washing the wash cloths. I don't know how you could possibly calculate how much it costs to wash a wash cloth but it's probably a lot less than a dollar a month, but it's still money spent compared to using your hands.
So in terms of what you use to apply the bodywash or bar soap, a pouf is a dollar a month, a wash cloth is negligible, and hands are nothing of course.
As for the cost of bodywash vs soap. One reason why I switched to bodywash was because I thought I could use less product than what I did with soap. Well it really depends on how you used the bar soap, but I'd still say body wash is definitely less efficient. A container of body wash will last me about 6-8 weeks although I haven't actually measured it. Now some people say they can get a bar of soap to last for 6-8 weeks but I've never been able to do that because I used it liberally so it only lasted about 2-3 weeks for each bar. So with that you can try and calculate which one is more cost effective.
The thing about using the bar soap liberally leads to the reason why I switched to body wash actually. I know that soap works, regardless of how much lather you see, but I really like to see the lather. I don't think it cleans me better, I just like to see a decent amount of lather so I had to use a lot of soap to see that. But even when I used a lot of soap, there would be a point where I couldn't make the lather any bigger. So when I switched to body wash and used a pouf I was able to make a bit more lather. So for that reason, and also because I just liked the feeling of using a pouf, I made the switch and stuck with the pouf and body wash.
I think its mainly personally preference. Just try out the body wash and get a pouf with it and see how you like it.
In terms of how clean it gets you, I don't know how you would measure that but it seems to me that both body wash and bar soaps clean pretty much the same.
Body wash is meant to be used with a Pouf. Some guy implied that a pouf doesn't have the right texture to properly scrub dirt off the body compared to using bare hands. A wash cloth can scrub the body better than anything else, without a doubt. I'd say second to that is a pouf, and after that is anthing else like a loofah or w/e although I haven't tried one. Your hands don't have any ridges and valleys or any kind of texture needed to give yourself a good scrub like a washcloth or pouf does, unless you consider your fingerprint to be good enough
.In terms of what's more economical, we have to look at two different things. [Bar soap vs body wash] and [bare hands vs pouf vs wash cloth.] First, when you use a pouf, you have to rebuy the things every month. Although they're so cheap that I only looked at the price once and haven't looked at it again so I don't know how much it is. I'd say less than a dollar so it's really not that expensive, but it's still money spent compared to using your hands. As for the wash cloth, well you're gonna have to spend money washing the wash cloths. I don't know how you could possibly calculate how much it costs to wash a wash cloth but it's probably a lot less than a dollar a month, but it's still money spent compared to using your hands.
So in terms of what you use to apply the bodywash or bar soap, a pouf is a dollar a month, a wash cloth is negligible, and hands are nothing of course.
As for the cost of bodywash vs soap. One reason why I switched to bodywash was because I thought I could use less product than what I did with soap. Well it really depends on how you used the bar soap, but I'd still say body wash is definitely less efficient. A container of body wash will last me about 6-8 weeks although I haven't actually measured it. Now some people say they can get a bar of soap to last for 6-8 weeks but I've never been able to do that because I used it liberally so it only lasted about 2-3 weeks for each bar. So with that you can try and calculate which one is more cost effective.
The thing about using the bar soap liberally leads to the reason why I switched to body wash actually. I know that soap works, regardless of how much lather you see, but I really like to see the lather. I don't think it cleans me better, I just like to see a decent amount of lather so I had to use a lot of soap to see that. But even when I used a lot of soap, there would be a point where I couldn't make the lather any bigger. So when I switched to body wash and used a pouf I was able to make a bit more lather. So for that reason, and also because I just liked the feeling of using a pouf, I made the switch and stuck with the pouf and body wash.
I think its mainly personally preference. Just try out the body wash and get a pouf with it and see how you like it.
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bernards66
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bernards66
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xenic, Well, there are more than you may think....and more than I'm going to list ( chuckle ). Unfortunately, many of the best ones have recently switched over from a tallow base to vegetable oils and thus, their soaps are not quite as good as the were, but they're still very good. They vary in price considerably, but most of them are not low priced. Here are a few:
Vinolia ( this is what I mainly use....still tallow based, a very old classic English soap )
Bronnley
Real English made Yardley ( very hard to find in the US )
Penhaligon's and Floris ( superb and expensive )
Santa Maria Novella ( ditto )
Valobra
Claus Porto
The classic triple milled C&E soaps
Trumpers
D R Harris ( also tallow based & very pricey )
Roger & Gallet
Mitchell's Wool Fat
Mettler's Almond
There. That should be enough for you to get started ( chuckle ), and happy hunting
Regards,
Gordon
Vinolia ( this is what I mainly use....still tallow based, a very old classic English soap )
Bronnley
Real English made Yardley ( very hard to find in the US )
Penhaligon's and Floris ( superb and expensive )
Santa Maria Novella ( ditto )
Valobra
Claus Porto
The classic triple milled C&E soaps
Trumpers
D R Harris ( also tallow based & very pricey )
Roger & Gallet
Mitchell's Wool Fat
Mettler's Almond
There. That should be enough for you to get started ( chuckle ), and happy hunting
Regards,
Gordon
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EL Alamein
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I am a bar soap user. It's got to be a decent tallow based bar soap for me, otherwise I won't abide.
Years ago I tried body wash for a brief month or two. The result was terrible but I took away a lesson or at least it started to dawn on me that some products are just not right for my skin. The remainder of the (unopened) product was gifted to an in-law after sitting in the closet for a few years. As time would go on I learned of my skin's preference for the tallow bars. Most soaps were tallow based up until recently when political correctness caused them to shift to veggie base. It makes some people's conscience feel good I suppose but my skin does not care for it.
I am given hope though by the response from Nancy Boy posted above where the author quotes the price of (veggie) soap base rising exponentially. I believe he's right about the cause, from what I read, but I'm somewhat sure that things will not get cheaper for veggie soap base in the current political and social climate. Some may have a different opinion though but one thing is for sure - if tallow becomes a cheaper more attractive economic alternative and people are willing to ditch the political correctness then you may see soap makers start to revert back to it, especially high end soap makers.
This is just my hope though.
Chris
Years ago I tried body wash for a brief month or two. The result was terrible but I took away a lesson or at least it started to dawn on me that some products are just not right for my skin. The remainder of the (unopened) product was gifted to an in-law after sitting in the closet for a few years. As time would go on I learned of my skin's preference for the tallow bars. Most soaps were tallow based up until recently when political correctness caused them to shift to veggie base. It makes some people's conscience feel good I suppose but my skin does not care for it.
I am given hope though by the response from Nancy Boy posted above where the author quotes the price of (veggie) soap base rising exponentially. I believe he's right about the cause, from what I read, but I'm somewhat sure that things will not get cheaper for veggie soap base in the current political and social climate. Some may have a different opinion though but one thing is for sure - if tallow becomes a cheaper more attractive economic alternative and people are willing to ditch the political correctness then you may see soap makers start to revert back to it, especially high end soap makers.
This is just my hope though.
Chris
Chris,
I can't really say I have a preference for one soap base over another, since I've experienced both good and bad examples of each type. But hopefully, the so-called "American" Yardley, which I know you're quite familiar with, will remain unchanged. Setting aside fancy packaging and other marketing gimmicks, this soap really holds its own against its more expensive counterparts IMO. Unfortunately, there seems to be many changes at Yardley recently, so who knows. There is always the tallow-based Musgo Real, but I've never found it markedly better than your average supermarket bar of soap.
Ren
I can't really say I have a preference for one soap base over another, since I've experienced both good and bad examples of each type. But hopefully, the so-called "American" Yardley, which I know you're quite familiar with, will remain unchanged. Setting aside fancy packaging and other marketing gimmicks, this soap really holds its own against its more expensive counterparts IMO. Unfortunately, there seems to be many changes at Yardley recently, so who knows. There is always the tallow-based Musgo Real, but I've never found it markedly better than your average supermarket bar of soap.
Ren
"What I find ironic is the fact that we can talk wireless to a man on the moon but we can't talk to someone twenty feet away over a hard-wired intercom at a drive-thru!" - Pottydoctor
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EL Alamein
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Ren, yeah we use a good deal of the Yardley here. I have the tallow based Musgo that I bought some time ago and even some D.R. Harris Lavender which I like very much. I use the high end stuff as a treat every now and then but mostly it's the Yardley English Lavender anymore. The tallow based Musgo is no longer available - at least here in the US. What's at most vendors now is veggie based. I have read that they still make a tallow based version for Europe but I haven't located a source.
The changes at the American Yardley have already shown up here at our local Wegmans where I buy it. They seem to go through quite a bit of it. The only changes at this point are in the packaging, the formula has not changed. Hopefully it will remain that way.
Chris
The changes at the American Yardley have already shown up here at our local Wegmans where I buy it. They seem to go through quite a bit of it. The only changes at this point are in the packaging, the formula has not changed. Hopefully it will remain that way.
Chris
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bernards66
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Just as a side bar,for years I used the shower gels.I fought a constant irritating itchiness every time I showered,especially when taking a really hot shower.As soon as I switched to tallow soaps it all disappeared,no more itchiness.I had always thought that the tallow soaps would be more drying causing worse skin irritations.Apparently it is exactly the opposite.
Bob
