What's with this body wash?

[nymtber]

A $4 bottle of body wash might last me a week and a half if lucky (hard water + body wash = end up using far too much).

On the other hand, a $1 bar of Yardley Lavender or Oatmeal & Almond last me about a week and a half, lathers up far better, and I feel CLEAN after.

To ME, body wash leaves me feeling slick and gross. Hard or soft water (have used in both, different kinds) I feel like there is a layer of slime over my body.

Not to mention $3/week and a half savings is over $100/year savings.

Oh, and the scents from all of the body wash I have used are VERY short lived, maybe an hour at tops. Better off buying the old spice odor cover up in a spray can...

 

[rajagra]

Even the CDC makes little distinction between bars and liquid soap. Even in a medical setting they only say to use a liquid soap "if possible."

 

[bkfist]

A $4 bottle of body wash might last me a week and a half if lucky (hard water + body wash = end up using far too much).

On the other hand, a $1 bar of Yardley Lavender or Oatmeal & Almond last me about a week and a half, lathers up far better, and I feel CLEAN after.

To ME, body wash leaves me feeling slick and gross. Hard or soft water (have used in both, different kinds) I feel like there is a layer of slime over my body.

Not to mention $3/week and a half savings is over $100/year savings.

Oh, and the scents from all of the body wash I have used are VERY short lived, maybe an hour at tops. Better off buying the old spice odor cover up in a spray can...

I happen to agree with pretty much everything you said, and I also prefer bar soap, (Although I get more like a month + out of a bar of good soap) however that "layer of slime" feeling you are describing is *actually* the feel of clean skin... The feeling you get from your soap is, in reality, soap scum left on your skin by your hard water.

If you had a water softener, you would get that exact same feeling from both soaps and body washes. The reason you get that "clean feeling" with body washes is that most body washes are made with detergents (either petroleum derived such as SLS, SLEC etc. or detergents derived from botanical sources like coconut for the more "natural" products.) Detergents don't react with the calcium/magnesium in hard water to form soap scum on the skin, so all you feel after you rinse is that slick feeling.

Again, don't get me wrong, even if I have hard water to wash in, I *still* prefer soap to body wash, and I find a bar of soap lasts FAR longer than an equivalent dollars worth of body wash.

 

[theJJ]

Wasn't the title of this thread a little longer?

 

[Member357]

Wasn't the title of this thread a little longer?

Yeah I noticed that too! Someone might have been offended by the bad language....

 

[bkfist]

Yeah I noticed that too! Someone might have been offended by the bad language....

Oh, that idea is just a pile of ....

 

[Mischka]

If you don't want to reek all day like a gold-chain-wearing 70's disco lounge lizard, I recommend that you stay far, FAR away from Old Spice Odor Blocker 16 Hour body wash.

 

[Saturn]

If you don't want to reek all day like a gold-chain-wearing 70's disco lounge lizard, I recommend that you stay far, FAR away from Old Spice Odor Blocker 16 Hour body wash.

your post reads like a warning, but it has had the opposite effect:
i find i am now immensely curious about old spice odor blocker body wash

your description makes it sound... like the tabac of body washes

 

[Mischka]

your post reads like a warning, but it has had the opposite effect:
i find i am now immensely curious about old spice odor blocker body wash

your description makes it sound... like the tabac of body washes

You've been warned. If you're going to let curiosity get the best of you, perhaps the video below will save you from certain doom.

 

[kingfisher]

...
Soap bars are just bacteria collectors. I'm surprised we're even having this discussion in 2011.

I don't mean to be rude, but this just belies a lack of understanding. Soap bars don't collect bacteria because soap is highly alkaline. Bacteria can't survive in an alkaline environment.

 

[kingfisher]

* aesthetic - subjective, glad you like it, i don't find anything aesthetically pleasing in a soggy bar dried up with some remnant hair on it

* ergonomic - how? most soap bars become easier to handle when they're melted past day 10. on day 2, most are unweildy and slippery. sure, habit can cure it, but liquids are just plain easier to handle from day 1 to their end. also, from the perspective of anatomy, it's much easier to reach my hands anywhere they can go with the liquid right on them, much better than reaching there with my hands but also a bulky bar clinging tight amid my fingers and palm....so ergonomically a bar is a a pathetic alternative

* cultural - not sure what you mean. perhaps nostalgia? traditionalism? by all means use a chisel and stone if that makes you happy.

* plastics - almost everything is plastic. your fridge is too. compared to the bacteria festering in the open on half-soggy soap bar, i'll take the "dangerous secretion" of plastic any day. and because URLs are so easy to share, here's another: http://snipurl.com/plastic_myths

hope you do use your own bar soap -- it's an okay thing for single folk...

shanx:

I use bar soap but don't carry it around in my hand while I'm showering. I lather it up and then use what I lathered with while the bar soap sits outside the shower.

Since I drain the water off every day and store the soap outside the shower on a soapdish that has holes in it, it doesn't get soft, mushy, or disgusting in any way.

Bacteria/cooties, etc. don't survive in soap. Soap is alkaline and bacteria don't tolerate that environment.

Soap also erodes in flowing water, so in the event that something gross got on my bar of soap (which actually never happens), I could just hold it under running water for a few seconds and it would be gone.

If you prefer body wash, have at it. I don't care if you use body wash. But there is no logic behind your bar soap bashing. Bar soap is not a biohazard, and if you use it correctly it is not disgusting.

Enjoy your body wash, but please quit mischaracterizing bar soaps based on your improper use/storage and germaphobic fantasies.

 

[rajagra]

Liquid soap isn't necessarily cleaner: http://news.discovery.com/human/soap-bacteria-clean-110506.html

Thought for the day: "The bacteria that live on us already outnumber the cells in our body."

 

[ZJ68]

I don't mean to be rude, but this just belies a lack of understanding. Soap bars don't collect bacteria because soap is highly alkaline. Bacteria can't survive in an alkaline environment.

Soap is pH neutral to mildly alkaline, and bacteria can most certainly survive on it.

 

[kingfisher]

Soap is pH neutral to mildly alkaline, and bacteria can most certainly survive on it.

Even if some do survive, they are flushed off with water. I've never seen an infectious complication of using bar soap, and I've been practicing infectious diseases for 17 years.

On the flip side, many containers of body wash collect fungus underneath the bottle and sometimes just below the cap. Again, probably not a particular health hazard, but certainly more disgusting anything I've seen on a well cared for bar of soap.

 

[Jawaburger]

Bacteria can also survive on plastic, so I guess no one wins.

 

[kingfisher]

Bacteria can also survive on plastic, so I guess no one wins.

or no one loses.

Ultimately, both sides should just capitulate that neither soap nor body wash is inherently dangerous.;-)
Therefore, the decision should be based on personal preference.

 

[Go West Young Man]

Kingfisher knows what he's talking about here, this is what he DOES.

 

[mmack66]

Forget the bars and the bottles. Those nylon poofs are where the cooties thrive.

 

[echotron]

Almost always, I use deodorant bar soap when I bath ... I just started using Ivory bar soap for washing my hands - missed the Ivory smell!

I have "body washes" ... they are very aromatic, but leave an oily feeling my my skin. The body washes I have - I have matching after shave balms! Gotta match!

Still, again, 90% of the time, I prefer and use bar soaps!

 

[orchestrion]

or no one loses.

Ultimately, both sides should just capitulate that neither soap nor body wash is inherently dangerous.;-)
Therefore, the decision should be based on personal preference.

But that's FAR TOO LOGICAL a conclusion!