Let’s take an imaginary trip to your bathroom sink. What kind of soap do you use? Is it a handmade bar on a little wooden rack or a liquid pump pack?
We’re curious about why people opt for liquid soaps and washes when, objectively speaking, they have so few redeeming features. Sorry to sound judgy, but it’s a fair call when you look at the facts.
Liquid vs. solid soap showdown
Liquid soaps/washes:
🫤 Are up to 90% water
🫤 Come in single-use plastic packaging
🫤 Contain synthetic ingredients that don’t break down in nature
🫤 Contain petroleum byproducts and toxic fragrances
🫤 Dry and strip the natural protective oils and living biome from your skin
🫤 Have no story nor connection to place because they’re mass produced in factories
🫤 Are a bit ugly (ok, that one’s subjective)
Sure, liquid soaps may feel like they’re doing a great job of washing and cleansing – what with all those sudsy bubbles – but like many modern conveniences, create more problems than they solve and come with a bunch of hidden costs. (We’ve dug into this phenomenon in our Buy Less But Better blog.)
By contrast, our handmade soap bars are:
🛁 Concentrated. In order to hold together, handmade soaps are crafted with real and solid ingredients like plant butters, oils and beeswax with minimal water content.
🛁 Luxurious. Every time you turn that solid soap bar between your hard working hands you’re receiving a massage, aromatherapy, nervous system restoration and skin rejuvenation all in one.
🛁 Moisturising. Rich in natural oils such as olive oil, coconut oil, beeswax and honey, bars of soap are like a buffet of nutritional goodness for your skin.
🛁 Exfoliating. Soap bars have the benefit of being able to contain natural exfoliants like oats, seaweed, petals and flowers to gently slough off dead skin cells and stimulate circulation.
🛁 Loooooong lasting. Some of our customers joke that they want to order again but are stuck on the same seemingly immortal bar of soap. With the right care, solid bars FAR outlive your average pump pack and save you money over time.
🛁 100% plastic free. Enjoy the sweet satisfaction of saying nup to single use plastics and yup to recycled packaging.
🛁No-tox. Free from delinquent ingredients like sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), parabens, phthalates, and synthetic fragrances, our handmade soap bars are safe for you and the fam.
🛁 The original. Bars of soap have been made using simple, natural ingredients like ash and lye for aeons. ( thank you, Romans, for inventing it!) They’re timeless, classy and homesteading cool.
🛁 The yummiest. Fresh avocado and lime. Calendula and honey. Seaweed and green tea. French green clay and leatherwood. Fresh cream and beeswax. These are just some of our solid soap “flavours” that read more like a breakfast menu than bathroom itinerary.
But I’m addicted to liquid convenience!
Perhaps you’re thinking: All that stuff about soap bars is all well and good but I just hate how messy and goopy they get! We hear you. Chasing a slimy puck around the handbasin is nobody’s idea of sport. If the convenience factor is what keeps you loyal to liquid soaps and washes, we’ve got a few tricks up our sleeve to help you make the transition.
This nifty wooden invention puts an end to soggy soaps and clogged soap dishes, helping your Bees products last a whole lot longer. It’s also Scandi chic.
What to do with your soap bar odds and ends? Transform them into a sudsy loofah by popping them into this organic cotton baggie. Frugal and genius.
A solid choice
With the right treatment, handmade bars of soap are far and away the better investment – in a skincare sense, in a financial sense, in an environmental sense, in a sensory sense. They’re rich and luxurious, chic and minimalist, nourishing and deeply soothing for modern nervous systems. We love distilling the raw, rare and real elements of our island to create beautiful natural bars of soap, giving you (and your lucky guests) a touch of ceremony. From our hands to yours, happy lathering.
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