# How to Answer?



## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Since many of you sell soap regularly I am sure you have come up against lots of funny comments.
My daughter was showing her yoga buddies our soap dish and one of the molded soaps made by Jennifer of NightSkyFarm. The reaction was....it is pretty but-how can you use that-_bar soap is filthy_. My daughter who is normally quick was astounded into silence. 
What would be a good informative answer for someone with this prejudice?
She eventually mustered an answer about keeping the bar dry to keep it sanitary.
Any other ideas?

Thanks!
Lee


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Bar soaps are personal 
I have many customers that use their soap, allow it to dry and then put it up...its theirs. It one piece of "personal" someone can lavish only themselves. They don't have to share. 
In our house we don't care, we live together breathing all over each other, whats different soap bars going to matter? But to others its their own slice of heaven dance:


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## supermom (Feb 24, 2009)

We are dealing with this issue with our own children....who are not grown yet. I just found out my 15 year old son goes to the kitchen and uses the palmolive dish soap to avoid touching a bar which the other kids have touched. I do think a bar which is covered with dirt would be gross and I don't like a bar pooled in water, but as long as they are dry and look clean....I am fine with it. I am also having trouble getting parents to use the soap. They think homemade soap couldn't get you as clean as the antibacterial soap bought at Walmart. My mom was proud and said they used my soap on their faces. I asked about the rest of the body, and she replied, "Well...we want to be sure to be really clean under our arms and other places." I am not giving them more soap unless they ask for it because I imagine it will get put under the cabinet and forgotten.


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## Kalne (Oct 25, 2007)

We all share the same soaps here at the sink and in the shower with no problems. I honestly never think of them as dirty. When I wash with bar soap I always let the water run over the bar when I am done. That's enough for me to feel it's clean and ready for the next person. Dirt is attracted to the wet soap so the water should easily wash it away.....that's how it's supposed to work. Also, the ph of bar soap is high enough that bacteria or germs don't survive long.

For those who just can't get past it then yes, suggest they keep their own personal bars and extol the benefits for your skin of bar soap over liquid or handmade vs. commercially made.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Yes that is how I use a bar soap as well Kathy. Just rinse and shake and place on the dish.
Thanks for the ph tip and the personal bar idea.
I have read several very negative articles about the liquid antibacterials but how to convince people that it is natural and healthy to have our native bacteria on our skin and in fact necessary! The products are so heavily touted they have become hard wired programming. 
I read a very interesting write up saying that we are wasting huge amounts of energy to heat water to extra hot when it is no where near hot enough (if you can touch it bare handed) to kill more bacteria than luke warm- say body temp- or comfort temp. The research they quoted found that it was just as hygienic to use cool water and far cheaper if you consider how long you have to run the water down the drain to no use until the hot water arrives and then the tank reheats for just that little bit you used to wash your hands. 
It might be good to be armed with some of that info that is negative about the antibacterials. But who believes it if it is not on the TV? :/
Thanks.


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## Guest (Oct 26, 2010)

All of the above... hubby and I share in my house, but its just us two.. if someone should stay the night.. I have cheap plastic soap travel dishes and allow them to take their soap home with them.. they start with a bar of their choice of course.. 
Tell them the wonderful properties of handmade soap, and what they are putting on their skin with commerical soaps, compared to what they think is dirty.. LOL
Barb


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## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

Ditto the last 3 posts. I have never given it a thought till now. I agree with Lee, these liquid antibacterial soaps are not all they are advertised to be - perhaps doing more harm to us than good. Like Barbara, there is only myself and husband and we use the same soap. If we have guests, they use the same soap. I never thought about it, but maybe our guests are secretly grossed out at our soaps. But since I never thought about it before, I'm not going to start now.


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## MF-Alpines (Mar 29, 2010)

linbee said:


> Ditto the last 3 posts. I have never given it a thought till now. I agree with Lee, these liquid antibacterial soaps are not all they are advertised to be - perhaps doing more harm to us than good. Like Barbara, there is only myself and husband and we use the same soap. If we have guests, they use the same soap. I never thought about it, but maybe our guests are secretly grossed out at our soaps. But since I never thought about it before, I'm not going to start now.


 :yeahthat


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## a4patch (Oct 7, 2009)

Ani-bacterial soap will dry your skin. It will dry it out to the point of cracking the skin around my fingernails. Dry, cracked skin is not healthy and does not provide a sufficient barrier against germs, fungus and yeast. Skin that is healthy provides a healthy and sealing barrier against all the yucks. I would rather have clean healthy skin than dry cracked sanitized skin for these reasons.


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## Lynn_Theesfeld (Feb 21, 2010)

Sorry to hijack but does anyone have any links to why liquid soaps are bad for you? I am trying to convert my MIL and need it in print  or I am going to have to make her liquid hand soap :\ 

Lynn


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## Huminbird (Jul 22, 2008)

Everyone in my family loves my soap (except strange sister-in-law) and when I go to their house I bring a big new bar of soap. Sometimes, if there is more than one sibling over for the weekend they will fight over who gets to keep the bar...that everyone (up to 6 different people) has used over the weekend.

If individual kids are squeamish or if my son ever went through that phase I think I would give him soap in a soap sack so he could have his very own, maybe stitch his name in it. That way it would be all his and obvious as well.


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## Anita Martin (Dec 26, 2007)

I've always thought that soap was pretty sanitary in itself...after all, it's SOAP! We clean with it, so how could it be dirty? That said, I agree about it being personal. I like using my own bar of soap. I certainly don't mind if someone else uses it, but my partner and I have separate ends of the shower area we call our own, and we each have our own soaps...several of them! 

People are so germ-phobic these days that it's hilarious. They smoke and drink and do drugs and stuff themselves with garbage but are afraid to touch doorknobs, money, and each other. I think it's a sign of insanity!


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## SecoCreek (Jan 27, 2010)

> People are so germ-phobic these days that it's hilarious. They smoke and drink and do drugs and stuff themselves with garbage but are afraid to touch doorknobs, money, and each other. I think it's a sign of insanity!


That's funny! :lol


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## nightskyfarm (Sep 7, 2009)

I agree with you Anita! I live in my farmhouse with 2 teens and many bars of my own soap from the kitchen to the one bathroom. We LOVE our soap and each of us have our faves which is why there are so many bars hanging about. My teen's friends come over and love the soap too. At all my markets I have never had a comment like that and my customers on ocassion insist on naked, unwrapped bars (which are in baskets for display)! More natural they say. 85% of my bars are wrapped in rice paper or in origami paper and sealed with the label. They look elegant and professional and since it is paper, you can smell the scent quite clearly through it. I think we as a society have become far too sterile for our own good! From the hand sanitizer to pasteurization, no wonder we get sick so easily. We do not consume real foods and we insist on stripping all the protective oils from our skin for the sake of cleanliness. Where's the sense in that?


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## MiaBella Farm (Jul 22, 2008)

:yeahthat I AGREE! Soap is SOAP PEOPLE! It is supposed to clean you... :crazy


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## nappint (Jun 26, 2008)

:yeahthat The only thing I have to offer is this: You can't cure stupid. There are always going to be those people in the teeny tiny minority that are convinced by nonsensical marketing. I've had people tell me that the difference between detergent bars and soap is that soap leaves a film on your skin (based on that dove bar commercial :really ) I've come to the realization that nothing I say will really matter to this type of person so I'm friendly and courteous but I dont spend a lot of time trying to change their mind. There are tons of normal customers out there I'd rather spend my time and energy on them.


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## buckrun (Mar 7, 2008)

Well Judy - my daughter said pretty much what you did when she first told me this story.
Thanks for all the input and I must say I personally agree with Anita about how irrelevant this worry is with the way people eat and drink and sleep and drive while texting and sit like zombies in front of horrific violent visual images. On FB someone was griping about the smoke from the car next door at Sonic. What a joke. You are worried about second hand smoke and you consider Sonic food? :rofl
So the conclusion must be that they will just have to live with no NightSky soap and no BuckRun soap dishes poor ignorant fools! :biggrin Thanks all.
Lee


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## NubianSoaps.com (Oct 26, 2007)

Liquid soap is the same recipe...be it for washing your car, your clothes, your dishes or your horse...they are detergents. Sorry but I don't like stripping the natural oils off my skin like liquid soaps do, which include body washes. Most body washes also contain sodium laurel sulfate which are carcinogenic...so me and my family only use my soap...I always weedle in that I am 53 (I don't look it, nor does my skin). Having a popular body wash from Victoria Secret on my wall, to take down and show them the ingredients works well to have them turn into soap people.


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## prairie nights (Jan 16, 2009)

LOL, Lee, you are cracking me up. Great comments everyone, I have much enjoyed reading this thread. Off to get some real food and dirty up with soap


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