When you buy soap....

Not enough poll options. We have used liquid soap for 10+ years and it has cut our usage down by half at minimum. I could care less about scent or how it was made as long as it gets me clean. To that option the cheapest one that does so gets bought.
My wife has skin issues and was told by a Dr 50 year ago that she should only use dial. She has hauled dial soap to Europe and everywhere else that she has travelled and would not ever consider using anything else. I generally use what she buys but buy lava or something else for the shop.

Mostly homemade soap here but when we buy its Dr. Bronners liquid or Kirk's bar...in the last year I have developed an aversion to strong scents...sinuses react and I get a nasty headache

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the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you, except yourself.

I want a soap that will take off grease, oil dirt. As I didnt see anything like that listed, I didnt vote.

I'm sensitive to fragrances. I can't walk down the cleaning isle at the store without my throat starting to close up. Hubby wants something moisturizing. He brought some soap home last week that was so strong I couldn't use the bathroom for days without holding my breath. I had to put it in the kids bathroom.

We need soap with no scent or a very light scent that moisturizes.

We always used Ivory until I discovered Goat's Milk Soap. I only buy from one person, she's in Texas. I'm very sensitive to scents, and can't stand when something lingers on my skin. My three favorite Fragrances are, Milk Honey and Oatmeal, Mint Julep and Pink Great-fruit. Everything rinses clean and leaves no scent on my skin. I order 36 bars at a time, 36 fit perfectly in a large flat rate shipping box. I pay $137 for the box. I reorder when we get down to about a dozen bars. The bars are huge and last a long time. I love the way they lather up also.

If you could make a goats milk or similiar soap that smells and lathers like Dove I would buy it from you.

I have eczema so I have used a soap called Basis for years. I am usually able to use home made without too much scents, Kirks and Dr. Bronners lavender scented with seemingly no problems. The light lavender is the only scent I will use. I have many friends with allergies to perfumes so since I want to be in their company, the unscented works here as well. I love goat milk soap.
I'm not allergic to scents but am overwhelmed by them when standing next to some one who uses scented soap, scented laundry detergent and dryer sheets and perfume. All at the same time. Not that I would say anything but I sure would move away if I could. Just too much. I have some friends who like to give hugs & I'm o.k. with the hug, the problem is they wear scents and I don't like smelling like that after a hug.
I have made my own soap before and liked the results. I like having the knowledge.
God bless,
jd

I will always make an unscented bar, probably more than one type (one with oatmeal and one without, for starters). What I made before was goat milk soap and that's moisturizing...probably I'll do that again, too. One of the primary considerations I'm tryign to figure out is whether people would prefer to have no added scent other than that carried by the herbs/flowers used in the soap, if small-moderate amounts of essential oils are OK, and how important the use of vegetable oils only is. Previously my customers really, really liked that my soap had no animal fats in it other than the milk. We have a lot of vegans, etc around here... The thing is, it has been difficult for me to get a firm, hard bar of soap that lasts well using only veggie oil...unless I want to pay out the nose for coconut oil! So it's very good to hear that several of you actually prefer soap made with animal fats- I never would have guessed that! I have a possible source of goat fat, which is hard and might balance out the softness of the olive oil....might try it. Thank you all!

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I really like unsented soap regardless of the fats used. Just smells clean to me! I am carefull about the type of water folks that use my soap have. Hard water causes lather issues, so you have to up some fats or use chemicals(won't do that other than lye)BUT, these types of fats tend to be drying, so it's kind of a catch 22 deal. Animal fats don't seem to cause a skin drying issue with really good lather qualities. Dependine on the fat, it CAN have an off oder sometimes! Experiment! Why not have 2 lines of soap? One with animal fat, one without! Coconut is one of those oils/ butters I have to use. I have a supplier pretty close by(natural oils inc. In Simi Valley) I've been a customer for years and their oils/ butters are always fresh. Do you use any software for soaping?

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"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun" - President Obama June 14, 2008

Jeffrey,

Thank you SO MUCH for sharing such info with me. I will pass it on to my husband and I know that he will appreciate it as well. It's funny the reaction my husband gets from making soap. Most think it's a 'girl' thing.

Farmboy Bill,

If you are looking for something just to wash your hands after mechanics try mixing equal parts borax and baking soda. Works great!

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By His Grace, For His Glory,
Sharon

Boraxo for the hands. Ivory for the body.
Best store bought soaps i've ever used.

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Even your best friend was once a perfect stranger.

This fits me as well. Plus the fact that I also like to buy soap with milk and/or other moisturizing ingredients added to it. I used to make my own soap all the time, but now that our jam business is taking off like it is, I'm more pressed for time than I used to be. So, now I barter with a local soap maker for her soaps. I have two soap makers near me. One raises goats and makes goat milk soap that is very moisturizing, but fairly lightly scented. The other makes soap without goats milk in it, but the scents of her soaps are fantastic. She makes what can only be considered aromatherapy soap! ( she didn't intend it that way, but that's what it amounts to!) I'd love to put the goat milk soap with the highly scented soap and I'd be in soap-heaven! As it is, I have to choose.

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Our website is www.thequeensblessing.com

I am very picky about what I use on my skin.
It is the largest organ of my body adn I know that whatever I put on it is readily absorbed.

So..all natural. Fragrance oils must be phthalate free.

I prefer the soaps made by my friend, Linda.
Goats milk, phthalate free, made with the most care and after careful study.
Even DH is sold 100% on her soaps now.

Her lanolin soap is the BEST soap I have ever used. It cuts through greasy sweat like nothing else in the summer and leaves my skin soft and smooth in the dead of winter.
DH used it over the summer and had no blemishes at all! That is amazing for a sweating, hardworking man.

I take soap very seriously. Good stuff only.

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the farm blog
http://thehennerytraditionals.blogspot.com/ -
the herbal blog + shop

I love essential oils:
(and I am going to butcher the spelling......)

Patchoolie
Frankensense
Cinnamon
Basil
Lemongrass
Orange
Mint
and on and on!!

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I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

my goats milke soap lathers, and feels good to my skin, so i havent bought "store bought "soap in 5 years or so....sorry

samm

I only have two criteria. It has to be non-antibacterial, since I don't want to kill the bacteria in the septic tank. It also has to be unscented, since I don't want the deer to smell me anymore than they do already. Of course, my wife likes cheap and my four sons think soap mashing is great fun, so we are not likely to buy hand made special soap.

My son won't allow any soap in his home except Zest because it doesn't cause a build up of soap scum on the sinks and tubs. My son-in-law loves Irish Spring. My daughter likes the liquid soaps with mild scents. In the past, my husband used Ivory and I used Dove because of my dry skin. But we hated the goop on the sink or even in the soap dish and have recently switched to liquid soap dispensers instead. We do like fresh scents or very mild scented ones and I like the moisturizing ones. Occasionally I used an exfoliating one.

I have been buying my "warm vanilla sugar" at B@BW for years.
I do wish Vickies would bring back their amber romance candles... bath time just isnt the same without them!

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"Nothing so needs reforming as other peoples habits." Mark Twain