here’s the trick to recognizing bad soap

At the time of writing these lines, I have been washing with liquid gel for 7 days at a rate of 2 showers per day. My skin is dry, hyperdry and tight at times. Bernadette Blouard, head of the dermatology department at Saint-Luc hospital in Bouge, advises me to stop the experiment. “Compared to oil, the gel is immediately more drying. The skin needs to be re-lipidated, it needs to be given a layer of lipids to reform the film that protects it. The poorer the quality of the gel or soap, the more likely you are to get rough, cracked skin.”

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Whatever the cost, investigation into soaps. The recipe for brick soap is as simple as pie, you just need to mix a fatty substance with soda. From the miracle of saponification a paste with cleansing power is born. The problem is that not all fats are created equal. Neither financially nor in terms of benefits. Palm oil, for example, is widely criticized for its ecological footprint but it does not present any particular danger. Olive oil would become more and more expensive. Argan oil is said to be allergenic. What to choose ?

Cracks, gateway for infections

“I don’t recommend making your own soap,” says Bernadette Blouard, the dermatologist. “I see a lot of people in consultation with irritation linked to their own mixture or poor quality soaps. When the skin is damaged, it is prone to developing other diseases. Cracks can be a gateway for allergies and infections.” Making soap is a complex art. “If it does not have enough antibacterial substances it will be colonized by bacteria and if we add bad perfume we risk allergies.”

The must ? A superfatted soap with moisturizing properties. In oil or brick form, it doesn’t matter as long as you don’t wash too much. One shower a day, no more according to our dermatologist. “Soap acts like a detergent, there are a lot of surfactants in it. Repeated washing can irritate the skin.

At the time of writing these lines, I have put an end to the various soap tests and decided not to wash again for 24 hours.

What type of soap will cost me less? The experience is simple. I washed for 7 days with Sanex brick soap (€4.99), then I washed with the same Sanex but in gel version (€6.09). It is not the brand or the soothing properties of the soap that interest us but the price of use.

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Given the quantity of material used, I could do 28 showers with the brick compared to 18 with the gel. But since the two soaps have different weights, let’s calculate the price per shower.

With the Sanex brick, a shower costs me 17 cents compared to 38 for the gel version. If we extrapolate this over a year, I arrive at €62 and €139, almost double. By continuing like this, my brick would allow me to save €77 over one year.