Hopefully, you will have tried one of our delicious Soap bars; made with coconut oil, cocoa, and shea butters and various essential oils and additives to make them smell delicious and look fab. These are soap, which for some reason has become a dirty word for a lot of people. (We love soap for body washing, less so for hair- here’s why!)
Soap is the end result of mixing oils and fats with an alkali (something caustic), which in this case is sodium hydroxide.
The resultant soap doesn’t contain any sodium hydroxide and is perfectly safe to use. High in naturally occurring glycerine, soap is non-drying, but won’t moisturise your skin or leave a layer of moisture, which is what you guys out there with super dry or sensitive skin want the most.
Some people out there find soap drying because of the effect it has on the skin's acid mantle. The acid mantle is a thin layer of sebum and acidic secretions from sweat that forms a protective film on the skin with a pH between 4.2 - 6. As a general rule, pathogenic bacteria that can cause acne and other skin issues thrives in an alkaline environment (pH 8 -14.)
When you wash, you alter this protective layer which can leave skin feeling slightly itchy, dry, or irritated. This effect is particularly apparent with cleansers with a high pH, or astringent foaming cleansers.
Most people’s acid mantle recovers very quickly and they are fine using these products - particularly on their body. For a few of you, the skin recovers more slowly (up to seven hours in extreme cases). Having an out of whack acid mantle makes your skin more susceptible to TEWL (transepidermal water loss) which leads to dry, scaly skin and a higher potential for skin infections.
So, for this group, we’ve got cracking in the lab and created something super luxurious, super hydrating, and super creamy that will have as minimal impact on your acid mantle as possible.
Our Solid Cream Body Cleansers are soap free and have a pH of 5.
It’s made with lashings of creamed coconut (a favourite ingredient of mine), vegetable glycerine (a humectant which draws water to the skin) and a touch of clay for gentle cleansing.
It produces a small amount of creamy lather, as it contains two of my favourite surfactants (foaming ingredients), sodium cocoyl isethionate and cocoyl methyl glucamide, which is one of the most gentle surfactants produced (and it comes from sugar.)
How should you use it? Lather it up on a cotton face cloth, a bamboo shower pouf or into your hands, then smooth over your body. By using a pouf or something similar, it will last longer. Of course, keep it dry between uses.
The best part- you can use it on your face and your body.
We have two types of Solid Cream Body Cleansers: Lime & Lemongrass as well as an Unscented option!
