When I looked at my little Mother Nature’s Maid to-do list today and saw that “bar soap” was next on the agenda, I was like, “NO way…give me a break!” But then I was like, “You know, you put off the bar soap the last time in favor of body wash and the time before that in favor of face wash.” So then I was like, “I guess it’s time to feed the beast.”
It’s not that the bar soap is not my favorite product in the world…except, it really isn’t my favorite product in the world…but the point is, I haven’t been avoiding my bar soap simply because it doesn’t perform as well as my liquid soaps. I understand second-best – I was runner-up in my second-grade Spelling Bee. Trust me, I have sympathy and lots of it.
In fact, I tend to avoid talking about my bar soap because it’s an embarrassment…it’s like the rebel child of the MNM family. Ok, no, that would be the shampoo/conditioner recipes. So it’s like the Watergate of Mother Nature’s Maid; it’s an embarrassment because I didn’t actually make it from “scratch.” Chemical reactions in soap-making can be dangerous, so I cheated and melted down a ready-made bar of soap. But, let’s be real, I’ve already spent a few weeks without eyebrows in high school chemistry class, and I’d rather not take my (probably very good) chances in repeating that feat.
The product actually turned out nicely – like a rectangle of petrified herb vomit; and if you can get past the appearance, it works quite well, too. However, I now have something new to complain about. The price!
No, let’s not get excited – it’s not as expensive as my homemade perfume. In fact, it’s not all that expensive, but it is nearly four times as expensive as the regular old Dial soap I usually swear by.
Looking for a natural soap alternative?
Store Bought:
- Dial Soap (8 bars / 32 oz) = $3.98
- PER OUNCE = .12/oz
Homemade:
- Dr. Bronner’s Castile Soap (16 oz) = $9
- Water = N/A
- Oats (18 oz) = $2.14
- Honey (8 oz) = $4
- Chamomile Tea (.71 oz) = $3
- TOTAL (42.71 oz) = $18.14
- PER OUNCE = .43/oz
Goodness, it’s almost as bad as buying Victoria’s Secret underwear when there is a perfect plethora of undergarment choices in neatly packaged “10-for-$6” plastic bundles right in your local Walmart. So, once again, we must ask ourselves: How much should you be willing to pay to be clean?
Forgot to calculate the extra cans of comet you gotta purchase just to keep the icky, sticky remnants of this “petrified herb vomit” scrubbed off the bath tub. That additional cost alone is staggering!!! Won’t miss this one my dear Maid.
You mean you won’t really be happy to see the final half-bar I have left come back out to the soap sill in the shower?? I really have to use it up sometime…..
Maybe the icky, sticky remnants in the tub aren’t from the soap itself, but from the gunk that the soap is able to get off your body that commercial soaps can’t. Could be it’s a super effective soap, dear Maid!
Or maybe it’s from the skin it rubs off…remember it has that incredibly rough exfoliator side!
Sounds like a lot of work to me. And that “W” word isn’t in my vocabulary!
Happy Valentine’s Day dear Maid!!
Don’t think of it as work…think of it as a journey toward natural living, homemade health…..and greasy hair. It’s so fun!!
I don’t know why you are so surprised that your products are more expensive.
Organic products are always more…seems the less ingredients something contains the higher the price. Why is that…
Except – natural deodorant and chapstick!!!! The homemade versions of those are a lot cheaper than store-bought. But it is true, in the store, organic/natural will ALWAYS be more expensive. And it is interesting, considering that, like I said, the homemade versions can sometimes be made more cheaply.