The Reality of Fast Food Skin Care

Let’s get real.

A friend confessed recently that she readily picks up bars of Dial or Ivory soap in the supermarket because – let’s face it – it’s quick and easy. But with the movement in this country towards all that’s natural and healthy, it begs the question, is it really a good idea?

All-natural soaps, like Bay Soap of Maryland, are made with oils, butters, herbs and botanicals found in nature. You can’t get more natural than this.

Let’s take a look at what’s in Dial soap.

I looked on their Web site and this is what they have listed as the ingredients in their “gold” bar product line : Active Ingredient: triclocarban. Inactive ingredients: soap (sodium cocoate*, sodium palm kernelate*, sodium palmate*, sodium tallowate*), water, talc, coconut acid*, palm acid*, tallow acid*, palm kernel acid*, peg-6 methyl ether, fragrance, glycerin, sorbitol, sodium chloride, pentasodium pentetate, tetrasodium etidronate, yellow 5, yellow 8, red 4.

Seriously… what exactly IS pentasodium pentetate or tetrasodium etidronate? What does it do to your skin? Soaps like Dial, Safeguard and Coast, are the fast foods of the bath and body industry. Because they beacon from the grocery store shelves, it’s easy to be lured by their quick accessibility. A cheap quick fix…much like grabbing that double cheeseburger rather than a green salad.

Let’s go back to what soap actually is.

Soap is made from animal or vegetable fats/oils and lye – or sodium hydroxide. The end product, however, has no free lye. And you can’t make soap without lye. Over the years, the molecular structure of some naturally occurring substances was changed, including how necessary components were synthesized. The entity that emerged became what is now known as “detergent”

The big advantage to detergents then and now is that they work well in cold or hard water and can be formulated to clean specific types of dirt and stains, according to the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild, a coalition of soapmakers. Even commercial bar soaps commonly contain all or part detergents.

Detergents, quite simply, are not skin-friendly. They can be harsh, cause or exacerbate dry skin and leave a soapy residue behind.

Bay Soap of Maryland creates all-natural soaps in small batches to ensure quality – and does not use any ingredients that aren’t 100 percent natural. Once they are removed from our molds, they are placed in our drying room to cure for 4-6 weeks. A long process, we know, but your skin will love us for it.