I'm Beginning to Resent Detergent

[BrewerGeorge]

Now that I have good soap at home all the time, I'm beginning to really resent washing my hands with detergent - especially the stuff in the bathrooms at work.

Talk about drying the hands! I can't NOT wash my hands after using the bathroom, but this stuff requires that I use lotion afterwards. A long-time friends of mine who has been making simple soap for her family to use for 10 years or more always said, "They take the glycerine out so they can sell it back to you in lotion."

I assume I am not alone in this problem? How do you folks solve it? I have some KOH on the way; I'm thinking of trying to produce some liquid soap and bringing it to work in one of those 3.5oz TSA bottles. I've never made liquid soap, but almost anything would be better than the foamy crap that comes from the dispensers here.

 

[hmlove1218]

I would either do that, or I'd take some tiny "samples" (like 1" × 0.25" ) cut from a bar to work with me and keep somewhere to take with me to the bathroom.

BTW, I have this same problem when I wash the dishes. I use Dawn and when I'm done my hands feel so stripped that I go back and wash my hands with one of my soaps lol.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

I would either do that, or I'd take some tiny "samples" (like 1" × 0.25" ) cut from a bar to work with me and keep somewhere to take with me to the bathroom.

BTW, I have this same problem when I wash the dishes. I use Dawn and when I'm done my hands feel so stripped that I go back and wash my hands with one of my soaps lol.

LOL, I've been finding myself doing the same thing.:mrgreen:

 

[Obsidian]

Yep, take a bar to work.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Yep, take a bar to work.

That's not really feasible because of the setup. Hence the liquid idea; I could carry one of those little bottles in my pocket.

 

[lenarenee]

That stuff is nasty. I'm allergic to some of those liquid soaps you find in restaurant or office buildings, and I haven't made my own liquid soap yet. I use a very small Altoids tin with a small piece of soap inside to carry around in my purse. That might work better for you as you won't have to worry liquid soap leaking in your pocket.

 

[Arimara]

Do you feel ready to make some liquid soap if you haven't, George?

 

[IrishLass]

I always carry a small 2 oz. plastic flip-top bottle of my handmade liquid soap in my purse 'just in case'. It really comes in handy, especially when you're travelling and you find yourself in a public bathroom where the soap dispenser has run out and has not been replaced..... or doesn't even have a soap dispenser at all (I've run across a few of those in my travels).

I've found liquid soap to be real quick easy to make via the glycerin method. There's lots of info and instructions about it in our Liquid Soapmaking part of the forum.


IrishLass

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Do you feel ready to make some liquid soap if you haven't, George?

Got nothing to lose. Can't succeed if you don't try and all that.

 

[galaxyMLP]

Susie said she carries "soap to go" with her (I hope its ok if I share that). Its a liquid soap paste that hasnt been diluted so you can rub a bit off on your hands and wash away. You would keep it in a large lip balm tube (lotion bar tubes). I made some myself in regular sized lip balm tubes and its pretty nice. Mine is unscented but you could just scent the paste directly. I make my formula extra mild (no coconut) with it (thats also b/c I didnt SF it). Since you arent diluting it like regular liquid soap, you can always superfat it and make it with your regular recipe.

 

[dixiedragon]

I love the idea of the soap in the tube! You could just make regular soap and carry it with you.

 

[lenarenee]

Yes Susie! That's a great idea- also something that will appeal to kids! (mine loves our handmade soap, picks her favorite and stashes them away, but doesn't like to actually use bars. I bet she'd love to have soap in a tube)

 

[TwystedPryncess]

I thought I had pretty normal skin, but I've been using my own soap for a little over a year now. Dawn hates my skin, work soap hates my skin, sanitizers hate my skin! I thought maybe it was just me.

I know using a hand sanitizer after is important, too, but man, they make my hands feel sticky and dry and I HATE to have sticky hands. Greasy, muddy, dusty,bloody, etc- ok- I can live with for a minute. Sticky? Uh-uh.


We are quickly informed that we are only allowed to wash with company approved cleansing agents. As a server, I wash my hands about every five minutes. Adding lotion afterwards isn't an option for me because it leaves my hands slightly greasy enough to drop things (coupled with being a general klutz, and my fibro, this is really bad) and I don't have the time to put it on when I wash my hands that much.

Leave it to me to make it a long story. But yeah, I've been looking for a solution. Covering my hands in lotions and my soaps at home isn't enough with winter setting in. Love some of these options you guys have listed.

 

[DeeAnna]

Here's Susie's Soap2Go thread: http://www.soapmakingforum.com/showthread.php?p=528865

 

[Arimara]

I thought I had pretty normal skin, but I've been using my own soap for a little over a year now. Dawn hates my skin, work soap hates my skin, sanitizers hate my skin! I thought maybe it was just me.

I know using a hand sanitizer after is important, too, but man, they make my hands feel sticky and dry and I HATE to have sticky hands. Greasy, muddy, dusty,bloody, etc- ok- I can live with for a minute. Sticky? Uh-uh.


We are quickly informed that we are only allowed to wash with company approved cleansing agents. As a server, I wash my hands about every five minutes. Adding lotion afterwards isn't an option for me because it leaves my hands slightly greasy enough to drop things (coupled with being a general klutz, and my fibro, this is really bad) and I don't have the time to put it on when I wash my hands that much.

Leave it to me to make it a long story. But yeah, I've been looking for a solution. Covering my hands in lotions and my soaps at home isn't enough with winter setting in. Love some of these options you guys have listed.

Gotta love the food industry. Even I had more freedom than that when I was a prep cook.

 

[doriettefarm]

I have a similar gripe about the hand wash in our bathrooms at work! I recently broke down and carried in a 8oz bottle of my homemade liquid soap to put in the restroom closest to my cubi-cell (as well as an 8oz bottle of lotion with the same scent). I can definitely tell the soap is getting used . . . I'd say close to half the bottle is gone so it's doubtful I'm the only one using it. If you just want something to carry in your pocket, my vote is for a small bottle of liquid soap or the 'soap-to-go' idea. I've also seen folks that sell soap shavings which are basically soap slivers for one time use.

 

[CaraBou]

My hands are the only part of my body that I have to put lotion on, for the very reasons described here. And I regularly tell people that too. Then I lift up my pant leg and show them a non-flaky (and usually hairy) leg just to prove that my skin there is nice without using lotion. I'm sure it horrifies them, but I remember the pre-real-soap days when my legs were so dry that they would flake like bad dandruff when I ran my hand across them

 

[Susie]

This is exactly why I had to make Soap2Go. I had eczema on my hands from using the "soap" in public restrooms. Now I just pull out the tube, smear a bit on a finger, and wash. No more eczema or dry hands.

 

[navigator9]

I use a mandoline or very sharp knife to cut paper thin slices of soap, and carry them in an empty Altoids tin, and keep it in my purse.

 

[DeeAnna]

"...my cubi-cell..."

Ahhh, cubicle, sweet cubicle. I remember those days ... packed with several hundred other engineers in an endlessly long room without windows. It was an introvert's damnation worthy of a modern-day Dante's inferno. :sick: But I digress.

I use my own soap for handwashing during the day, but my hands still get dry from the solvents and dyes I have to use, as well as the extra scrubbing necessary to get the traces of the dyes off my skin. Yes, I wear nitrile gloves when I'm doing a big dyeing job, but not always for the little ones.

But I have to say that using my soap versus Dawn (the other soapy alternative at my shop sink) helps keep the drying to a minimum. I also use my own emulsified sugar scrub and lotion as needed. Since I started doing all that a couple of years ago, my hands are staying reasonably nice. Less cracking, fewer hangnails, skin looking smoother.