Tuesday, August 6, 2013

All-Natural Soaps

Ever since I learned that sodium laureate (found in many products such as soaps, shampoos, and toothpastes) can cause irritation, I've been on the search for all-natural soaps.
As my kids all have varying degrees of eczema. I wanted to try out an all-natural soap to see if it would help their eczema in any way. Sure enough, I have seen some improvements in their skin, once we've made the switch.

For our hands, we use Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild Castile Soap. You only need about 1 tablespoon of Dr. Bronner's castile liquid soap mixed in water and use as you would in a soap dispenser. Castile soap actually has many different uses, as shown here, but we personally only use it as handsoap. I just can't get used to using it for other means as of now.




As for baths, we have found Dr. Bronner's Baby Mild castile soap, both in the liquid version and the bar soap to be quite drying. I was looking for an all-natural soap that was moisturizing since my kids have dry skin. I have found  Nubian Heritage Shea Butter Bar Soap to be very moisturizing and the size is larger than the average bar soap, off-setting the cost a bit.




My youngest, however, seems to have a sensitivity/allergy to shea butter, so I went on yet another search for an all-natural and moisturizing bar soap for bath time, but without shea butter.
We have discovered Mother's Special Blend Soap. It uses cocoa butter instead of shea butter, and it is silky, smooth, and moisturizing. I just wish the size was larger, as it is smaller than the average bar soap.



At first I was discouraged when I was looking for an all-natural bar soap as they don't come cheap! I certainly didn't want to be buying soap after soap after soap, trying to find one moisturizing enough. Thus, I was relieved that the search didn't take long for us to find ones that met our needs (Thank goodness for product reviews!).
I hope you find these helpful for those of you searching for good all-natural soaps!

Update: 
The Mother's Special Blend Cocoa Butter Soap seems to burn when getting into the eyes. My 7 year old is fine with it, but my toddler isn't liking it very much for her face. We've been using our old soap (Cetaphil gentle cleanser) just for her face and continuing to use Mother's Special Blend Cocoa Butter Soap for the rest of her body.

2 comments:

  1. Have you tried phisoderm? It has sodium laureth sulfate, but its the only "soap" that calms my daughter's skin. It's really an emollient wash. She has had eczema since she was a babe. I tried every eczema wash and lotion in the past six years. She has a sensitivity to shea butter also. And phisoderm along with aquaphor are the only only two that won't dry out her skin. The allergist recommended cerave, but she reacted in small raised bumps everywhere. She always looked like she had road rash all over her body because she scratched so much. Now, her skin had only a few patches dry skin left. Real progress for the first time in six years.

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  2. Wow! That's great that you found a wash that helps! Although those past six years must have been tough to see your daughter go through that! Thanks for the tip - I'll definitely look into it!

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