Sales of bar soap had been sadly slipping, but now shoppers are wising up to its many benefits. It wasn't all that long ago that I was lamenting the sad slippery slope of bar soap. I concluded that the demise of the humble soap bar was about misguided fear (of germs) and the unfortunate convenience of liquid soap (and all its wasteful plastic packing). "As we are continually proving our preference for things we can throw away instead of having to...

In the cleaning industry, so much has changed over the past two years from the rise in electrostatic sprayers to the wearing of masks beyond just healthcare facilities. But one constant for many hotels has been the presence of bar soap, notably in hotels. As outlined in an article by Cónde Nast Traveler, many hotels are sticking with bars of soap as a bathroom fixture despite other changes — including larger-scale shampoo and conditioner dispensers in lieu of small plastic bottles for environmental...

The soap bar has a long, intricate history. Thought to have originated way back in 2800 BC when Egyptians used it medically to treat skin diseases, it didn’t hit the big time until the 19th century with the invention of common soap bars. In these more recent times of fancy shower gel and body wash, however, the traditional soap bar has had something of a hard time. Widely considered old-fashioned, unrefined and inferior to its more modern liquid-based cousins, soap...

Have you ever considered using a bar of soap to wash your hair? Treat laundry stains? Scrub your dishes or give your dog a bath? No? You should. With the rise in concern over plastic consumption, bar soaps are becoming an excellent—and accessible—alternative to liquid bath and body products. But substituting your daily face wash or hand soap is just the beginning. A simple concentrated bar soap can replace everything from shaving cream to an exfoliator and even—if you dare—toothpaste. “Castile bar soaps such...

It’s one of the first things a traveler does when entering a new hotel room: set down bags, check out the view, wash up and unwrap the small bar of hand soap at the bathroom sink. Some small aspects of the guest experience have changed amid rising environmental concerns and awareness of sustainability—most notably and recently, tiny toiletry bottles swapped out for larger pump units to cut down on single-use plastic. Yet the miniature hand soap has remained, instead of being changed...