How to Make Your Bar Soap Last Longer: 6 Simple Tips
If you want to make your bar soap last longer, the single most important thing you can do is keep it dry between uses. While that may seem obvious, typically when a bar disappears too quickly it's due to the way the soap is being stored while not in use. A bar left in a puddle of water next to the sink, or sitting in the direct path of the shower spray, will keep dissolving long after you've finished using it.
We've laid out six simple ways to extend the life of your soap and get the most out of every bar.
1. Give It Somewhere to Drain
The dish matters as much as the soap. A flat dish or the corner of the tub holds water right against the bottom of the bar, and that's where most of the waste happens. What you want is a dish with slats, ridges, or holes that let water run off and air circulate underneath.
We carry a wooden soap dish that does exactly this. With the angled ridges of its design, your soap will be elevated above any water after use. Our soap dishes are made in the USA from sustainably grown wood, and will last for years with minimal upkeep needed. We just recommend giving them a scrub-down about once a month to clean off any soap scum.
2. Already Have a Dish That Doesn't Drain?
Some of the most beautiful ceramic soap dishes are actually the most impractical. If they don't have drainage holes, you're essentially placing your soap straight into a pool of water after each use. One way to fix this while keeping the aesthetic you're looking for is with our bioplastic soap saver. This porous little pad is flexible and able to be cut down to fit inside the existing soap dish, adding the drainage your dish was missing. Now your soap will sit on top of the soap saver and above the water.
3. Move It Out of the Spray
Constant contact with running water softens a bar fast, even if you're not using it. Moving your soap to a shelf, ledge, or corner outside the direct shower stream gives it a real chance to dry between uses. And if space is limited, we recommend using the bioplastic soap saver as a soap dish. The material works well in these high-water areas and will allow for more drainage in between showers.
4. Use a Washcloth or Loofah
Building lather on a washcloth or loofah instead of rubbing the bar directly onto your skin means less of the bar wears away with each wash. You also spread the lather more evenly, so you're not using more soap than you actually need. If you like to really see the soap bubbles, the texture of the washcloth or loofah makes it easier to get sudsy too, so it can be a win/win. Just make sure your washcloth or loofah gets a chance to fully dry out between uses as well.
5. Keep the Soap Wrapped Until You Use It
If you like to stock up on bars at a market or keep a few on hand at home, leave them in their packaging until you're ready to use them. Glycerin-rich soap can pull moisture right out of the air, even sitting on a shelf. An unwrapped bar in a warm bathroom is already starting to soften before it ever touches water.
If you've noticed what looks like little dew drops forming on a dry soap bar, that's not a defect. It's the glycerin doing what glycerin does, drawing moisture from the air around it. Keeping the soaps in their plastic wrap or storing them in a cool, dry spot like a linen closet or a bedroom drawer is the best waiting room for bars that haven't had their turn yet. This is especially true during the humid summer months, when there is naturally a lot more moisture in the air for the glycerin to react to.
6. Use Up the Last Bit
Every bar eventually gets down to a sliver that's hard to hold onto, and that's often when it ends up in the trash. One solution we found to get the most out of our soaps is to get an exfoliating soap bag. These sisal soap bags are designed to hold soap bits and scraps while also being functional as an exfoliating loofah-like tool. With this you can use every bit of your soap bar, and gently exfoliate your skin.
Why Handcrafted Soap Needs a Little Extra Care
If you've noticed that a handcrafted soap seems to respond to water more than a drugstore bar does, it likely has to do with some of the ingredients that are added, or purposefully left out. Our soap is made with a glycerin-rich base, and glycerin is a humectant, which means it actively pulls moisture toward your skin instead of stripping it away. Most commercial bars work with synthetic detergents like sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) to increase the lather, which clean effectively but can leave skin feeling tight and dry. Our bases don't contain SLS or any other added detergents. The lather comes from saponified plant oils, coconut oil, palm oil, and safflower oil, and the glycerin does the rest. The tradeoff is that the same ingredient that makes it so good for your skin also makes it more sensitive to sitting in water.
If you want to know more about what goes into our formulas, we wrote a deeper look at the key ingredients we use in our soaps and other body care products. You can also shop our soap accessories to see all of the soap dishes and exfoliating bags we offer.
We hope you learned a few good soap-saving tips you can incorporate into your routine!
The Mainland Vintage Team