Goat Milk Soap and Bath Bombs to care for your skin - Part 1

Share the Soap is a great resource for goat milk soap, goat milk bath bombs and goat milk bath soaks. 

  

True or False: Drinking water is THE best way to keep your skin hydrated

Your skin has a protective lipid barrier. This barrier is what protects your skin and holds moisture in. When this barrier gets penetrated the skin begins to dry out, becomes damaged and wrinkles begin to form causing premature aging. So is drinking water THE best way to keep your skin hydrated? First we’ll take a look at how this protective barrier on our skin gets broken down and then we’ll take a look at how best to keep it hydrated, all in 3 easy steps. Here are some things that break thru the protective barrier on your skin: *Environment: Harsh winds, sun, low humidity, dry heat *chemicals: Cleaning supplies, harsh soaps like antibacterial dish soaps and commercial “soaps” both bar and liquid. I can hear the rejoicing now: “Whoo Hoo!!! No more cleaning!!” Not quite so fast. Protection is the BEST plan. This gives us our first 2 steps:
  1. Remove harsh chemicals as much as possible. We should be removing these from our homes anyway. Natural products like baking soda, vinegar and essential oils clean just as well as chemicals and give us the satisfaction of a fresh clean without the harmful chemicals all while saving money! Wait….what’s considered a “harsh chemical”? Things we sometimes don’t think about being harsh chemicals, like anti-bacterial dishwashing soaps, commercial bar soaps, and liquid hand-washing soaps, still break down that lipid barrier on your skin. They most certainly will strip the oils off of your hands in a heartbeat! Wash dishes a few times a day using antibacterial dishsoap or wash your hands each time you go to the bathroom and after just a few times using a detergent bar you’ll quickly be on your way to dry hands.
Am I telling you not to use antibacterial dish-soap? Nope, just protect your hands with gloves whenever using it to wash dishes. OK! Problem solved for antibacterial soap, we’re going to protect our skin when using it, but what about hand-washing after bathroom trips, meals, etc.? Or what about in the shower? How can we protect that natural barrier on our skin then? Just use lotion after washing, right? Well, maybe. You could and it would certainly be a solution, but is it the BEST solution? Using lotion after washing your hands and showering will certainly help maintain that barrier after it’s broken down from washing with a detergent bar. But what if there was a way to wash and get hands and body clean without even breaking down the protective lipid barrier on your skin in the first place? This question leads us to step 2.
  1. Use gentle, cleansing soap that will actually nourish the protective barrier of your skin.

First you need to understand that all “soap” is not created equal! Not all soap is goat milk soap.  The “soap” that is sold commercially in stores under brand names such as Dial, Dove, etc. are actually detergent bars (another name these bars are referred to are syndet bars-synthetic detergent bars). They are made from detergents, chemical surfactants, preservatives, parabens and sodium laurel sulfate. In order for “soap” to be REAL soap, it has to have been made with lye so that it goes through a process called saponification. Saponification is a fancy word to describe a natural process that happens when lye and oils form a connection that creates soap. After the soap-making process is completed, there isn’t any lye left over in the finished product as it is all “used up” during the soap-making process. There are additional benefits of REAL soap like we create at Share the Soap. During the saponification process glycerin is formed as a natural by-product. Glycerin has long been desired for it’s ability to moisturize as well as smooth skin. Glycerin is considered a humectant, which means that it attracts moisture and when on your skin it brings water to your skin. In fact according to newhealthguide.org, “glycerin is so absorptive that if you leave a pure bottle of it open, it would eventually absorb enough water to change its composition to only 80% glycerin with the other 20% being water.” Companies that manufacture soap remove the glycerin that is naturally formed in the soap-making process and then turn the glycerin into lotion, conditioner, etc. By removing the glycerin from the soap it is no longer moisturizing, but purely cleansing and so now to prevent dryness you need something to moisturize and condition hands, skin or hair. So you now need to not only buy soap or shampoo, but moisturizers, lotions and conditioners too. Very entrepreneurial of Mr. Proctor and Mr. Gamble, don’t you think? Since the glycerin isn’t removed in real soap, using REAL SOAP naturally draws moisture to your skin, nourishing and strengthening the protective barrier. Since we wash hands many times throughout the day (and all of our skin in the shower) using real soap is the BEST way to maintain that natural built-in protective barrier your skin was provided with all day long! By using natural soap, to your skin it’s like wearing those protective gloves while doing dishes! Ok so now we know that prevention by wearing gloves and using natural soap is the best plan for keeping the protective barrier intact. 

In our next article:  

Let’s talk about the final step to the best way hydrate our skin.

Share the Soap Goat Milk Bath bombs and Goat Milk bath soaks are a great way to nourish your skin.  Goat milk soap is also an excellent source of nourishment.