Lather, Rinse & Repeat

I recently realized that I always do the "Lather, Rinse & Repeat" routine with my own soaps. I got to thinking about this and knew that I ought to explain why. Soap and detergent in our current day have largely come to be thought of as synonymous. But there are very important differences--especially in the skin care realm.

One thing that clouds the air as to which is which
is that commercial interests have blended or even switched to detergents in skin care products. Want proof of this? Next time you are at the store, read a few labels. See how many bath bars are called just that: Bath bars.....or Shower bars, or Facial bars, or anything but simple soap. This is because they are not soap, and cannot legally be labeled as soap.

Soap is a chain shaped molecule with one end being drawn to water and the other end being drawn to oil. This is how it cleans our skin. It's molecules are able to grab oil off our skin surface, and then hold to the water, washing the oil down the drain. Detergents do the same thing, but at an extremely broad scope.

Detergents are the products of saponified petroleum in various forms. They are very nice to have around for jobs where the removal of a great deal of oil is needed; like cleaning oil stains off the driveway. Soap is a far milder product. Soaps are saponified vegetable or animal oils. Soap is mild and well suited to skin cleaning without being overly drying by pulling away too much oil. I would not recommend that a mechanic wash his work pants in soap. I would definately say he needs detergent for that job. But neither would I say that we need detergents to wash our skin on a daily basis. Our skin is alive and an important organ of our bodies.

So what does all this have to do with "Lather, Rinse & Repeat"? Soap is really amazingly appropriate for skin washing. It is so gentle that the first time 'round with it, the little bit of oil on our hands can sometimes diminish the lather--but the second time around we see the full lather of the soap.

It's like a walk with a toddler; Katherine Leslie Soaps invites you to take the time to appreciate what you overlooked yesterday.