What are the differences between body and hand wash products?

What I read on the dry/sensitive skin page about reactive bodies made absolute sense!! Are there other resources for finding out more about this that you recommend (books, websites, blogs, anything you’ve got!)? Can’t wait to try your products when they arrive!! We’ve been using Dr. Bronner’s castile soap and my little boy’s hands look like raw hamburger, and my husband has a huge dry/cracked/bleeding spot on his hand. Reactive fellas 🙂

Wondering what to order of your soaps. Can you tell me if your castile soap can be used in a water dilution with a foaming dispenser? Our current brand of castile soap has worked great for this (but killed our hands at the sink and skin in the shower), but see that you also offer separate body wash and hand wash products. What are the differences between these? Thank you! Feel free to reply via email or on the FAQ posts 🙂

Thank you! -claire

Hi Claire,

Thanks for reaching out from Providence.

Dr Bronners is world famous but yes, it is notoriously harsh on sensitive skin. I had to stop using it back when I was about 20 years old (tough guy with sensitive skin).

Vermont Soap makes a much milder formula and we cook it differently as well. You will notice the difference immediately. You can dilute our castile soap for foamer use. Try 1/3 to 1/2 soap to water. I do recomend our premade solutions though. They have an extra ingredient added that makes them even smoother on the skin.

We also take a high olive oil liquid soap and thicken it with guar gum and glycerin into a shower gel. Vermont Soap developed this method of gelling soap almost 10 years ago. Vermont Soap Shower gels are milder than our liquid soaps but not nothing is as mild as a good bar fo handmade soap.

There are a half dozen things in or about soap that can potentially dry your skin out. One of them is coconut oil. Coconut oil is great for making lather but the more coconut oil in the formula, the higher the potential for skin reactivity. That is why most soap formulas use less than 20% coconut oil in them. Castile soaps, being over 90% coconut oil, are often just too reactive for some people. Especially when used full strength and daily.

Heal those hamburger hands with Green Gold! A little bit goes a long way and they will notice a difference after a couple of applications. Use the Butter Bar for face and body and try our unscented foamer for the a really nice, smooth and nonirritating formula that is well tolerated by most people.

You are right. There is not a lot out there about reactive bodies. Might be my next book.

Take Care and Thanks for writing,

Soapman

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