Is Your Soap Helping or Harming Your Skin?

When you think about soap - whether it's liquid or bar, cream or foam - the first thing that comes to mind is cleanliness. You want your soap to be doing it's job, getting all of the dirt, oils, and other yucky stuff out off of your skin and down the drain. You want to get rid of dead skin cells and clean your pores, but you want to do all of this safely, while keeping your skin moisturized and smooth. Maintaining an even color and tone is also important, and a soap that can dry out your skin will end up leaving you blotchy and patchy. It's important to find out if the soap you're about to use is going to help or harm your skin.

First of all, check the ingredients list. (If you buy single bar soap that doesn't clearly list what it contains on the packaging, you can more often than not go to a website somewhere that will tell you what's in it.) There are a few things you could find in the ingredients list that would deter you from using that soap continuously -

Harsh Fragrances
Many companies (and individuals) that make soap focus a bit too much on how the product smells, and not how well it cleans or how gentle it is on your skin. Because of this, people are adding pretty much anything to give their soap a strong fragrance. Also, when strange things are used to make something smell good, it is still sometimes only listed as "fragrance" on the ingredients list.

Sodium Laureth Sulfate / Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
Most people have heard about this one. Sodium Laureth Sulfate is a substance well known in the dermatology world to be a big skin irritant, especially to those with sensitive skin or find their skin to dry easily. It has been known to cause or inflame cases of eczema, cause itching and rashes, and even worsen acne problems. (Not just on your face, either!)

Sodium EDTA
This is an agent that basically lets whatever else is in your soap (or anything in the water, for that matter) penetrate faster and deeper into your skin. This is a double edged sword. Should you be using a product that isn't mostly (or all) natural products, sodium EDTA will just cause all the chemicals that are replacing natural agents to seep deeper into your skin. Who wants more icky unnatural chemicals sneaking (and staying!) in your pores?

Propylene Glycol
If you pick up a product with Propylene Glycol on the label, I strongly encourage you to put it right back on the shelf and walk away! This substance is one of the most commonly used harmful carcinogens that are added to products. Not only is Propylene Glycol a skin irritant, but it's also been linked to kidney and liver damage. Yikes!

Mineral Oil
Once considered to be a sort of remedy, ironically the ingredient mineral oil has become a dreaded part of any bath and shower product. It's most commonly linked with drying out your skin and causing rough patches, worsening cases of eczema, and even causing possible worsened damage to any previous conditions you have - such as causing acne to scar over. Mineral oil comes from crude oil, and it does little else but cover your skin with a film that makes it almost impossible to clean your pores. It's very counterproductive in a soap product, and should be avoided.

Sodium Fluoride
Most often found in toothpaste, this substance has snuck into bar and liquid soaps alike. They use this as rat poison, so if you have any common sense at all, you shouldn't buy a product containing sodium fluoride.

Now that you're a bit more aware of the things lurking in your soap products, it should be easier to make informed decisions about what you choose to clean you and your family's skin. Natural is always better, and never forget to choose the most natural products you can to fit your budget.

(Helpful info at Natural Health Information on harmful agents in soap products)