Octagon Soap: A Versatile All-Purpose Cleaner

In certain circles you will hear the names of various soaps: Fels Naptha, Zote, Ivory, and others but one that you don't hear much about is more versatile than all of the others combined. Octagon soap is an old-fashioned soap that is designed not only for laundry and all-purpose cleaning but for washing dishes as well.

If you explore the Internet you will find some other applications for Octagon soap that are not officially recommended by the company. Some of these include:

Hand and body soap
Acne remedy
Bug bite itch remedy
Poison Ivy/Oak remedy
Woodwork cleaner
Insect repellent
Garden repellent for deer and rabbits

Should you locate this soap locally you will find it priced at less than a dollar a bar, making it less expensive than the more popular Fels Naptha. While the brown bar is not as attractive, the lemongrass and lemon scent within help to make this product slightly antibacterial which probably leads to some of the home remedy claims.

Being an old-fashioned lye soap, Octagon removes more oils than milder personal soaps, making it a good choice for removing the irritating oils from poison ivy and oak, and may also help in the claims of Octagon being a cure for acne.

Around the House

I have used Octagon in laundry soaps and to wash dishes (both as a bar and in liquid form) and found the product to perform admirably. In my experience, Octagon tends to work on greasy dishes even better than traditional dishwashing detergents, even if the water has cooled.

To use Octagon as an all-purpose cleaner, just moisten a cloth and create a lather from the bar to rub on the area to be cleaned. Rinse well and you are done. The cleaning power is comparable to that of Fels Naptha but with extra versatility.

Personal Care Use

Lucky Mojo states that Octagon soap can be used in hoodoo applications, to protect users from magical attacks and to clear away spiritual messes, but the author has no experience with these particular uses.

The author has used this soap as a heavy-duty hand cleaner after working in grease and dirt and found that this soap removes the yucky stuff a lot better than your average bar of hand soap. It does seem to remove extra oils from the skin if you suffer from an oily complexion and caused the author no rashes or other issues when used as a body bar in her experiments. While the author is not sure if it is related, she has noticed in the couple of weeks she has used it as a personal body bar that the psoriasis patch on her knee has faded--an event that usually doesn't happen until the author starts wearing shorts in warm weather.

While there are a multitude of older soaps still in production across the country, this author recommends using Octagon over even Fels Naptha because not only does Octagon do the things that Fels is renowned for but it has the added use of washing dishes, making it even more useful around the average home.

Octagon soaps can be found in the laundry section of the local grocery store and at various online retailers but is generally less expensive when purchased locally. Octagon is an excellent edition to anyone's cleaning arsenal.

Source:
The Minimalist Cleaning Method
Personal Experience