Let me start by saying that I am a big fan of Bath and Body Works anything. From their oils to their candles and soaps. I've been a customer forever!.
With that said, I have suffered from extreme dry hands for a very long time. I have tried all the expensive lotions and home remedies out there. Only to find temporary relief and then go back to my gross, cracked, bleeding dry hands.
It probably didn't help that I am a little bit OCD and I'm constantly washing my hands.
For the last year or so my hands went from really bad to looking like at some point, the top layer of my hands would just fall off.
My hands started to look really dark as if they were severely burned.
The lotions no longer worked. Not even for temporary relief. My hands burned really bad every time I washed them.
A couple of months ago, I started washing my hands twice. First with the anti-bacterial soap from Bath and Body Works and then I would wash again with a little homemade almond soap.
I saw a little bit of improvement but not enough to start looking at my favorite scented soap as the enemy here.
I remembered seeing somewhere that anti-bacterial soap isn't good for you. I decided to do my homework and went online to see if I could find more info on it.
I wasn't able to find much as to why it is bad for you. However, I did find plenty of homemade natural soap recipes that claimed to be gentle on sensitive skin.
One that looked pretty easy, was a mixture of water and castile soap. Everyone seemed to recommend Dr. Bronner's unscented pure castile soap so that's what I went with.
I found that Target carries a huge bottle for $16.99.
I bought a clear glass bottle and filled it up with the soap/water mixture. Most recipes said it is okay to scent the soap with essential oil, but I wanted to make sure to try the soap on its own before adding anything that could potentially irritate my hands even more.
I used it and immediately felt good on my hands. No painful or burning feeling after washing my hands. Within a couple of days my hands went from looking dead to looking normal again.
I have been using it for a few weeks now. That same day, I also picked up a bottle of Mrs. Meyer's hand soap which has also been good for my hands.
Mrs. Meyer's is another brand that claims to be made with natural organic ingredients.
While I can't reassure you that all the ingredients in Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap or Mrs. Meyer's brand are good for you, I can honestly say that they probably add less chemicals (if any) to their products.
As much as I have loved my BBW hand soaps and get excited about their holiday season scents, I think I better stick to a more natural hand soap for my family.
Here is a little breakdown of both products.
BBW DEEP CLEANSING HAND SOAP INGREDIENTS:
Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Acrylates Copolymer, Fragrance, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Betaine, Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Sunflower seed oil, Tocopheryl Acetate, Retinyl Palmitate, Acacia Senegal Gum, Santhan Gum, Gelatin, Propanediol, Polyethylene, Oleth-10, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate, Sodium Hydroxite, Polysorbate 20, Dipropylene Glycol, Citric Acid, PEG/PPG-8/3 Diisostearate, Propylene Glycol, BHT, Triethylene Glycol, Tetrasodium EDTA, Benzy Alcohol, Methyl Gluceth-20, Polyglyceryl-3 Laurate, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolione, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Coumarin, Limonene, Ultramarines (CI 77007), Ext Violet 2 (CI 60730), Green 3 (CI 42053.
Phew!! I got tired typing all those ingredients. What a long list of who knows what. I only know three or four of the long list of ingredients.
Dr. BRONNER'S CASTILE SOAP INGREDIENTS:
Water, Organic Coconut Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Organic Olive Oil, Organic Fair Deal Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Citric Acid, Tocopherol.
I can read and know what most of these ingredients are.
PRICE DIFFERENCE:
During the awesome BBW sales you can get 5 soaps for $20 or 7 for $24.
The best deal breaks down to $3.42 per soap.
Dr. Bronner's 32 fl oz. cost $16.99
I used 1/2 cup of soap for my mixture of soap/water, which seems to be about the same amount of soap as a bottle from BBW.
32 fl oz. is the equivalent to 4 cups. If I'm using 1/2 cup per bottle of soap, which means I can get 8 bottles of soap out of each 32 oz of Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap. Total cost per bottle of soap is $2.12 vs the $3.42 bottle from BBW.
The truth is, I wouldn't mind paying more for a soap that is helping my hands heal. I believe anything that is good for you is priceless.
I hope this will help anyone out there struggling with extremely dry and cracked hands.
Sometimes we don't pay much attention to the ingredients in the products we use. Our families are being bombarded with chemicals in products we use every day, our food included.
We need to fight back and let these companies know that it is not okay to keep selling products full of chemicals that are making our families sick and causing bad reactions on our bodies.
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