Our Eco Linen Soap Bag
Do you remember soap boxes — those plastic things that you pulled out when you went on holiday or spent a weekend away visiting friends? They seemed to disappear with the massive influx of hand and body wash and soon became a retro thing of the past!
I recently travelled to India and was given a beautiful set of handmade soaps for Christmas. As I packed my bag, I deliberated on whether to take a bottle of body wash or one of my new lovely sandalwood soaps. I really wanted to take the soap but couldn’t think how I was going to transport it between different hotels and home stays. Wet, slimy soap in a toiletry bag is not much fun!
What could I wrap my soap in? I found a piece of linen and experimented — went to the bathroom, washed my hands with soap and then wrapped the soap in the linen fabric. Even I was surprised with the results. The linen instantly absorbed the moisture on the damp soap and made it easily transportable. Being a last minute packer, I had no time to make the piece of cloth into a bag, so popped it in my luggage and vowed I would make it into a soap bag on my return!
I travelled around India for two weeks with my lovely sandalwood soap wrapped in the linen cloth and laughed every time I came to pack up and move from one bathroom to another. It worked so well.
Should I Use Body Wash or Soap?
Needless to say, I returned home and decided we all need a linen soap bag in our lives — another way to purge the plastic and make an eco choice. Our ECO range features this pretty, practical and environmentally friendly soap bag which really does keep your other toiletries away from wet soap.
How Did Soap Disappear from Our Lives?
Ten years ago we all used bar soap and suddenly, soap disappeared and we were presented with an amazing variety of plastic bottles containing body wash. I read this article from Friends of the Earth and was interested to find out that a Swiss study found the carbon footprint of liquid soap is 25% larger than soap in bar form on a per-wash basis. Liquid soap also needs 5 times more energy to produce and can use 20 times more packaging — all of this makes liquid soap heavier and less efficient to transport from the factory to your shower.
Added to that, only 9% of the plastic ever made has been recycled. I’ve made a promise not to buy any more body wash. There are so many small soap makers now offering beautiful soap, free from chemical irritants and made without palm oil — it really does make sense, for both the environment and our bodies, to rediscover soap.
Explore Our Linen and Bamboo Eco Range
