The Best Bar Soap Ingredients to Look Out For

News flash: bar soap is the best. It’s environmentally friendly, concentrated, travel-friendly, and it lasts forever! Plus, you can find really customizable bar soap formulas to suit your unique skin care needs.

Here are the top ingredients to keep your eye out for and the skincare concerns they can address.

Shea Butter

Shea butter has been recognized as a major moisturizing go-to for hundreds of years - and with good reason. Derived from the African shea tree nut, this natural lipid is:

• Loaded with natural vitamins, including vitamin A, vitamin E and vitamin F.
• Rich in antioxidants, including polyphenols (which are the same antioxidants you’ll find in green tea).
• Full of essential fatty acids, including stearic and oleic acid.

These properties give shea butter its unprecedented ability to smooth wrinkles, prevent scars, improve skin allergies, hydrate, and even treat conditions like psoriasis and eczema.

Find it in all Eight Saints bar soaps, including Spicy Rum Punch, Hometown Honey, and Rainbow is My Favorite Color.

Kaolin Clay

Our favorite magical clay, kaolin clay (otherwise known as China clay, hectorite, or magnesium silicate) has the ability to exfoliate and unclog pores without disturbing the skin’s natural sebum balance.

This is because, unlike many other clays that actually absorb impurities, water, and oils like a sponge, kaolin clay lightly adsorbsimpurities from the skin - holding them on its surface like a magnet - without really removing any of the skin’s natural oils. For this reason, kaolin clay is appropriate for use even on the driest or most sensitive skin types, unlike many other clays.

It can be blended into serums or cleansers to help control oil (we swirl it into our Down To Earth clay cleanserto gently remove impurities from the surface of the skin withoutstripping the skin or compromising its natural barrier) or incorporated into a bar soap to gently exfoliate and cleanse skin without over-drying.

Coconut Oil

A popular product around the world, coconut oil is widely lauded for its ability to keep cells hydrated and trap moisture into the skin. It has a ton of other beauty benefits, too:

• Coconut oil has been shown to effectively moisturize the skin and soothe mild to moderate xerosis (dry, itchy, scaly skin).
• It can effectively improve skin barrier function and help fight atopic dermatitis
• It can increase collagen turnover, improve antioxidant activity, and help in wound healing
• It’s proven to be anti-inflammatory and to help protect the skin against UV radiation
• One of the acids in coconut oil, monolaurin, has shown antimicrobial activity against major bugs like staph and e.Coli, as well as antiviral and antifungal activity.

The problem? Pure coconut oil can be comedogenic, or pore-clogging, when applied topically. That’s why we recommend that you look for formulas - like our Spicy Rum Punch and Rainbow is my Favorite Color bar soaps - that mix coconut oil together with other ingredients. That way, you’ll get all the hydration with none of the drawbacks.

Goat Milk

A natural emollient, goat milk can be soothing and protective for the skin. It is:

• Rich in proteins
• Loaded with vitamins, including vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, and vitamin E
• Hypoallergenic
• The same pH as human skin
• Rich in lactic acid, along with capric, caprylic, and caproic acid

These properties give goat milk the ability to moisturize, nourish, balance, and treat the skin. It’s even shown to help treat psoriasis, eczema, and other conditions that cause redness, itching, or irritation in the skin.

Find it in Hometown Honey bar soap.

Oatmeal

Oats - great for breakfast and...good for your skin? Yup! These fiber-rich grains actually have a ton of beneficial compounds and properties, including:

• Antioxidant properties
• Anti-inflammatory compounds like avenanthramides
• Zinc, which can reduce inflammation and kill acne-causing bacteria
• Saponins, compounds which can naturally unclog pores
• Lipids and proteins, which gives oats humectant, occlusive, and emollient properties

All of these properties make oatmeal an excellent ingredient for moisturizing, soothing, exfoliating and protecting the skin.

Find it in Hometown Honey bar soap.

Olive Oil

Rich in antioxidants, olive oil is an excellent choice for its anti-aging properties. It contains oleic acid and polyphenols (micronutrients). These important natural components work together to improve the texture and skin tone.

Ready to get started? Find all these ingredients and more in our Pass the Bar gift set,which contains all three Eight Saints bar soaps.