Soap is ubiquitous

Soap is ubiquitous. It's everywhere. Was I just redundant? Anyway there is hand soap, car soap, laundry soap, dog soap, cat soap, hair soap (we just call it shampoo but it is really just soap), dish soap, foot soap; iguana soap? But where does all of this soap go after we are done? And how much does it cost in dollars and environmentally to get rid of it once we have sent it down the drain? Or here is the biggest question; What is it doing to our bodies and do we really need to be this clean? OK that was sort of two questions but they were both good ones don't you think? Oops, another question.

Many are not aware that our skin is the largest organ in the human body. How else could we stick our hand under our armpit and squeak out a tune? But seriously, everything we put on our skin eventually soaks in and passes through our bloodstream to our liver and kidneys and then hopefully out. But maybe some of it lodges in our tissues too. Do we really know? Hmmm...kind of makes you think differently about all the lotions and potions out there doesn't it.

The long and short of this post though is that I ran out of hand soap yesterday. I have been using a fairly decent natural soap but it had a pretty long list of ingredients, many of them which I had no idea what they were. I guess I just took their word for it that they were natural. Finding a replacement soap with simple ingredients, that was not just good for me, but also the sewer system and planet was REALLY difficult. Lots of choices but very few good ones. I ended up buying a very simple castille soap that has peppermint oil and Aloe Vera in it. I could read the contents without consulting a chemistry textbook or having to use a magnifying glass. That was a very big plus to me. I don't see a dime from any of this so I guess I could make a shameless plug. Shadow Lake Pure Castille Soap. Peppermint Leaf variety from Citru-Solv in Danbury CT. It has six simple ingredients and it is great for hiking trips since it is 100% biodegradable. I like that. Smells pretty good and my wife likes that. I don't really pay attention.

Well, maybe that is a lot to say about soap but after learning a few years ago about the crap that is in most of the stuff on the market today, like antifreeze, I am much more careful about what I buy and use. One of my long term goals is to start producing my own cleaners including laundry detergent. I have done a little reading and it doesn't look that difficult. I'll let you know how it goes.