Why use a bar of soap over “liquid hand or body wash”?

With cold and flu season right around the corner, lots of people ask me about liquid washes instead of soap. The common misconception sold to us by Industrial personal care products industry is that soap bars grow bacteria. It’s a dirty lie that helped expand their liquid wash business.

This is false as the ph of the soap prevents that. Soap needs to dry out between use and the soap itself is a hostile environment for most microbes.

Why soap is actually antimicrobial by nature?

Soap is made of salts of fatty acids, which:

• Disrupt lipid membranes (the protective “skin” of bacteria and viruses).

• Create a high pH (alkaline environment) that most bacteria can’t tolerate.

• Contain very little free water, especially once the bar dries.

So even if some microbes land there, they don’t thrive — they usually die off quickly.

1. Here’s how soap works:

The structure of a soap molecule

Each soap molecule has:

• A hydrophilic head – attracted to water.

• A hydrophobic tail – attracted to oils, fats, and grease.

This combination makes soap an amphiphile (meaning it loves both water and oil).

2. What bacteria and viruses are made of

• Many bacteria have outer membranes made of fatty molecules (lipids).

• Many viruses — including coronaviruses, influenza, RSV, and others — are surrounded by a lipid envelope.

That envelope is like a skin made of fats and proteins that hold the virus together.

3. Soap vs. the lipid envelope: the molecular battle

When soap meets a virus or bacterium:

• The hydrophobic tails of the soap molecules insert themselves into the lipid membrane of the germ.

• This disrupts and pries apart the membrane — like wedges breaking down a layer of fat or wax.

• Once the lipid layer is broken, the virus falls apart — its proteins and genetic material spill out and are rendered harmless.

For bacteria with fatty membranes, the effect is similar — the cell wall breaks down, and the contents leak out, killing the cell.

4. Micelles: cleanup mode

After the membrane is destroyed:

• The remains of the virus or bacterium — lipids, proteins, dirt — are surrounded by soap molecules.

• These form micelles, with the oily fragments trapped in the center and the water-loving ends facing outward.

• When you rinse, these micelles are carried away by water, sending the debris harmlessly down the drain.

5. Why time and friction matter

• It takes about 20 seconds of washing for soap molecules to fully surround and break apart these lipid structures.

• Rubbing and lathering helps soap penetrate more effectively and ensures every part of the skin is reached.

6. Why this is beautifully natural

Soap doesn’t “poison” germs — it simply disassembles them.

That’s what makes it so effective, safe, and environmentally gentle.

It uses physics and chemistry, not harsh biocides, to keep things clean.

Research shows it’s safe

Studies going back decades (including one in the Journal of Epidemiology and Infection) show that even when bars of soap were deliberately contaminated with bacteria and then used by others, none of the bacteria were transferred in any meaningful amount.

So what soap would I recommend? I searched for one years ago and could not find real, natural soap. So I made what I want to use on my skin.

As I am an herbalist and soap maker, I like soap to be free of palm, soy, mineral, corn, canola and grape seed oils. These oils are usually treated with hexane and then bleached, or they are gmo, or seed oils that destroy our mitochondria. It takes only 26 seconds for whatever you rub on your skin to go right into your bloodstream.

I like soap to contain plant oils like olive and castor and plant butters like Shea, mango and cocoa and animal fats like lard and tallow. I like soap with fresh goats milk not powdered and no dyes or fake mica colors, no preservatives or phthalates, (which are in most scents, protected by proprietary fragrance laws and are not listed on labels), which are hormone disruptors that cause cancer. They are banned in the EU but still permitted in the US. According to the FDA, the only way to be sure a product is phthalate free is to buy one that says it on the label or is fragrance free.