I would have to be one of the greatest cynics when it comes to beauty products, but as fortune would have it, maybe I should be paying greater attention to the claims made by so called ‘experts’. I have for the last 10 years given a lot of attention to the food I eat, but cared less about my skin. Recently my girlfriend started this soap business in the Philippines, the home of virgin coconut oil. Recently I have been trialing her soap, and have been impressed by the results. I remember hearing from my hairdresser years ago that I should be using a natural shampoo to wash my hair. Now that I am loosing my hair I tend to just wash it less. But I feel more assured washing my hair with this soap as well.
For several years now I have had a patch of dry, scaly skin on my butt from long periods of mountain biking. I thought this would disappear but it never did after several long rides in Japan. I just noticed last night that the problem had finally gone away. I attribute it to the soap since nothing else has changed in the last few months.
It made me reflect on what role soap plays and how it worked. It seemed counter-intuitive that soap that removed oils & dirt from the body would place coconut oil or other oils on your skin. Then I realised that the way these things work. The trick is to have an excess of coconut oil over the active soap ingredient so residual oils are left on your skin. There was no reason to have 100% coconut oil because it would just be wasted and it would unnecessarily increase the cost of the product. Anyway claims of 100% virgin coconut oil are just for marketing since there are other ingredients like lye, fragrances and for commercial soaps even colourings and other reagents to speed up the soap making process. Needless to say these synthetic ingredients are there to speed up the process, not to help your skin, so its best to avoid commercial soaps made in factories. Fortunately the Philippines is a cheap source of ingredients so we can distribute cheaply our hand-made soaps. Aside from the fact that there are too many chemicals in our food and other products, the mark-up on these supermarket products is really excessive, particularly in the Philippines. I saw green beans in the provinces selling for P200/10 kilograms. They sell in SM or Robinsons for P20 for a 0.2kg bundle, thats a 20x mark-up for something that is aged by the time I get to the supermarket.
Another difference I observed was that my girlfriends skin was not as sensitive. Before my facial hair would irritate her skin. It would be redder and she would get pimples. But now its softer than ever. Now I can smooch with her without complaint! It has brought us closer together. I love the stuff. So far i have just used the tea tree version, but I want to try the eucalyptus based soap. You can place orders on her website if you car about your skin. I felt my butt this morning. Smooth as a babies bottom. See http://hugssoap.ecrater.com.
Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com
