How To Use Solid Dish Soap and Some Shop News

If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen that I was a new grandmother just before Christmas! Finally, this month I'll meet my granddaughter as I'm making a trip back east to see her. While I'm gone I am going to keep my shop open and have hired help to package orders. During this time (Feb 14 -29) orders will ship every couple days instead of the typical everyday.

While I'm gushing over my precious granddaughter, I thought I'd share some wisdom I've gathered over the years on another subject dear to my heart: dishwashing with solid soap.

Ever wonder how to get the most out of your solid dish soap? Or why it seems to disappear faster than your favorite cookies? You're not alone! I thought it was time to share some best practices for using a solid dish bar.

First off, let's talk about why you should use a solid dish bar as opposed to liquid dish soap you can buy at the grocery store. Mainly, because solid dish soaps are environmentally friendly.

There are several reasons why solid dish soap are considered more eco-friendly than their liquid counterparts:

Reduced Plastic Waste: Solid dish soap eliminates the need for plastic bottles, which can accumulate in landfills and take centuries to decompose. Lora's Beauty solid dish soaps come in minimal packaging further reducing their environmental impact.

Concentrated Formula: Solid dish soaps are typically much more concentrated than liquid soaps, meaning they contain less water and require less packaging per cleaning unit. This reduces transportation emissions and resource consumption throughout the product's life cycle.

Longer Lasting: Due to their concentrated formula, solid dish soaps generally last longer than liquid soaps, requiring fewer replacements and reducing overall resource consumption. This is true especially if you use the tips I'll share below.

Natural Ingredients: Lora's Beauty solid dish soaps are made with plant-based ingredients like coconut oil and olive oil, which are renewable and biodegradable, unlike the synthetic chemicals and surfactants often found in liquid soaps. This can minimize harmful ecological impacts from wastewater contamination.

Reduced Energy Production: Manufacturing solid dish soap typically requires less energy than producing liquid soap, as the water-intensive drying process is eliminated. This reduces greenhouse gas emissions and overall environmental impact. Manufacturing Lora's Beauty solid dish soaps involves me in my basement soap studio mixing each batch by hand.

Additional Benefits: Lora's solid dish soaps offer further eco-friendly advantages, such as vegan and cruelty-free formulations.

Using solid dish soap is a breeze! Here's how to do it:

Wet your tool: Wet the sponge, dishcloth, or brush you'll be using. A good soak is helpful, especially for the first use.

Lather up: Rub your wet tool directly onto the solid soap. If you prefer to prepare a sink full of soapy water you can do so by running the bar under the water while filling up the sink.

Scrub away: Clean your dishes as usual, using the suds to tackle grease and grime. Remember to apply gentle pressure for delicate items.

Rinse and repeat: Rinse your dishes thoroughly with clean water. If needed, reapply soap and wash again for heavily soiled dishes.

Let it dry: After rinsing, place your sponge, dishcloth, or brush somewhere well-ventilated to air dry. This prevents mildew growth. I generally don't store the brush or sponge on top of the soap with the bristles down. When I'm finished washing, I'll place the brush on the sink or on a small plate This prevents the brush or sponge from sticking to the soap as it dries.

Store it smart: Keep your solid dish soap in a dry place, like a soap dish or container, to prevent it from getting soft or dissolving. Avoid leaving it submerged in water. When water does collect in the dish, simply dump the soapy water into whatever dish you're washing at the moment. Occasionally removing the soap from the dish and cleaning the dish keeps food bits from collecting.

Bonus tip: For extra cleaning power, try grating a small amount of the soap directly onto your sponge or brush for stubborn stains. This also works well to remove stains from clothing before washing.

So, there you have it! With a little extra care, your solid dish soap can become a hardworking helper in your kitchen, all while reducing your environmental footprint. Now go forth and conquer those dirty dishes, knowing you're doing good for your home and the planet, one bubbly suds at a time.

The Oily Truth Behind Your Bubbly Bar of Soap

We all love a good lather. Those fluffy mountains of bubbles sliding down our hands, the satisfying sound of rushing water – it's a sensory experience that signals cleanliness and pure indulgence. But have you ever wondered, what's the science behind this sudsy spectacle? It turns out, soap lather is more than just pretty bubbles; it's a captivating dance of chemistry and physics that makes cleaning a whole lot more effective.

Let's step into the microscopic world of soap. Each soap molecule is a fascinating double
act: one end loves water (hydrophilic) and the other shuns it like the plague (hydrophobic).
When you mix soap with water, these molecules line up at the water's surface, the

hydrophilic heads happily mingling with the water, while the hydrophobic tails huddle

together, feeling ostracized. This creates a tension on the surface, like a microscopic

tug-of-war.

Now, enter friction. That satisfying rub-a-dub-dub you give your hands and the loofah

isn't just for show. It's actually trapping air between the soap molecules, forming tiny air

pockets. The hydrophobic tails, desperate to avoid water, latch onto these air pockets,

creating a bubble-like sphere, with the hydrophilic heads facing outwards, happily

immersed in the water.

Voila! You've just witnessed the birth of a soap bubble. But lather needs more than just a

few lone bubbles. That's where the physics steps in. As you rinse and rub, the bubbles

collide and merge, forming a tangled network of suds. The air trapped inside is stabilized

by the soap molecules, creating a light and fluffy lather that coats your skin.

Each ingredient added to a bar of soap brings with it it's own lather and skin softening

abilities. This is where the art side of soap making comes in. The experimenting with

different ingredients to best curate that perfect bar of soap. Let's dive into some of those

ingredients used in Lora's Beauty soaps and how they affect lather.

The Leading Lady: Coconut Oil

Think big, bold, and bountiful. Coconut oil, the queen of lather, crafts voluminous bubbles

that cling tenaciously, blanketing your skin in a cloud of cleansing foam. These aren't

fleeting wisps. Coconut oil bubbles hold their own, resisting the urge to pop prematurely,

thanks to its high lauric acid content.

All Lora's soaps contain coconut oil except

the Coconut Oil Free Lavender Eucalyptus

bar.

The Gentle Giant: Shea Butter

Shea butter lathers gently, offering a luxurious, moisturizing experience.

Shea butter lathers hold their composure, but don't expect the same long-lasting

performance as coconut oil.

Lora's Unscented bar is made with shea

butter.

The Balancing Act: Olive Oil

A fine balance, olive oil creates a moderate lather, neither too shy nor overly exuberant. It

strikes a harmonious chord between cleansing power and skin nourishment. These

bubbles find their middle ground, lasting longer than shea butter's gentle dance but not

matching coconut oil's marathon performance.

All Lora's body soaps and shampoos contain olive oil.

The Enigmatic Duo: Cocoa Butter and Tussah Silk

While coconut oil and olive oil steal the spotlight in the arena of lather-defining oils, cocoa

butter and tussah silk offer a more nuanced performance, adding texture, richness, and a

touch of the exotic to your soapy symphony.

Cocoa Butter:

Cocoa butter adds a creamy richness to the lather without significantly boosting its volume.

Expect fine, dense bubbles that cling gently to your skin, offering a luxurious and

moisturizing bathing experience. These bubbles, though not record-breaking in their

persistence, resist popping quite well, thanks to cocoa butter's high stearic acid content.

All Lora's body soaps contain cocoa butter

except the Unscented bar.

Tussah Silk:

Don't expect a dramatic increase in bubble volume with tussah silk. Instead, it softens the

lather, making it smoother and airier. Imagine delicate snowflakes swirling in your hand

rather than boisterous beach balls. While not known for extending the life of your lather,

tussah silk adds a unique "slip" and conditioning effect, leaving your skin feeling soft and

silky long after the bubbles have faded.

All Lora's body soaps and shampoos contain cruelty free tussah silk.

So, the next time you indulge in a luxurious lather, remember this: it's not just a fleeting

sensory experience; it's a testament to the amazing power of science and art working

their magic to keep you clean and happy.