Come clean

They leave you smelling good and feeling clean. They even lather lush. So are all soaps the same? Not quite. A soap and your skin have a deeper relationship.

Soap. Ah, how we loved to play with it as children. It foamed, slipped and slithered all over the place and even as our mischief got itself into a lather, at least mum got to spank a naughty but clean child.

But those days soaps were pretty basic. They were white and square and plain. Or, if you were very lucky, perhaps pink. And that was that.

We didn't have a buffet of multicoloured, multi-fragranced, kaleidoscopic, geometrically variable, multi-functional playthings to choose from.

Those days, a soap had humble aspirations – it was meant to get the grime off you, leave you smelling fresh and staying clean.

But the world has become more complicated and why should soaps lag behind in the race for complexity?

In present-day context, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say, "What most of us [including me] don't know about soap is enough to fill a few hundred bubble baths!"

To blow the whistle on the amazing evolution of the soap bar, so that it can get off the starting blocks and run the race you know, I first of all discard my scant knowledge of soaps.

I've used soap all my life and this is all I knew about it – it contained oil, glycerine, some lather-inducing substance, a bit of fragrance.

And yes, that it should be rinsed after use and kept dry or it goes all squishy and then it's less like soap and more like mush in a soap tray.

To offset my ignorance, I trotted off to meet Bassam Fouad, Lebanese-Canadian master licensee of Fruits & Passion, UAE.

Rub, lather, rinse. What else?

But before meeting Fouad, I sleuthed around a bit. I approached unsuspecting colleagues and quizzed them on their choice of soap.

The replies were the usual suspects – "Don't care as long as it cleans" to "it must have great fragrance" to "it must have anti-bacterial properties"

I knew it was time to hurry up and meet Fouad. And he dismissed all such nomenclature.

"There are only two categories of soaps – glycerine and non-glycerine. Every other classification is a sub-category or an add-on feature."

A quick walk past a supermarket aisle of bath products is a good place to learn sub-categories.

Just taking in the range tires your eyeballs – herbal, antiseptic, anti-bacterial, exfoliating, fragrance-free, moisturising, deodorising, medicated, whitening, acne-free...

"What you pick has a lot to do with personal preference and budget," Fouad says.

First of all, before you reach out for a soap, know your skin type. Our body has a natural pH balance of approximately 7. (Incidentally, this acid-alkaline balance has to be maintained for optimal body functioning.)

Whereas, the pH of soap varies between seven and 14. "When choosing a soap, pick one with the correct pH balance. For this, you need to know your skin type; if you have dry skin, you need soap with lower pH balance and vice versa. If you follow this rule, you can minimise skin damage," he says.

How soap works

It cleans. It lathers. It makes you smell good. (You of course knew this much, right?) But did you know what makes it lather, or perhaps, what gives it its colour? You could turn around and say, well, my dear, do I really need to know all that?

You've sort of found a friend in Fouad. He says, "Burdening customers with a long list of ingredients that soaps contain is unnecessary. Knowing about a handful is sufficient."

Primarily, you should look out for these:

• Glycerine [it is a moisturising agent].
• Sorbitol [this is a humectant. What's a humectant? It helps seals in moisture].
• Surfactant [the stuff that make a soap foam].
• Vegetable oils or fruit extracts [moisturising agents] and;
• Propylene glycol [vegetable-based hardener].

"As for colour and smell, these vary from brand to brand. They can be natural or synthetic."

At this point, wouldn't it be interesting to know how soap is made? Fouad shrugs at the question. (Turns out making soap is a lengthy process.) But he decides to be kind and attempts to simplify the language of soap making.

"The process is called saponification – when oil is mixed with a strong alkali, it produces soap and glycerine. Other ingredients are added to enhance its properties. These could range from soothing to energising and moisturising."

But soap can also dry out skin, right? "The skin gets stripped of its natural oils during the cleansing process," he replies.

"The reason is simple – soap cannot distinguish between dirt and the body's natural oils. As a result of this oil loss, your skin feels dry. Emollients such as oil [almond, grape seed, castor, coconut, etc] or butter [shea, cocoa, avocado, etc] have moisturising properties. If your soap is made from such ingredients, it will help restore the natural oil balance of the skin. Sometimes, even water can dry the skin."

Should you let your nose lead?

Fouad, who has managed Fruits & Passion stores in the UAE and in Canada for the past four years, knows this all too well – that fragrance often makes a customer buy a soap even without knowing its real compatibility with your skin type.

But then again customers fall into two categories, broadly speaking.

"[Those] not just looking for a soap bar, but to heighten their bath-time experience," and others for whom, "Soap comes in the daily requirements list. So [they] purchase it at supermarkets or at regular grocery stores."

"Most soap manufacturers do not produce more than two or three lines in their bath product range, thus retailing through supermarkets is a feasible option. Whereas, handmade or speciality soaps have a niche market, and are retailed through representing stores. Often, they are not mass-produced, and attention to quality is not compromised."

But you can cross over from the daily-list category to the heightening-experience one. [The culture of buying soaps at standalone stores is slowly catching up in Dubai, by the way].

"People may be loyal to one brand, but after they use a high-quality product made with natural ingredients, they notice the difference," says Fouad.

In his store [Fruits & Passion], it is kind of interesting to watch customers shop, he says. "I've noticed how they buy with their ‘eyes' first. If they like what they see, they consider other criteria such as fragrance, special properties, colour, shape and price. But regardless of where you shop, I always advice customers to buy from reputed companies."

Soap up on usage

No matter how expensive or inexpensive that bath bar, it is important to keep a few pointers in mind about how to store it.

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