Why I Use Laundry Bar Soaps to Wash My Delicate Garments
Products like Fels-Naptha are convenient for gentler washing and can be taken along while traveling
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In my bathroom, you’ll find two bars of soap in the shower, one for washing my body and another for hand-washing my underwear from the day before. It’s a habit I picked up from my mom, one that she picked up from her mom. As far as I know, it’s common for women living in the Dominican Republic, but not so much here in the U.S.
The habit has its roots in misguided and outdated ideas about women’s hygiene. The belief is that women’s bodies are unclean, especially during menstruation, so underwear shouldn’t be washed with other clothing or even in the same washing machine as other clothing.
Laundry Bar Soaps I Evaluated
I hand-washed plenty of delicate items at home as part of my daily routine.
Hispano Puro Jabon
Hispano Puro Jabon in the Original Cuaba scent is my go-to laundry bar. It smells mildly of that hard-to-describe scent that doesn’t really smell like any one thing in particular. It’s manufactured in the Dominican Republic, and its scent, cuaba, is the Spanish word for Dominican pine bark. I’ve never smelled the bark myself, so I can’t say if the scents match.
Photo: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photo: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
I stock up at my local Food Bazaar when I stop by to pick up all the Latin groceries, like plantains and sazon, that I can’t find at Trader Joe’s. One 5.3-ounce round “bar” (Hispano calls them bolas) usually lasts me over six months because I use it only once a day for a single garment. They’re also sold in large bars that I’ve cut into smaller pieces and stored for later use.
Shop for Hispano Puro Jabon in Original Cuaba at Amazon and Walmart.
Zote White and Pink Soap Bars
Zote, a Latino-owned and operated brand, offers a Laundry Bar Soap Variety Pack, featuring a white bar and a pink bar, in Mexico. Their scents are noticeably stronger than Hispano Puro Jabon and Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar & Stain Remover, below.
Photo: Consumer Reports Photo: Consumer Reports
The smell reminds me of old, powdery perfume in a department store. I’m familiar with the brand because the soaps are often on the same shelf as Hispano Puro Jabon at my local grocery stores. These bars are huge—14.1 ounces each—so they’re a little unwieldy to use.
Shop for Zote Soap Bars
• White: Amazon, Lowes, and Walmart
• Pink: Amazon, Lowes, and Walmart
Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar & Stain Remover
The last laundry bar soap I tried was Fels-Naptha Laundry Bar & Stain Remover. It’s a product that has been around since 1894. It doubles as a stain pretreatment and is made in the U.S.
Photo: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports Photo: Jodhaira Rodriguez/Consumer Reports
How I Tested Each Laundry Bar Soap
I judged each one based on how comfortable each bar was to use, its scent, how easily its suds rinsed out of the garments, and how clean my clothing felt and looked after hand-washing. I didn’t apply any stains to the pieces of clothing.
Was Any Laundry Bar Soap Better Than the Others?
After using each bar over several days at home, I couldn’t spot any differences in the look and feel of my hand-washed clothing. They were as clean as usual. These bars make garments very soapy, so rinsing them clean requires holding them under running water for a minute or two. No bar required more time than others. My hands didn’t become dry or irritated after using any of them, and they didn’t leave goopy messes on my shower shelf.
I did, however, find myself reaching for one bar over the others. The Fels-Naptha was the easiest to hold because of its smaller size (5 ounces) and rectangular shape, and it left a barely noticeable scent behind on my underwear. The garments washed with the other bars were left far more scented. Considering I was washing clothing that would then be worn on an intimate part of the body, I preferred the less scented result.
Can You Use Laundry Bar Soaps for Your Body?
You’re probably wondering why we’re asking this question about laundry soaps at all, but I know a few people, including my mom, who use Hispano bar soap as their daily body wash. When I’ve noticed too late that I’m out of my usual bar of soap, I’ve used it, too. The result was itchy, dry skin. After reviewing the precautions on the Hispano soap packaging, which says “Avoid prolonged contact with the skin as it may cause irritation,” I won’t use them this way again.
Just because it’s in the form of a bar doesn’t mean it’s okay to use on your body. These laundry bars are formulated to be gentle on clothing, not skin. If you wouldn’t use a liquid laundry detergent as a body wash, you shouldn’t use these bars on your body either.