Raise the Bar: One With Nature Bar Soap

Need more convincing when it comes to trading in your shower gel for bar soap? One With Nature bar soap is far more economical than a pricey bottle of body wash. A giant bar of One With Nature bar soap costs only $3.79, and it lathers up so quickly and so well that it will last for many washings.

Made with all natural ingredients, One With Nature Dead Sea Mineral Soaps are 100% vegetable based, never tested on animals, wrapped in biodegradable packaging, triple milled, and infused with nourishing aloe, shea butter, pure essential oils and of course, Dead Sea minerals.

These soaps are manufactured a mere 20 miles from the Dead Sea. The collection features an extensive variety of scents ranging from Hemp Soap and Olive Oil Soap to Vanilla Oatmeal and Honey Almond Soaps. They have a clean, refreshing scent and they get super soapy, making it easy to suds up quickly from head to toe, thus decreasing shower time and saving water! I also love that the natural fragrance of whichever scent you happen to choose, remains in the bar even when it becomes the tiniest sliver.

One With Nature also boasts admirable earth conservation efforts. They have partnered with and donate money to Friends of the Earth Middle East to help reinvigorate the quickly diminishing Dead Sea.

One With Nature Bar Soaps are available at Whole Foods.

It's Raise the Bar Week on Petite Planet! First Up: Pangea Organics

This week, I'll be writing about my top choices of delectable bar soaps, in the hopes of converting readers from using shower gels, which come in plastic bottles... to using bar soaps, which contain earth-friendly packaging, and equate to little or no waste, making them a far greener option for lathering up.

I don't know when exactly the boom in popularity came about for shower gels, but their foamy suds and squishy loofah application have won them a place in many a shower stall. But since so many green thinkers are up for taking shorter showers in the quest to live a more eco-conscious lifestyle, why not do something even simpler and raise the bar? Here's my first pick of the week:

5 Reasons Why You Should Choose Pangea Organics bar soap.

1) Ditch the plastic bottles that house shower gels, and the loofah or sponge you use to apply them. The vast majority of shower gels contain toxic ingredients and foaming agents... and just think of the waste of plastic we could eliminate by switching from plastic bottles to bars of soap!

2) See the unassuming little box that contains a bar of Pangea Organics bar soap in the picture above? If you plant it, it grows into a Spruce Tree! Ingenious! Plant one now and decorate it next Christmas! (I'm pretty sure your shower gel's plastic bottle turns into nothing but landfill waste) Pangea suggests that if consumers buying the 90,000 bar soaps they sell this year, and plant the boxes their soaps come in, 90,000 trees will be planted.

3) Pangea as a company offsets 100% or their carbon emissions by planting trees on different continents. Their company philosophy is "accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative." They practice what they preach.

4) All organic, natural, beneficial ingredients are good for your skin, your psyche, and the earth... don't forget the suds do go down the drain, so we must keep the planet in mind! Pangea's bodycare products start breaking down in 48 hours, while most conventional products take close to 200 years to break down!

5) With an array of divine scents meant to evoke good emotions, uplift the spirit, and cleanse the body as well as the mind, Pangea bar soaps turn every shower into a mini-spa vacation. And coming from someone whose only alone time is in the shower, I'll take all the serenity I can get!

*My favorite bar soap in the line is Oatmeal with Italian Bergamot. Runner up: Indian Green Tea with Mint and Rose Petals. Each make your entire bathroom smell divine... and you smell amazing after lathering up with them too.

Live Clean Baby Skin Care Products Bring Green to the Mainstream

The most prevalent reasons people offer for not living an eco-friendly lifestyle is that green products are too expensive and too hard to find. So I was thrilled to discover a collection of baby bath and skin care products, Live Clean Baby, that are not only sustainably crafted, but also affordable ($7.99 each) and readily available at Walgreens drugstores -- making it much easier for parents to choose healthy, nontoxic personal care products for their babies. (And ditch Johnson & Johnson once and for all!)

The Live Clean Baby collection has got green babies covered from head to toe. Products in the line include: Moisturizing Baby Bath, Shampoo and Wash, Moisturizing Baby Lotion, Diaper Ointment, Moisturizing Bar Soap and Non-Petroleum Jelly.

I love the Non-Petroleum Jelly the most because it goes on smooth and it's not at all greasy. Mr. A took a nasty spill and I used it on the scab on his face, to keep it from feeling tight, and it has done a remarkable job aiding in the healing process as well. It is simply comprised of three ingredients: castor seed oil, cera alba and tocopherol. This is an ingenious alternative to the (gasp!) petroleum jelly parents have been using for decades - because it is effective and safe. The diaper ointment is also great, and combines zinc oxide with several soothing plant based ingredients including chamomile and lavender.

I also really like the fragrance free bar soap (three full size bars come in each package) and I have been using it myself in the shower. And the baby shampoo and wash suds up nicely without the use of SLS. Also, a teeny, tiny bit of the shampoo and wash goes such a long way -- so you can really get your money's worth.

I really enjoy these products and I think they're a great choice for families who want to detoxify their baby's bath time regimen. The only thing I wish I could change about them is the added ingredients to give them their fragrance.  I love the scent of these products, but I'd prefer if they all came in a fragrance free version, (the bar soap and non-petroleum jelly are available fragrance free), because I think the fragrance is nice, but not necessary, and that ditching the fragrance would raise the integrity of the products' ingredients list.

Here's the 411 on Live Clean Baby products eco attributes: all products are vegan, never tested on animals, FREE of sodium lauryl sulfate, DEA, parabens, petroleum, phosphates and phthalates. Formulations are made with a minimum of 98% replenishable, renewable and sustainable natural and plant ingredients, and packaging is recyclable.

NEW! Method Mickey & Minnie Mouse Soap, Whistle While You Wash

Hand-washing is such an event around our house, and I've been looking for a way to make the process more fun for Miss O -- but the fun hand soaps geared toward kids are usually filled with toxic ingredients I'm not willing to let her lather up with. So when I learned Method is debuting these adorable Mickey & Minnie Mouse hand soaps April 1st at Target, I knew they would help her get "squeaky" clean while making her excited to have her very own special soap. The delicious scents are Lemonade Mickey and Strawberry Fizz Minnie, and it's amazing how the simple act of shaping a soap dispenser like the iconic mouse ears will really rev a kid up to dash to the sink after going potty.

Additionally, the soap is biodegradable and non-toxic,and it doesn't contain parabens, phthalates, triclosan, EDTA or animal-by products. And the cute packaging is recyclable and made with 25% recycled plastic -- and never tested on mice (ha ha) or other animals.

We use Method products throughout our home, and love how they work well without using toxins which compromise our health or the planet's well-being. I must note, this Method hand soap does use the ingredient sodium lauryl sulfate, which is classified as a toxic ingredient by the Skin Deep website. So I asked the folks at Method to explain their use of SLS and they gave me this informative reply I think we may all benefit from:

Method:

"Yes, we do in fact use this particular ingredient, which is derived from coconut oil and used for its lathering and efficacy properties, in a number of our products at minute levels. There has been some controversy over SLS being carcinogenic. SLS is a safe ingredient and has not been classified as a known, probable or even suspected carcinogen by either the International Agency for Research on Cancer (www.iarc.fr) or the American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org). The ACS has actually gone so far as to issue a statement to this effect. While the carcinogen concern is completely unfounded, SLS can in fact be a moderate skin and eye irritant when used in high concentrations and unbuffered. Method only uses SLS in our formulations at sufficiently low concentrations so that any irritation concern is irrelevant. When deciding to use Sodium Lauryl Sulfate in some of our formulations, Method did a complete assessment of the environmental and health aspects of this ingredient, including tests for toxicity and biodegradability. This was done in cooperation with the EPEA, an independent environmental research institute led by Dr. Michael Braungart, author of the landmark text Cradle to Cradle. Their findings showed SLS to be altogether safe in its intended usage, non-toxic, non-carcinogenic and environmentally preferable."

Readers, what soap do you use for your kids for hand-washing? I've always contended that a pump soap is more sanitary than a bar soap at the bathroom sink, but I'd be curious to learn what you all use on your little ones! Please let me know in the comments!

Raise the Bar: SkinnySkinny Organic Soap Set

I'm ending Raise the Bar week on Petite Planet with the suggestion of SkinnySkinny organic bar soaps, which come in an array of luscious scents such as organic lavender & eucalyptus with goat milk, and organic lemon and blood orange with oatmeal soap.

In addition to these soaps being fantastic in and of themselves, I love their packaging in a tree-less gift box, pictured below and described as follows:

This gift box is completely tree-less, sustainable and looks like a book. It is made from wild-grass and is made with Fair Labor practices. Each book-box is handmade and will make just about everything look great. The box comes in a very nice yellow-green color. We intentionally left these boxes free of any logos or branding, so it is easy to use this box as a gift box or as a hiding place for little trinkets.

The bars of soap are also wrapped in 100% recycled and reclaimed materials, I believe many are wrapped in actual pages from books. SkinnySkinny as a company is also 100% carbon neutral.

I hope I have convinced you, dear Petite Planet readers, to make the switch to raising the bar and ditching the bottled shower gels with my recommendations of fantastic bar soaps this week! Doing so is an easy resolution to make for Earth Week!

Soapwalla Kitchen Cooks Up Scrumptious, Natural Body Care Products

One of my favorite adages is: "Necessity is the mother of invention." So, I love learning about products and companies that were born from someone's need to fill a void in the marketplace by inventing and creating items they needed and could not find. Such is the case with Soapwalla Organic Face & Body Products.

After months of failed attempts to find face and body products that didn't agitate her sensitive skin issues from having lupus, Soapwalla's founder, Rachel Winard, launched this Brooklyn based brand in her apartment kitchen one evening. Soapwalla products boast all natural ingredients that cleanse "without stripping the oils that our skin naturally produces. This is important because these oils form part of our bodies' natural immune defense system, and are essential for optimum skin health."

Rachel lovingly crafts the entire Soapwalla line by hand using responsibly sourced food-grade, organic ingredients and pure essential oils. The entire vegan collection is free of sodium lauryl sulfate, parabens and harsh, synthetic ingredients -- and products are never tested on animals.

I absolutely love Soapwalla Organic Deodorant Cream. I have been on the hunt for the perfect, non-toxic deodorant for years, and none have worked very well. This deodorant cream is a dream. It is the perfect consistency (like an extremely lightweight, easy to spread clay) and it is free of petroleum and aluminum. It contains the following ingredients: organic jojoba, rice bran, rosehip seed oils, mowrah butter, a combo of all natural clays and powders, sodium bicarbonate, a combo of essential oils including organic lavender, peppermint and tea tree oils. It glides on smooth, smells wonderful, and I couldn't recommend it more highly!

I also love Soapwalla's Soap Bars, especially the Citrus Grove scented bar. It foams into a creamy lather and leaves hands feeling rejuvenated and smelling fresh.


Be sure to check out the entire collection of Soapwalla products here -- and don't miss the Almond Joy Body Polish, which smells good enough to eat!