Cleansing soaps are the most common skincare products meant for daily cleansing purposes. The market is filled with varieties of soap bars. Choosing the best amongst all others is your responsibility.
The right choice matters a lot for your body’s wellness. Commercial bar soaps mostly use synthetic fragrance oils also called parfum to impart scents. These chemical soaps are usually priced cheap and last long. They are most certainly packed with phthalates, parabens, and synthetic fixatives.
For women these soaps are not an ideal solution because their skin is highly sensitive to endocrine disruptors and artificial allergens. These soaps could disrupt the moisture barrier of the skin and cause skin dryness, irritation and redness. There is an alternative to these synthetic fragrances, that is botanical oils.
They are extracted from flowers, leaves, barks, and roots and deliver a soothing fragrance to the soaps. They are quite different from synthetic fragrances as they do not just sit on the surface of the skin to impart fragrance, they provide a mild fragrance to the skin along with additional therapeutic benefits. So they make the best soap for women.
Why are synthetic fragrances not ideal?
Synthetic “parfum” or fragrances in a soap are chemical agents which may affect the skin and make it worse. The single term parfum on a label contains many chemicals inside which could not be suitable for a skin. They can cause skin irritation and trigger acne breakouts.
These synthetic fragrances are not ideal because they can trigger the endocrine system and this disrupts the balance because the endocrine system controls every major function in a woman’s body including metabolism, mood, reproductive health and sleep cycles. All this might also get disrupted when harmful chemicals labeled under perfumes enter the body of a woman. Also these soap bars strip the moisture from the skin and cause excessive skin dryness.
What are botanical oils and how do they help?
Botanical essential oils are the highly concentrated extracts of plants. They are pure extractions from different parts of the plant. They do more than imparting fragrance to the skin. They are ideally obtained from the leaves, flowers, roots, seeds or barks of plants.
They do more than just providing fragrance to the skin. They help in providing additional therapeutic benefits to the skin. They help in providing antibacterial action to the skin along with hydrating, renewing and soothing the skin.
Most popularly used botanical essential oils are-
Benefits of botanical oils for your skin
- Essential oils like lavender oil provide a calm soothing effect to the skin. It helps in fighting the tiredness from the body and gives a calm and relaxed feel to it.
- Antioxidative properties of many essential oils like rosemary will help in eliminating bacterial enzymes and free radicals from skin. It is a good incorporation in de-tanning soaps because this essential oil naturally regenerates the natural skin complexion and protects the skin from harmful rays of the sun.
- Oils like or other citrus oils are quite helpful for fighting the summer heat and refreshing the skin. These oils help in fighting the persistent body odor along with helping in removing the dirt impurities from the skin.
- Essential oils tea tree oil is a great incorporation to soap bars as they are packed with antibacterial properties which help in killing the acne causing bacteria. It also provides a soothing effect for the irritated and inflamed skin along with clearing excess oil from the skin.
- Essential oils like peppermint oil have a cooling sensation on the skin. It helps a lot in soothing the skin and reducing signs of redness and itchy skin. It is a great incorporation for soap bars.
- Oils like rose oil are the most exclusive incorporations. They help in providing a luxurious scent to soap bars and give a feminine touch to soaps which makes the best soap.
- Essential oils may also help in hydrating the dried and damaged skin barrier by providing nourishing touch to the skin and help in moisturizing the skin.
- Some essential oils also help in accelerating cellular turnover and help in achieving a smooth and even toned skin.
- Essential oils also help in providing a calm and relaxed aroma therapy to the skin and help in providing better sleep.
- These oils may also help in relaxing the body which reduces the stress from the body and gives relief.
Environmental impact
Essential oils extracted from the plants have a great impact on the environment as they are not produced in laboratories. They are all plant based which reduces the environmental stress and they are biodegradable unlike the traditional mass-market soaps that use synthetic chemical synthesis which releases a harmful trail in water and soil long after they wash down the drain.
Final thoughts
For women who want to experience a rich feel after a shower and have a fragrant body, botanical essential oil based soaps are exquisite. Transitioning to these soaps from chemical fragrant soaps is a better way. It promotes skin health along with providing fragrance to the skin unlike chemical soaps. The daily shower routine is improved a lot with this.
