I had one question…. How do I stop dropping my body wash / shower bars and ruining them?? It felt like a question that would have no answer. How could I even search for a solution when I wasn’t even sure what to Google? “Soap bar bag” (sounds grim!), “Soap sack” (even worse!), “Soap strap” (jeeeez it’s getting worse!). But I was determined not to give up and resort back to liquid body wash. And after a little bit of patience, and some improved search terms, I stumbled across Tabitha Eve’s soap saver (thank god they came up with a better name!).
Tabitha Eve create handmade products, designed to help live a more eco-friendly lifestyle and swap single use products for reusable alternatives. How great is that? Sound like something you’d be interested in? Check them out! https://www.tabithaeve.co.uk/
After spotting their soap saver product, I knew I had to give it a try.
The soap saver is a handy little soap bar pouch made of organic cotton, that has a loop attached to one end so that you can hang the bar when not in use. Their soap saver is normally sold for £6.45, but Tabitha Eve regularly has clearance items up for grabs, where they sell what they call “imperfect” items for a substantially reduced cost. When available in the clearance sales, you can grab a soap saver for as little as £1.50 each, so its always worth a browse if you are partial to a bargain.
So I ordered and waited (im)patiently for my new soap saver to arrive.
First impressions…
On arrival I noted that the material was fairly thin, and I wondered how this would hold up to a vigorous scrub. Of course there was only one way to tell, so I selected my cleansing bar of choice (Dr Bronner’s Pure-Castile soap) and got to work putting it into Tabitha Eve’s soap saver.
One point to note with regard to the photos below… these were taken after using the soap saver for the duration of a single bar, so the images show the soap saver after approximately a month of use.
Final Thoughts…
Let’s start with the positives…
I really liked that the soap saver helped me to switch more successfully from bottled shower gel products to a bar, and I was able to handle the bar without dropping it and making a royal mess. Which based on my prior foray’s was a huge positive in itself! Yes I’m looking at you Lush American Cream Naked shower gel…. (which incidentally appears to have been discontinued…).
I also really liked that you could wash the soap saver in between bars to freshen it up and hopefully keep it in a fit for purpose state for longer. This was important for me as part of the reason for opting for more sustainable options, was to reduce my impact on landfill.
The other handy feature was the loop at the top. One of my pet peeves with bar-based shower products is where to put them(?!). I cringe at the thought of bars being sat in a watery puddle, or just generally getting under foot after sliding off the side of the shower tray mid-cleanse, so the ability to hang the bar up, out of the way, with the ability to drain was awesome. I found this made the bar last longer and not turn into a gloopy mess after a few uses.
Now for the “not so positives”…
As you can see from the photographs, the Dr Bronner’s Pure-Castile bar was relatively large, and at first I actually had trouble fully encasing the bar in the soap saver itself. I had to wait for the bar to slightly decrease in size before I could fold the envelope flap over to cover the bar in it’s entirety. I found this to be less than ideal, as I found I was conscious of the bar falling out and had to be very careful when using the bar and hanging it up after use. If I could make one suggestion to Tabitha Eve, it would be to make a slightly large version to cater for larger bar products.
I also felt that the organic cotton didn’t necessarily standup well to such regular usage. The material began to bobble and the cotton began to stretch and look a little unsightly after around a month of usage and only one wash after the bar had finished. As much as I want a sustainable shower experience, I’m not keen on less than pleasant aesthetics, so this marked the soap saver down for me, which was disappointing.
In summary, while the Tabitha Eve soap saver is a really good idea, ticks many sustainable boxes and doesn’t add a great deal of cost to moving to a more sustainable way of showering (particularly if you purchase it at a steal from their Imperfect series), I felt the size of the soap saver too limiting with regards to the bars I could successfully use it with, and quality of the material somewhat let it down in my opinion. Part of the reason for moving to bar based cleansing is to reduce my impact on what I throw out, and for the material to start looking a little worse for wear so quickly, I just knew with my desire for all things to “look nice”, this wasn’t a product I would hold onto long term, requiring me to replace it pretty regularly to keep that “just new” aesthetic.
While the soap saver didn’t necessarily work out for me, Tabitha Eve has a wide array of products available, and regularly release new or improved versions of their existing products. If a more sustainable way of life is on your radar, I’d highly recommend you give them a look! https://www.tabithaeve.co.uk/
If you’ve tried Tabitha Eve’s Soap Saver or any of Tabitha Eve’s sustainable offerings, I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
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