SOAP

These are some of my favourite English and French soaps.

Now this probably seems a weird post to write in the middle of summer when you were expecting pictures of sunflowers and châteaux.

It came about because Nick recently explained why he prefers a bar of soap to liquid soap.  Having been together for over thirty years I previously never knew the reason!  I assumed it was because he thought it was more manly!  He said he couldn’t get on with liquid soap because as soon as you run the tap the soap gets washed off.  

"Does it?" I thought.  

In our French house we have four sinks, or handwashing stations.  One each in the kitchen, utility room, ensuite shower room (or actually the bedroom as the "ensuite" doesn’t really have much in the way of walls around it) and the family bathroom.  Each sink has a bottle of liquid soap next to it and three of them also have a bar of soap. Two of them have two bars of soap, his and hers.

So why this obsession with soap and what about the thorny topic of soap dishes? 

I feel compelled to expand and explain.

Personally I'm a fan of liquid soap.  No more slimy bars of soap sitting in nasty puddles of gloop on the side of the sink, the stuff of nightmares from my childhood.  The worst you might have to deal with is a grubby thumb print on the plunger!

Don’t even mention the wall mounted soap on a stick I first encountered in French restaurant toilets.  Thankfully I haven’t seen one for a long while although it seems you can still buy them.  I used to shudder at the sight of one that was three quarters used, full of deep ugly cracks, and where you really had to wash the soap first before you could wash your hands. Ugh.

These are some of my favourite English and French liquid soaps.  

Now for the enormous variety of soap dishes available.  It has taken me years to find one that actually works; that keeps your soap dry and out of a puddle of slimy gloop. Consequently I have quite a collection of them.

This is the least effective kind.  The little bobbles in the bottom barely lift the soap above the water that runs off it and it soon goes soggy.  Yuk.  They do however make good trinket trays for your earrings!

I found the one on the right in a local French DIY shop several years ago.  It’s brilliant at keeping the soap dry but you obviously have to wipe up the drips on the surface underneath it and give it a wash occasionally.  It's made from plastic coated metal with rubber tips on the feet that stop it from skidding around.   It’s by the sink in the utility room where Nick prefers his own knobbly soap bar.  

Having found how good this soap dish is I went back for another one but they had all been sold and I have never seen one since.

The knobbly soap is an artisan kind of soap, very hard, full of bits of seeds to tackle hardworking gardener's hands and I have only found it on market stalls.  

Next to the gardening soap I keep a bar of girly soap on a different kind of soap dish.  The slots in the tray keep your soap more or less dry and the drips collect in the dish underneath, out of  sight.  The top separates from the bottom easily for cleaning of the dish.

This one was a much recommended internet purchase but I soon abandoned it to the box of spare soap dishes under the kitchen sink.  It works well enough, just about, in keeping your soap dry and out of the puddle, doesn't skid around, but soon produces a slimy residue on the side of the sink.

The same goes for these two, found in French supermarkets.  They keep the soap dryish and don't skid about on the side of the sink but a glurp of slime soon builds up in the dish and underneath.  They're very cheap so as a budget solution not too bad.

Remember these?  Yes, you can still buy them, mostly in old fashioned ironmongers or cut price homeware shops. The only good thing about them is that they are good for sticking your bar of soap to a sloping surface, but the soap is kept barely dry and the holder becomes disgusting rapidly.  Yuk.

These are my current favourites.  The rack is nice and deep and keeps the soap well out of the puddle and perfectly dry.  The puddle can be poured out of the dish until you're ready to clean it.  The rack clicks in and out so you can give it all a good scrub and the base has little rubber feet to keep it from skidding around.  They are made by a company called Joseph Joseph and I got mine in Sainsbury's.

Last but not least, I finally succumbed and invested in two glass refillable liquid soap dispensers.  Some of these can be very decorative (and pricey) but fiddly to use.  Mine came from Ikea, are very functional and not expensive but wouldn’t work on anything other than a very flat worktop surface.  They hold about twice as much liquid soap as a regular plastic bottle and are ideal for use with the cheaper bags of soap refills.

Now back to the original question.  If the liquid soaps run straight off under the tap how do I find them so easy to use?  I had to think about it and analyse how I perform a task that I do many times a day automatically.  I put a good dollop of soap on one hand, turn on the tap to wet the other hand then rub my hands together to lather up before putting them both under the tap.  Works every time.  Simple!

~~~~~~~~~~~

I have written this post using my new laptop and photos taken with my new camera.  It's been an interesting adventure.  The camera is a tiny Canon Ixus and replaces my lovely pink Panasonic FX33 that was in my bag when it was stolen in Barcelona back in 2016, our annus horribilis.  I have missed that camera so much and attempted to replace it by buying second hand ones on Ebay, none of which worked for very long.  Consequently I have two other excellent cameras, one a compact(ish) Panasonic (a generous birthday gift from my brother) and the other a slightly smaller Sony (a birthday gift from Nick).  They both take excellent pictures and I can't complain about them at all.  

However, when my cousin and his wife came to stay he, as a photography enthusiast, brought two cameras, his "proper" camera, which he was constantly adjusting and checking, and his little Canon Ixus which he would occasionally just whip out of his pocket to snap a picture.  It reminded me so much of my beloved FX33 that I decided to get one.  I think the photos taken with my newer Panasonic or my Sony are probably better but I just love how small and light the Ixus is, the smooth feel of it and how easy it is to slip into a bag or pocket.  It is of course a doddle to use.  Horses for courses, as anyone who enjoys taking pictures will know.  (And the same goes for soap!)