Jill, I keep a decorative tray of paper handtowels in the guest bath. I have a cloth towel there also, but that's just for dh and I. I think they sell paper hand towels now at Walmart, but online you can buy the most beautiful colors and patterns to match any bath. And as soon as company leaves, almost before they're out the door, I put the cloth towel in the dirty clothes so neither of us uses it. I'm with you, it grosses me out. My DIL does the same now. Cam, I bet it's the perfume in the liquid soap. Most of them are scented so I wonder if you tried scent free it would be okay? I say this because one day my ds (in high school at the time) showe me his hand and they were peeling really bad. Then I saw him sprinkle his cologne in his hands and not washing them afterwards, and we figured out it was the cologne. It was kind of a funny moment. Last year I tried to save money by buying a name brand liquid soap from the grocery store, after using B&BW for so long, and they don't even compare. So I went back to B&BW. With just the two of us, they last quite a while. Except my SIL always begs for a bottle when she comes over. lol

Froth is an indication that one is using enough soap to properly clean as well as keep soils/hard water minerals and muck suspended. This is why most every soap product from laundry to bath advertises or advertised "mounds of rich creamy suds". Pure soaps by design will create suds, quite allot of them, while detergents can be either low or high sudsing. Anyone brought up to do laundry with soap will tell you that if one does not see suds, then more soap was needed. When Ivory Snow was powdered soap, directions on the box recommended a 1 to 2 inch layer of creamy suds throug out the wash cycle as an indication one had added enough product. The problem with using soap in front loaders is even one inches of suds can cause problems, and you have very little control over how much soap to use. If you add too little in the drawer, you may not have a way to add more during the wash cycle. Add too much, then you have other problems. There is also the fact that even a one inch layer of froth may trigger a washing machine's internal "over sudsing" system to abort the wash cycle. The tumbling action of front loaders will cause even more froth to form, which not only will decrease cleaning results, but can damage the washing machine as well. Simply put soap softens water (by binding hard water minerals), and also cleans like all "detergents". Differnece is detergents are "built" with additives to soften water, while soap will do this by itself, but one must use much of the product depending upon water conditions. It is the binding of hard water minerals that causes soap crud which forms on everything washed in pure soap. Besides creating froth, which is bad for front loading washing machines; the first several rinses after laundering with soap must be either hot or at least warm water temperature to prevent soap and the muck it has released from becoming trapped in textiles when coming in contact with cold water. Soap is very difficult to rinse from laundry (just because the froth is gone, does not mean all soap has been rinsed from garments), indeed the fats and oils used to make soap will leave a residue on textiles that can build up over time, resulting in dingy, tattle-tale grey fabrics that can turn rancid smelling. Zote, is still widely used in Mexico and other parts of South America as bar laundry soaps have been for ages; to do laundry by hand in either a river bank, wash tub/sink or semi or totally automatic top loading washing machine. Personally wouldn't use soap in any of today's low water front loaders, with the exception of soap based products such as Persil's "Perwol". Do have bars of vintage Fel's soap, but use it more as a pre-treat than to do actual wash loads. C.dS

The last lavender scented soap I bought also, was from Tuesday Morning. It smelled so very good and it was so smooth and silky feeling. I don't know where I've been, but I didn't know that Ivory made lavender scented soap. I thought it was all like the regular floating soap from forever ago. I still like it fine for a cheap soap. Glad to know about the lavender scented ones. I have a lot of the materials and scents to make my own soap, but I haven't done it in quite some time. Maybe a project for 2008. Lu

I have always preferred bar soap, and I mean soap not some detergent bar. I have made my own-love coconut oil based soap with mint scent. Very creamy bubbles. Elsewise I use Hard milled lavender. I have watered down dish washing liquid to use at sinks for hand washing for thirty years or more. Dawn or Palmolive typically. Very effective for removing bacteria. I prefer to pay for my emollients separately since the point is to trap water in the skin surface. I have always wondered how soap which is designed to grab on to fat for instance will leave the fat behind when you wash with a soap with extra emollients built in.