Can you wash your face with a soap bar? An honest answer for drier skin

A customer emailed us last week with a question we get more than any other. She'd been using our unscented bar in the shower for three months, loved it, and wanted to know whether she was allowed to take it above the neck. "Everyone says bar soap ruins your face," she wrote. "But my face is the driest part of me."

Fair question, and the honest answer isn't a clean yes or no. Most of us grew up washing with whatever sat in the soap dish, then spent thirty years being told that was a mistake. There's something to that warning. There's also a fair bit it leaves out.

What actually goes wrong when soap meets a dry face

Your skin keeps a faintly acidic film on the surface, usually sitting somewhere around pH 5. Real soap, the kind made by cooking fat with lye the way people have done for centuries, is alkaline. Every wash nudges that surface pH upward. On younger skin it drifts back down within an hour or so and nobody notices a thing.

Skin in its fifties and sixties is slower about the whole business. Oil production tapers off, the barrier takes longer to rebuild itself, and there's less raw material on hand to do the rebuilding with. So the problem is rarely one wash. It's washing morning and night, year after year, with something that scrubs the surface clean and leaves nothing behind to replace what it took.

You know the feeling. Twenty minutes after you've towelled off, your cheeks feel tight and slightly papery, and you find yourself reaching for moisturiser to fix a problem the wash created. That's the bit worth solving.

Why a superfatted tallow bar behaves differently

When soap is made, the lye converts fat into soap. Superfatting means deliberately using more fat than the lye can convert, so some of it survives the process and stays in the bar. A 3% superfat leaves a little. A 6% leaves noticeably more.

That leftover fat is the whole difference. It doesn't change the pH of the bar, and we'd be fibbing if we said it did. What it does is make sure your face isn't bare when you step out of the bathroom. Tallow is largely built from the same sorts of fatty acids skin makes for itself, which is why it tends to sink in rather than sit on top feeling greasy. Grass-fed beef tallow also carries small amounts of vitamins A, D, E and K, though we'd never claim a wash-off product delivers much of anything to your skin in ninety seconds.

The practical upshot: a well-superfatted bar tends to leave skin feeling comfortable instead of squeaky. Squeaky is not the goal. Squeaky means you've taken too much.

How to do it without regretting it

Wash once a day, at night. Mornings, plain lukewarm water is plenty for most drier faces. Hot water feels lovely in a Victorian winter and does you no favours at all, so keep it warm rather than steaming.

Work the lather up in your hands first, then bring it to your face. Don't drag the bar across your skin, and don't linger. Twenty or thirty seconds is enough to lift the day off. Rinse well, because soap residue is its own kind of irritant.

Then the part that matters most: pat your face damp, not dry, and put your balm or moisturiser on within a couple of minutes. Damp skin holds onto what you give it far better than dry skin does. If your face is reactive, skip essential oils entirely and go fragrance-free while you find your feet.

One caveat worth saying plainly. If you're using a prescription retinoid or being treated for a skin condition, check with your GP or dermatologist before changing your cleanser. We make soap, not medicine.

Where to start

If your skin reacts to fragrance, or you've simply had enough of guessing which ingredient set you off, start with the Gentle Soothing Soap Bar. It's unscented, 6% superfat, and made for sensitive and mature skin.

For a plainer everyday bar with nothing added, Just Tallow 6% is about as simple as soap gets. If you'd like a gentler bar with a little more slip to it, the Just Tallow Silk has tussah silk through it with rose geranium and lavender.

And whatever you wash with, follow it while your skin is still damp. Our Roman Chamomile Whipped Tallow Body Butter works on the face as well as everywhere else, and a little goes further than you'd expect.

Give it a fortnight before you judge it. Skin takes a while to settle after any change, and the first few days aren't a fair test. If you're stuck deciding between bars, send us a note and tell us what your skin's been doing lately. We'll point you at the right one, and we won't try to sell you three.