How Degreasy soap bar replaced my dish detergent

Grease is grease, whether it's on a pan or on your skin. Soap cuts through it the same way no matter what it's cleaning, and that's the whole trick behind Degreasy cleaning soap. No extra chemicals. 

A bit of soap chemistry

So how does a soap work? Soap molecules have two ends. One end is drawn to water, the other is drawn to oil and grease. When you use soap, the oil-loving end attracts the grease and dirt, while the water-loving end lets everything rinse away instead of sitting stubbornly on the pan.

On top of that, the physical act of rubbing and rinsing does its own work too. It lifts dirt and grease away from the surface. This is how soap has always worked - it's basic chemistry used for centuries.

What makes Degreasy particularly effective is the coconut oil it's made from. Saponified coconut oil produces a soap that foams densely and thickly, more than most soaps made of other oils do, and that dense lather makes Degreasy so effective in cleaning/washing. It's a strong cleaner, but at the same time it isn't as harsh as a detergent.

Detergents are often formulated to strip and cut aggressively, which can also make them irritating to skin. Soap, even a strong one like this, works through the same simple oil-and-water mechanism.

But what about the bacteria?! 

The idea that a bar of soap is covered in bacteria waiting to jump onto your hands is a myth. Many studies going back decades have tested this directly and found bacteria don't transfer from a used bar during normal handwashing or dishwashing, because the same lathering action that removes grease removes bacteria too. So don't panic and remember what you just learned about the soap chemistry. 

A practical tip

I use Degreasy for everything myself, not just dishes (still alive and healthy). I haven't bought dish detergent in seven years. It's gentle enough that I use it on marble , and cast iron without stripping the seasoning.

I prefer to use mine with a wooden brush rather than a sponge, and it makes a real difference. A wooden brush makes the soap into a proper lather in a way a plastic sponge doesn't, from my experience. With a brush you get a denser foam and a better result for less effort. And there's no plastic involved. 

Walking my grandma's path

My grandmother Ruža (meaning rose in Croatian) was a genuinely skillful woman. Before detergents arrived in the 1950s and 60s, besides other things, she would make her own soap from animal fat and a lye solution made from cooked wood ash. That was not an easy job and would take hours to finish. 

Soap like hers had actually been the vastly used across most of world for centuries, but shortages of oil and fat during and after the World Wars pushed people to search for alternatives and that's why synthetic detergents were developed and mass-produced. This resulted in homemade soap disappearing from stores and kitchens, replaced by something cheaper and more convenient from a shop shelf.

I don't use animal fat, and I don't cook ash, but there's a straight line from what my dear grandma did to what I'm doing now. I like to think I got some of her magic hands for it.