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 really the whole trick behind Degreasy.

A bit of soap chemistry

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 grabs onto 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, and along with it, many of the microbes that cling to that grease and dirt. This is just how soap has always worked: any soap, it's not a special trick, it's basic chemistry combined with a bit of elbow grease, quite literally.

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 other oils do, and that dense lather is part of what makes it feel so effective on grease. It's a strong cleaner, but it isn't the same as a harsh 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 rather than harsh synthetic action.

The idea that a bar of soap is covered in bacteria waiting to jump onto your hands is a myth. Studies going back decades have tested this directly and found bacteria don't transfer from a used bar during normal handwashing or dishwashing, the same lathering action that removes grease removes bacteria too.

A practical tip

I use Degreasy for everything myself, not just dishes. I haven't bought dish detergent in seven years. It's gentle enough that I use it on marble too, and it works well on cast iron without stripping the seasoning. I use mine with a wooden brush rather than a sponge, and it makes a real difference. A wooden brush works the soap into a proper lather against the surface in a way a cheap plastic sponge doesn't, you get a denser foam and a better result for less effort. 

Walking my grandma's path

My grandmother Ruža (meaning rose) lived in central Bosnia for the majority of her life until the war in the 90's and was a genuinely skillful woman. Before detergents arrived in the 1950s and 60s, she would make her own soap from animal fat and a lye solution made from cooked wood ash, as most households did at the time.

Soap like hers had actually been the standard across most of Europe for centuries, but shortages of oil during and after the World Wars pushed people back to making it at home when factory soap became scarce. It wasn't until synthetic detergents were developed and mass-produced that homemade soap started disappearing from 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, just with coconut oil in a saponified bar instead. I like to think I got some of her hands for it.