Soap saver bags are eco-friendly pouches made for plopping a bar of soap inside and washing your hands, body, hair, etc. for a high-quality shower experience!

We have all spent too long dealing with gummy soap residue in the shower or on the bathroom sink-- a better option is long overdue! A loofah may seem like a good option, but that poof of plastic hanging from your faucet is probably covered in tons of gross bacteria. Natural loofahs are great for dishwashing, but they can be overly abrasive for our skin. 

So what makes soap-saving bags an easily superior option? 

Here's 5 reasons why soap saver bags are replacing loofahs and other tools for exfoliation in the shower.

1. Loofahs Are Downright Gross and Majorly Wasteful.

Most loofahs contain some kind of plastic, and the colorful fluffy ones are almost entirely plastic. The synthetic mesh scrunched into a soft ball hanging in your shower certainly don’t decompose when you’re done with them, and the same goes for loofah brushes and handheld scrubbers.

But a lack of sustainability is barely the beginning of problems with loofahs. Their outdated design doesn't just enable bacteria to grow, it practically invites bacteria to set up their home inside your loofah. More germs is not at all what we want when we’re trying to get clean!

While loofahs sit in your tub between showers, the bacteria from leftover dead skin cells festers and grows. Your loofah never dries, making the damp, warm environment the perfect place for microbes to accumulate and multiply. You get in the shower and begin exfoliating, spreading those germs all over your body.   

All of these nasty bacteria grown in the plastic mesh don’t just spread across your body when you use the loofah-- they also get inside of your skin. Dermatologists like the one interviewed in an article from Self Magazine say that these tools are unhealthy because their rough texture irritates the skin and allows the loofah's “cesspool of bacteria" to get into the abrasions created by scrubbing. 

While you probably won't get sick from this, the whole point of showering is to get clean, and growing cultures in your exfoliator won't help you do that. Plus, your skin is a fragile organ, and it deserves to be treated carefully. Loofahs can even grow mold inside if the conditions allow, so it's better to be safe than to be grossed out (and sorry)!

Soap bags have become an alternative in part because they don't foster bacteria like loofahs do. To understand how soap saver bags manage bacterial growth, we've first got to understand what they're made of. 

2. Soap Saver Bags Are Sustainably Made With Renewable Resources. 

Soap saver bags are designed with a sustainable material called sisal. You might’ve heard of sisal furniture or sisal carpet before. This rough, low-elasticity fiber is strong, durable, and highly sustainable. 

The Science Direct Journal says that sisal is “the most important and widely applied leaf fiber worldwide.” The fiber is often used to make rope or twine, but it can also be used for tying plants to stabilizers, making clothing (or soap bags), and much more.

Sisal is made from the leaves of a plant in the agave family. Agave sisalana, the plant sisal is derived from, can be regrown quickly after harvest, meaning farming it is easy and poses little impact to the environment. Its fibers are similar to bamboo because they both grow quickly and require few resources to farm, so each choice is definitely more eco-friendly than factory-made plastics! 

Sisal is grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. That means you can be sure it’s safe for your skin, and fewer synthetic chemicals in farming help to minimize pollution in runoff. It’s a win for you and for farmers!

3. Soap Bags Won't Foster Bacteria. 

This is the relief you’ve been waiting for-- loofahs may not get you clean, but sisal bags certainly will. The tough and durable fibers soften but do not deteriorate in water. You place a high-quality soap such as a green tea and mint soap bar into a sisal soap saver, cinch the bag, and wash your body. You can also put a shampoo or conditioner bar like a wild orange and pink grapefruit shampoo bar into your soap bags and wash your hair!

The sisal takes a moment to soften up, so you drench the bag until it’s soft enough to exfoliate. Then, you get clean! When you’re done showering, you hang up the bag and let it dry. The bag actually does dry, unlike a loofah, so it doesn’t shelter bacteria. You aren’t spreading germs all over your body, and you get out of the shower feeling clean as the sky is blue.

4. Slimy Soap? Not In A Sisal Bag. 

You are now dismissed from the menacing task of cleaning soggy lumps of leftover soap off the corner of the bathroom sink. You know the slushy concoction of old suds we’re talking about-- You try to clean it with a brush or a rag and it bubbles up into a big soapy mess that frankly, you can do without.

You actually can do without it, and you should! When you hang the sisal bag up to dry after your shower, the bar of soap bar dries right along with it. This means the dirty slime that is created from the damp underbelly of the soap hanging out on a surface won’t be an issue anymore. The bag will prevent any soap slippery, so you won't have to feel silly wrangling the soap like it's a greased pig when you drop it in the tub!

Arguably the best part of the soap bag drying after your shower is that you can combine the final end of a mostly-used soap bar with a new bar. The soaps will melt together the next time they get wet. Now that you’ve got all this free time since you’re not scraping slime out of the shower, you can relax knowing that no soap has gone to waste!

5. Your Soap Lasts Longer, Your Wallet Stays Full, Your Skin Feels Baby Soft.

Now that you’ve got a new soap saver bag, the environmental impact of your showers has been reduced and there’s no slimy mess stuck to the tub. You add your soap chips to the bag with a new bar when your old bar starts to crumble, and you save money doing it! Less gummed-up soap along with using the whole bar means you’re wasting less and prolonging the lifespan of the product, so you don’t have to buy as much soap. 

Your skin feels softer and cleaner because your old, abrasive loofah is out of sight, and your soap-saving bag isn’t helping bacteria get under your skin. You have a gentle exfoliating tool for a comfortable and rejuvenating shower. When the sisal bag develops wear-and-tear after 4-6 months, you’ll replace it with a new one, feeling guilt-free in your knowledge that it will decompose, unlike a plastic loofah. 

You Need An Upgrade. 

Your skin deserves the opportunity to be exfoliated and clean, and a plastic loofah simply can’t get the job done well enough for you. Soap-saving bags are eco-friendly, they help you conserve both soap and money, and your skin will thank you. 

Snag two sisal bags for under ten dollars from Zero Waste Outlet, and don’t forget your soap or shampoo! Treat yourself to a wonderful scent, like green tea & turmeric soap or rosemary & mint shampoo bar.