How to Buy Hand Soaps & Cleansers
With flu season coming around again, you're trying to be careful about not picking up germs and bacteria from other people and from the things you touch. Well, you can't avoid the job interview handshake, and if you've got children, you know they're bringing home all manner of unseen and unwelcome hitchhikers on their hands. Fight the dirt and germs with the best of the
hand soaps and cleansers as we get into the nitty-gritty of the most effective ways to clean your hands.
So, there are different ways to approach
hand cleaning products; to cut through grease and dirt, you may prefer a heavy-duty bar such as
Lava, a reliable and incredibly effective
soap that's usually kept for use after working on the car or on the yard. There are liquid hand soaps that do equally well, with grease-cutting agents and a much milder treatment for your skin, like
ShiKai's Biker Soap.
If you'd prefer to focus on
anti-bacterial soaps, your best bet is to use what the doctors and hospitals also use
foaming soap, which is infused with white tea and aloe to heal skin as it cleans, as well as spearmint and lime or orange extracts for a fresh, slightly astringent quality.
Bodycology also offers an antibacterial
scrubbing soap with exfoliating beads to clean deeply into the lines and creases of your hands and leaves a light, pleasant fragrance on your skin.
Another good choice, especially as a part of a skin treatment at night and in the morning, is a moisturizing
hand wash such as
Bently Organic for a deeply hydrating, calming result. You can even moisturize your skin while you're fighting germs at the same time with
Bath and Body Works moisturizing hand soaps, which are available in a variety of formulas, including lemon for the kitchen, wild honeysuckle, and vanilla bean.
Speaking of the kitchen, when you're working with raw foods, you need to make sure you never transfer little bits from one cutting board or knife to another to prevent cross-contamination (put simply, don't mix your raw chicken with your cooked vegetables). Keeping your hands clean between steps is the key to success here, and hand soaps are mild, non-drying
hand cleansers which make them perfect for constant use.
Mrs. Meyer's liquid hand soaps offer similar benefits, adding aloe vera gel and olive oil to guarantee that your hands won't feel dry after washing.