Carbolic soap ...is it still made or what soaps do you recommend?

[Monk]

I recall the old type Lifebuoy that had a certain smell to it and also the carbolic soaps that used to be widely available. Relatives who used to works outdoors and on farms used these types of soaps and never had any problems despite nicks/cuts, etc.

With the rise of MRSA and superbugs around the globe I thought I would ask...

does anyone know if genuine old fashioned carbolic soap is still around or made?

Has anyone come across any soap in their travels that will scour away those pesky germs more effectively than other soaps? Or is soap just soap?

 

[C_Claycomb]

Apparently yes, it does still exist.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Power-Carbolic-Soap-110g/dp/B005777DBA
"Blue Power CARBOLIC Soap. Main Ingredients: Sodium Palmate/Palm Kernalate, Water, Glycerine, Cresylic Acid, Carbolic Acid, Fragrance, Sodium DTPA, Colour Red LJ3010. Product of Jamaica."

Does look though like some people sell what they call "carbolic soap" which does not have the genuine ingredients, and instead is just scented to seem like carbolic soap, playing to nostalgia.

I have used Detol Soap, which while not usually available from super markets, can be found in better stocked chemists. I have also used a coal tar soap which has a strong smell and claims to be antiseptic.

 

[homesicksteve]

Apparently yes, it does still exist.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Power-Carbolic-Soap-110g/dp/B005777DBA
...
Does look though like some people sell what they call "carbolic soap" which does not have the genuine ingredients, and instead is just scented to seem like carbolic soap, playing to nostalgia.
....
.

The Coal Tar soap I have is similarly lacking what I would consider 'genuine' ingredients.
Thanks for the 'Carbolic' link - I'm gonna try that.

Also recommended (not cheap) Grandpa's Pine Tar soap :
https://www.google.com/search?q=pine+tar+soap&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b

Ingredients : Sodium Palmate,Sodium Cocoate / Sodium Palm Kernelate, Water, Glycerin, Pinus Palustris Wood Tar, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Gluconate.

 

[Janne]

If you should come to the Caribbean on your holiday, you can buy it here in most pharmacies.
It is really good for keeping your hands and body clean.
It is a skin irritant though, hence it has not been used in hospitals in Europe for some decades now.

We have it in our 'hurricane emergency' box.

 

[Woody girl]

I like to use cuticura soap. It isn't harsh and is mildly medicated. Pleasant unisex fragrance and matching talc. It's not expensive.

 

[Billy-o]

In my days as a nurse we used to have mountains of medicated soap everywhere as you might expect. Hated the smell of it. I really did. Had to turn my head away to wash my hands ... which of course I has to like twenty times a dasy.

My grandad used coal tar soap. I don't get the appeal of l'eau d'Asphalt

 

[Snake]

A quick ebay search revels it is easily available.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Old-fash...7fdb1d4d:m:mXhb4rKd1vZj5sym5bW9cRg:rk:56:pf:0
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-x-Falc...=item43fb1862c6:g:hXsAAOSwiONYPHtu:rk:26:pf:0

 

[Janne]

Do you worry about MRSA and other super bugs?
Carbolic soap will not help.
It will kill the natural, beneficial bacteria and pave the way for harmful bacteria....

Staph Aureus sits usually in the nasal cavity, btw, not on the skin.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Your comment made me go looking at the ingredients of the Wright's soap I bought, and it is only coal tar fragrance, which I don't particularly like. The antiseptic additives are tea tree oil and Eugenol (another essential oil extract). I suppose someone has decided that real extracts of coal tar are unhealthy.

 

[C_Claycomb]

A quick ebay search revels it is easily available.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Old-fash...7fdb1d4d:m:mXhb4rKd1vZj5sym5bW9cRg:rk:56:pf:0
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-x-Falc...=item43fb1862c6:g:hXsAAOSwiONYPHtu:rk:26:pf:0

I believe that those are the types of questionable carbolic soap described in the comments section from the Blue Power soap I linked to. Quoting the Amazon comments:

Question:
Is this real carbolic soap - ie do the ingredients have carbolic acid as falcon and most others only have carbolic fragrance not acid in them?
Answer:
As far as the Falcon brand of carbolic soap goes there is nowhere I have found in my search, nor given by those selling the brand claiming it to be genuine carbolic soap any ingredients. Many people writing reviews on how wonderful and genuine the Falcon or any other brand of Carbolic soap is based on their memories from a smell that triggers some memory from their past. I'm sorry but that's not enough to lay claim on anything when selling a consumer product. And as wonderful as those memories may be of a bygone era when Carbolic soap and its disinfecting properties had pride of place in the home and many institutions and hospitals, many of the soaps being sold by traders here on Amazon and the web are clearly not genuine, and either containing substitute ingredients or a fragrance. What's even more disturbing is how many traders here on Amazon can sell a product with no proper wrapping to including the ingredients yet quoting some information from Wikipedia or some other web site with no empirical evidence of the soaps ingredients and believing that enough to sell a product as genuine. The Carbolic Soap Company being another one of those traders selling people what they claim to be Traditional Carbolic Soap yet not wrapping the product to providing ingredients on the wrapping or their website where they advertise the product. Then allowed to break UK and EU packaging laws.

Blue Power Carbolic Soap on the other hand is a different matter. Blue Power CARBOLIC Soap. Main Ingredients: Sodium Palmate/Palm Kernalate, Water, Glycerine, Cresylic Acid, Carbolic Acid, Fragrance, Sodium DTPA, Colour Red LJ3010. Product of Jamaica. see less
By Chaucer Chris on 16 July 2015​

 

[Janne]

Coal tar extract. Hello, Mr Skin Cancer!

Chimney sweeps had a short life span. Not because they lost their footing and fell down the chimneys but because they developed cancer where their coarse fabric trousers rubbed most, in the folds beside the scrotum.

Cresylic acid. Cresol?


The carbolic soap is good in emergencies. So is Morphia. IV penicillin and other IV antibiotics.
I have those ( plus some other goodies) but only for severe emergencies.


You wanna be nice to our body? Use a soap type Lactacyd. It is developed for 'feminine wash'. Ladies bits.
Because that is a very sensitive, infection prone area.
If it is good down there, it is good on my masculine skin too.

 

[Monk]

Janne,
that soap Lactacyd, does it only come in a liquid wash bottle or a bar? I was looking around and could only come up with Lactacyd in a bottle, not bar, form. For a male, does Lactacyd work to neutralize underarm odors?

Yes, I had forgotten about staph being in the nasal area...my mind was thinking of pictures of fleshing eating bacteria that people have died from.

Your comment on the chimney sweeps was interesting....do you mean the sweeps were getting the soot worked into their skin in their nether regions through the clothing and developing skin cancer?

Thanks for the input everybody!

 

[Janne]

Yes it is liquid. Yes it works in hairy male armpits.
I am unsure if you can get a similar soap in bar form, to be honest.

 

[Silkhi]

My favourite has always been (genuine) African Black Soap but used on the face after a cold windswept day day out and it has dried my skin to the point that it peels off and I look like a plague victim zombie. Not exactly selling it am I... This is worth mentioning as sometimes it is advertised as mild, gentle and baby friendly.

Still use it all the time, but only on the body and it is really refreshing and invigorating. Not earned my Darwin Award yet

Shea butter plantain ash and various other ingredients. As ever avoid palm oil!

 

[Janne]

According to the ‘net the African Black soap can be made using Palm Oil....

Plus, think about the transportation, the CO emissions.....

We can not win, can we?

 

[Robson Valley]

Good quality extra virgin olive oil, if you can be certain that, in fact, it is olive oil.
I rub a little into my hands then wipe my face several times.

 

[Woody girl]

Make your own? Then you can get it to smell how you want add any ingredients re antiseptic thyme smells great and has antiseptic properties . I have a young lass near me who makes soaps and will take my suggestions to make a personal recipe. I have just had some honey soap made and it's lovely. She is now selling it on her market stalls. Win for both of us

 

[Billy-o]

Not exactly selling it am I...

I was going to say

Some came into the house a while ago .. not sure how ... just seems to sit there with a baleful look, staining everything. Nobody uses it.

 

[Woody girl]

Just remembered I bought birch oil soap at the scyth fair this year. It isn't as harsh as birch tar soap which i bought the year before andis much like pine tar.same smoky smell. The birch oil is much nicer I think.

 

[Janne]

We used to buy Birch tar mixed with ( reindeer?) fat as a mosquito repellent in the Army.
Best I ever used.