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  • melbaboutown
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    9 days ago

    Are the cheaper brands of bar soap ok for most people? (Like the Balnea green tea and milk & honey scents.) I found their pure soap a bit harsh but that might just be me. I use their unscented sorbolene bars but people might like scent.

    What about the ‘clean linen’ scent of another cheap brand or the same sort of thing from Aldi?

    I don’t have heaps of money myself so I’m thinking of buying cheap multipacks and re-wrapping the individual bars in leftover Xmas wrapping paper to help share them out at the community pantry. (I can buy higher quality and individually wrapped but would afford fewer bars.)

    But if you were struggling to afford the absolute basics would you find that insulting (cheap quality) or gross (handled/not in original packaging) or would the soap be too harsh for you and your kids?

      • melbaboutown
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        9 days ago

        Hopefully it’s fine. I’m trying to balance between my own budget and not donating absolute shite 😢

        Also the Xmas wrapping paper might seem a little rude. Both in the sense of being leftover/discounted and kind of suggesting that a bar of soap is a gift…

        Just trying to consider people’s dignity

        • BakuOP
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          8 days ago

          I’d be okay with it

          My biggest concern wouldn’t be that it’s discounted, it would be that someone might have dirtied it, or it’s been used. Hand soap does suffer from the “I don’t know what they’ve done with this” worry that liquid soap doesn’t. Or that someone might have hidden razor blades or something in it. But a smell test, and then a small use test on hands, or hell, even a quick cut in half, would definitely alleviate those concerns

          Anecdotally, 2 places ago, I guess Palmolive must’ve donated a massive truckload of body wash to the org. That then trickled through to our house. It was black, activated charcoal mens body wash. Honestly it was awful. They sent me away with a carton of it, and I have used it on several occasions where I haven’t been able to buy body wash, but it’s awful. It leaves a slimey residue on everything and it kind of smells like BO. I would’ve preferred bars of soap to that any day

          • Rusty Raven M
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            8 days ago

            Yuck. The old “foist our rubbish off on the disadvantaged and call it charity” trick.

          • melbaboutown
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            8 days ago

            Yeah :/ I don’t want anyone to think I tampered with it or used it. Bottles of liquid soap are more trustworthy but don’t share out as well.

            Then again one time a food bank gave me a single bare bar that was obviously from a pack 🙃 And a knotted plastic bag of sugar with a random wood chip in it

            Eh. Maybe I just leave it in the cartons

            • TheWitchofThornbury
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              8 days ago

              Maybe label the bar with a sticker or a small square of masking tape with the brand or the scent (if any) on it after wrapping. I think I’d wrap each bar in greaseproof paper (nicely) and use the tape to seal the package.