I can't use soap, normally. My skin actually splits open at stress points if I use soap on too much of a daily basis. Or just gets that awful stretched taught feeling that hurts. Or I get so oily it's practically dripping from my skin, and I break out all over immediately following use. I did an allergy test and nothing. Been baffled about what the problem was. It seems like I try a new soap every week. (I only bathe with soap once a week). So I started looking into older soaps like the lye soaps, and after going to several different "natural" stores or markets and retail outlets, and reading the ingredient list for every soap they had, it seemed like it simply didn't exist anymore. Then I remembered I can look online and this seemed to be the most popular item to show up. So I read some reviews, and bought some. I was unconvinced about the people swearing about its healing powers, but the first time I tried it, I had scraped up legs from an adventure in the woods, and they hadn't been healing well for over a week. The morning after using the soap all of the scratches I had were mostly healed, overnight. That was cool. But even cooler was the fact that I could soap up, scrub down, rinse off, and my skin would feel comfortable and refreshed, no itching, no dryness, no outbreak, no oiliness, no pain, no discomfort, it was the first time I could feel comfortable in my own skin.

The bars are really big. What I do is cut a cm slice off, like the same size as those little bars left for you in hotels, and I use that till its gone and then cut another slice off. That way I'm wasting less of it to erosion. I keep my working slice of soap in a sewing needle tin (DMC 61403 Magnetic Needle Case sold here on amazon, and similar can be found in sewing notions in some stores), and let it air dry for like 5 minutes after a bath or shower. I've never had a soap before that would dry so quickly, it's really nice.

I use this soap for backpacking and camping as well. I have used it to wash dishes with....but if you find yourself in the freezing pouring rain, trying to wash your oily dishes with cold water away from your camp because it's bear season in Alaska, and all of the wood is so wet that you can't start a fire anyways and you don't have any more propane.....not a great idea. It really works best with at least some amount of warm or hot water to rinse it away. Be prepared to heat some water up if you're using it outdoors.

It did not work for my hair. I read a lot of people say they could use it in their hair, I tried it, and it didn't work for me. It felt like it was coating my hair in something thick and heavy and wouldn't rinse out. But each to his own, everyone is different, and it served its purpose for me, as a body wash. Especially since I can take a slice in a tin for lightweight backpacking and use it for several weeks if needed, instead of carrying around a bottle of body wash liquid that can spill, or leak, is heavy, and will probably cause some irritation anyways. I may try other lye soaps, since this is the only one I've tried so far, first one I could find that didn't have any additives in it. But it will definitely be my go-to main soap.

Great Quality

I feel like I washed 20 years of scum off my body that was left on from body wash soaps.Serious you need to throw all that trash out and buy this now.

I first tried this soap for brushing my teeth, as recommended by a health professional. I've used many soap bars b4. This one felt greasy (after all, it's made from beef fat (I think)) - a weird unpleasant texture in my mouth. I've switched back to handmade soap from the health food store for oral care.
HOWEVER it's fabulous on sensitive skin. After I do a vigorous skin scrub w/a salt scrub or a rough cloth my skin hurts if I use a soap bar w/essential oils. This lye soap bar is so gentle I love it for this, it's right use 4 me :]

This soap cleans great and I'm coming up on a month with the same bar. Super long lasting. You can tell there's no garbage ingredients.