Eczema Treatment 100% Olive Oil Liquid Castile Soap for Eczema Skin Care

Hi Susan,

My son’s eczema has been improving steadily since we have been totally “detergent-free” and using your liquid castile soap for everything. He still has outbreaks, but they can be attributed to detergent and/or chemical exposure outside of the home. Once I get his skin washed off with your soap then it improves once again.

Thanks for making such wonderful pure olive oil soap - the only one I can find!

Regards, Amanda

Liquid Castile Soap

Soap vs. Detergent

Amanda S in California - amateur biochemist and mother of a son with eczema

My son has had very serious eczema since he was an infant. Numerous treatments (medical, herbal and antidotal) had little effect. By 4 years old he had not “grown out of it” as many people had assured me he would. Instead it was getting progressively worse.

His pediatrician mentioned she had heard that detergent products could possibly be a trigger in some cases. So I looked into it further and found a website that described detergent molecules as being long and skinny where as soap molecules are more rounded. Normally this would not be too much of a problem, unless the sharp detergent molecules encountered skin with “membrane permeability”.

So I removed all detergent products from our house and replaced everything with pure soap products. I use Country Rose liquid castile soap because it’s the only liquid soap I can find that doesn’t contain coconut oil (or many other ingredients) to which my son has allergic reactions.

I use it for laundry, household cleaning, body and hair washing, hand washing of dishes and just about everything you could imagine.

It took a few weeks for all the detergent residues to be removed from the house (using HEPA vacuum and air filters, plus repeated soap washing of clothing) but after that, my son’s skin started to show improvements.

After 4 months (check date?) of being detergent-free, his skin has improved significantly. It’s not perfect because he still encounters detergent washed surfaces and cloth (like dress-up clothes) at pre-school and other people’s houses. There is usually a flair up once per week or so, which we can resolve relatively easily by washing his skin immediately after exposure with castile soap.

Just for curiosity, I put samples of regular laundry detergent and castile soap under my microscope. I captured these interesting images:

Laundry Detergent

100% Olive Oil Liquid Castile Soap

I believe the sharp detergent spikes irritate his permeable and damaged skin, while the rounded natural lipids in the castile soap allow his skin to heal.

If you or your child suffers from any skin conditions, I would highly recommend getting rid of all detergents and other chemical products - use pure soap instead. By returning to the ways of our grandmothers we can turn back the clock to a time before “better living through chemistry”!

Amanda.