Fight Soap is available from the UK distributor: www.bodyzoneonline.co.uk
Or by visiting www.fight-soap.com
Defense Soap is available in Europe from Garra Fightwear priced at £4.99+pp
Or by visiting: www.defensesoap.com
Meerkatsu says:
I used both these soaps on alternate occasions over several weeks. Being made from all natural ingredients, neither soap produced huge amounts of soapy lather but instead started off feeling slippery when wet but then built up to a mild level of soapiness after vigorous rubbing (extra soapiness is often an added ingredient in most soaps). Once suitably slippery, the soap bars glided over my bodily parts with the ease of Hoover - vacuuming for skin bugs!
Fight Soap has an attractive translucent quality to it and when I used it, I found it very refreshing to have the citrus odours wafting into my nose whilst showering. When I applied the apricot seed coated side to my body, I found the exfoliating rough surface to be a bit too harsh for my delicate skin, so I used the non-seed side. The problem with soapless soaps is that without a good head of lather, I feel I have to use a lot more of the product than I probably need. It also doesn’t really ‘stick’ to my skin to as soon as I apply it to an area of my body, then the shower water washes it away. Shower gel tends to stick around for longer. Having said that, I don’t tend to linger in the shower for any more than five minutes - which was more than enough to douse my body with a liberal application of each soap. One thing I will say however is that pure soap can leave my skin a little dry.
Defense soap is a bit bigger than Fight Soap so may arguably last a bit longer but I quite liked the smaller, easy to hold size of Fight Soap. Defense Soap doesn’t have the zest lemon grove perfume of Fight Soap but it smells okay - mainly tea tree oil or sandlewood smells. Using it was just like using any regular bar of soap. Again, it left my skin a bit dry.
After each shower I smelled like a bunch of (admittedly slightly medicinal) roses and my wife seems to take great pleasure in my new post-workout body odour. I also let me kids play with the soaps during their evening bath time and Fight Soap seems to win hands down in terms of the 'fun' factor - its candy-bar coloured translucency seemed to be an immediate draw but the kids loved the scent of both soaps. It was actually a struggle to get them to give me back my soap bars!
But with each brand costing over a fiver a pop, it’s quite a lot to pay for what is essentially, just a bar of soap with some natural oils in. By comparison, a quick peak at UK high street store Holland & Barrett reveals that they sell a 70g bar of tea tree oil soap for £1.35
Conclusion
It’s quite cool to have a soap branded specifically for grapplers and mixed martial artists. No matter how dweeby or wimpy I look, I know that if I got stopped by customs at the airport or searched by police, they’ll see my bar of Fight or Defense soap and think ‘damn, this guy does that UFC thing, best leave him alone’.
Good hygiene before and after training should be an absolutely essential part of everyone’s habit. This includes washing your uniform after every session, showering after every session, cleaning the mats after every session, quarantine for those who are infected with skin diseases and many other small details that add up to minimising person to person bacterial or fungal disease transference. Using antimicrobial products may help in this regard, it may not. And, at a fiver a pop, both Fight Soap and Defense Soap are a little expensive compared to high street brands that contain roughly the same active ingredients. But as I say, it’s kinda cool to walk around and say hey, I use a soap made by fighters, for fighters. Osssss!
Credits and Disclaimer:
I am not sponsored or supported by any company. The views expressed here are my own and those of my daughter's Barbie Doll collection. My thanks to Bon Cacho, owner of Fight Soap and Neil Williams from Garra Fightwear for supplying me with Defense Soap.
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16 comments:
Your conclusion was exactly what I was thinking as I learned what they offer and how much they cost. For that price I can buy several bars of Preven or creamy-kind-of-soap depending on what I need/prefer...
But I also get it that they'd have to make LOTS and LOTS of soap in order to be able to lower the prices. And that's not likely to happen, I guess.
I can't believe you did a review of fight soap. I mean, fair one, but damn!
That post was probably more work than they put into making the soap itself. :)
Dev, you reviewing Fight Soap too? sorry I did not know. I'll post a link once yours is done.
Yes, this one indeed was a more laborious process than time itself.
I totally love this. Well done Seymour!
The SLSs ('latherzymes') in mainstream soap are no good for my skin so I've long been a fan of natural soaps. Using a sponge or scrubber of some sort does help the lathering issue.
I'm a big fan of British manufacturer Faith in Nature who do a Tea Tree version http://www.faithinnature.co.uk/Seaweed-Soap-18-Bars/PID/70; I personally go for lavender and buy in large boxes for the best price.
Jason is an American manufacturer that does fantastic exfoliators, an essential part of any well-groomed grappler's skin regime. They have a Tea Tree version and this is a great online pharmacy for this sort of thing http://www.essentialslondon.com/product/2339.aspx
This a review? Sorry I got completely distracted by the pictures :o)
Excellent work my brother. I feel in the mood to buy soap. Your post made me feel dirty.
I've just reread this and only just realised what the Barbies are doing in the final panel. I'm shocked.
I should have seen the end of that story coming, but it totally caught me off guard and got me laughing.
Next step: Meerkatsu reviews athletic supporters...
I use Defense soap but have received some advice from a GP who stated that you can put Hibiscrub, about three cupfulls, into your bath water. (If you bath rather than shower)
Don't get it on your face or down your ears though. Also some people are allergic.
With that caveat, I tried it with no side effects.
Keep fighting the staph fight people!
Oh God why can't you use it on your face?
Wait you talked about Soap? I'm stuck on naked Barbies rocking their.... well.... um.... damn.
Very entertaining. Thank you for the time to write this review. Even though we didn't tap out Fight Soap in the review I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Defense Soap is perfectly safe for your face. I believe the last poster was speaking about Hibiscrub aka Hibiclens in the US.
Guy
Defense Soap
i like to use wipes made specifically for cleaning the skin. thus no need to wait in line for the one shower at the academy.
i hit myself with a few of those and ttthhhennn go home and take a shower with the regular things i use.
cheaper than specialty soaps, quicker to use and dont dry my skin.
to each his own though.
and bonus points for the creative post!
Thanks for your comment Guy, I wouldn't say Fight Soap tapped out Defense Soap, just that the two brands are pitched in two very different ways: FS uses Ring Girls and big mean fonts, while DS eschews the glamour model option for straight up wordage and background info and a more conservative designed package. Each will appeal to different tastes.
Cheers Rowdy, yes a lot of people also use wipes for that straight after handy cleanliness.
Another great review, and I like the fact that you brought your Barbie dolls out to play Seymour.
What? They're not yours? Sure, sure...
I know everyone is wondering, so I'll tell you... I use a shower gel with little bits of 'ex-foliating beads' (sand?) all through it. I also mix it up with a bit of olive oil soap and love anything that smells of citrus.
I am absolutely paranoid about staph infections. I've seen a few scary pics and heard a few horror stories - argh!
I was referring to the Hibiscrub in terms of not getting it on your face as I read that it should not get into your inner ear. Sorry for the slow response.
Good review.
According to the makers, Defence Soap has 1% tea tree oil in it. That's not really that much. It's nowhere near as much as used in human trials against bacteria and, as you say, is about as much as in any old bar of tea tree soap from Holland and Barrett. So essentially this is just branded soap at about 3x the cost.
Nobody knows if 1% soap makes any difference at all to skin infection rates so it might not even be worth getting tea tree oil soap at all.
One can very easily make much stronger soap by adding pure oil to natural liquid soap.
Clever marketing that has apparently turned over millions of dollars of soap.
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