I worked on my summer camping and hiking schedule this past week and a thought popped into my mind, “how can I carry less stuff this year?” So I started thinking about it and decided to look into alternative options for heavy liquid and bar soaps. That’s when I found Fomin Antibacterial Paper Soap Sheets.
I got the variety 3 pack totaling 300 sheets of soap for $11.99, and it just arrived yesterday. The first thing I did was open one up and try it out.
Upon first inspection, the cases are small, light, made of biodegradable and recyclable card stock, and smell nice. 4 big wins already. Then I opened up the box and saw that the soap sheets were tinted to match the exterior color scheme, which I thought was a nice touch. After, I pulled out one of the lavender scented sheets and noticed that it looks and feels like tissue paper that you would use to wrap a gift, just less crinkly.
At this point I was seriously wondering how this was going to turn into anything remotely resembling soap. I figured at best it wasn’t going to be very bubbly, and that it was going to leave a waxy residue on my hands. I was completely wrong.
1. It was very bubbly.
2. It did not leave any residue on my hands.
Additionally, It was nice and lightly scented afterward, not overly perfumed at all and it didn’t dry my skin out, if anything my hands felt a little softer after I dried them off.
But, I bought the Fomin soap sheets for outdoor activities, so I wanted to modify my experiment to make sure that I’d be able to get what I wanted out of them with or without a sink. So I washed my hands again, only this time I used about 2 tablespoons of water, which is about what I would pour out of a water jug to get my hands wet. The sheets still worked great, there were plenty of bubbles, so I rinsed my hands with another couple tablespoons of water and shook them to dry and still no residue.
You’d probably need quite a few of them to sub for body wash and I wont be washing my hair with hand soap, so I didn’t try to take an all Fomin shower, but I did want to see if the soap sheets could handle washing a few dishes. So I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch (in the name of science of course) and pulled out another sheet.
Its not as good as dish soap, but it is passable for camping, I used 3 sheets and the scrubby side of a sponge to wash a 9 inch frying pan and spatula that were a little greasy. I didn’t get the kind bubbles I got when I was washing my hands, but both the pan and the spatula are clean and have no remaining grease.
I tried 3 different ways to “apply” the soap, I put on sheet on the sponge and got it wet, I put another sheet in the pan and got it wet, and I put the last she in my hand, got it wet and lathered it up a bit, and used my hand and the sponge to wash the spatula. The last method was the most effective in my opinion.
I also think Fomin is great to have if you’ve ever found yourself in a bathroom that was out of soap, or if you just want to try to use less hand sanitizer. I was very happy with the results of my experiment and am excited to have a lighter weight, more environmentally friendly product to use for all of my outdoor excursions this summer!