kickin' it old skool

Hey, let's take a moment and check in on a tried and true method product! It's been around pretty much from the very beginning. Ta-da, it's method hand wash, with a review from Emily over at Living Cruelty Free (who gave it five big stars!):

"I’d almost forgotten I even have Method Hand Wash — it was one of the first Method products I ever bought and I’ve had a bottle of it next to my sink for years, so I don’t even notice it’s there any more. I usually stick with the french lavender scented one, because I like the purple color, but I’ve also bought the clear bottled one — it’s a “sweet water” scent, and it was nice too. It also comes in an aqua eucalyptus mint, a pink grapefruit, a yellow-green green tea and aloe, a pale blue sea minerals, a green cucumber, and an unscented-and-undyed go naked.

The Method web site states that Method Hand Wash is super gentle, made with naturally-derived, biodegradable ingredients, contains vitamin E and aloe. It contains no antibacterial ingredients, because those are usually made from harsh chemicals that are dangerous around children, and, if used excessively, may actually promote the development of super bacteria that regular antibiotics can’t kill. (Method Hand Wash is vegan, but not organic.)

Interestingly, it turns out that while antibacterial hand soaps are most effective at removing bacteria from your hands, it turns out that plain soap and water is the best remover of viruses from your hands — even better than antibacterial soaps — it forms a slippery surface that the viruses slide off of, or something like that. Apparently non-water-using hand wipes and sanitizers are the least effective method of removing bacteria or viruses from your hands. Sickbert-Bennett EE, WEber DJ, Gergen-Teague MF, Sobsey MD, Samsa GP, and Rutala WA, “Comparative efficacy of hand hygiene agents in the reduction of bacteria and viruses,” American Journal of Infection Control, 2005 Mar: 33(2);67-77. Though using an antibacterial handsoap is more effective at killing bacteria than just plain hand soap, you should still only use antibacterial soap if you’re in a hospital or have a compromised immune system — otherwise you’ll promote the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which are really nasty. There’s also some evidence that the prevalence of antibacterial soaps has led to antibacterial agents permeating the groundwater, and so wild animals are exposed to it and may develop and foster bacteria resistant to antibiotic agents and thus eventually cause breakouts in the human population of drug-resistant-bacterial diseases.)

Mostly, I like Method hand wash because the bottle is so much more attractive than any other hand soap out there. I mean (have you seen the others?) — they’re perfectly good hand soaps but they just don’t look that cool. Plus they’re probably full of chemicals. I also like the lavender scent — it has a pretty, faint floral scent, it seems to wash my hands pretty well — they end up clean with no residue and no frighteningly strong chemical-floral fragrance."