Anyone know of a truly odorless soap in bar form?

is to not wash on the trail! Washing in the backcountry just creates polluted water. No one cares how smell you are on a backpacking trip. I've gone 14 days between showers on the trail and was not the worse for it

The best way to avoid critters is to stealth camp in places where other people have not camped and left their scents or crumbs behind. No amount of washing is going to disguise your scent from a motivated animal.

Matt,
Google "scent free soap".
1.97 million hits.

Realize that it's pretty hard to manufacture a chemical product to be truly scent free.

And as mentioned, the odor of soap is just one of many that are associated with hikers. Less is better, but I wouldn't hold out for "none".

OP said hand washing, not showering.

i have dr bronners unscented liquid in a mini dropper. I think it has a certain soap smell – to the extent things just smell like what they are.

If a bear ate your soap, do you think he'd develop an appetite for soap? Or would he just stop cursing?

>Research in earlier forums mentioned Dr Bronner's Unscented, but does that just mean that they don't add additional scent?

Bronner's has a baby soap that is unscented, but it still has it's own scent. Not very strong or perfumed at all, but it smells like something. I've used 'Kiss my Face' unscented, it smells a little like a pink eraser I used in elementary school. It is made from olive oil, so there is a chance some critter might give it a bite.

These days I've been using liquid Dr Bronner's eucalyptus, I keep in a large visine bottle. It has a lingering odor, but I'm running on the theory that it helps ward off blood sucking bugs.

I put my soap in my bear can at night, so I don't know if any of it attracts animals.

Hand washing with a "reservoir" still creates unnecessary polluted water that is bad for the plants and animals along the trail. You can use a little hand sanitizer to kill the germs–that mostly evaporates and is fully LNT. Backpacking is the one time that it's okay to be dirty nowadays. Enjoy the freedom.

At home, I prefer bar soap. My wife keeps buying those body washes in a bottle, which I hate. Why does she keep trying to change me?

Decades ago, I tried those little bars of soap you get at hotels. Since I always had most of the bar left over, it was unnecessary weight — opps, this is backpacking light :)

I have been using soap in a mini bottle for many, many years. Nowadays I use the Dr. Bronner's unscented.

" You can use a little hand sanitizer to kill the germs–that mostly evaporates and is fully LNT."

+1

Plain old water will suffice to rinse off trail grit and salt from sweating. For the finger tips, scrub well with grit from a lake or stream bottom, rinse well, rescrub with moss from stream or lake margin, and rinse again. You will be left with a wonderful fresh veggie aroma from the moss. If you are still concerned about microbes, your skin is now sufficiently free of oils and dirt to use hand sanitizer.
No soap necessary.

I bring both Dr. B's unscented liquid soap and hand sanitizer. If I had to choose between the two for hand sanitation, I'd just bring soap. Both the hand sanitizer and soap go into my bear bag at night. Regardless of what you use, there's no reason to leave it out overnight.

The bed wetting liberal cesspool known as the University of Washington discusses the pros and cons of bar vs liquid here:

http://conservationmagazine.org/2013/05/bar-soap-vs-liquid-soap/

Here's the Dr. B's unscented bar soap previously mentioned.

A lighter alternative is to not wash on the trail! Washing in the backcountry just creates polluted water. No one cares how smell you are on a backpacking trip. I’ve gone 14 days between showers on the trail and was not the worse for it.

Must be nice. I’ve suffered from jock itch and athlete’s foot, and I do mean suffered. Itching to the point of drawing blood. Not nice. Water alone doesn’t seem to be sufficient.

The bed wetting liberal cesspool known as the University of Washington discusses the pros and cons of bar vs liquid here:
http://conservationmagazine.org/2013/05/bar-soap-vs-liquid-soap/

Interesting, but they didn’t really come up with anything conclusive. I guess just minimize amount and stay 200′ from water.

HJ
Adventures In Stoving
Hikin’ Jim’s Blog

Go with what you have and have used before. Bring the nylon and soap, and treat the nylon like a bear bag and haul it up and out of animal range at night.

The sanitizer is all you need argument is bad advice. Filthy surfaces can not be sanitized without first being cleaned.

It is not hard or expensive at all to make your own bars of soap, to which you can add any scent you wish or none at all. Most of the stuff you need your probably already have in your kitchen or can easily find at your local hardware store. Of course, soap is soap and it probably still will smell like soap even without anything added. Plus if you make your own not only can you control ingredients, scents, etc but you can more easily control the size, shape, texture, and weights of the bars – this is backpackinglight after all ;)

“You can use a little hand sanitizer to kill the germs”

I started my backpacking happily using hand sanitizer exclusively (seemed easier and saved filtered water), but after a few years of doing this, I was convinced by germ phobic acquaintance who works in health care, that hand sanitizer has some failing in the backcountry, especially when dealing with fecal contamination situations.

Likely in the big picture it is not a real concern, and somebody could probably convince me that potentially getting sick every once in a while, is a worthy cost for observing LNT and preventing some vegetable-based soapy water from falling on the ground a few feet from where I just buried my poop (that probably has worse things in it).

However, if a person has any kind of suppressed immune system issues, they may want to follow the barest LNT guideline, that if you must use soap, do it at least 200 feet from any water source.

…”soap and water are more effective than hand sanitizers at removing or inactivating certain kinds of germs, like Cryptosporidium, norovirus, and Clostridium difficile”…”Cryptosporidium is not killed by alcohol gels and hand sanitizers. Soap and disinfected water are specifically recommended for preventing cryptosporidiosis.”…

CDC – http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/show-me-the-science-hand-sanitizer.html
CDC –http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/crypto/health_professionals/bwa/public.html

I've mentioned in other posts how much I like those plastic clam shells filled with leaves of soap that REI sells. They only weigh about two ounces and they don't get everything around them soapy. I keep my trowel, tp, soap leaves and hand sanitizer in a zip loc bag. I sanitize immediately after pooping and then go to a water source and wash with soap, without dripping into the source of course. Two leaves suds up well.

"I like those plastic clam shells filled with leaves of soap that REI sells"

Right now, I use a square plastic bottle with a Sriracha cap on it, and take this with me to the cathole. Then open the cap and lay the bottle sideways on a rock or log before I use my cathole (this is why the square bottle is handy, doesn't roll around). This type of cap will hardly even drip until I press down on the side of the bottle with my elbow and then I get a little spigot to wash my hands with.

However, the hole in my system is touching my soap bottle with potentially dirty hands. So, I may try some of these leaves. Are you talking about the Sea to Summit ones?

By the way, they list those at being only .5 oz, were you guestimating on the 2 oz?

I'm looking at an old one called Trek and Travel. Wait, yes, Sea to Summit. Yeah, I was guestimating the weight; .05 seems entirely possible. Very light.

Here's the deal: do not touch the pack o'soap leaves with wet hands. Take two out with dry hands and then wet up your hands. Otherwise they melt in the case.

>A lighter alternative is to not wash on the trail! Washing in the backcountry just creates >polluted water. No one cares how smell you are on a backpacking trip. I've gone 14 days >between showers on the trail and was not the worse for it.

And how do you clean your hands? NOLS is strongly of the opinion that more people get sick from poor hygiene, especially when cooking, than from Giardia, Crypto, ect. If you don't have soap how do your properly clean your hands?

I have to side with Tom on this one.

I admit to carrying a tiny amount of soap with me for a special occasion or emergency, but I haven't used it in years. After rinsing in flowing water, my hands are air dried.

–B.G.–

I am not aware of any odor free soap, just unscented which isn't the same. I too, carry .75 oz of hand sanitizer as much for hands as a fire starting backup, and a dropper bottle of Dr Bronners, either peppermint or eucalyptus. A 1/2 oz bottle lasts about two weeks with hand, body, hair, and clothes washing, but If it is a cold and wet trip it lasts longer.