Laundry, reconsidered (natural laundry soap vs detergent)

March 18, 2026

Time to read 4 min

What we wash with matters more than we think

Our clothes sit on our skin all day. We sleep in them, live in them, and wrap our children in them.

But what we use to wash them? Most of us don’t look into the finer details.

We reach for what we know- a familiar bottle, a scent that smells “clean.”Or bottles that claim 'natural' or 'organic' detergent.

What we don’t often consider is what’s left behind on your clothes, your washing machine and even your hands.

What Science is Showing

A 2024 study published in PubMed (Household laundry detergents disrupt barrier integrity and induce inflammation in mouse and human skin), led by researchers at the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF), it explored how common laundry detergents interact with skin.

Even at diluted levels, findings showed:

Disruption of the skin barrier, measured through increased water loss
Activation of low-level inflammation, even without visible irritation
Downregulation of proteins essential for skin integrity
Upregulation of inflammatory markers such as IL-6 and IL-1β

A key factor identified was sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) — a widely used surfactant in conventional detergents.

In simple terms: the agents designed to strip away dirt don’t always rinse away completely.

And over time, trace residues remain in the fabrics we live in.

For some, this shows up on our skin- dryness, tightness, subtle irritation.
For others, especially children or sensitive skin, it can feel more immediate.

Detergent and natural laundry soap are not the same thing

At a glance, all laundry products seem interchangeable. But their approach is fundamentally different.

Modern detergents are engineered for performance. They rely on synthetic surfactants, brighteners, fragrances, and stabilisers to break down stains quickly and efficiently. But in doing so, they can be harsh — not just on dirt, but on fibres and skin.

Traditional laundry soaps such as Kerzon Multi-Purpose Laundry Soap take a different path. Made through saponification, they transform natural oils — often olive and coconut — into gentle cleansing agents.

Rather than stripping, they work in balance:

Creating milder, naturally derived surfactants
Rinsing more cleanly, with less residue
Preserving the integrity of fibres over time

The result isn’t just clean clothes — but clothes that continue to feel good to live in.

	Regular Detergent	Natural Laundry Soap
Approach	Engineered for high-performance cleaning	Made through traditional saponification
On fabrics	Harsh on fibres & cause breakdown over time	Helps preserve fibre integrity
On skin	With SDS, it irritates sensitive or eczema-prone skin	Gentler for everyday skin contact
For babies	Requires a separate baby formula	One formula can suit the whole family
After each wash	Fabrics feel coated or stiff	Fabrics feel naturally soft
Over time	Colours and texture may fade faster	Helps maintain colour and texture
In the machine	Residue buildup may occur	Rinses cleaner with less buildup

What this looks like, day to day

We think about laundry as getting clothes clean. But we tend to neglect what your clothes feel like after. Think the t-shirt you wear all day, the towel you reach for in the morning, the clothes your kids are in most of the time.

After a while, you might start to notice small things. Clothes that feel a bit stiff even when they’re clean. Towels that don’t feel as soft anymore. Baby clothes that smell fine, but somehow still don’t feel quite right on the skin.

Over time, fabrics change depending on how they’re washed. When you switch to something natural surfactants, the difference isn’t immediate, but gradually things feel softer, less harsh, and easier to wear. It’s subtle, but it adds up.

SO, what makes soap different?

That usually comes down to what’s being used in the wash — and how it actually works.

Most laundry detergents are designed to clean as quickly as possible.

Soap works a bit differently. It’s created through a process called saponification, where oils are transformed into a cleansing base. In the process, glycerin is naturally formed, which helps prevent fabrics from feeling dry or stripped after washing.

Instead of aggressively removing everything, it cleans while keeping the structure of the fabric intact. That’s why over time, clothes tend to feel softer rather than rougher, colours don’t fade as quickly, and fabrics hold up better with repeated washing, so you don’t really need to rely on a separate softener.

Kerzon’s laundry soaps are made this way, using saponified olive and coconut oils, produced at low temperatures to preserve the quality of the ingredients. The goal isn’t just to clean, but to do it without leaving behind anything that doesn’t need to be there.

One formula, across the family

One of the more practical differences is that you don’t need multiple products.

The same bottle of laundry soap works for everyday clothes, baby clothes, towels, bedding, and even pieces you’d usually treat more carefully. It’s fine in a regular machine wash, but still gentle enough for things you might otherwise separate.

Kerzon’s laundry soaps are dermatologically tested and designed to be non-irritating, which is why they’re often suitable for sensitive skin and for washing baby clothes as well.

In practice, it means you don’t really need a separate “baby detergent.” It’s the same formula across everything.

A different way of thinking about clean

Laundry is one of the most repeated things we do at home.

It’s easy to treat it as routine — something automatic, something you don’t really think about. But it’s also something that sits very close to your day-to-day life.

What you wash your clothes with doesn’t just affect how they look when they come out of the machine. It affects how they feel hours later, how they age over time, and how they sit against your skin.

Switching to something more natural doesn’t feel like a big change at first.

But over time, it shifts the baseline.

And once you get used to that, it’s hard to go back to anything else.