Bubble bath and shower gel

[paddy_36]

Does anyone know if bubble bath and shower gel have the same ingredients in the same quantities? Therefore, is it safe to use bubble bath as a shower gel?

[theprof]

One of the predominant ingredients in both bubble bath and shower gel (apart from water) is a type of soapless detergent/wetting agent called Sodium Laureth Sulphate. (You will sometimes come across products that contain a related chemical called Sodium Lauryl Sulphate that performs the same function).
The other predominant ingredient is common salt (Sodium Chloride), which is used to make the final product more viscous - if you accidentally get shower gel or bubble bath into your mouth you'll soon notice how salty they are.
Due to this similarity in active ingredients, there is no reason why you cannot use bubble bath as a shower gel.

The real differences between them is in the other products they contain. Shower gels tend to contain various skin and hair conditioners as well as extracts of herbs/minerals. The skin conditioners used in shower gels tend to be more effective than those in bubble bath.

Bubble baths in general do not contain hair conditioners but do contain products such as Cocamidopropyl Betaine which is a very strong foam enhancer when combined with Sodium Laureth Sulphate and other ingredients. Lesser quantities are used in shower gels which results in less foam and bubbles being generated.

There are other more specialised formulations for use with babies and infants. These formulations do not sting if they get into the eyes unlike the more harsher adult preparations.

[paddy_36]

theprof, thank you for your very full answer - makes perfect sense, even to a non-scientist like me! My boyfriend accidentally bought me bubble bath instead of shower gel. However, when I compared the ingredients of the bb with the same brand and fragrance of the sg, they were exactly the same. I thought possibly bubble bath would be more concentrated and maybe not so good for applying directly to skin, but I suppose it would carry a warning if this were the case - I hope!

[WaldoMcFroog]

It is faintly possible that the manufacturers of such products don't go out of their way to alert people to the fact that they're basically the same thing...

They are, after all, the people who advise you to wash your hair, rinse and then repeat in the full knowlege that this just increases the rate at which you use the product, rather than actually managing to make clean hair any cleaner...

[Supernick]

In my student days I worked in a soap factory. You would not be surprised to hear that effectively the same stuff goes into pretty much everything, and supermarket own brands are the same as their more expensive equivalents.

[theprof]

paddy_36, I'm glad I made sense with this question - some answers are not easy to simplify.

You will find that bubble baths and shower gels do contain the same ingredients as you've found and Supernick has verified. There are two reasons why people usually think that bubble bath is more concentrated.

The first is that in many cases bubble baths are more highly coloured than shower gels making them look "stronger". The reality is that the manufacturers simply add greater quantities of artificial colours to make them look that way.

The second reason is that bubble bath manufacturers add more salt to the product than they put in their shower gels. The more salt they add, the thicker and more viscous the product appears. Now, when you think about, doesn't a thicker product appear stronger and more concentrated as well? Do you see how easily these manufacturers can manipulate the mind!

The huge quantities of salt these products contain do not really cause any harm as they have limited contact with the skin before being washed off or diluted. There has been little development in formulations of these products for years and as a result no real adverse effects have been recorded and they are generally regarded as safe. All the same, you will always find the odd person who is allergic to one or more of the ingredients.

Supernick is right when he says the same ingredients are used in generic and branded products, WaldoMcFroog is also right when he says that manufactures are failing to alert the public that their products are the same thing. They have been known in the past to put extracts of expensive perfumes in some branded products to make them seem more exotic and of a higher quality than the standard types and of course, they thicken them more.