Sulphur Soap

Where has this soap been all my life? It is simply good ol' soap with micronised sulphur incorporated. Sulphur is a known miticide (it kills mites) and fungicide (it kills fungus). My chilli plants are prone to broadmites. These mites are so small you cannot see them with the naked eye. You only know they are there when leaves begin to look rough and wrinkled instead of smooth and fat. Chilli plants are especially susceptible. They may be micron sized insects but they are redoubtable pests. They can kill the plant if allowed to.

Kudos to Dr. Wilson Wong for this inventive and organic pest control method.

1 teaspoon of sulphur soap flakes dissolved in 1litre of water, sprayed daily onto plant leaves, does wonders. The mites all die and my chilli plants produce beautiful new leaves. This thing works on spider mites too - the bane of every rose bush and butterfly pea plant!

Best thing of all, using sulphur as a pesticide is allowed in organic farming because sulphur is an important nutrient for plants. The only downside is that an excess of sulphur in the soil tends to acidify the soil. Unless you are growing gardenias, your plants will have problems uptaking nutrients when the ph level of the soil is too low.

This is such a cheap low class soap that you cannot find it in NTUC Fairprice nor in Cold Storage. One needs to go to Valu$ where it is retailed at $0.50 per bar. It does not even appear in Sheng Siong!

I first bought 4. Then, I bought 10 because the 4 got used up really fast.

I opened one for the plants. My maid took one to bathe Milo, and it cured him of the eczema that he has had for years. My son took one for his face (because it helps acne). The Husband and I took one for scalp health because it kills the fungus that causes dandruff and itchy scalp. Then, the maid asked me for one to bathe herself because she said that her hands felt so clean after bathing Milo.

It can be drying for the rest of my skin but it works really well for my t-zone (which gets so oily that I need to wash it 5 times a day). I use the sulphur soap once every 2 days to remove oil and dead skin cells.

It also has keratolytic action (i.e., it breaks down the outer layer of dead skin cells), thus saving me the bother of exfoliating. The Husband never exfoliates so I am happy that his skin and scalp get exfoliated a few times a week when he uses this soap. The best thing, though, is that Milo has stopped his incessant scratching. We were so naive. We used all sorts of expensive pet soaps on him when a 50 cents bar of sulphur soap would have done better.

Cheap is not necessarily bad. Some of the most organic soaps (without a ton of additives) are the old brands that my Grandma used. Back in those days, big Pharma hadn't done that much research and chemical additives had not been invented. Soap was just soap.