Sea to Summit is always looking for a way to shave the weight of your pack, whether its super concentrated soap, silk weight compression sacks, or their latest Pocket body wash, shampoo with conditioner, hand soap, laundry wash, or shaving soap. We recently went on a 2 week trip and only took the Sea to Summit Trek and Travel Pocket Wash along with us to test out the effectiveness of the dry soaps.
First off, the photo above makes the pocket wash look ginormous. Each pocket actually measures a mere 2″ x 1.5″ x 0.5″ (using my thumb as an inch estimator) and can be placed in your pocket quite easily. Each pocket contains 50 dry soap leaves. So what is a soap leave? Remember the breath mints that were a thin sheet of paper like material that dissolved on your tongue? The dry soap paper leaves are much of the same concept. When the dry leaf makes contact with water it starts to suds up and become activated soap.
Depending on the product, Sea to Summit recommends using 1-2 leaves, depending on the job at hand. I have rather long hair and needed to use 2-3 leaves to wash my hair, while a guy with short hair may find that 1 leaf does the trick. When washing my hands I usually opted again for 2 leaves and used up to 3 leaves for a body wash. Maybe I am a clean freak, but I felt I needed more suds than the recommended 1-2. The biggest thing to keep in mind when using these is remove the paper leaves with DRY HANDS. If you do not do this, the entire pocket will become globed together and render the leaves ineffective because you will have a difficult time dividing them up. I suggest laying out a few extra leaves ahead of time and then if you don’t need them you can return them to the pocket with DRY hands.
The pocket wash is mess free, think no exploding travel sized shampoo bottles due to changes in elevation or atmospheric pressure. I suggest storing them in a zip-lock bag to prevent any moisture from reaching the pockets, which would once again glob them together. Because these are dry leaves, the pockets weigh next to nothing, which I really liked. I am always trying to lighten the carry on load or my backpack weight when out on a trip. These pockets would work well in the outdoors if you are using a solar shower or doing a spot wash at camp. If using them out in the wilderness, keep at least 200-300 ft away from running streams to prevent polluting the waterways. Overall, the pocket wash did an effective job at washing my hair and body. I did not get the chance to try out the laundry wash or shaving soap, but would be interested to see how these are different that the hand/body wash and shampoo/conditioner.
These pocket washes are extremely affordable and a pocket contains 50 leaves. For more information on the Trek and Travel Pocket Wash and other Sea to Summit products, please visit www.seatosummit.com or www.amazon.com/seatosummit.
Features
* Phosphate and Paraben free* Biodegradable /Environment friendly phosphate free* Light Green Tea fragrance* 50 soap leaves in each pack* TSA Carry-on compliant* Comes in five types: Body Wash, Conditioning Shampoo, Hand Wash, Laundry Wash and Shaving Soap
