The new soap stars that are raising the bar

Bars of soap are back - and in a big way. Once thought to be old-fashioned, drying and harbourers of germs, we shunned them in favour of shower mousses and liquid soaps.

Now, though, we've fallen in love with them all over again. Data from Kantar Worldpanel show that in the year to September 2018, Britons spent £68.3 million on barred soaps. That's up 2.9 per cent on the previous 12 months, confirming market analysis by Mintel in the preceding years.

Part of it is down to environmental concerns. A bar of soap requires minimal packaging and Kantar's researchers found that almost half of bar soap users say that they avoid products that are harmful to the environment.

But what about the fears that...