I had a microbiology professor who had our lab do almost this exact experiment, but with hand washing. We were all shook when we saw the petri dishes. She said that soap brings our natural flora to the surface of our pores and thats why the petri dishes grew so many more microbes. It’d be interesting if you could test the colonies to see what’s actually growing.

Yeah, this is a really important part of the question. You can't always tell how clean something is by looking at a petri dish. What microbes are there is just as important as how many. I did my science fair project on swabbing animal mouths and the human mouth and putting it on petri dishes, and while the petri dish from the human mouth looked worse, the research I did showed that the microbes from the animals would be more dangerous for humans.

guys get this comment to the threorist's radar, this might be key information. like dis comment Edit:thanks guys

This is so important!! They are assuming all bacteria is bad when that's not the case at all. We have colonies of bacteria on us that are SUPPOSED to be there; the goal with washing your body should not be to remove ALL microbes from your skin! Which bacteria are growing is significantly more meaningful information than how much bacteria.

Yes, that would be really interesting!

I also thought about the differences in bacteria colonies. Because smartphones are notorious for having a bunch of bacterias and yet they're still safer to handle than technically cleaner things, like a toilet seat or a raw chicken.

suggestions for any future experiments: When the control swabs were taken, that was on dry skin. Mud swabs were taken with the moisture from the mud, rinse swabs were taken while still wet, and soaped swabs were taken while just out of the shower still moist (as far as I could tell). The added moisture from taking the sample may have made for an increased humidity environment which may have been a contributing factor as to why so much bacteria grew compared to the control. If you were to repeat this experiment, I suggest taking the samples all dry or all wet to alleviate the added variable of added moisture. fun video tho. heherawrxD

I'm thinking about that, because is know that moisture helps to bacteria proliferate.

Your comment helped me remember that water is a great transfer medium for microbes. To a microbe, moist is hardly any different from wet, but both are far different from dry.

From what I can tell from the video they did wet the swab before taking the dry sample, but I'm not sure

Yes that is a huge potential for error. To mitigate the external variables, they should have maintained one swabing style instead of switching from dry swabing to wet swabing. The needed to let the area dry after each step to maintain consistent variables.

That’s what I was thinking that too. Knowing moisture is a factor, I was like… maybe it’s the added water?

I do think it's worth noting that a lot of Dove products do not actually call themselves "soap". "Beauty bar", "moisturizing shower wash", etc. I had always just kinda thought Dove was more along the lines of "beauty products"

Yes, dove bar is actually a syndet. They should've done this "experiment" with actual soap.

That’s why I use Dr Squatch or Every Man Jack

That's true. Dove is a moisturizing bar. It doesn't even contain soap lol It just leathers because it has chemicals.

That's actually pretty interesting this video gives me so many questions.

​@@valentinabestani3089true but the vast majority of showering products are syndets. It's only a few of the cheaper bars that are real soap, and I think all the liquid "soap" products for baths/showers are syndets (that's why they are called things like body wash instead of body soap).

There should be another set of negative controls (perhaps with the other leg) in which you DON'T muddy up the leg at all. This would help show if the soap was really making the leg dirtier.

I think another important question to touch on is if it is actually healthy to have such sterilized skin or if that's actually dangerous/unhealthy. Maybe growing more of those cultures is actually beneficial

You're definitely right about that. More bacteria isn't necessarily bad. It's also weird that they didn't realize that none of the products they used were actually "soap." They were all detergents, aka chemical concoctions.

I’d love a theory about if it matters to actually BE that clean, or if it’s better to let the bacteria roam a bit, like for your immune system.

One point for safety is that if you clean your hands (for example) so much that your skin is damaged, you're leaving yourself ~more~ vulnerable to bacteria because the damage to your skin is letting in the things you don't want inside. Keep your hands moisturized

@@cass6020 Very true. My little brother used to obsessively wash his hands because he was very paranoid about accidently eating poisonous substances. He would do it so often that he would actually get rashes on his hands because the excessive washing would damage his skin.

I would add to that eczema might be caused by the wrong bacteria happily living on your skin. There is still research being done on that, so take that with a grain of salt.

The shorts vs dress vs jeans really shows the importance of having larger sample sizes in testing

It could be the jeans and also the bacteria and such from sweat as each person can be different

As someone with a statistics degree, it can be so frustrating how small their sample sizes are. I like how they are promoting experiments and science, and I very much enjoy their content. It’s bitter sweet lol

“larger sample sizes” 🤨

@@lightlingzooma-69bro is not funny

Right? My first thought was that jeans are a more moist, dark environment with less exposure to the UV light from the sun.

The way Ashley and Josiah subconsciously mimic Matt's hand gestures when they're all sitting on the couch is hilarious and you can't unsee it once you notice it

Bot

Ya she stares at the hans waiting to do same

Soo gross

i felt like i was going insane scrolling the comments looking for someone to mention this

i noticed that too. seemed super cheesy.

I think the soap makes it seem "dirtier" by lifting the bacteria from the skin because more bacteria is able to get on the swab

Yeah i thought the same. I'd add an extra control test 10 or 20 min after the shower to see if the bacteria is lower than the control test before showering.

So that means soap is actually getting off dead cells?

Yes and that's why matpats control is dirtiest, he showed the same day

Next experiment you guys should try neutral dish soap, since it's not meant to be a beauty product but to actually sanitize. In fact, my tattoo artist always recommended using neutral dish soap to prevent infections.

Interesting, I’ve got 5 tattoos and they told me to only use an unscented body soap for sensitive skin if I felt the need to use soap on the tattoo while it was still healing. Otherwise they said I shouldn’t really need to do more than rinse and use unscented lotion also made for sensitive skin to keep the skin moisturized

One point of consideration is that when cleaning your hands, drying them afterwards with a clean towel/paper towel is a very important step. A suggestion if you read this and intend to revisit would be to wipe the legs with a clean towel before every step except the control.

Agreed, but wouldn't the differences in each of the different tests show that there is at least something else that is causing these differences?

@@bibbib2441 perhaps, there are probably more variables that would need to be considered to have a more cohesive test. For one, the mixture of mud was probably not the most consistent, with patches of higher and lower density of different bacteria. Also, my understanding of what drying/wiping does after applying the soap is removing some/most of the bacteria floating in the water that the soap dislodged from the skin

As a microbe , i can confirm soap nourishes us and this guy really did a fantastic job in exposing us😂

🤣

welcome back to another "Mat Pat makes us freak out about how clean we actually are" episode

Actually it’s welcome back to another “Stephanie makes us freak out about how clean we really are” episode

Don't worry we didn't knew about this until now(at least probably majority of us didn't)and we are fine

Kinda feel unclean after watching this episode while wearing long pants

☭

I need that jeans episode. I wear mine 2 or 3 times before I wash them... I'm shooketh....

I love her voice over. I hope at minimum she continues narrating soap saga specifically but I also understand they have a kid and child care is freaking expensive and hard to find sometimes right now

I love when Steph and Amy do some voice over :) I love Matt's voice of course, but it's obvious how much Amy and Steph care about this content :) it's awesome!

I would love to see a similar concept with the cleaning of makeup brushes.

Oh no, please, anything but that. I couldn't handle it. lol There are things we really simply should not know.

Please test Dial Soap!! that's the one the surgeons always tell me to wash with before surgery to clean the body. would be super interesting to see if it actually cleans!!

Dial is a great soap to use day of surgery, and the #1 recommended soap we recommend to use after when you're ready for a shower again for a reason. They got the result they did because they did not adhere to a number of sterile techniques (to avoid a contaminated sample size). See the top two comments to see where they went wrong. You're going to be fine using dial, and going at least 20 seconds gently over your body. Hope this helped.

My wife finally bought me the perfect soap from Bath and Body Works. I just had her buy me a dozen shower gels of this stuff. And then I randomly ran into this episode.

Matpat yet again questioning my entire hygiene yet again. Classic Matpat.

Fr

Matt pat I Sort that you lost your voice

Then it goes onto you questioning your sanity, then your existence... then it goes worse from there.

Yet again

First he came for your childhood. Then he came for your diet. Now he comes for your ever precious hygiene.

Seeing everyone have fun making these videos is almost as nice as the learning :)

I was a skeptic to this new channel...my brain thought "clothes and beauty" and I was like eh...but after this and the other shower one, I now better understand this channel and am excited for more 👀 Other ideas I thought were shower vs bath and deodorant: different types and how much

I think it would be interesting if you guys did a similar experiment but with soaps that claim to be natural, like Dr. Squatch or other ones like it

I think the key of the results is simply in the moisture of it. My theory is that you did grow bacteria mostly from the shower water and Mat sweat. Try to standardise the humidity level of the samples and kept away from contamination

I would love to hear Steph do more voice overs

Hearing Stephanie is a nice change, maybe she should do this more often?

This and dan. It is fun

I would have zero problem with Steph being the primary voice of this channel. She killed it today.

@@ryanmcmenamim9871I think they should switch off

Agreed

I feel like style theory is where Amy calls home. Since we see her on this channel a lot more than on the other ones. Plus, she’s the one that usually comes up with the theories here.

I think the best way to determine which soaps that the team can recommend would be a tier list on "cleanliness" this of course being the least amount of bacteria across all basic soaps of major brands to 1: mitigate costs so this video doesn't cost 4 figures and 2: to simplify the amounts of swabbing if this isn't seen I'm still thrilled to see what style theory comes up with next

I would love to see old spice soaps in the next "does it actually clean" soaps experiment

Loved this video, very entertaining and your findings don’t seem biased! Can you try various styles of soap? Castile soap, oil cleansers vs water only?

It would be interesting to see if swabs taken at different stages after soaping produced different results. Kind of like how your skin can be even more oily if you use something too harsh to de-oil it. Maybe that could yield some interesting results!

I HEAVILY believe the rest of the "Soap Saga" should be VO'd by Steph! Her voice is so nice to listen to her amount of knowledge on the topic is fascinating! (Also I'm starting to wonder what a video with Ash as the VO would be like?!)

Agreed wholeheartedly

Yes I concur

i agree! love her voice :D

Who is she?

This is what I was thinking. Steph’s Soap Saga would be great.

Could you guys test Native body wash when you eventually do a soap comparison video? I've been using that brand for years now and I'm incredibly curious how they stack up to other brands

The team is really cool! I love how they're getting more involved in the video's nowadays. I especially like Amy, but that's because she's a goth as well. I would envy her skintone if I were capable of feeling jealous

I have ONLY used Dove for years with my family. Please do a comparison test between different soap brands as I still want to believe that Dove will do better then other brands who are apparently more "abrasive and harsh" on your skin.

Mat just staring at Stephanie while she explains soap is comedy gold

Moisture is the main difference. A Dry swab on dry legs doesn't allow much to transfer to a dish medium, while MatPat peeled up his sweaty jeans for the control sample. A wet swab provides a nice even coat.

I think this is probably what explains it. Makes sense.

I was looking for this comment. It's not a fair comparison at all. And that probably explains MatPat's results, too - he was sweating more in long pants than the others, rather than just being intrinsically dirty.

​@extendoduck yes, that is what op said

I was thinking about the same thing. I had to grow bacteria cultures in my cell and molecular bio class a few years back, and I messed up my lab group’s results just by forgetting to wet the swab before collecting my samples.

Yes, they needed sterile saline or at least water for the dry legs.

I desperately need more VOs from Steph, I love hearing from her!

I'm curious about what the best way to shampoo your hair is. What brand does best, should you double shampoo, or if conditioner actually does stuff. Genuinely would be an interesting video

Definitely need to do test based on different types of soap. I noticed a huge difference in how I feel since I switched to squatch soap, but I wonder if that could be placebo or not.

Probably placebo

I'd love to see an episode of just seeing the results of how much bacteria you can get by wearing different bottoms. But it makes sense that the pants would have more bacteria than someone wearing skirts/dresses/shorts since pants kind of traps whatever is on the leg between the fabric and skin, whereas the skirts/dresses/shorts leave the leg exposed to the elements.

I would love to see a Dollar Tree soap enter the mix. See if that does better than Matt’s control, lol.

As someone who exclusively wears jeans/sweatpants/etc and who has the bad habit of falling into the “if it passes the sniff test it’s fine” trap, MatPat’s results are horrifying.

Same here 💀

Don't worry about it. This video is scientifically bunk. Not all bacteria is the same. Yes there more, but it's it benign or dangerous? They didn't bother to check.

I am literally required to wear jeans as part of my work uniform so I'll be washing my jeans in hot water or drying them in the sun because jeans hate hot water I guess haha

Saaaame 🥹

Yeah Food Theory and Style Theory have been my favorites, I watch pretty much every single episode. The science is just too interesting

I need you guys to do another video ASAP! I usually use dove soap and now I feel like my whole life is a lie!! What soap do I use now???? Also if you could do a video on face wash too that would be awesome. Thanks

I hope Lush ends up in there because I want to see how it compares to other soap brands for cleanliness.

I REALLY want to know why Matt had a dirtier leg. It must be very interesting and honestly mouth opening to discover the microorganisms that live in our clothes

Steph. You are an absolutely amazing person. Your addition to the Theorist Family was a God Send.

I love how Steph is the Lawful Neutral to Matts Chaotic Neutral. She's the balance when he goes too deep into the LORE 😂

I remember my friend in 8th grade did a science fair project if bar soap itself is actually clean. Turns out that thing after regular using for a few weeks it had more bacteria on the surface of the soap than her toilet seat 😂 ill never forget that

Big up to Steph for doing so much work this episode!

I’ve always heard another reason you should use anti-bacterial soaps and such regularly because it promotes the bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. I don’t know if this is true but I feel the same way about this episode that I did about the laundry episode; I’ve been using soap the same way my whole life and I’m not dead or constantly sick. So I don’t think it’s something to worry too much about.

If you guys do end up doing a soap comparison I hope you try Dial, its worked much better for me than other soaps it's labeled as anti-bacterial

we should try different brands based on price and cleanliness as I don't know why but dove gives me an allergic reaction, but dollar store soap with all the chemicals don't

I honestly would love a side show with Steff explaining in more detail any scientific data needed to make these episodes, this would be more of a educational video vs the usual Matpat zainyness with sources and stuff for students in college who are interested in science.

Agrer

That would be great although it probably won't happen. From what they've said dyring streams Steph is usually busy doing behind the scene and legal stuff.

I would love this but it seems like Steph is normally the one taking care of Ollie

fr tho i swear i learn more from matpat than in my science class lol

“WE WENT THROUGH THE WHOLE PANDEMIC AND YOU DIDNT KNEW THAT” Stephenie said it literally got me dying in the floor Edit: already 91 likes wow that’s cool

They did it wrong tho… part of the cleansing process is the drying. It has a huge part to play. The controls were taken from dry legs. The others from moist skin. It caused fungus to grow, not necessarily bacteria. That’s why Covid protocols and all hand washing protocols say to dry hands completely. They really shoved this point down our throats in EMT school. That’s also why you want your dishes to dry well, and why their laundry detergent tests were so damning. I’m surprised Dove isn’t coming after them for libel…

Im just saying the part funny that when Stephenie said that to Matpat

Staphanie needs her own channel (if she does she needs a raise!)

Steph voice in this episode was quite refreshing and nice, and AMY is SOOOO nice What a lovely and smart Theorist ...

Pleaseee dooooooo a tierlist for what brand or soap that can make you actually clean and smell great !

I think you guys should do a follow up with epsom salt body wash. Unfortunately the leg wash has to happen for me due to pain caused by standing a lot.

my wish of stephanie doing a VO for a theory episode has come true

Ерizоd 47 https://youtu.be/TlBi_ZwmSWA

Yes

@@Officialmurdbot

Spoilers bro

@@6darren6 it’s in the first 30 seconds 💀

I’d be interested to know how the results change if you use a luffa or sponge compared to the raw bar

I have a questions. I know drying plays a large role in your body cleaning SO what if when you swabbed with the soap when you were STILL WET the bacteria was raised loose on your skin but not yet off your leg because you hadn't dried? Still massive props for this really cool and honestly important video.

Might be interesting to test what happens if you don't shower at all, and rely on the skin's natural cleaning. It seems to be doing a better job than the soap, at least.

Please test out a bunch of brands, I loved this!

On the soap theme... You should do an episode on co-washing and see how well conditioner only washing is compared to soap/shampoo washing

Once again Stephanie proves to be an absolutely vital piece to this channel 😅😅 always great to see appearances from other team members 🎉🎉🎉

Ерizоd 47 https://youtu.be/TlBi_ZwmSWA

@@Lovemeew48bot

Let us never forget her iconic performance as Nugget!

@@WayWardWonderer it will always have a special place in the hearts of Theorists everywhere, especially longtime fans of the GT Live days of a few years ago

*insert the "always has been" meme*

What if you did a test to determine which items wash the best? Items such as loofas, sponges, silicone scrubs, and washcloths.

Now I want to watch all the topics you guys asked questions about! Please make videos on that too!

Please make a sequel soon. I need to know what soap will stop my acne best.

I love hearing Steph narrate!

The moral of this episode: drying off after your bath/shower is THE most important step. As an obese man, I know I am higher maintenance. After showering, not only do I use a towel, but I literally stand in front of a fan for 5 minutes at least. If I sweat, I do what I can to dry off after. It’s no joke. The musk I build up even after limited activity is suffocating. But this can apply to anyone. DRY OFF.

I'm just wondering if one of the reasons Matt's leg control is worse is because the others had exposed their skin to sunlight. As pointed out in the laundry detergent episode, sunlight contains UV light and that kills of bacteria

It could also be the contained more humid environment since it’s all trapped by the thick denim

It could be a combination of that and the fact that the space between your skin and clothes is a dark, warm, slightly humid environment, which is exactly the type of environment bacteria thrive in.

I was about to say that's likely why they were cleaner controls

Matt said that he took a shower earlier that day. Looking at the dishes, it looks comparable to the soapy ones, so I'm assuming when you took a shower you used soap.

Can you do a video for different brands and another for anti bacterial soaps to find out which brand gets you clean the best?

I feel like this needs a part 2 cause honestly,I'm rather mixed by the results. Or more rather I feel that the conclusion doesn't feel very satisfying. Especially when it leaves questions then answers. Even MatPat was quite befuddled at the results.

I NEED the next video!!! I've been so worried about all the bacteria on my body when I shower and now I don't know if I should be using the soaps I have or if it would be better to not use any at all 😭😭😭😭😭

I'd love to see loofahs's vs washcloths vs brushes vs just washing with your hand tested! Maybe for 2 weeks each of you use one of those items and then you test the products and then your skin after a shower. I know its recommended to replace things like loofahs every month or so but I'd be curious to see which one holds more bacteria. 🧟‍♀️🦠

The fact that they assume bacteria equals dirt is really testing my patience 😤

im just gonna ignore the results for a moment and give Stephanie the appreciation she deserves. I loved hearing her narrate this episode, and she definitely deserves more recognition and appreciation from everyone, I was literally thinking about this yesterday and i feel like this video was a great opportunity for me to express my appreciation and love for her contribution to the channels.

can we talk about how matt is willing to drag his own image in the mud for us?

Do you guys actually plan to do more tests with different soaps and stuff for a final conclusion, or did you just say that to keep the suspense or joke around? Personally, I would like to know once and for all if using soap is actually worth it.

Curious about the difference between home made soap and store bought.

I did an experiment in biology class once where we tested the difference in cleaning off bacteria on our hands and comparing different strengths of soap and desinfectant. The weirdest part was that they all kept our hands either equally clean/dirty or a bit cleaner, even JUST water! The desinfectant was the best... But the normal everyday handsoap made our hands DIRTIER.

I’m invested in this @soap saga” as much as fnaf. Keep them coming!

This channel has made it so that I'm absolutely horrified on any topic that regards hygiene, but on the bright side, having Steph voice an episode was a nice change of pace. We love you, Steph!

Yes and the sweater is 🤌

Still waiting for this episode continuation, this episode has made me buy antibacterial soap moving forward😅

NekoOnigiri, your cameos in the theory episodes are brilliant! More Neko!!

I’d love to see a continuation of this!

Try your basic hippie soap or a French triple- or quad-milled soap. Do the antibacterial properties of lavender and tea tree oil change anything? 🤔 I'd also be interested in what results glycerine soap gets.

It's important to consider that it's dangerous to overkill the bacteria on our skin, since we need them

Maybe the reason Matt had so much bacteria was because he showered with soap closer to the experiment then the rest of the team. When you guys took the swab right after washing you had similar colonies as matpat did in the first swab

Came here to say this. Also, those bacterial culture kits don't differentiate between symbiotic bacteria and illness causing bacteria.

@@dreamchaser7177 True, but it is still rather concerning that the soap caused more bacteria of likely both symbiotic bacteria and illness causing bacteria.

@@systematicpastellia13Yes, when you wash yourself, your body has to rebuild its bacterial cultures again, and rebuild to a balanced nature. Which is why we saw so many cultures right after washing, but fewer before.

@@dreamchaser7177 True, but we don't know if it was symbiotic bacteria that overtook the colonies, or if it was illness causing bacteria, since it didn't look any different and there's no real way of saying if the soap actually got rid of the bad bacteria or not.

Your next test needs to include Irish spring soap for bacteria... I'm also curious about hygienic products that have charcoal in them to neutralize the smell... are they effective to make you actually clean... or give off the perception/feeling clean

My grandma used to use a river stone to scrub her skin. After seeing this I think that I will give it a go, can't be worse than this!

That is wildly interesting.

I use Casile soap. Would love to see that included in a test.

you should do a Regular shower water vs filtered shower water I've always been curious since the human skin absorbs chemicals as well.

whenever you do different body soap brands please do Raw Sugar soap. it is one of the only brands that isn't owned by the major investment companies and i've only seen at target. Would love to know if it's doing better or worse then regular big name brands

I think you have an obligation to society to do a second episode as soon as possible. This series is suddenly _far_ more important than a simple learning experience!

truee

this.

Absolutely agree, this is gone from, “did you know technically this works” to actually, dove is lying to us, they make us dirtier than before

We’re too deep in now

Testing out iodine soap(surgery soap) would be very interesting!!!!

A question I've always sorta had about soap is whether or not strong scents have any effect on your skin health/bacteria growth. Like lets say I have two identical soaps (or moisturizer might also be a worthy question), except one is scented and one is unscented. Is there a difference between how the two would affect my skin? Excluding special cases like allergies to the ingredients causing the scents, of course.

Curious if you can test how cleansers compare, like Cetaphil. Which I think are expected to clean less, but not dry out skin. But not sure

You should experiment on facial cleansers like cerave that can be used as full body washes