Three Points of the Compass takes a glance at a lightweight soap case with ‘dry through’ technology. Spoiler- it’s expensive, but good!

I strive for lightweight when backpacking and also prefer soap over hand-sanitiser. Most often I am carrying a small dropper bottle with a few ml of liquid Dr. Bronners castile soap. With care, a small amount will last a week or more, just a drop or two required on a cloth or disposable ‘puck’ for a cursory tent wash. However a serviced ‘official’ camp site often offers a decent shower at the end of a day’s hiking and liquid soap isn’t the most efficient of mediums for a shower.

Despite being heavier, a solid block of soap or a shampoo puck from the likes of Lush is preferable for shower use. Obviously the cheapest way of carrying one of these is in a ziplock. This is fine for an overnighter or weekend but once wet, soap promptly becomes a bit of a soft mess in one of these. The Matador FlatPak Soap Bar Case is far more durable than any ziplock bag and will last many years. One of these also has advantages over cheap ‘n’ cheerful plastic soap cases too, being both waterproof, less prone to breakage and, possibly importantly, lighter and taking up less room.

The Matador soap case is made of a flexible cordura nylon material, proprietary to Matador, that purportedly has “dry-through” technology. This is a two-layer “100% waterproof” material that is permeable; it ‘breathes’, allowing a degree of moisture from inside the case to vent through the sides. Matt black (charcoal) on the outside, it has a smooth shiny interior. This material helps prevent the soap inside from become the soft mushy mess often experienced with the simplest and cheapest of options, namely, using a ziplock bag instead. It has welded sides and a gusset bottom to allow for quite large bars of soap to be stored inside. I note that Matador have recently been releasing white and garnet colour variants of their standard black.

The FlatPak case is subtly branded- the Matator name shown black-on-black on one side, and a small white-on-black Matator tag at the base of the case. It works best when the soap bar is allowed to air dry slightly before storing, but at least shake off and pat dry from excess water before slipping it inside the case. It is closed by rolling the top three times or more and fastening the small YKK plastic buckle. This can be hung inside a shower if wished, or a small carabiner could be clicked through it instead. Designed in the US, it is made in China. The soft format enables it to be more easily packed than a hard case, taking up less room. It is also a good deal lighter than any hard backed soap case, my Matador FlatPak case comes in at just eleven grams and there is no need to carry an entire bar of soap. The case can simply be rolled further to accommodate a smaller bar or as a bar of soap reduces in size over time.

Those on an extended trip of many weeks, possibly months, will be packing along a full size bar, and possibly resupplying at some point too. Shorter trips do not require a (heavier) whole bar of soap to be carried. It could be halved, even quartered as required. Three Points of the Compass took the Matador Soap Case on a recent trip to Chile to hike the ‘O’ Circuit in South Patagonia, where overnight halts have to be made at official campsites, each of which had showers. With careful use a small amount of good quality castile soap goes a long way. I packed a small ten gram block of soap inside the Flat Pak case and enjoyed a decent lather up, hair and body wash in a hot shower each night as a result. Other than one site that only has cold water, where the briefest of time was spent in the shower! There was easily enough soap for a week of hostel overnighters in town prior to and following the hike too. Castile soap also acts as a fairly effective deodorant too. The Matador soap case keeps everything in a hygiene kit dry and isolated from soap gunk, it keeps a small block of soap in usable condition, takes up minimal space and will last many many trips. While I continue to use my little dropper bottle of Dr. Bronners on almost all of my lightweight backpacking trips, the option of taking a small solid block of soap inside the Matador case is only slightly heavier and occasionally suits a particular adventure best.

The Matador FlatPak Soap Bar Case is not a cheap purchase however. From Amazon UK, the standard case (shown here) costs a slightly eye-watering £16.99. This measures 10.16cm x 6.1cm x 3.3cm (max). There is also an XL variant for £17.99, measuring 10.9cm x 14.8cm x 4cm (max) that weighs an additional couple of grams. Bought new, they have a two year warranty. Most soap bars will fit inside the standard size. Matador was the original in this format and having been released around six years ago, a number of cheaper clones have since appeared on the market, some costing half that of the Matador product, whether they perform just as well, caveat emptor.