A soap substitute refers to detergent

Detergent

A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with "cleaning properties in dilute solutions." In common usage, "detergent" refers to alkylbenzenesulfonates, a family of compounds that are similar to soap but are less affected by hard water...

s or cleansing creams, other than soap

Soap

In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid.IUPAC. "" Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. . Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford . XML on-line corrected version: created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN...

, for cleaning the skin

Skin

-Dermis:The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis that consists of connective tissue and cushions the body from stress and strain. The dermis is tightly connected to the epidermis by a basement membrane. It also harbors many Mechanoreceptors that provide the sense of touch and heat...

, especially removing greasy films or glandular exudates. Soap substitutes can be made from a variety of sources including plants with high saponin levels. Soap substitutes should not be confused with natural cleaning products which are cleaning agents for kitchen and house use.

Plants with high saponin levels are purported to contain saponin

Saponin

Saponins are a class of chemical compounds, one of many secondary metabolites found in natural sources, with saponins found in particular abundance in various plant species...

s in sufficient quantities to produce lather

Lather

Lather may refer to:*Foam, a substance formed by gas bubbles trapped in a liquid or solid*Läther , a Frank Zappa album*Lather , a song by Jefferson Airplane*Lather, a worker who installs the strips used in lath and plaster wall construction...

 (when mashed plant parts are beaten in water) and can be used either as is or in soap or shampoos.

Soap substitute plants

• The soap plant
  Soap plant
  The Soap Plants, Soaproots or Amoles are the genus Chlorogalum of flowering plants. Less common names for them include Soap Lilies. They are endemic to western North America, from Oregon to Baja California, and are mostly found in California.The Soap Plants grow as perennial plants, from a bulb,...
  
   group (amole root, soap plant root, soaproot bulb)
• Guaiac
  Guaiacum
  Guaiacum, sometimes spelled Guajacum, is a genus of flowering plants in the caltrop family Zygophyllaceae. It contains five species of slow-growing shrubs and trees, reaching a height of approximately but are usually less than half of that...
  
   leaves
• Papaya
  Papaya
  The papaya , papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae...
  
   leaves
• Quillaia
  Quillaia
  Quillaia is the milled inner bark or small stems and branches of the soapbark . Other names include China bark extract, Murillo bark extract, Panama bark extract, Quillai extract, Quillaia extract, Quillay bark extract, and Soapbark extract...
  
   bark

• Red campion
  Red Campion
  Red campion is a flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, native throughout central, western and northern Europe, and locally in southern Europe....
  
   root and leaves
• Atriplex
  Atriplex
  Atriplex is a plant genus of 100-200 species, known by the common names of saltbush and orache . The genus is quite variable and widely distributed. It includes many desert and seashore plants and halophytes, as well as plants of moist environments...
  
   root
• Sapindus
  Sapindus
  Sapindus is a genus of about five to twelve species of shrubs and small trees in the Lychee family, Sapindaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions in both the Old World and New World. The genus includes both deciduous and evergreen species. Members of the genus are commonly known as...
  
   fruit
• Passiflora foetida
  Passiflora foetida
  Passiflora foetida is a species of passion flower that is native to the southwestern United States , Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and much of South America...
  
  
• Alphitonia excelsa
  Alphitonia excelsa
  Alphitonia excelsa, commonly known as the Red Ash or Soap Tree, is a species of tree in the Rhamnaceae family. It is endemic to Australia, being found in New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and the northeastern tip of Western Australia...
  
  
• Soap pod fruit (various acacia
  Acacia
  Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...
  
  s)

• Mojave yucca
  Mojave yucca
  Yucca schidigera, also known as the Mojave yucca or Spanish Dagger, is a flowering plant that is native to the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert of southeastern California, Baja California, southern Nevada and western Arizona....
  
   root
• Soapwort
  Soapwort
  Common Soapwort is a vespertine flower, and a common perennial plant from the carnation family . Other common names are Bouncing Bet and Sweet William; locally it is simply "the Soapwort" although there are about 20 species of soapworts altogether.The scientific name Saponaria is derived from the...
  
   root
• Our Lord's Candle
  Our Lord's Candle
  Hesperoyucca whipplei is a species of flowering plant closely related to, and formerly usually included in, the genus Yucca...
  
   root
• Wild gourd fruit (Cucurbita foetidissima
  Cucurbita foetidissima
  Cucurbita foetidissima is a xerophytic tuberous plant found in the southwestern USA and northwestern Mexico. A member of the cucumber family, the fruit is consumed by humans and animals. The fruit is eaten cooked like a squash when very young...
  
  [?])

Advantages

• One of the main advantages of soap plants is their biological degradability; this eliminates the need of filtering afterwards and any lather may thus be discarded straight into the soil.