INUVIK - If there's one hand soap that towers above the others in popularity, it's Softsoap, say Annika Krizan and Sumaiyah Shaha.

But these Grade 7 keeners aren't the type to just jump on the uninformed hand washing bandwagon. They wanted to know why people everywhere seem to turn to this particular brand. More importantly, they wanted to determine if it's better than the competition.

For their science project, Annika Krizan, left, and Sumaiyah Shaha took a collection of popular hand soaps and find out for themselves which ones really work the best. - Andrew Rankin/NNSL photo

So their science project was born.

The results were on display at the SHSS science fair on Friday. The pair stacked Softsoap against three other hand soaps: Jergens pure and gentle clear soap, Rexall antibacterial moisturizing hand soap and Safeway antibacterial hand soap.

The result: Softsoap isn't all it's cracked up to be.

"Because it's so popular we thought Softsoap would kill the most bacteria," said Krizan. "But it doesn't seem to kill as much germs."

Krizan spent a couple of minutes washing with each soap. Afterwards she spread a solution over her hands that indicated the presence of germs under a special blue light the girls used for the project.

Shaha photographed the startling results, which revealed several pockets of bacteria, especially between the fingers, where Softsoap was used. In fact, Rexall antibacterial moisturizing hand soap turned out to be the standout performer of the lot.

Much to their surprise the other antibacterial soap faired the worst, which left the girls scratching their heads, assuming that with an antibacterial label it would perform better than the regular suds.

"It was fun and interesting to learn like this," said Shaha.

Although the project didn't sway science fair judge Paul Watters on what soap to buy, he was impressed with the girls' effort.

"You see it's important to wash your hands," said Watters. "You don't really realize what's on your hands but with the blue light you see what's actually there."

Shannon Baetz, a Grade 7 student, figured for her project she'd find out whether girls have a better sense of smell than boys.

She blindfolded 12 males and 12 females and had them sniff three different food samplings, including Canadian White Cheddar Cheese, red pepper, and an orange slice.

The guys guessed right six times and wrong six times, while the girls picked correctly five times and wrong seven times.

The results left Baetz a little perplexed.

"I thought girls would have a better sense of smell," she said. "They're the ones that wear a lot of products and lotions and probably make use of their sense of smell most often."