Bar Soap

I, too, am a gold Dial guy, OP. I feel lost without it.

Dove Sensitive for shower, Kirk's Castile for hands.

Bath gels are disgusting.

I love it, artisanal hand-made soap is my favorite thing

Ivory for as long I can remember. It's what I grew up with.

Dial in the white and blue packaging, Refresh & Renew?

Dove bar soap. I've used it for 35 + years.

R6 which Dove? the pink one or the white? or one of the newer scents?

Shower gel is for chumps. Ninety percent water, and one more plastic bottle to send to the landfill.

Ivory and Gold Dial but just in the summer, it is too drying for me to use in the winter. I like a good goat milk soap for winter.

I hate the way too many bottles look in the shower, and a single bar of soap fits my minimalist aesthetic. However, for handwashing at the sink it's only liquid soap.

Claus Porto soap on a rope is one of the best things I’ve ever smelled.

Imperial Leather soap by Cusson's. Wonderful sandalwood scent.

R8 I agree. What's even worse is foaming soap. How the hell did they get us to buy into THAT?

Soap?

Ivory and Dove are my favorites. Dial gold smells nice but it’s far too strong. Dries my skin out bad.

Lifebouy Coral or Zest are my faves, when I can find them.

Must be triple-milled. More expensive, but lasts longer.

Kirk's Castile

Ahava Mud Soap

We always had Dial Gold when I was a kid. As an adult I liked Zest and Coast (and sometimes Irish Spring) but I always wished that more companies offered a full line of products with the same scent (anti-perspirant, shampoo, etc.) so that you didn't have conflicting scents. I've sort of gotten there now with Dove men's line -- they offer a full line of same-scented products. But sometimes they discontinue them. My favorite -- Minerals and Sage -- is getting hard to find, except for the bar soap.

I swear by Dial Lavender for cleaning up my old Dad. It's weird how people in their 90s no longer sweat (by and large), but their bodily emanations (shit and piss) are FOUL, as are their crotches, even with daily deep cleaning. It is so hard to keep on top of, esp with all the body folds (never weighed more than 155 lbs in his life, and now stays at 122, so it's not a fat/former fat thing; it's just all the wrinkles).

Kirk’s Castile soap for hands.

Hermes eau d’Orange Verte for shower.

I use shea butter soap as hand soap, but get the. Ice liquid soap out when guests are around.

I use Dial the white bar in the shower

This brings back grotesque memories of white Dove bars with 2 or 3 random long black pubes. My mother's second husband was a pig.

The Yardley oatmeal and almond soap is nice, unless they changed the formula. (I haven't used it for a long time.) It's a little chunky with bits (almond?), so that might not be your jam.

[quote] I love classic gold Dial and blue Coast soap.

Both of those soaps dry my skin out like a MFer.

I like whatever is slipperiest and. Most likely to require me to bend over and present hole in the gang showers.

[quote]What's even worse is foaming soap. How the hell did they get us to buy into THAT?

Maybe I'm just Joan Crawford-level OCD but my hands never really feel clean when I use that foaming soap shit. I want real liquid soap that I can smear and scrub all over my hands.

White Dove, now called Original, all over my body and my hair. For 40 years now. Never once used another soap.

I was gifted with 3 bars of handmade goat's milk soap. Has anyone ever tried a version that? I haven't yet, still finishing up a multi-package set of Dove's green colored moisturizing soap.

The cucumber Dove is very good, nice clean scent.

Any special soap for the hole?

In winter I switched to Tone soap.

Bar soap is nasty and messy, only body wash allowed here, the old Boomer man brought some home and it promptly got thrown in the trash in front of his face Some things are just too far

I loved gold Dial, Irish Spring and Zest, but my medical condition affects my coordination, and it constantly falls out of my hands. I need to use shower soap. I am happy with Ultramoisture body wash with coconut oil. It's on the expensive side, but my skin have never looked better. I didn't even peel during the summer.

Tripled milled French savon only for all my nooks and crannies.

R34 my bar soap is fro L’Occitane and is $15 a bar. If I caught you trying to discard my soap because you’re an asshole who doesn’t know jack, id be all sorts of pissed off at you

I have been a shower gel user for the longest time. Just started using bar soap again. I like the Dove Men+Care Extra Fresh scented soap. I had a store coupon and gave it a try. It has a pleasant scent and doesn't dry out my skin. There's something oddly satisfying about pulling a fresh bar of soap out of the box.

I don’t use it on my skin but I sometimes put bars of Irish Spring in my car to counteract the dog smell.

Yeah, cucumber Dove smells good.

Where my black people at? You know your grandmother had bathtub full of Burt’s bees growing up 😂.

And yes I’m on this name because klan grannies FF’d my other moniker convincing Muriel to put it on timeout.

Only hand made stuff for me

Yes R38, DOVE MEN + CARE Bar for me, too.

You're joking, right, R41? Black Grandmas and Burt's Bees? You must be one of those kids whose grandma was 28 when you were born.

R44 you stankin ass piece of shit. My dad is the youngest of my black grandma so actually she was prolly older than most grandmas at the time of my conception. She was born in the late 30s and I in the late 80s. I don’t even get what you mean. Burt’s Burt was out in the 90s.

Stop lying, Teafake. Everything that comes out of your junkie hole is a lie.

I use Dove when I cannot find Oil of Olay soap. But oil of Olay (white) has a much nicer scent. There's sort of a stronger scent to Dove, with some medicinal notes in it. They are ostensibly both moisturizing soaps, but I feel oil of Olay leaves my naturally dry skin moister. I have noticed with anything scented that some complement a person's own body scent and some do not. I was having an ultrasound once, and the technician (a woman) leaned in and said, "wow you really smell nice", which I'm pretty sure is not a professionally sanctioned comment. But I took it as a sign that oil of Olay was a good scent for me.

[quote]And yes I’m on this name because klan grannies FF’d my other moniker convincing Muriel to put it on timeout.

Don't you have to pay a separate membership fee for each account you have? That's insane.

Who'd a thought a Bar Soap thread would out-post a Viagra and Cialis thread?

Mafuckin!’

I wuz razed rite.

Old school:: Zest and Safeguard.

Today: Squatch. Pricey but nice.

Bar soap is making a comeback. Feels so much cleaner after showering than shower gel.

Cucumber Dove or pink dove.

You will have to pry my Irish Spring bar soap from my cold dead hands, it's what I have used my entire life. And my partner likes the smell, he says it's my smell and I can't change it. That said I like the recent Moisture Blast and the Aloe versions.

Irish Spring has a nice, clean scent. I've always liked it.

R44, nope, i just go to a lot of farmer’s markets. My hair dresser supplied me with soap for a few years. Hand-made soap is a big deal

Cetaphil gentle cleansing bar soap is very nice. I keep that in the shower and bathroom sink. It dissolves easily and rinses away clean, and has a light, clean scent.

In the kitchen, Compagnie de Provence Savon de Marseille Extra Pure Liquid Soap. It comes in a glass pump bottle, and a large refill can be ordered. Mediterranean Sea is one scent, and you can also order Grapefruit scent. Both are mild and pretty delightful.

All the bar soaps previously mentioned, plus the old Pears scented with thymol and isoamyl acetate - what our noses recognize as thyme and pear - they need to bring it back! Palmolive bar soap as well. Camay too.

I have a Bath and Body Works Ocean "cleansing bar" scenting my clothes drawer. If one dries soap out in this manner for months it lasts much longer.

Oh and Lever 2000, Yardley Honey and Oatmeal. :-)

Lever 2000 aloe is also a nice soap.

Irish Spring

Dove Men’s Soap. The variety with the little pumice bits mixed in that make me feel I’m being nuzzled in the shower all over my body by some hunky brute with a day’s worth of scruffy beard!

They have two pumice varieties. I like the extra exfoliating one better.

I only like Zest for bar soap but I also use Ivory for liquid soap in the shower. Love the Ivory Aloe scent.

I prefer a bar soap for the arm pits and the nether regions, liquid soap on a sponge for the rest of my body.

Oh, well it’s at least three Dove exfoliating soaps. The men’s line and the stuff in white boxes.

MAKE IT!

Ivory. Forever. They used to have a good hand soap and a good body wash, but they changed - cheapened, probably - the formulas for both, so I stopped using them.

Nowadays, along with the Ivory Bar, I use Suave Essentials Body Wash Coconut, which is cheap and hard to get (Coconut version), and alternate with expensive Aveeno Body Wash.

Suave Essentials are all good stuff at very reasonable prices. Try them. You'll be surprised.

Irish Spring. It has sentimental value for me and reminds me of someone.

R7 - the white one but occasionally the green one because it's a nice fresh smell. I'm not a fan of the other scents.

They don't make it anymore but I loved Tone soap. I like Yardley too but right now I just use Safeguard. It really foams up and I like that.

Lava, like a real manly macho man.

Irish Spring for me, too. And I thumb my nose at the DLers who clutch their pearls at the thought of bar soap and insist on the liquid in the plastic pump bottles.

Dove cucumber and Irish Spring Moisture Blast.

I don't think I've seen any mention yet of those soaps that are made of a translucent orange material. Can't remember the name or a brand of it but I always loved their smell. What is it called??

Do you mean Pears soap R73? It does smell nice.

I didn't post the question but I love that Pears soap. They make a see through blue one that is mint now too. It's awesome.

Yes, of course! Pears. Love it!!! Though a bar never seems to last as long as regular bar soap.

Prefer bar soap! Liquid soap is for hands.

R75 - here are the flavors you are talking about. Mint (blue) and lemon flowers (green). I love all of the Pears bar soaps and use them for hand wash soaps in the bathrooms. I use Dove bar soap for the shower.

I hate hotel bathrooms that only have those dispensers for liquid soap, shampoo and hair conditioner on the tile wall. Without my glasses on in the shower, I can't tell which is which.

I visited my parents in Arizona a few months ago and they had one of those moisturizing Dove soap bars in their shower. My body felt like it was covered in slime after rinsing off. I couldn't wash it off, this slippery greasiness. It actually got me panicked.

*shivers *

Ugh, agree r80. it makes you feel the opposite of clean.

you're a werido

Arizona water is harder than hard. I guarantee that if you lived in that area for anytime at all, you'd be begging for any kind of soap that promised not to strip essential oils from your skin.

"Hard water, which has traces of iron, magnesium and calcium, can form free radicals. These are known to break down collagen, which keeps the skin firm. It leads to premature aging as the skin sags and fine lines and wrinkles are formed. Prolonged exposure to hard water can even aggravate skin conditions like eczema and cause flare-ups."

Is it likely, then, that r80 's parents have a water softener installed, given r83 's assertion?

If so, it's hard to rinse off ANY soap. I've lived in a house with a water softener, and this was the case.

The only classic bar soap I'd use is Ivory.

I do prefer the bar form. I am a huge fan of a small company called Copa Soaps, especially their "spicy" scents.

Doc Bronner's peppermint soap is also nice.

L.A.V.A. soap really is good for greasy, grimy hands.

As a little kid, I was fascinated by that Zest commercial. (The soap comparisons, showing that Zest left no residue on a piece of glass.) At some point, my mom bought a couple of bars of Zest. Sure enough, my skin felt really smooth and clean, no residue.

Does bar soap ever have an expiration date?

Old soap tends lose its scent a bit. But it keeps.

I used to use Boraxo when I needed a scrubbing soap, such as when I had been working on something greasy, or had been working in my garden without gloves. It used Borax as a "scrubber" plus soap to foam it away. However, I think it might have been reformulated. When I looked just now, I saw the old familiar cans with the label "vintage", and newer varieties are a different color. I'd never use a soap like that for everyday use though. It would probably start removing your skin with daily use.

I’m using a bar of homemade lavender soap now and will switch to Cetaphil in winter.

Artisanal soaps are one of my favorite gifts to give.

[quote]Artisanal soaps are one of my favorite gifts to give.

With the added benefit of a subtext that says the recipient should use your gift - daily.

R91, that’s been the case once or twice, haha.

Soaps are kind of an iffy gift.

1. Some people have skin issues and can't really use any kind of soap. (E.g., me.)

2. Some people just don't like certain kinds of scents.

R79 plot twist: it doesn’t make any difference!

I buy Cusson’s when I travel but can’t find it in the US.

Usually I buy the oversize triple-milled soap in the pretty wrappers at Marshall’s or TJ Maxx; they smell great and last forever.

The best soap I’ve ever used was handmade goat soap from a small farm in western NJ., left my skin so soft.

You sound exhausting R93.

I love hotel soap. Any kind. I love how you are literally squeaky clean after you use it. I love it so much that I take any extra little soap bars after every hotel stay. Not kidding.

Remember the days when the soap bars took up at least half an aisle in the grocery store? Today, my store has four brands on a single shelf...

I used to use Body Shop soaps exclusively, but I was seduced by the Dr. Squatch ads on YouTube. I'm a sucker for a furry chest! I love their pine tar, birchwood, and alpine sage bars. It's pricey, but the bars last a long time.

Neutrogena is a translucent soap. Not easy to find.

Love scene in As Good As It Gets when Jack N opens up his cabinet and there are stacks of neutrogena bars . He opens one, uses it, and promptly throws in trash. I miss Jack

[quote]I miss Jack

Did he die?

Dove, but I like Dial too. Dial is what we bathed old folks with and it’s pretty mild.

I like to shave in the shower, but shaving creams just wash off too easily. After some digging, I found Savon d'Alep, a soap made from olive oil and laurel oil in Aleppo, Syria, that’s been around for centuries. Even Cleopatra is said to have used it! If it was good enough for her seducing Roman emperors, it’s definitely good enough for me. I use it on my body and lather it up on my face as a shaving cream - it works really well.

[quote] Love scene in As Good As It Gets when Jack N opens up his cabinet and there are stacks of neutrogena bars . He opens one, uses it, and promptly throws in trash. I miss Jack

He wasn't believable as a person with OCD in that scene.

R95, Cussons Imperial Leather is available on Amazon. Does it have a sandalwood scent? It's hard to find good sandalwood soap these days.

I love Roger & Gallet sandalwood and green tea soaps, but they're also hard to find. Any of the R&G soaps are nice, though.

Thanks for the mood killer, R24.

[quote]here are the flavors

Are you Louie Anderson's ghost?

I've made soap at home, has anyone else done so? It's fun to experiment. Soapcalc is a great resource for determining lye ratio or percentage and the saponification factors of different oils and fats. I'd try my hand at liquid soap but I used up all my potassium hydroxide unclogging my kitchen sink.

[quote]I've made soap at home, has anyone else done so?

No because we're not lesbians R107. Gay men BUY soap.

r108 You're no fun.

Claus Porto, Castelbel from Portugal, Heno de Pravia from Spain, and Molton Brown from housekeeping carts at good hotels. I miss the original Big Blue Bar from Bliss, now cheapened.

Clear , unscented glycerin soap

16 minutes of vintage television ads for soap. Ronald Reagan hocked a liquid soap or detergent called Boraxo. (starts at 0:50)

Did Reagan turn black? Try again.

R20, this soap is supposed to eliminate "old people smell."

I use Dove pink bar soap. Always have. It reminds me of the trip to Disney World my parents and I took when I was four. We camped nearby and my mom had brought her pink Dove soap and the whole tent smelled like it. I thought it smelled so great.

I’m not a bodywash person.

i LURVE home-made soaps

[quote] 1. Some people have skin issues and can't really use any kind of soap. (E.g., me.)

So what do you actually clean your skin with? Not rinse off (water only) but actually clean/wash your skin with?

I just bought some generic Publix brand glycerin soap, R111, because I was looking for an unscented soap that would be gentle on my (aging) skin. But the bar is so slick when it's wet I invariably drop it in the shower at least once while I'm using it.

Can you tell me what brand you're using? Thanks!

r97 oh I believe you

R79

Had the same problem, determining without my glasses in the shower what was what with the hotel pumps on the shower wall. Took me a while to think of this - and I laughed at myself - but when I'm in a hotel about to take a shower, while my glasses are on I check out the order, then remove my glasses and get. in the shower. One side is the shampoo. The other side is the body wash. The conditioner is usually in the middle. So all you have to remember is what side - left or right - is the body wash and go from there.

That Pear soap is the fucking best. Haven't seen it on the shelves in years though.

Roger & Gallet. I sold it for years in my store, and still use it today. The best soap on the market.

Bee & Flower Chinese soaps are very nice. I get mine at an Asian market.

Amazon has PEARS Amber Transparent Bar Soap for Face & Body, Moisturizing Glycerin Soap with Natural Oils, 4.4 Oz (Pack of 6) for $15.99

r118, Originally I used Whole Foods' 365 brand, which only cost $1.99 a bar. After the pandemic they raised the price to $4.19, so I chose another brand, which like your Publix soap, slips out of my hand constantly. I don't know the brand name.

Thanks, R125. Someone could make some money making a glycerin soap bar with grooves cut into it for gripping.

Step up to the plate, entrepreneurs!

Love bar soap and many of those mentioned here. I also like Shea Moisture coconut soap. It’s a large white bar that I buy at CVS.

While we're on the topic, if you leave pubes on a bar of soap, you're a disgusting pig.

I heard that the new Pears stuff is not so good. British made vintage bars of it turn up on eBay sometimes, at high prices.

[quote] 1. Some people have skin issues and can't really use any kind of soap. (E.g., me.)

[quote] So what do you actually clean your skin with? Not rinse off (water only) but actually clean/wash your skin with?

R117, I wasn't clear. I can use soap, but I have to be careful. I use Aveeno body wash. With ... gasp ... a wash cloth.

Whatever, R45.

My Dad was the second youngest of 8 children who survived infancy; his mother was born in 1889. My mom's mother was born in 1902. Both my grandmothers made their own lye and glycerine soap well into the 1950s. In big-ass ancient cast iron cauldrons set over a fireplace outside. And did their washing with a washboard and lye soap in a #10 wash tub.

No Burt's Bees for them!

You see, everybody has a backstory.

Same here, R130. I have aquagenic pruritus and urticaria, and must be really careful with body cleaning products. For years I used Aveeno with oatmeal, and Cetaphil.

Unfortunately both have changed their formulas, and I don't use them anymore.

WTF are you using now r132?

Gels don't work. Soap and a clean wash cloth ftw.

The thing I hate about Ivory soap is the machinations it takes to get the bar peeled away from its wrapper. I get more soap shavings under my fingernails than I can bear.

I use a mesh cloth and gel.

I used to by expensive soap bars and body washes they didn’t leave any powerful scent on my skin. So I use, hand wash such as those from bath and body works and they leave my skin smelling soooo good.

[quote]Clear, unscented glycerin soap

BORRR-ing!!!!!!

R120 is Barron @ home in Trump Tower

Australian botanical soaps on Amazon are great. Right now I'm loving the lemongrass & lemon myrtle variety.

I wash myself with a rag on a stick.

Who would have thought that a Bar Soap thread could turn into a Trump thread? It took you 139 posts but you did it. Kudos to your girlfriend.

Huge Dr. Squatch fan here.

More so the limited specialties than the regular scents.

The Halloween set just hit stores and Count Sudsula smells soooo good. Loved the Minecraft and Ford Bronco ones, too. And, yes, some of the Marvel ones were good....the Captain America and Thor ones. The heavy grit ones are great cause they feel like they are really getting you clean.

There are also some stinkers, though. The Hulk one was vile as is the Halloween Pumpkin Spice one. There was a Freedom Falls that still sits on shelves cause it smelled so funky.

My friend Jeanne makes soaps and sells them online. She has some really good scents if you are interested....

Like OP, I love Coast: the eye-opener!

This place has some great scents and pretty bars.

I also like Phoenicia Soap Co. in New York. I bought a bar in Woodstock and need to order more.