Body soap
Dove Sensitive Skin Beauty Bar
A synthetic bar based on sodium lauroyl isethionate, the mildest common bar cleanser in soap-chamber irritation tests. No SLS, no fragrance, no added colour beyond titanium dioxide. It cleans without the tight, stripped feeling of true soap.
Worth knowing
- 15 ingredients, with no fragrance. Most are the cleanser and fatty acids that keep the bar mild; two are chelators that stop it going rancid, and CI 77891 (titanium dioxide) makes it white.
- Contains palm-derived ingredients.
Ingredients
Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Sodium Stearate, Aqua, Lauric Acid, Sodium Isethionate, Sodium Palmate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Chloride, Glycerin, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Zinc Oxide, CI 77891.
What we ruled out
Perfumed shower gels with a long ingredient list. Sodium laureth sulfate plus parfum and listed fragrance allergens, with the rest being thickeners, pearlisers, and colour.
Antibacterial body or hand wash. No evidence it prevents illness better than plain soap, and the FDA removed 19 antibacterial actives (e.g. triclosan) from US consumer washes in 2016.
Palmolive shower gels (e.g. Milk & Honey). 24 ingredients. Sodium laureth sulfate is the cleanser, then parfum, pearlisers, thickeners, and three listed fragrance allergens (benzyl benzoate, benzyl salicylate, hexyl cinnamal). You pay for water and scent.
Amazon Basics 'sensitive skin' body wash. Sold as unscented and hypoallergenic, but a proposed US class action says it contains fragrance chemicals. Own-brand is fine in many categories; here the label claims are in dispute.
Also good
Dr. Bronner's Pure-Castile Bar, Baby Unscented. The simplest label of any good bar: 10 ingredients, all oils, lye, salt, citric acid, and vitamin E. But it's true soap, so it's alkaline (around pH 9 to 10) and strips skin oils. Great for hands, cleaning, and oily days. As an everyday body soap it needs a moisturiser after.
Cetaphil Gentle Cleansing Bar. Another mild syndet bar. Usually costs more than Dove Sensitive for the same job.
Sources
- The soap chamber test: a new method for assessing the irritancy of soaps, Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 1(1):35-41 (1979)
- Cleansing without compromise: the impact of cleansers on the skin barrier and the technology of mild cleansing, Dermatologic Therapy 17 Suppl 1:16-25 (2004)
- The water barrier function of the skin in relation to the water content of stratum corneum, pH and skin lipids. The effect of alkaline soap and syndet on dry skin in elderly, non-atopic patients, Acta Dermato-Venereologica 68(4) (1988)
- Palmolive Milk & Honey Shower Gel, ingredients, Skinsort
- Antibacterial Soap? You Can Skip It, Use Plain Soap and Water, US Food and Drug Administration (2016)
- Dr. Bronner's Pure-Castile Bar Soap Baby (Unscented), ingredients, Skinsort
- Amazon 'Sensitive Skin' body wash targeted in class action, Law360