Should You Use Shower Gel, Body Wash, or Bar Soap?

Since the late 1980s, clever marketing caused body washes and shower gels to outperform traditional solid bars of soap.

However, the shift toward using personal care products with fewer chemicals and leaving behind less waste has caused bar soap to regain popularity.

• Bar soap. A bar of soap is a solid chunk of cleanser traditionally made by mixing oil (coconut oil, palm oil, and olive oil) with a liquid (water), and an alkali (sodium hydroxide, known as lye). Today, most soap bars are made using synthetic forms of traditional soap ingredients.
• Shower gel is firmer and gel-like with added fragrance.
• Body washes are liquid cleansers that use mild surfactants. Body washes tend to be thinner and creamier than shower gels.