That little white brick isn’t merely a bar of soap. It’s the cornerstone of an entire skin-care routine. For many people, soap was the very first beauty product that touched their skin, back when they were toddlers in tubs. And when you find a great soap that easily whisks away dirt, sweat, and schmutz — and leaves skin feeling lush and pampered — you, your body, and your face (and all your family members) are pretty much set for life.
And that’s exactly what we did here. We lathered, rinsed, and repeated our way through dozens of traditional soaps and cleansing bars to find three family-friendly standouts: a mild and creamy crowd-pleaser, a lusciously fragrant cake, and an unscented workaday wonder.
Get handpicked gifts sent straight to your inbox.
Things we want. Things you might want. Things your loved ones definitely want.
Sign Up
For information about our privacy practices, including how to opt out of marketing emails, see our Privacy Policy. For general questions, contact us anytime.
Advertisement
Looking for something else?
This Shampoo Bar Saves Me Money and Comes in Compostable Packaging
We Found the Best Body Wash. It Took 3 Months, 26 Testers, and 144 Bottles.
Looking to Cut Back on Single-Use Plastic in Your Bathroom Routine? Start Here.
13 Essentials That Wirecutter’s Beauty Experts Always Take on Vacation
Read more from Beauty
Looking for something else?
This Shampoo Bar Saves Me Money and Comes in Compostable Packaging
We Found the Best Body Wash. It Took 3 Months, 26 Testers, and 144 Bottles.
Looking to Cut Back on Single-Use Plastic in Your Bathroom Routine? Start Here.
13 Essentials That Wirecutter’s Beauty Experts Always Take on Vacation
Read more from Beauty
Our picks and research
Best cleansing bar: Dove Sensitive Beauty Bar
Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
Top pick
Best cleansing bar
Dove Sensitive Beauty Bar
This creamy, fragrance-free crowd-pleaser launched the category of soap-free beauty bars and remains an affordable favorite. Buying in bulk is easy, which is nice considering that these bars erode more quickly than many others.
The Dove Sensitive Beauty Bar is so iconic, it made our brand-concealed testing for this guide pretty much impossible. We’re not just talking about the bar’s Picasso-like bird imprint, either: It’s how the contoured bar nestles so comfortably in the palm, how it creates a veil of sheer, silky suds, and how it makes skin feel both clean and nourished after bathing. Even our teenage testers gushed about this bar. “Dove is the GOAT, I’m not gonna lie,” one 14-year-old said.
Notably, this GOAT is not technically soap: Dove is a synthetic detergent (or “syndet”) bar made with a melt-and-pour method and resulting in a formula with a neutral pH: This bar’s pH is about 7, just a bit more than skin’s range of 4 to 6. In contrast, soap is made with a process called saponification, which typically uses lye to turn oils into cleansing agents with a higher pH (in the alkaline 8-plus range) that can strip moisture from skin. (More about that distinction below.)
We held each contender under hot water for 15 seconds and then rotated it 10 times in our hands to assess the lather. This is the Dove Sensitive Beauty Bar. Jeremy Savian
Testers overwhelmingly favored the Dove Sensitive bar’s feel, effectiveness, and lasting moisture, and they liked that it doubled as a facial cleanser. Admittedly, one panelist preferred the clean rinse of the Good Molecules bar, and another was partial to the Vanicream bar’s rich, fluffy lather on her face, but at about $5 per bar — in contrast to a bit under $2 for the Dove bar — it may seem wasteful to use the Vanicream bar all over your body.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The Dove Sensitive bars get mushy. Most syndet bars we tested softened a little with repeated use, but the Dove bars lost their firmness markedly more quickly than the Good Molecules, Vanicream, and Cetaphil bars. To prevent it from turning into creamy goo, you really need to keep the Dove bar in a well-drained soap dish.
Even though the formula is fragrance-free, the bar still has a slight scent.
The Dove formula has been fully vegan since the end of 2023, but some bars on shelves may still contain sodium tallowate, a derivative of animal fat. For the animal-free version, look for sodium oleate, derived from olive oil.
Advertisement
Best traditional soap: Australian Botanical Goats Milk Soap
Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
Top pick
Best soap
Australian Botanical Goats Milk Soap
With rich bubbles and a fresh fragrance, this soap won over all of our testers. Several moisturizing ingredients leave skin remarkably soft, though the bar is hefty for smaller hands.
$38 from Amazon
(pack of eight)
In our tests, the Australian Botanical Goats Milk Soap bars looked, felt, and smelled so luxurious, several testers assumed that these cakes were way out of their price range. So they were delighted — and shocked — to learn that, ounce for ounce, it’s the most affordable soap we tested.
The lather is lush and yummy, and “on the skin, it feels more like a rich body wash than a bar of soap,” one tester said, though she did find that it required a tad more rinsing. Another panelist pointed out that the soap managed to achieve the seemingly impossible: It made her 3-year-old’s already baby-soft arm feel noticeably softer (“a high bar”).
A few key ingredients boost the soap’s mellow, skin-soothing effectiveness: These bars contain humectant glycerin, emollient shea butter, and sodium gluconate, a mildly exfoliating polyhydroxy acid. And the true star is goat milk, which contains lactic acid, another gentle exfoliant. Although the soap is alkaline, with a pH of about 9.5, a few testers found the Australian Botanical bar to be generally less drying and disruptive to the skin barrier than other traditional soaps.
We held each contender under hot water for 15 seconds and then rotated it 10 times in our hands to assess the lather. This is the Australian Botanical Goats Milk Soap. Jeremy Savian
At a hefty 9 cubic inches, this is a long-lasting chonk of soap. One tester noted that her family of three usually churned through a bar of Dove Sensitive every 10 days, and in that same amount of time, they had barely made a dent in the firm Australian Botanical bar. The fragrance, too, was a true asset: Panelists washed with bars of various scents from the eight-bar multipack and loved the lemongrass and shea butter varieties best. “Australian Botanicals lemongrass is the only scented product that my family now reaches for again and again,” a panelist said. Another tester, however, found the fragrance notes in the shea butter option too “springy.”
Flaws but not dealbreakers
This bar measures 3 by 2 by 1.5 inches and is rather large for smaller hands. Plus, the edges may feel almost sharp for the first few days.
At about 60 cents an ounce, this big, lasting cake is a great value — but you usually have to buy a multipack. Single bars are harder to come by and more expensive.
Because this soap contains goat milk, it isn’t vegan. After we made this soap a pick, we additionally tested vegan options from the brand, including the Lemongrass with Lemon Myrtle bar and the Lavender Essential bar, and we enjoyed them just as much.
Advertisement
Best unscented soap: Dr. Bronner’s All-One Pure-Castile Unscented Magic Bar Soap
Michael Hession/NYT Wirecutter
Top pick
Best unscented soap
Dr. Bronner's All-One Pure-Castile Unscented Magic Bar Soap
This solid, straightforward vegan option cleans efficiently and rinses easily. The suds are gentle and wispy — though some testers called them wimpy.
Unfragranced, dye-free, organic, and biodegradable, Dr. Bronner’s All-One Pure-Castile Unscented Magic Bar Soap is virtually devoid of frills, and that’s exactly what testers loved about it. (The same can be said of Dr. Bronner’s lip balm, another Wirecutter pick.) A handy little brick, this is soap straight out of central casting (think bath time on Sesame Street), with a feathery foam that leaves skin feeling “great, supple, and clean,” as one tester put it.
Whereas contenders such as the Amish Farms and Kirk’s bars became slimy and gooey after just one or two uses, the Dr. Bronner’s bar held its firm shape and smooth texture for weeks, spun effortlessly even in kids’ small hands, and glided quickly over skin. It created a “slightly squeaky-clean” sensation that one panelist appreciated (in comparison, the Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day bar left a seemingly greasy residue). That said, another panelist was less keen on that ultra-clean feeling and took it as a signal to load up on body lotion post-shower.
We held each contender under hot water for 15 seconds and then rotated it 10 times in our hands to assess the lather. This is the Dr. Bronner’s All-One bar. Jeremy Savian
The Dr. Bronner’s unscented bar contains just 10 ingredients (among the soaps our panelists tested, only the Tom’s of Maine and Mountain Ocean bars had fewer, at eight each), with organic coconut oil, a great cleansing agent, topping the list. Panelists noted how effective yet mild the overall formula was, especially in the unscented variety (the soap comes in seven scents, too). “The unscented version caused no sensitivity, while some of the stronger fragrances like tea tree and eucalyptus triggered a reaction,” a panelist said. Still, another tester pointed out that when you opt for unscented over the lovely citrus or rose scent, “you’re leaving joy on the table.”
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The lather isn’t luscious. One panelist preferred the loose, bubbly suds of both the Tom’s of Maine and Mrs. Meyer’s bars.
The Dr. Bronner’s bar has a pH around 9. Because it’s a true soap — made through the saponification of plant oils — this is higher than the Dove bar’s pH of 7 and about the same as the pH of the Australian Botanical bars.
Advertisement
What’s the difference between soap and cleansing bars?
“Bar soap” is a general term, but at the chemical level it can mean either traditional soap or a syndet (synthetic detergent) bar. The makers of traditional soap create it by saponifying fats (such as tallow or coconut, palm, or olive oil) with an alkali (such as lye). The resulting product effectively lifts dirt and grime into water, but it has a high pH (of around 9 and up), which can temporarily disrupt the acid mantle, a component of skin’s protective barrier, and lead to tightness and irritation. Such reactions are more common in people with sensitive or dry skin and are usually alleviated with moisturizer and body lotion. Plenty of our testers, not to mention people in general, prefer the feel, experience, and rinsability — and often the all-natural ingredients — of traditional soap.
Syndet bars, often marketed as cleansing or beauty bars, are made from non-soap surfactants and are typically pH neutral (7), so they work gently with skin’s slightly acidic pH of 4 to 6. (Plus, syndets work well in hard water.) Our pick, the Dove bar, is the big player in this category, having launched in the US in 1957, but it has also inspired plenty of worthy contenders, many of which we included in our testing.
How we picked and tested
Rory Evans/NYT Wirecutter
My research for this guide began with browsing the aisles of CVS, Target, Walgreens, Whole Foods, and a few small-business earth-priestess emporia, such as food co-ops in Brooklyn and in Easthampton, Massachusetts. I also clicked exhaustively around online retail sites, comparing best sellers, newcomers, and old-timey favorites. (Two contenders, in fact, have been around since the early 1800s — put that in your butter barrel and churn it!) For real-world insights about cleansing-bar options, I dove deep into online reviews, looking for bars that maintained high star ratings over hundreds, ideally thousands, of reviews.
I also interviewed two dermatologists, two cosmetic chemists, and an optometrist to get their insights on the best formulations, as well as concerns about sensitivity. After considering the options and the experts’ input, I decided to focus on bars that could live in the bath or shower and be used on faces as well as bodies, and by family members of all ages. With an eye toward family-friendliness (specifically for kids’ more sensitive skin), I ruled out antibacterial options, knobby bars geared to massage, and most formulas with gritty physical exfoliants. (The Dove Gentle Exfoliating Bar, which contains microcrystalline wax, was the sole exception, and it didn’t wow us.) I also prioritized affordability, dismissing any option that cost more than $1.60 per ounce; the average bar we tested cost about 81 cents per ounce.
Starting with an initial list of 64 options, I synthesized my findings to establish a group of 21 bars that I personally tested. I sorted the contenders into two groups: traditional soaps and cleansing bars. Then, comparing soap with soap or cleansing bar with cleansing bar, I washed the right side of my body with one bar and the left side with another, and I further trimmed the list. I also tested each option on how well it cleaned my hands after I had rubbed them with a bit of canola oil and potting soil.
My husband washes his face with the bar soap in our shower, so I tapped him for his perspective and experience regarding how well the various contenders felt on facial skin and stubble, as well as how well it rinsed from a delightfully hirsute, yeti-like body. Our skin-care-obsessed teenage daughter also cycled through the bars and shared her opinions. We don’t keep loofahs, scrubbies, or washcloths in the shower, and we used only our hands for lathering during testing.
After three weeks of my family’s testing, I narrowed the list down to 10 finalists: five traditional soaps and five cleansing bars. Beyond my own family, three families tested soaps, and three families tested cleansing bars. In total, 22 people tested these bars, including toddlers, elementary school students, teenagers, and adults in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s. They tested their options for three weeks. If panelists usually used washcloths or silicone scrubbies in their ablutions, they continued doing so during testing.
Testers judged each bar on the following criteria:
Cleansing power: We sought bars that efficiently cleaned our bodies and faces, searching for options that whisked away dirt, grime, and sweat and left skin feeling nourished rather than dried out, taut, crackly, filmy, or greasy.
Texture and durability: We considered how hard or soft the bars felt in hands and on bodies, and what they were like to handle in both adults’ and small children’s hands. We preferred contenders that didn’t turn to mush or crumble over their lifespan in the soap dish. We noted when we wore through bars quickly, and when they tended to last longer in showers and tubs.
Lather and rinse: We considered sudsiness, and we appreciated nice, rich coats of tiny bubbles or gentle, foamy froths. We also took into account how quickly and easily that lather rinsed away without leaving residue.
Fragrance and vibes: Several of the bars we tested had natural or added fragrances, and testers remarked on when the scent heightened or diminished their enjoyment of the bar. They also noted whether a bar had any ineffable qualities that made bathing more pleasant.
Why you should trust us
I’ve been reporting about skin care and beauty for more than 25 years. While working for several lifestyle magazines, I wrote many “best of beauty” roundups that reflected the real-life needs and feedback of readers. I’ve interviewed dozens of dermatologists and dug into hundreds of academic articles about skin care, ingredients, and efficacy.
Over the decades of my life, I’ve been through a revolving door of brand loyalties. In the household I grew up in, we rode for Camay (I have a core memory of sitting three-girls-in-a-tub with my older sisters at bath time and staking my claim to the bar by carving an R with my fingernails). As a college student, I cycled through long stints of using Ivory and Pears. For many years, living as a self-indulgent single lady, I splashed out on relatively expensive Bliss body wash. But then, 20-plus years ago, I fell in love with a lifelong Dove Original user. And, to quote Jane Eyre, reader, I married him — and his beauty bar.
While I was testing bars and writing this guide, I revisited both the Ivory and Pears bars, cycled through several varieties of Dove beyond the Original, and also had a few other bars going at all times. As much as I am accustomed to Dove, I strove not to favor it or use it as a singular standard of comparison.
Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.
The competition
Cleansing bars
In initial testing, my family of three tried a dozen cleansing bars. Rory Evans/NYT Wirecutter
We have had great experiences with Aveeno body wash in the past, especially for touchy, eczema-prone arms and legs. The Aveeno Moisturizing Bar, however, struck us as sudsless and joyless in comparison with our Dove pick.
Out of the box, the Caress Daily Silk Bar appeared discolored and streaky, and it had an overwhelmingly cloying floral fragrance. In the shower, the rounded bar fit nicely in the hand and lathered well, but it was just a little too inelegant when placed against other bars in this category.
The CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser Bar gently washed faces as well as bodies, but it required more rinsing than other cleansing-bar contenders, and it had a slight fragrance that not everyone loved.
At first, the Cetaphil Gentle Cleansing Bar’s suds struck us as measly, but with continued use over several days, the froth filled out and got more luxurious — so much so that it became one tester’s second favorite, after the Dove Sensitive bar.
Our top pick, the Dove Sensitive Beauty Bar, comes from a big family of overachieving siblings. The Dove Original Beauty Bar is the classic, with lots of fans among our testers, but we generally preferred the fragrance-free option for sensitive skin. The Dove Gentle Exfoliating Bar, meanwhile, had a vaguely gritty texture (thanks to microcrystalline wax) and couldn’t hold a candle to our top pick’s creaminess. Testers deemed both the Dove Revitalizante Beauty Bar, a cherry and chia-milk version, and the Dove Cool Moisture Beauty Bar too fragrant for everyday, all-family use.
The Good Molecules Hydrate & Cleanse Bar is fragrance-free, but for our testers it still had a polarizing scent: While a few panelists didn’t detect an aroma, others registered an unwelcome tang, perhaps from the included shea butter and nut oils. “It smells like hotel soap,” one noted. Beyond that, testers generally applauded this firm, long-lasting bar’s juicy lather and creamy texture. It nearly converted a longtime Dove user, until that tester found out that the Good Molecules bar costs five times more per ounce.
The Olay Age Defying Bar Soap had a nice slip and frothy lather, but it was excessively fragrant. What’s more, this bar seemed to require extra rinsing, which put that scent front and center, right under our noses, for too long.
Testers appreciated the silky, bubbly suds of Vanicream’s Cleansing Bar for Sensitive Skin, as well as how gentle yet effective it was for in-shower face-washing. Still, the Dove Sensitive bar edged it out — even for the panelist whose go-to option for years has been this Vanicream bar.
Soaps
My family also tested nine traditional soaps. Rory Evans/NYT Wirecutter
Right out of the bag, the square bricks of Amish Farms Bar Soap felt curiously slimy and chalky at the same time. The soap failed to froth nicely — it crumbled and shed chunks when wet — and was challenging to rinse off.
The Kirk’s Soap bar fit in the hand easily, lathered well, and had virtually no scent. Rinsing was just okay, though, and the bar got gooey in the soap dish.
When wet, the Ivory Original Gentle Bar Soap created a rich coat of tiny bubbles. It rinsed away easily, but afterward skin often felt noticeably dry and thirsty for lotion.
Many testers loved the big bubbles and rich texture of the Mountain Ocean Skin Trip Coconut Soap bar and remarked on how smooth and moisturized their skin felt afterward. Its ratings tanked, however, when it came to the indescribably off fragrance (“coconuts, but weird,” one panelist noted).
We found a lot to like about the Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Daily Bar Soap. One tester especially enjoyed its long-lasting solidity, as it didn’t turn to mush on a soap dish. Another noted that it foamed up great and rinsed nicely, though it left a slightly greasy residue. More to the point, that same tester said, “Once you’ve tried the Aussie Botanical, there’s no looking back.”
The Pears Glycerin Soap bar has been around since the reign of King George (of Hamilton fame), and it has definite staying power — a single bar can last for weeks in the shower and for months as a hand soap in the powder room. The pretty glycerin bar creates a veil of glossy bubbles, which testers loved, but ultimately our panelists’ skin felt a bit dry after use.
Our testers liked the creamy suds from the Tom’s of Maine Natural Beauty Bar, finding its texture and cleansing power commensurate with those of the Mrs. Meyer’s soap, but overall we preferred the Australian Botanical and Dr. Bronner’s bars.
This article was edited by Jennifer G. Sullivan and Leta Shy.
Sources
David Kim, MD, dermatologist, email interview, June 30, 2025
Marisa Plescia, cosmetic chemist, video interview, July 1, 2025, email follow-up, July 7, 2025
Neelam Vashi, MD, dermatologist, email interview, July 5, 2025
Krupa Koestline, cosmetic chemist, email interview, July 7, 2025
Jennifer Tsai, OD, optometrist, email interview, July 11, 2025