Millennials have been accused of killing so many aspects of daily life. While I agree with eradicating some of these obsolete items (take that, napkins and network television!), there is one victim here that needs to be pardoned from death row.
I am talking about humble bar soap. It’s gone out of style, replaced mostly by shiny, sexy, alluring body wash. But I call hogwash on body wash. It’s essentially pureed, watered-down bar soap that costs four times as much.
Just take a look at the ingredients. Exhibit A: Dove Body Wash. The first ingredient is water. Let’s compare that to exhibit B: Dove Beauty Bar. What’s that there as the very first ingredient? Why it’s, Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate … commonly called soap! Now let’s compare prices. On Amazon, the water/soybean oil smoothie marketed as hygiene costs $6 per bottle, while the trusty beauty bars are $1.50 each.
Plus, each bar lasts at least twice as long as a bottle of body wash. With the bottle, you squeeze out as much as you want each time (which is often too much). The bar is designed to give you only as much soap as you need to get clean.
Now, if you think that bars of soap are not as luxurious and moisturizing, now is the perfect time to splurge on something fancier. (Expensive bar soap will still costs way less than bargain body wash.) What I like to do is buy two packs of different soaps, and alternate them every time I need a new bar. That keeps the scents (and me) feeling fresh every few weeks. If you really need to feel something soft caressing your delicate skin, then invest in some washcloths — just be sure to get enough to use a new one every day.
And let’s not forget the real injustice in using body wash: the badly designed cap on the Dove bottles that prevents you from standing it upside-down to get the last bits. Someone call the Unilever family, because now they’re just messing with us.
This will not stand, and I will not stand for it.
Comments
10 responses to “Body Wash Is A Scam And You Fell For It”
Body wash also lacks talcum powder (unlike soap), which tends to fuse to glass shower screens making them very hard to clean.
Yep, this. I switched to bar soap and switched back again for this reason.
I also got rid of soap for this reason.
Said goodbye to soap bar and consequently said goodbye to soap scum in the process. That alone has been worth the switch.
Possibly because I use body wash appropriately a 1L pump bottle will last me 9 months. Sure spending the same $8.50 to get 5 bars of soap ($1.70 per bar) will last longer but not having to scrub the shower saves time which is more valuable to me than the small cost saving.
and then there is the mess in the soap dish, the soggy remnants of the last bar. A pump pack of body wash can be metered out very frugally and last a long time.
Meh. My flatmate buys the stuff, I just use his. If theres none there for some reason, I use shampoo suds while washing my hair to clean myself off. Nobody’s complained yet that I smell too appley..
You guys use soap, bottled or otherwise?
I go for neat water. Cold. My skin never looked better….
and in a multi-user shower body wash is hands down better than all sharing a bar of soap.
Isn’t body wash also better for the skin than regular soap (not the goat milk stuff)? Less drying, less irritating? We switched to bodywash for my daughter to stop the irritation.
Plastic bottles…