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What is currently recommended instead of bar soap (e.g. instead of a bar of Dove for sensitive skin)?

I don't know if that Dove bar has soap in it, but there are many non-soap cleansers of varying degrees of harshness. I only know the brands available in Australia.

You are right, no soap. It calls itself a "beauty bar" hah! I use it and it certainly doesn't cause the astringent and drying effect I get from real soap.

I tried to find out whether it was actually recommended for the skin and it's an ungoogleable topic infested by a toxic combination of beauty product snake-oil and "chemicals are evil" antivaxish insanity so I'm none the wiser.

Dove beauty bars contain soap.

The ingredients list sodium tallowate or sodium palmitate, which are soaps from animal or vegetable fat, respectively.

Thanks, yep. They are not the primary ingredients which is probably why they can't call it a soap bar.

Interestingly, the "Palm" in Napalm is also Sodium Palmitate.

But "Dove doesn't dry your skin like soap can" (uk advertising tagline) which would suggest it isn't soap.

A theseus ship type issue. As okcando says - it contains fatty acid salts which are what we call soap. However, lots of things contain these without becoming soap e.g. cheese and napalm so... yeah.

charred crusty (but still beautiful) woman turns to face the camera

"Napalm doesn't dry you skin like soap can"

I'm in Australia, can you suggest a few brands?

I use Enya. 1L for $2.99 from Chemist Warehouse. Probably actually has some soapiness in it but claims to be soap-free. Nowhere near as harsh as bar soap. Smells decent. Lathers well. Australian-made.

Wife gets QV Wash, which is less harsh and generally recommended as a gentle cleanser. Expensive, though. Also Australian-made. If you have dry skin, atopic dermatitis, etc. this is what you need.

Cetaphil is in the same section. About as expensive. Doesn't lather as well. Not sure if Australian-made.

From the ingredients list on the Amazon product listing it contains a number of soaps derived from coconut, palm and tallow (usually beef fat). Sodium X-ate is a soap made from X.

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