An invigorating morning shower with hot water on your body leaves you feeling energized and refreshed for a hectic long day ahead. Likewise, a shower at night helps calm senses, and to rejuvenate and relax your muscles for a sound night’s sleep.

Now, with a plethora of bathing soap bars, shower gels and aromatic body washes crowding the shelves of supermarkets, you could be easily confused about choosing the next best buy. The one that soothes, tones and relaxes your body without depriving your skin of essential oils, usually proves to be the ideal bet.

While the cosmeceutical industry, with its advances, continues to amaze buyers with new skincare products such as mild soaps for sensitive skin types, body cleansers and aromatic shower gels with the goodness of natural oils; consumers, on the other hand, are still figuring out the difference between a body wash, a shower gel, and a bar soap.

Most people tend to simply jump on the bandwagon of celebrity endorsements blindly, to decide the products most suitable for them. They fall into habits, using certain products through time manufactured by reputed FMCG majors; such that switching brands and products become a hassle they’d rather avoid.

Added to this habitual restraint, as well as price-related constraints, very little awareness is provided to the end-user with regards to choosing between body wash, shower gel or bar soap. They ultimately find it extremely difficult to break free of their habits.

Furthermore, most people are psychologically programmed to believe and follow an objective-oriented practical approach in life when it comes to decision-making. As the result, the norm hardly changes when it comes to purchasing products for personal hygiene and daily care.

The unanswered questions thus linger and remain. What is the difference between a soap bar, a shower gel and a body wash? And, why should you choose one over the other? What is the specific role of each of these products in body cleansing?

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Read on for the answers…

Most people opt for a bar soap over body wash or shower gels because of effective competitive pricing strategies, primarily used by manufacturers to entice consumers with a value for money advantage to protect and care for your skin. An ordinary soap bar can make your skin feel dry and itchy.

However, high-end soap bars are always advisable, since they possess body nourishing essential oils and hydrating ingredients much like those found in shower gels, to encompass the goodness of Aloe Vera, glycerin, herbal extracts and botanical oils to nurture, protect and care .

There is one notable disadvantage of using a soap bar – when the bar touches your skin to scrub off the dirt during bathing, the dirt remains on the surface of the bar, leaving room for germ accumulation. It also ruins the entire objective of a daily body cleansing routine, especially when the soap bar (though fragrant) is contaminated with germs to leave your skin feeling oily and sticky immediately after the shower.

Difference between body wash, soap bars, and shower gels

Using soap bars for long eventually reduces their size to leave a small unusable sliver towards the end. The sliver cannot be made to roll over your body as it’s slippery enough to handle in the shower. So body washes and shower gels, being liquid cleansers, are preferred over a soap bar.

Also using a shower gel or a body wash is very hygienic as compared to using a soap bar, since the cleansing properties are fully-retained in the bottle, to prevent it from dust, exposure to external weather conditions and unhygienic hands.

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You can also use the cleanser only as much as you need, thus saving on costs. This also helps ensure that the liquid body cleanser gets fully utilized until the last drop in the bottle gets empty.

Body washes are slightly more hydrating than shower gels. It does not remove essential oils and natural moisture from your skin during the shower to make it look rough and scaly. The consistency of a shower gel is thinner than the body washes to make it more suitable for use in warm climates.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter the type of bathing product you choose for a daily body cleansing routine – be it soap, body wash or a shower gel. Or if your purchase decisions are based on brand credibility, word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family, or budget constraints. What’s more important is that your bathing habits and choice of skin-friendly products to nourish, nurture, soothe and care for the largest organ of your body – your skin!

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