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i am a liquid soap partisan, particularly fond of croft+croft's chinese peony and crabtree&evelyn's ginger twist, both OOP but i cherish my memories. the fresh pink jasmine sounds lovely but i will not be moved from my anti-cake-soap stance.

A good friend of mine in Park Slope makes soap by hand from all-natural ingredients that is really outstanding... I've never seen anything like it. The bars are beautiful and smell amazing.
You can check it out at:
http://www.slopesoaps.com/

i'm with your rasil, why do people still use soap cakes? Liquid soap Rules.

I use soap cakes because they're cheaper than liquid soap. It might not be important for everyone, but I like to skimp on some things.

I'm a soap cake fan. I always seem to dribble large amounts of the liquid soap into the sink before I can get it to lather and it feels so wasteful. I generally get Dove unscented white, but now I'm rethinking. What makes the above recommended soaps sexy?

i love pear's. the scent is herbal and homey, but not floral. and the honey color is nice, too.

Shameless plug for Lush soaps at www.lush.com and select U.S. Stores in NYC.

I love how their products make a bathroom smell! They look great, smell great, FEEL great and of course are a pricey habit to have. I rejoiced when Lush opened a store in Connecticut last year.

Snowcake soap is my favorite (smells almondy and clean) but it only comes out once a year.

What is soap cake?

soap cakes are a tactile experience and for guys, definitely a nice way to go.

Bigelow's Lemongrass / Orange Exfoliating Soap (with cornmeal) and Lush's Demon In The Dark Soap are my favorites.

I like Molton Brown with the coordinating hand lotion.

Ugh! I am so allergic to soap, just the thought of it makes me itchy and wheezy. I use Aveeno moisturizing bar in the shower, it also comes in a liquid, but I love the texture of the bar. For face I use Purpose. Both are soap and fragrance free, ahhh.

It's actually Cussons Imperial LEATHER, not Lather and it's FANTASTIC. I'm having a glorious scent memory right now -- it's just wonderfully creamy and clean smelling. It comes in a few varieties now, and it's usually a buttery yellow color or creamy white. It's the soap of my childhood -- my English granparents ALWAYS have it in their house and there's usually a few bars "floating around" mine. I even use it in my chest of drawers to add a subtle fragrance to my clothes. Great posts! It's a good reminder for me to ask my parents to bring some more back with them on their next trip :)

in my opinion the sexiest liquid soap--BY FAR--is "Sensual Foaming Bath" made by a Canadaian firm called Druide

http://www.druide.ca/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=60&language=en

I think I read somewhere that soap cakes are less harsh on the skin. Liquid soaps are drying.

Btw, I recommend the Body Shop's Satsuma glycerin soap. It's lovely and guys seem to dig it.

Johnson & Johnson's Head-to-Toe Baby Wash rocks. Gentle, pleasant-but-faint odor... I even use it to wash my face.

I will buy bar soap if I absolutely adore the scent, but for all else I prefer liquid soap.

Bar soap just seems unsanitary. Hair stuck in congealed soap glop is particularly unsavory.

sam, that foaming bath does sound lovely! i leaned forward to sniff the screen until i remembered that i could not in fact smell it! where is it found in new york?

bubble, liquid soap is indeed absurdly expensive, especially in nice fragrances, but the thought of touching the gucky moist part of a bar soap makes me recoil, much less a soap that is touched by other people. (somehow i feel obliged to say i have been using the same towels for 20 years and i am frugal in some ways.)

I am a HUGE fan of Dr. Bronner's liquid soaps and I particularly love the Lavender, Peppermint and the unscented Baby-Mild formulas. I also like the new Tea Tree formula for my face. My skin is super sensitive (I'm a fair red-head) and I have to be very careful about what I use and I like how basic and pure the Bronner soaps are. They don't have synthetic latering agents and all their scents are organic essential oils.

You can get all the details on the new shopping cart: http://www.drbronner.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=DBMS

That's my 2 cents for now! Thanks for your time!

The idea that a soap cake is unsanitary is an oxymoron.

That said, i've been interested in swapping my palmolive bars of soap for something more organic and I also had heard they last a lot longer. Is that true? Better for the environment and cost effective? too good to be true, i'm sure

I'm shocked that no one has mentioned Roger & Gallet! I love their beautiful round soaps (esp. Extra Vielle/Jean Marie Farina) and the Nature line. Divine!

Spectacular Italian and other fancy soaps in gorgeous wrappers at Bigelow Chemists on 6th Avenue www.bigelowchemists.com.

So I just re-discovered Grandpa's Pine Tar Soap, which (appropriately) my grandfather used to use, and which I didn't know they still made. I found it in the health food store, and it smelled SO familiar I had to get it. Now I smell like my grandfather.

Sorry nothing but Lush products for me, and the stuff my sister makes.

the body shop coconut soap looks pretty and smells fantastic.

http://www.thebodyshop.com/bodyshop/browse/product_detail.jsp?productId=prod160254&categoryId=cat30006

Pine Tar soap removes poison oak oil (poison ivy in the East)from the skin, and helps dry up the rash thereafter.

A dermatologist steered me away from Neutrogena for the face. She said it was far too drying for that tender skin.

Rance soaps are wonderful for the sink in the the guest bath because they fill the room with lovely scent, but they look cracked and unattractive (they are not hard-milled) after a bit of use. In my house, they move on to the shower at that stage.

I bought a collection of huge bars of Provencal soaps at Costco at Christmastime. The honey one was scrumptious.

everyone talks about how great Dr. Bronner's soap is, but I just don't get it. Their liquid soap is too thin and runny, thus causing me to use too much too fast. And it's crazy expensive. The bar soap is drying and leaves this icky build-up on my skin. Though it does smell good, I'll give yall that. Also, I love reading the back of the bottle (another reason the bar isn't as good).

I go back and forth between JASON's Chamomile liquid soap and Roger et Gallet's Sandalwood bar soap. The JASON is a bit spendy, but perfect in smell, texture/viscosity, and effect. And I think still cheaper than Dr. Bronner's. And I don't think I can do the Roger et Gallet justice in words, so I won't even try.

Bar soap fave: Bisous de Provence Lemon Verbena Soap. $2.99 at Trader Joe's! An old-school standby at a fraction of what you'd pay elsewhere for a Provencal milled soap. Other scents are available, but the lemon verbena is my pick.

Liquid fave: Aromapharmacy Mind + Body Cleanser - AM. Made with grapefruit and eucalyptus oils. Fresh, crisp and decadent. Got a small travel-sized bottle in a gift bag years ago; and have been hooked ever since.

pat, i'm coming to that conclusion myself about neutrogena after one terrible experience with one of their cleansers dessicating my face -- i had to go to a salon to just get the dried skin peeled off. (for anyone who cares -- broadway spa in the flatiron district, best facials of my life. p2, no jokes please.)

Caswell-Massey's cammomile

Magno la Toja!!! You can get it from the Vermont Country Store.

The feel of Chanel soap is incredible, and it lasts a long, long time.

My favorite liquid hand soap for the last year has been Booth's Vanilla Biscotti hand soap with shea butter from Target. Unfortunately, they seem to have discontinued it--a shame, since guests always raved about it when they visited, and the lovely scent lasted for a long time. I even used it as a shower gel a few times. I'm rationing my last bottle.

I'm also a big fan of Lush products and many of the Fresh items.

I am a liquid soap girl. Haven't use bar soap since I was 8 or 9 years old. As Anne in Dallas pointed out - there are few things more revolting then seeing a hair on bar soap. It is painful to even think about it.

I haven't indulged in stocking my bathroom with this, but my favorite scent is Gilchrist & Soames.

Kimberly - if I wasn't in the liquid camp, I would buy Roger and Gallet - lilly of the valley.

i do have to say i agree with the anti-bar camp about the potential ickiness of bar soap.

i had a houseguest recently and assumed that he would be clued in enough to use the liquid soap instead, which i had put out for that exact purpose.

he was not, and left both hair and fingerprints as a direct visual reminder that my beautiful bar of soap had been rubbed all over someone else's naked body.

god, boys are gross.

I like those exotic scented soaps from Pearl River.

Boots makes a divine honeysuckle handwash that I carried back in my luggage. I admit being a sucker for the clean square packaging (pardon the pun). I didn't realize till now it was soap-free... leaves skin really soft. Down to the last precious drops .

Living alone I can use bar soap without fear of foreign fuzzies cross-contamination. Pearl River Mart has loads of fragrant inexpensive soaps.. gardenia is lovely. And of course L'Occitaine soap. Bought a decade's worth in Paris where it's cheaper. Blackberry, orange blossom... yum.

I use whatever is slightly soap-like for the bath sink, including White Rain shampoo and Ajax dishwashing liquid in Pink Grapefruit. They both work well. There's no ventilation/circulation in that area, so all bar soaps end up cracking or turning to mush. Mush soaps are slimy, gelantinous goo like egg whites and snot.

For the tub/shower, I will also use whatever is handy. I prefer using that soap that comes in a box of three, that is at discount stores like Ross or Marshall's. It's "Iteritalia", and I like the Carnation and the Violet.

Cleans to a squeaky clean, without leaving a disgusting soap build-up/film on the body, shower walls.

I don't like soap/bubble bath at all anymore while soaking in the tub. Just bath salts. Doesn't have to be scented. Epsom salts are fine (and it doesn't irritate the eyes if any gets in the eyes).

I also like Scottish soaps (something like that) in Honey. Anything in honey is good.

rasil--i've gotten that Druide Sensual Foaming Bath item when i was in Vancouver. i've visted the web site and they seem to also sell it by mail.

sam--in san francisco

oh - so we have a few soap fans here... BUT have ya had a nosefull of ZENTS?! If not... oh my oh my. love at first sniff! especially the petal!

http://www.grdnbklyn.com/shop/bath/soap/prod_50.html?ccSID-8643dd60547e611052421a6659ed64d2=6612816f34fe7000a07f865d1b1b9982

mmm My personal fav is from http://www.brightsparkcandles.com.au
its the vanilla one, i use it as a handwash soap and it smells terrific, very creamy, lathers extreamly well. you can order it over there website too.

I use Dove body wash in the shower with one of them big fluffy thingos which is nice too.

Tea tree soap is good for end-of-the-day rejuvenating warm showers. It's antifungal and a good substitute for commercial femininine wash. Makes you feel like you just had sauna. The handmade varieties are the better ones.

I like big chunky squares of olive-based soap by the bathroom sink, and Savon Marseille liquid soap in fig in the kitchen. A giant bottle is about $10 at TJ Maxx and lasts for ages. It has a great, subtle scent... I don't want my hands to smell like flowers before I chop vegetables.

In the shower - anything goes. Usually an economy-sized Suave liquid soap. I use different body lotions and don't want the soap to compete.

maybe it's so, plebeian, or something, but I had a coupon for a free Savannah Bee product @ Bath and Body Works (shudder) and the blackberry honey hand soap is SO nice. I don't really like bar soap, although I appreciate the handcrafting and chemistry that goes into a real bar of cold-processed soap.

I just moved here and it's weird that you guys really like Imperial Leather. It's like totally generic soap. Like Palmolive. Like something you could pick up at a grocery store when you're not looking to buy anything expensive.

COPA Soaps are the best around. The name is an acronym for the oils in them -- coconut, olive, palm, almond. They're all natural, handmade in Philadelphia by a mom-and-pop operation (Toni is the 'mom'; I forget her husband's name) and are available in NYC at street fairs and crafts markets. You can also get them through the web at http://www.copasoaps.com . They come in 20 or more scents; I even found one that my 70-year-old father likes. The soap itself is creamy, lathery (but not too lathery) and they cleanse thorouhly but gently. I use them in the shower, by the kitchen sink, and in drawers (for the lovely smells -- varied but not too strong).

I am a complete olive oil soap cake fan -- have been using it for about 20 years now (various brands). I don't care so much about scent -- am more concerned with the condition of my skin. OO soap has done a great job of keeping my entire bod really soft over the years.

I also occasionally use the actual oil as a hot-oil treatment for my hair rather than the store bought stuff.

I'm with Jessica. Imperial Leather reminds me of this skeevy guy that lived on my corridor when I studied in the UK. Ick.

but, from that same period in my life, I have fond memories of Crabtree & Evelyn's seashell soap. Mmmm. I also liked another generic British soap Carex...my friends thought I was nuts, but it felt so clean to me.

I'm a fan of bar soap...there's something, as someone mentioned, very tactile and very economical about it.

I have reallty sensitive skin, but love scented soaps. The soaps at soapgoddess.com do the trick! Wonderful, creative scents!

Imperial Leather! Ha, you made me laugh out loud. My mum still uses that and I always hated it growing up in England. Maybe it's the whiff of it being English that's making it popular. It's certainly not sexy.

I'm a liquid soap fan myself, usually from the Body Shop.

One thing I will say for Imperial Leather is that I'll always remember the ads where the voice over woman said "Cussons Imperial Leather". Her voice was so rich and leathery and creamy...

lol, it's not the "sexiness" of Imperial Leather that I like, I think it's just the clean smell. What can I say, it probably just reminds me of my childhood.

At one time, Boots had a line of "Royal Jelly," which were honey infused bath products that I loved, especially their bubble bath. I wonder if they still carry those ...

Super fragrant soaps are not great for my skin, but I can't help myself from buying them when I'm in England. I just like the look and smell of them.

I love the beautiful, rustic bars made by Woodspirits (woodspirits.com), especially Zanzibar and Portuguese Breakfast. Oh, and the Eau d' Hadrien scented bars by Annick Goutal....

No one has mentioned Floris. Expensive, but yummy. ANd their bars stay nice-looking longr than Rnce.

But I do love a good scrub-down with...Zest.

Oh, dear. Time to cut the fingernails.

The Unsartorialist agrees that Imperial Leather is considered a bit naff here in Britain. It also comes with an annoying label glued on it, meaning soap underneath is unused, and therefore, a waste.

The Unsartorialist prefers to furnish one's bathroom with a Molton Brown liquid soap, called Naranji. Investigate.

I can't use liquid soap; it always reminds me of Dawn dishwashing liquid and other kitchen soap. I love River Girls Soap (www.rivergirlssoap.com), something my boyfriend and I discovered when we were visiting Washington DC. It's handmade, really aromatic and gentle and the bars are large so they last a long time; plus some of the fragrances are outrageous.... I do like Zum (!)but the bars are so tiny.

I enjoy taking a shower with whichever soap I have chosen it is a chance to awaken my senses and start the day off with self care. Often times these soaps I have discovered are little treasures from trips to interesting places and pack a small memory within. I love to hear about all these great soaps and love the advice. I personally use too many to really recount here but recently found that Trader Joes sells Bisous de Provence (all vegetable enriched with shea butter) for a steal. I also like certain scents of Primal Effects (a glycerine soap with images embedded into it). Again, thanks for the reading.

I don't like soap.

I discovered the most delicious, tantalizing soaps at Stanley Korshack in Dallas, called Fraiche - and boy are they! It's hard to pick a fave tho the Bare Naked and the Chocolate are great. So is Spicy Little Punkin'. Oh, don't forget Cherrylicious. Mmmm, and Greenmeadow. Bath, shower, lingerie drawer, under my pillow. Wish they made body and room fragrances. Check them out at www.jcarol.com or sk

My favorite thing to do is look in the little soap shops that hand make their own bar loafs and cut them into bars for you, they are so visually attractive and smell so amazing! That can get expensive though. I've tried to make them myself but they just don't come out the same. I have to agree with some of the above, Lush smells are amazing and keep your bathroom smelling nice! I don't think I've ever use the same soap scent twice, there's always something new to try!

My husband and I are big fans of the canus goat's milk bars. Both the canus and lil canus soaps are very mild and have a nice clean scent that isn't overwhelming in any way. And our daughter loves her goat soap!

Okay, really, why does *everything* have to be effing "sexy"? What next, the five sexiest toilet rolls? Five sexiest toothbrushes? Anybody who's concerned about whether their soap is sexy enough is just trying too hard.

Aveda's Refreshing Bar. Hands down the best smelling, sexiest soap around! Try it you'll never use anything else.

Great post!


I like both liquid and bar soaps.
Favorite liquid one: L'Occitane Honey
http://usa.loccitane.com/FO/Catalog/Product.aspx?prod=15GM250M7
It has this luscious sweet smell, just like honey.
Favorite bar: Mudlark Classic Almond
http://apothica.com/m-LUXE-Handcrafted-Soap---Tiberonne-%28Classic-Almond%29.html
This soap scent is delicious almond and is made with goat milk & honey.
And I agree with Enrique, Bisous de Provence Lemon Verbena Soap $2.99 at Trader Joe's is really good & the smell is awesome.

~A

I 2nd what Jezebella said, labeling soap as "sexy" is just stupid. However, I wanted to praise the Nubian Heritage line of soaps, their scents are divine!

I am in love with Sopatopia soap! It's all natual and handmade in Mar Vista, CA, but you can order online at www.soaptopia.com. I am addicted and love the wide range of scents. They also wrap everying beautifully so they make great gifts!

Ok, I too love Lush but for everyday soap try Sappho Hill. The Oatmeal smells like Oatmeal cookies! No packaging whatsoever so less waste and my local Randalls even carries it, just $2 a round!
My guests get a nice new glycerine bar that smelled too manly once I got it wet.

Our favorite soaps come from www.leserail.com.