What is the difference between hand soap and body wash

Lefkowicz recommends switching to a more moisturizing body wash for skin that's a little older. By Stacey Leasca Updated August 26, Each product we feature has been independently selected and reviewed by our editorial team. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission. Save FB Tweet More.

Credit: Getty Images. All rights reserved. Check out all the ways we can achieve your goals. See Fresh Product Concepts. Read More. Feel-good skincare products? Unbelievable bar soaps? Not only is it important to have enough soap in your home to keep everyone clean, but it should also pamper and nourish your skin. Our products will keep your skin soft and supple, and our fragrances will make getting clean a decadent experience.

Check out our products today! Body Wash vs. Hand Soap Should you find yourself low on hand soap and wondering if body wash can be used instead, the answer is yes. Some of the other options include the following: Shampoo Like any other soap in your home, shampoo contains surfactants that will remove germs and dirt from your hands.

Using laundry detergent on your hair may remove the oils that shampoo would not and damage your hair as a result. ELI5: What's the fundamental difference between hand soap, dish soap, body wash, bar soap and shampoo? Dish soap should cut through grease and oil, that's its primary job. It doesn't necessarily need to smell nice or be soft on the hands as long as it plows through stuck on grease.

Hand soap should be decent at getting stuff off your hands, but also needs to be soft on the hands. It should be neutral or smell nice. Shampoo should remove the grease from your hair, but not be so aggressive it dries it out or changes its color which may be acceptable with something like a dish soap. Different tools for different jobs.

If you want it to be soft on hands then it can't be super aggressive, if you want it to be super aggressive it'll do bad things to soft things like skin and hair. ELI5: what is the difference between all types of soap. Body wash, bar soap, dish soap, detergent etc Most modern liquid "soaps" are not technically soaps at all, which is to say they're not produced from mixing vegetable or animal fats with a strongly alkaline solution such as lye or potash.

Instead they're a blend of usually petroleum-derived surfactants such as sodium lauryl sulfate with other chemicals to produce a detergent that matches the desired use. Shampoo is designed to be gentle on the keratin which forms hair, have strong foaming properties to be more easily worked through the fine strands, remove common hairstyling products, and - especially for those of us with more than a couple inches of hair - have specific effects on the texture of the hair.

It has a fairly low concentration of surfactants so that it rinses out quickly and you're not in the shower forever trying to get it all out of your hair. Hand and body wash is usually formulated with a mild surfactant to avoid skin irritation, plus various ingredients that can moisturize the skin, add scent, improve lather, etc. Lathering agents are generally surfactants as well, so there's a careful balance here between getting a nice lather and not drying out skin.

Hand washes are usually less foamy since they don't need to cover much surface area and are used frequently throughout the day, while body washes tend towards more foam since they need to cover a lot more surface area and are used less frequently. Face washes are their own magical category and can include all sorts of fun chemistry like ceramides and multivesicular emulsions, alpha hydroxy acids, benzoyl peroxide or salicylic acid, etc. Bar soaps are one area where true soaps are still relatively common.

Moisturizing ingredients can also be added, and the naturally occurring glycerine is also somewhat moisturizing.