A Beginner's Guide to Finding the Best Natural Soap for Your Skin

Most Energizing

Calling all morning shower people: This energizing bar will give you an awakening boost to jumpstart your day. Featuring rosemary and eucalyptus leaf oils, the crisp scent will fill your nostrils (and your shower) as soon as you begin to lather up. The soap also has volcanic rock to gently exfoliate dead skin cells.

Best for Winding Down

For our night showerers, we’d suggest this soothing soap that’s loaded with nourishing hemp seed oil and 50 milligrams of certified organic full-spectrum CBD to gently cleanse from head-to-toe, while soothing your senses and skin. We enjoy the earthy green color of the bar as well.

Best for Odor

Despite its name, you can use this mint-scented soap on other body parts that might need extra deodorizing—like your feet. Packed with activated charcoal and apple cider vinegar, the bar is made to manage any body odor caused by bacteria on the skin. To get the best results, wet the bar to create a creamy paste, apply it to your skin in a circular motion, and let it sit for 30 seconds before rinsing clean.

Best for Blemishes

Got a pesky case of bacne? This exfoliating bar uses green clay to clear excess oils, as well as shea butter to moisturize, so your skin is left feeling clean, but balanced. (Remember: Even oily or acne-prone skin needs moisture.) The bar produces a creamy lather and releases a uniquely warm scent that’s very aromatic and grounding. Also of note: All UpCircle products are sustainably made with ingredients and packaging that has been reused and repurposed.

Best for Dry Skin

If you’re about that zero-waste life, this all-in-one bar is a solid choice. Made with the namesake matcha green tea (which is packed with antioxidants), plus cocoa and shea butters, and olive and castor oils to hydrate dry skin and hair, you can use it on your scalp all the way down to your toes. The mildly minty scent is pleasant and not overbearing.

Best Overall

We love using this gentle soap after a sweaty workout in the summer just as much as we enjoy using it after a day spent sitting next to a heater in the winter. The pretty pink bar is formulated with French Pink Clay to cleanse your skin of any impurities without drying it out; the added coconut and olive oil also helps to hydrate. The subtle rose scent is calming, not cloying.

Family Favorite

If you’re looking for one bar for the entire fam, try this unscented pure-castile bar from Dr. Bronner’s. Safe for most skin types and made with vegan, certified fair trade, and organic oils like coconut, olive, hemp, and jojoba, the nourishing soap is as effective at cleansing as it is at moisturizing. The only note of caution we’d give is for those with extremely acne-prone skin since coconut and olive oils can clog pores. Otherwise, we have no bones to pick with this bar. It lathers well, rinses clean, and leaves our skin feeling soft, not tight. (Bonus: Every bar is packaged in 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper.)

Best Bargain

At three bucks a bar, you can’t go wrong with this all-purpose soap. Free of parabens, synthetic fragrance, sodium lauryl sulfates, phthalates and formaldehydes and full of orange, geranium, mandarin, grapefruit, and vetiver essential oils (to name a few), it has a naturally mild scent that’s slightly citrusy and slightly herbal. We’ve found it to be especially helpful lately, as it doesn’t dry out our skin despite how often we wash our hands these days.

Best for Combination Skin

This bar has a cult following for its ability to deeply cleanse excessively oily skin and help heal blemishes and even certain skin conditions like eczema. This can perhaps be attributed to its blend of ingredients like exfoliating papaya enzymes and plantain peel extract, soothing oats and aloe, and hydrating shea butter.

Best for Sensitive Skin

Everything about this soap is mild, mild, mild. The milky bar produces a rich lather that feels creamy on your skin and the soap itself is loaded with raw shea butter and vitamin E to soften any dry patches. Plus, there’s little to no scent to speak of, which is helpful for sensitive skin types as many fragrances (natural or synthetic) can cause irritation.

Best Multipurpose

The brainchild of a female pro surfer, this triple-milled bar lathers generously on your hair and your skin, making it the ideal multipurpose cleanser. Loaded with coconut oil, rosemary extract and shea butter, it's also highly hydrating (and it comes wrapped in 100% compostable plastic-free packaging to boot).

Best Post-Workout

For those with active lifestyles, we'd point you to this deeply cleansing bar that quickly whisks away any sweat and surface grime, so you don't end up with a case of clogged pores. Activated bamboo charcoal draws out excess oil, while grapefruit and juniper oils clear up any congestion and lend a crisp, energizing scent.

Best for Exfoliating

Another favorite from Palermo, we love this clarifying soap because it offers just the right amount of exfoliation thanks to the tiny poppy seeds embedded within the bar. Add tea tree and peppermint oils to help clear any blemishes, and some shea butter to moisturize, and well, you've got yourself a new shower staple.

Best for Dull Skin

If your limbs are looking a bit dry and flaky right about now reach for this bar. Made with one percent glycolic acid and jojoba seeds to buff off dead cells, and sea kelp and shea butter to nourish, it delivers an ultra-rich lather that rinses off clean to leave you with smoother, brighter skin.