Dove has been telling people it isn't soap since the 1950s, and it turns out they mean it. If you've ever wondered why a Dove bar feels different from a bar of old-fashioned soap, or whether it's antibacterial, here's the plain version.
Is Dove a true soap?
No, and Dove says so itself. Its UK site puts it plainly, calling it a "Beauty Bar" rather than a soap bar, and the company has long described it as made with a quarter moisturizing cream. Unilever, which owns Dove, describes the original as a mild, pH-neutral cleansing bar "that wasn't simply a soap."
The ingredient list tells the same story. The first ingredient in the original white bar is sodium lauroyl isethionate, a synthetic cleanser, followed by stearic acid and lauric acid. Some true soap (sodium tallowate or palmitate, and sodium cocoate) appears further down. So Dove is mostly a synthetic detergent bar, often called a "syndet," with a little soap mixed in.
Why that matters
True soap is alkaline, usually somewhere around 9 to 10 on the pH scale. Dove's cleansers are much closer to neutral. That's the main reason a Dove bar feels different, rinsing off smooth rather than squeaky, and it's why plenty of people prefer it. Neither approach is wrong. They're just different ways of making a bar that cleans. If you're curious about the numbers, we wrote about the pH of soap.
Is Dove soap antibacterial?
The original Dove Beauty Bar isn't. It has no antibacterial active ingredient. Dove does sell a separate Care & Protect Antibacterial Beauty Bar, and that one carries a Drug Facts panel listing benzalkonium chloride at 0.13%.
For everyday washing, though, the FDA has said there's no evidence that consumer antibacterial soaps work better than plain soap and water. In 2016 it banned triclosan and 18 other ingredients from consumer antiseptic washes. Benzalkonium chloride was one of three ingredients the FDA set aside for more study rather than banning, which is why it shows up in antibacterial bars today.
Which Dove bar is best?
That depends on what you want. The original white bar is the classic. There's a version labeled for sensitive skin. The antibacterial bar is for people who specifically want an antibacterial label. They're all the same basic idea, a mild synthetic bar with added moisturizers, in different scents and versions.
Where Dove wins
Price and feel. An eight-pack of 3.75 ounce bars is $12.99 at Target, about $1.60 a bar. It's everywhere, it's consistent, and if true soap has always felt a bit tight on you, Dove is the bar people usually recommend instead.
Where we'd make a different case
We make true soap, the old-fashioned way, from organic plant oils and lye, in small batches. It has a short ingredient list and a creamy lather, and there's no synthetic cleanser in it at all. If you've never tried a well-made handmade bar, it may surprise you. True soap doesn't have to feel harsh.
If you want something plain, our Castile Soap is fragrance-free and made with 100% organic olive oil. If you want a little personality, try any bar on the soap shelf. And if you're comparing brands, we put six bars side by side in the best bar soap for men.