Lately, I’ve been thinking more and more about making the switch to a solid bar of soap for washing my hands. The packaging is more eco-friendly and the product itself is potentially more suitable for my hand eczema. Liquid hand soaps generally contain more preservatives (because they contain water), whereas it’s typically easier to find a gentle, non-irritating solid bar soap like Dove Sensitive Skin Beauty Bar.

Hand soap is a highly competitive product category. Product labels have to be eye-catching and full of buzzwords like “soothing,” “advanced,” “foaming”, “natural,” you name it. But as consumers, we have the power to look past the marketing—simply by turning the package over and reading the ingredient list. If a product label says “soothing,” you might logically assume that it is designed for people who are concerned about skin…

Fragrance-free hand soaps are hard to spot. For some reason, companies don’t think people will accept hand soaps unless they smell nice. I wish we had more options. A while ago, I accidentally bought Target Up & Up Classic Clean Clear Hand Soap without realizing that it contained fragrance. When it arrived, I didn’t want to waste it so I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, it aggravated my eczema and reinforced the idea that I should look for better hand soap options,…