Soap came first; long before we celebrated the novelty of a liquid cleanser, the bar of soap was king. Shower gel began as a novelty… then eventually a replacement for the good old fashioned bar of soap. Today we seem to toggle between the two as a matter of personal preference.
SOAP: A good natural Body Bar will always contain the same basic ingredients: a cleansing and/or sudsing agent, a moisturizer, and an agent to bind the two. The most common cleansing agent in natural formulations is a coconut oil derivative or soap bark. The most common moisturizers are aloe, vegetable oils and vegetable butters, and the most common bind is vegetable glycerin. In non-vegan formulations, that bind may be an ingredient like honey. Those ingredients will help get your skin clean, but keep you from drying out like you would in typical cold-pressed and/or chemically bound formulations.
SHOWER GEL: Shower gels follow the same formula, with the exception of a higher amount of ‘liquid’ ingredient. That ingredient can be water, aloe, glycerin or even oil. The latter can create a ‘creamy’ appearance and feeling on your skin. Shower gels tend to be gentler on the skin’s acid mantle; this means they can effectively lift dirt and bacteria without stripping your skin of the basic moisture it needs to stay supple and elastic.
What you choose to clean your skin with is ultimately up to you. Soap and Shower Gel serve the same purpose, and it’s really the ingredients that determine if one is better than the other.