Hand washing is something that everyone does, so hand soap is pretty much ubiquitous—meaning it can be found in everyone’s bathroom. However, just because every bathroom has some form of hand soap doesn’t mean that they have the best one for them. Since we’re big fans of hand soap in liquid form, we’ve decided that the best way for us to help our readers get the best handwashing experience is to introduce them to the best liquid hand soaps. Soaps so good, they will not only get the user’s hands clean but will also feel like they’re engaging in a luxurious experience.
Quick Summary of Liquid Hand Soaps
Reviews
Softsoap Milk & Honey Moisturizing Hand Soap
Best Overall
So many people put up with a liquid hand soap that dries out their skin or doesn’t provide the lather they need, and they don’t think twice about it. They just use it day in and day out without question. Well, for these people, we think that this hand soap is truly going to blow them away. That’s because its a soap that will completely transform their world.
Not only does this soap lather up quite well, which helps the consumer wash away dirt and bacteria, but it also has a moisturizing effect on the person’s hands. After using this hand soap, people’s hands are noticeably softer and feeling better than before the soap was used in the first place. And that’s a rare occurrence among soaps used for washing hands.
This soap doesn’t just produce a nice layer and moisturizes the skin, but it also has a pleasant scent. Although this scent might be strong if a person has an adverse reaction to fragrances in general, for most people, we think that it will be a soft and calming fragrance that they will love. All in all, we loved this soap and felt that it was the best liquid hand soap, but no product is perfect so we’ll just go over what we didn’t like about it.
Our biggest complaint about this product was that its pump didn’t always work as well as we expected it to work. Sometimes we had to give it an extra pump to get it to work right. That’s not a big complaint, but we thought it was worth mentioning. Otherwise, this is a great product we highly recommend.
- This soap moisturizes skin & leaves it soft.
- It has a very pleasant scent.
- The pump could’ve been better made.
Everyone Lavender & Coconut Hand Soap
Best Paraben-Free Soap
Before we reviewed this liquid hand soap, we never even considered that lavender and coconut would’ve made a great fragrance combination. Honestly, who would’ve thought that those two fragrances went together well and complemented each other? We sure didn’t, and we’ve been reviewing a whole lot of hand soaps.
Once we tried it, however, we finally realized what we’ve been missing. Not only does coconut and lavender go well together, but they make a unisex fragrance that just about everyone can enjoy. And that’s just the icing on the cake for a hand soap that has so many good things going for it, some of which we’re going to discuss next.
The next thing that we liked about this soap was that it produced a great lather and gently cleaned hands without drying them out. That’s probably because this product is made with cleansers derived from coconuts and is made with organic plant extracts, vitamins B5 and E, and pure essential oils. That means that this product is not only free of phthalates and parabens, but is also free of artificial fragrances, artificial dyes, and chemical detergents.
It was also free of GMO ingredients, gluten, polysorbate, and disodium EDTA. It’s a cruelty-free, EWG verified product that most people are going to love. Sure, it’s pump required a little bit too much effort to use, but other than that, it’s a great soap for hands.
- Made without parabens, phthalates, & dyes.
- Cleans well & produces a nice foam.
- This product’s pump could’ve been better.
Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Basil Scent Soap
Best Natural Formula
Basil is another scent that we weren’t familiar with before we reviewed this product. Sure, we had used it in cooking our favorite pasta sauce, but other than that, we weren’t quite sure how it was going to work out as a liquid hand soap scent. Fortunately, we soon discovered that it worked out quite well. Basil is a scent that’s crisp and fresh smelling, but also somehow seems to have an exotic feel to it. We thought it worked out quite well for this hand soap, but the fact is that we had few complaints about this hand soap in general. Other than this product’s pump, which seemed a bit temperamental at times, we thought this was a great soap. Let us explain why.
This soap worked itself into a great lather and did an amazing job of cleaning our hands. Which is pretty amazing considering that it did it without all of the harsh ingredients found in commercial hand soaps. This product is made without parabens, phthalates, and has never been tested on animals. It’s made with more wholesome ingredients such as aloe vera, olive oil, and essential oils. We discovered that it was a hard-working soap with a kitchen garden vibe that we loved. In fact, if it weren’t competing against other high-quality soaps, we could easily see this soap being handed a number one spot. Yes, we feel that it’s that good.
- It doesn’t dry out the skin.
- It’s made with quality, wholesome ingredients.
- The pumps can be a bit funny some times.
Dial Complete 2-In-1 Antibacterial Manuka Honey Soap
Best Antibacterial
Before we did the review on this liquid hand soap, we didn’t know what manuka honey was. It wasn’t until we began our research and review of this product that we realized that this honey is derived by bees that pollinate the manuka bush found in Australia and New Zealand. This honey is supposed to be moisturizing, and perhaps it is in other products, but we didn’t feel that it worked well in this one. Although this soap is supposed to moisturize, we found it didn’t do that good of a job in that regard. It didn’t dry out our hands, it just didn’t moisturize. That’s something we feel is worthy of mentioning.
Fortunately, this product had quite a few other things going for it. For one, it did lather up well, which allowed it to completely remove dirt from hands. It’s also made with an antibacterial agent that killed germs, which should come in handy around flu season. And it did have a pleasant scent that we quite enjoyed. Oh, we almost forget, it’s also worth mentioning that its pump worked flawlessly–which in our experience is quite surprising. All in all, we think this is a quality liquid hand soap if the user doesn’t expect it to moisturize their hands after washing.
- It has antibacterial properties.
- It cleans hands well.
- Its pump works quite well.
- It doesn’t moisturize hands the way it’s supposed to do.
A Guide To Liquid Hand Soaps
Hopefully, our selection of liquid hand soaps will help our readers find the one that’s right for them. A hand soap that will get their hands clean without drying them out. For our readers who want more information on this subject, we’ve also decided to write this handy guide. We hope that this guide will allow our readers to avoid the sub-par hand soaps that they might find online or in their local grocery store, and will allow them to buy the best liquid hand soap available.
Buying The Right Liquid Hand Soap
Let’s kick this guide off with a discussion of what the consumer should consider when purchasing a new liquid hand soap. Yes, we know that all of these soaps look the same, and many of them come in the same type of pumps, but the reality of the situation is that there is a significant difference between quality hand soaps and cheap low-quality ones. A difference that we’re going to examine below.
Know Which Ingredients To Avoid
The first thing that the consumer is going to want to consider is if there are harmful ingredients that can be found in their soap. Too many commercial hand soaps contain ingredients that might not be the best for human health. Below is a shortlist of some of the ingredients that we think consumers should avoid when choosing a liquid hand soap.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate
Sodium lauryl sulfate, also known as SLS, is an ingredient that’s been associated with skin and eye irritation, reproductive toxicity, and endocrine disruption. It’s an ingredient that’s used in industrial cleaners such as engine degreasers or industrial soaps. Therefore, it’s probably not the best choice for hand soap.
Parabens
Parabens are another product that’s believed to have harmful effects on human health. They are believed to disrupt hormone levels in the human body, cause the human body to store extra fat and maybe even reduce overall muscle mass. Parabens go by a bunch of different names that include butylparaben, methylparaben, and propylparaben. Our advice is to avoid all of them.
Propylene Glycol
Unfortunately, propylene glycol is an ingredient that’s found in a variety of liquid hand soaps, deodorants, moisturizers and even shaving creams. We say it’s unfortunate because this ingredient is also the main ingredient in antifreeze and has been linked to cancer, organ system toxicity and allergic reactions in users. All good reasons to avoid this product altogether.
Other Ingredients To Avoid:
Below are a few other ingredients that the consumer might want to avoid when they’re searching for the best liquid hand soap for their household.
- Diethanolamine (DEA)
- Ethyl Alcohol (Ethanol)
- Diazolidinyl Urea
Ingredients To Consider In Liquid Hand Soaps
Okay, now that we’ve scared our reader by listing some of the chemicals that shouldn’t be in their hand soap, we’ve decided to do a 360 and talk about the ingredients found in hand soap that can be beneficial.
Moisturizing Ingredients
Ordinary hand soap can dry out a person’s hands—especially when it’s used during the winter months. That’s why some people are going to want to consider getting a product with moisturizers in it. Good moisturizers can prevent the user’s hands from losing moisture and help them avoid the painful splitting and cracking caused by dry skin. Below are some of the moisturizers that consumers might want to consider when purchasing a new liquid hand soap.
- Glycerin
- Aloe Vera
- Cocoa Butter
- Shea Butter
Other Ingredients That Should Be In Hand Soap
As we come to the logical conclusion of this guide, we would like to talk about some of the ingredients that are often found in quality hand soaps. The following ingredients aren’t harmful to human health and they play an important role in how the soap works. Therefore, the consumer can’t go wrong with choosing a soap that uses the following ingredients.
- Purified Water
- Orange Peel Oil
- Lemon Peel Oil
- Flower Extracts
- Sodium Chloride
- Essential Oils
- Aloe Barbadensis
- Matricaria Extract
- Camelia Sinensis
- Citric Acid
And that’s all there is to finding a quality liquid hand soap. As long as the consumer pays attention to labels, follows some simple guidelines and chooses a scent that speaks to them, they should have no problem finding a hand soap that they can be proud of using day after day. As time goes by, more and more quality hand soaps are becoming available to the public, so none of our readers should have any problems finding a great liquid hand soap that works for them.