Twelve popular soaps, 36 testers. Find out which ones raised the bar in our user trial of three categories – regular, premium and medicated

The rising popularity of ‘luxury’ face and body washes might lead you to believe that the traditional soap bar is on the decline – it is not. A lot of Indians still like using good old soap bars to bathe. But which ones are the best? To find out, we conducted user trials of 12 popular brands of soap, separated into regular, premium and medicated categories, to find out which ones left users feeling the cleanest and freshest, which ones lived up to their myriad claims, and which didn’t. ‘Regular’ soaps are for affordable, everyday use, while premium brands are for consumers willing to spend more. The rising popularity of ‘luxury’ face and body washes might lead you to believe that the traditional soap bar is on the decline – it is not. A lot of Indians still like using good old soap bars to bathe. But which ones are the best? To find out, we conducted user trials of 12 popular brands of soap, separated into regular, premium and medicated categories, to find out which ones left users feeling the cleanest and freshest, which ones lived up to their myriad claims, and which didn’t. ‘Regular’ soaps are for affordable, everyday use, while premium brands are for consumers willing to spend more. They often claim to be better and more effective than regular soap. The third group – medicated soaps – are most commonly marketed as gentle on hands but hard on germs. But dermatologist Dr Aruna Prasad (see ‘There is no one formula for skincare’, opposite) is wary of such claims and says, ‘Medicated soaps are no better than regular ones at fighting germs.’TO READ FURTHER... Please Login, Register or Subscribe