"Soap-Free" soap

[Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake]

Due to a skin irritation, I was told by a doctor to use Purpose brand liquid soap on my face in the shower. (First one here.)

However, this stuff is kind of expensive ($7 for 6 oz.).

So, does anyone know any equivalent products? What the doctor actually said was to use “soap-free” soap, and that Purpose was an example of this.

Even better: What does “soap-free” mean? How can I figure out if a cleaner is soap-free by looking at the ingredients list?

Curiously, the doctor also said to look for fragrance free products, but Purpose has “fragrance” listed as an ingredient.

[ZipperJJ]

Ask your doctor if you can use Cetaphil instead. It’s $9 for 16 oz, and this is what my dermatologist recommended for me.

[Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake]

Thanks for the recommendation, Zipper. Duane Wayne carries a generic for Cetaphil and not for Purpose, so I would definitely prefer this.

I’m not going to ask the doctor, since that would require time/money, and I know I can’t ask for medical advice, so let me put it this way: If Purpose is “Soap-Free”, is Cetaphil also “Soap-Free”?
Also, since this is GQ: How can soap be “soap-free”? (My biggest academic regrets are that I know nothing about Poetry and Chemistry.)

[WarmNPrickly]

If I had to guess, “soap-free” soap means non-ionic surfactant soap. There are a number of other things it might mean, but non-ionic soap is definitely the least irritating. Ask your doctor if baby shampoo will work.

[sailor]

Detergent - Wikipedia

A detergent is a material intended to assist cleaning. The term is sometimes used to differentiate between soap and other surfactants used for cleaning.

Terminology
Sometimes the word detergent is used to distinguish a cleaning agent from soap. During the early development of non-soap surfactants as commercial cleaning products, the term syndet, short for synthetic detergent was promoted to indicate the distinction. The term never became popular and is incorrect, because most soap is itself synthesized (from glycerides). The term soapless soap also saw a brief vogue. There is no accurate term for detergents not made of soap other than soapless detergent or non-soap detergent.

See also
Soap - Wikipedia
Castile soap - Wikipedia
Glycerin soap - Wikipedia
etc

[Fubaya]

You may look into goat milk soap. My sister started making and selling it a couple of years ago. I don’t know the details of it’s ingredients, but it’s used by a lot of people who can’t use regular soap.

[Blue_Mood]

You could also try .

Phisoderm

[Green_Cymbeline]

I highly recommend either of these two Cetaphil face cleansers.

Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser is a non-sudsing cleanser. It’s an opaque lotion-like cleanser, and at first it’s odd because it doesn’t lather like you would expect, but it is great. I have very sensitive facial skin, and this is what I use every day. Also, most drug stores have a cheaper, generic version of this if you want to spend less.

Cetaphil Daily Facial Cleanser, Normal to Oily Skin is a mildly sudsing/foaming facial cleanser that is a clear gel. This is good if you have oily skin.

Both of these are very mild soap-free cleansers and are awesome. And also, both are fragrance-free.