Dove has launched a new line of manly beauty products, and they asked me, possibly the most vain dad blogger out there, to give them a look. I did not pay for these products; the beauty industry hooks me up because of all of my soap advocacy and promotion of soap-based charities and my #WEAREYELLINGABOUTSOAP Twitter parties.
So, I did a little pampering last night. Armed with a box of Dove’s new Dove Men + Care products, only me and the shower walls know what really happened, but big thanks have to go out to Dove’s Active Clean Dual-Sided Shower Tool for a good time.
What I can tell you is that the Dove Men + Care “Sensitive Clean”, unscented, dye free body and face wash is “meh”.
Possibly I’ve been spoiled by the harsh chemicals and powerful scents of the other body washes I’ve used, but this one just didn’t do it for me. Although I may have been empirically clean, I felt neither clean nor refreshed after using the wash, even though I (ab)used the Dual-Sided Shower Tool for a long time. A long time. A very long time.
Can I just go back to the shower tool for a second? (But Ironhead, what’s with that thingy?) I’ve been a shower-gel-and-poofy-thing guy for a long time now, never really liking the bar-and-washcloth version of showerly cleaning, but the poofy-thing is a little rough on my skin. It’s a bit scratchy, you know? The Dove shower tool is like a combination of the poofy thing and a washcloth, letting your build a lather without also abrading your skin with the mesh. I like it. I like it a lot.
Also winning big points with me is the Deep Clean Body and Face Bar. WOW.
Do you trust me when I say “WOW”? Maybe all soap is like this, and I just don’t use enough soap on my face, but washing my face with this thing left my skin smoother than I’ve felt it in….look, I don’t want to give you the impression that I just go around rubbing my face all the time, but I sort of know how it feels….and after washing with this bar it feels truly awesome. It beats a shaving cream wash by a long mile. It makes me want to buy a soap dish to keep it by the sink, and I never thought I’d say that.
I also tried the “tough on odor” Extra Fresh deodorant. I chose it because it was the blue gel-looking solid, and that’s the kind of composition my deodorant usually is; the “tough on sweat” Clean Comfort antiperspirant deodorant is the white solid, and I’ve never liked that kind of stink stick.
It smelled fine, or as Emily put it “guy smell, in a good way”, but it really isn’t an antiperspirant at all, and I felt really uncomfortable in my clothes after a couple of hours as I felt more sweat on me than I usually do when I’m just sitting around not doing anything. I’m not really a sweaty guy, so it was a little shocking how quickly the floodgates opened. For me, it almost seemed to encourage sweat, and I don’t need that kind of drama. The other one, the genuine antiperspirant isn’t an option for me, with its white annoyingness, so I think I’ll stick with my usual stick.
Overall, the line is a mixed bag for me. I will be using the shower tool and the face bar regularly, I think, but I won’t be incorporating the body wash or deodorant into my routine.
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