Glossier Gave Bar Soap the Makeover It Absolutely Needed

With an assist from WNBA stars, the brand is introducing a new exfoliating bar and body oil — and Fashionista's beauty director is already hooked.

Bar soap is back, and it's better than ever. No, really. On Thursday, Glossier introduced its own take on the oh-so-basic shower staple in the form of the Body Hero Exfoliating Bar, a bar soap studded with exfoliating beads, alongside the new Body Hero Dry-Touch Oil Mist body moisturizer.

As a longtime detractor of the concept of bar soap — I've always felt like it left a waxy film on my skin, plus, it just skeeves me out, all sitting there in its dish, collecting bathroom dust — I was less than excited when I first heard about this product. But, all in a day's work, I tried it... and I became obsessed. But more on my personal thoughts on these products in a moment. First, some facts:

Glossier launched its first two body products — Body Hero Oil Wash and Daily Perfecting Cream — in 2017. This two-product expansion of the Body Hero range carries out the same mission of moisturizing and soothing skin, not stripping it. The two newbies also have the same heady orange blossom and neroli scent, which I think smells like straight-up perfume-y sunscreen, but in, like, a good way?

The exfoliating bar, which the brand calls a "solid body scrub," is packed with bamboo powder granules, touted by Glossier as a "sustainable and environmentally friendly" exfoliating option that's effective at buffing and smoothing skin, yet far more gentle than the walnut shell physical exfoliators of yesteryear. The bar — which is thoroughly Glossier branded, in its millennial pink, logo-embossed glory — is also spiked with sunflower seed oil, aloe leaf juice, for antioxidants, moisture and soothing properties. It retails for $14.

The Body Hero Dry-Touch Oil Mist, meanwhile, is a lightweight, spray-on body oil, laced with oat kernel, grapeseed and sunflower seed oils, all of which are moisturizing and rich in antioxidants. It also contains sea fennel extract, which the brand claims contributes to smoother, more evenly toned skin, and vitamin E to soothe and protect. The pale, amber-tinted oil comes housed in a slim glass bottle and retails for $28. Glossier calls it a "dry-touch" oil and claims that it absorbs into skin in a matter of seconds.

The new products will also be available as part of "The Complete Body Hero Collection," which includes the two new items, as swell as the original Daily Oil Wash and Daily Perfecting Cream and will retail for $70.

I've been using both products in tandem regularly over the past week, and despite my initial skepticism, I'm completely hooked. I found myself shocked at how much I enjoyed using the exfoliating bar in particular, especially given the extent to which I normally avoid bar soap and body scrubs. (I have typically favored this reusable, mess-free, intensely-scrubby mitt and routine dry brushing for all my body buffing needs.) But this bar is great for those "body shower" days when I'm in a hurry, since it washes as it scrubs, and it rinses away easily, meaning it doesn't slow down the showering process or create a mess in your tub.

Flat on the top and curved on the bottom, the bar hugs the contours of the body, making the exfoliating/cleansing process quick and simple (though I could see things getting progressively more slippery as it continues to disintegrate in the shower, as bar soap is wont to do). I also love that it imparts its (pretty strong) beachy-floral scent not just onto my skin, but also into my shower and entire bathroom as it sits there in the soap dish I had to dig into the far reaches of my bathroom drawers to find.

Plus, it's clear Glossier created this product with the environment in mind. The exfoliating granules are indeed a more environmentally responsible option than we've seen in the past: Unlike the plastic microbeads that used to be present in many body washes, scrubs and even toothpastes, bamboo powder is biodegradable and much less sketchy to be putting into the water supply. What's more, bar soap is often regarded as a more sustainable option than body wash because it lasts longer, is more compact and lighter weight (i.e. it has a smaller carbon footprint to produce and transport) and doesn't require plastic packaging (this bar involves no plastic whatsoever, just a cardboard box and the product).

As for the body oil, it's a very good — if not entirely game-changing or remarkable — product. The brand recommends applying it to damp or towel-dried skin, but I'd recommend going for the former to really seal in moisture and reap the full benefits. It also claims it absorbs within seconds, and while that may be true, for me (a person who tends to pile on product and doesn't mind feeling a little bit slick), it was more like 120 seconds. For me, that's perfect, since it gives me some time to use my lymphatic drainage tool before the oil dissipates too much. It lends a nice, dewy glow to skin and leaves it feeling soft and smooth instantly, but it doesn't turn your whole body slippery; kind of the ideal for a body oil. I will say that the glass bottle seems a bit treacherous (slippery, oiled-up hands and a tile bathroom floor create plenty of potential for an unintentional slapstick routine), but if you simply use the spritzer to mist the formula all over your whole body before you massage in the oil, you can avoid that conundrum.

As part of the Body Hero campaign to promote these new products, Glossier tapped a handful of WNBA players dubbed "The Body Heroes of the WNBA" to appear in photos and videos. The group includes 2020 champion of the Seattle Storm, Seimone Augustus of the LA Sparks, Lexie Brown of the Minnesota Lynx, Kalani Brown of the Atlanta Dream, Amanda Zahui B. of the New York Liberty, Natalie Achonwa of the Indiana Fever, and Stefanie Dolson and Gabby Williams of the Chicago Sky. What makes this partnership even cooler is that the campaign images and videos were entirely self-shot by the players living inside the WNBA "Wubble."

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"Our mission to give voice through beauty has always been rooted in a belief that the power of beauty goes far beyond products or aesthetics — it is a means of connection, a conduit for personal narrative, and an expression of self-identity. This campaign is the perfect reminder of that mission," said Ali Weiss, Glossier's SVP of Marketing, via a press release.

Click through the gallery below to see the newest additions to the Glossier Body Hero collection, available now on Glossier.com.

View the 3 images of this gallery on the original article

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