Normally, you have to keep your face wash and your body wash separate when you have sensitive skin, but if you’re interested in taking a minimalist, all-in-one approach to your skin care, the La Roche-Posay Lipikar Wash might be what you need. It’s sulfate-free and non-comedogenic, so it won’t cleanse too harshly or clog your pores. It has both glycerin and shea butter to hydrate your skin, and it's made with La Roche-Posay’s patented Prebiotic Thermal Water, which can give your skin an extra boost of antioxidants. Prebiotics can also support your skin's natural microbiome. Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate an ingredient which helps to clean or remove dirt and oil and can create foam when used with water. In general, if a soap is free of sulfates, synthetic fragrances, harsh exfoliants, and irritating chemicals, it can probably be categorized as “mild” enough for sensitive skin. Butyloctanol helps to make your skin feel soft and smooth with smart biotic effect / support skin microbiome

Maybe you’ve never thought of using an oil-based cleanser as a body wash for your sensitive skin, but these products can give you an extra dose of much-needed barrier lipids while effectively removing irritating dirt, grime, and pollutants from your skin. The Bioderma Atoderm Cleansing Oil is a fan-favorite in the oil-based cleanser department, and though it’s more expensive than other options, it might be worth it for your dry, irritated, sensitive skin.

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As far as moisturizing ingredients go, Dr. Zeichner says you should look for a combination of the three types of moisturizers: humectants, emollients, and occlusives. He breaks down what each one does, and how you might see them pop up in your skincare products. Sodium C14-16 Olefin Sulfonate An ingredient which helps to clean or remove dirt and oil and can create foam when used with water. What exactly won’t you find in this body wash? Fragrances, dyes, parabens, sulfates, formaldehyde releasers, and more. It’s an unscented, soap-free cleanser that uses mild surfactants to remove dirt and glycerin to draw more water to the skin, leaving it soft and smooth. It’s a lightweight cream, so it lathers without stripping and drying out the skin; combined with its affordable price point and the fact that it can be used for kids and babies, too, Vanicream is an all-around reliable cleanser for sensitive skin. Bar soap cleansers. Your dad’s old bar soap is probably too harsh, but Dr. Zeichner says the latest generation of bar soaps are designed to be pH-balanced to the outer skin layer, and many are safe and gentle enough to use on a daily basis. The Dove bar soap we featured here, for example, contains no actual soap and only minimal ingredients.

What it does: form a breathable seal over the surface of the skin to keep hydration in and environmental aggressors out

Pharmacy product

Cocamidopropyl Betaine An ingredient which helps to clean or remove dirt and oil and can create foam when used with water. From there, be mindful of the other ingredients in products you use and make note of ones that seem to be personally irritating to you. This might include parabens, lanolins, and formaldehyde releasers. Finally, Dr. Zeichner recommends avoiding harsh exfoliators, both chemical and physical, because of their tendency to cause reactions. Sodium Benzoate Helps maintain the shelf-life of the product, protecting it from bacteria, yeasts and molds. Consider body wash that’s full of plant-based oils and butters, like squalane, coconut oil, and jojoba oil as they mimic our skin’s natural oils,” says Dr. Mikailov.

To find the best body washes for sensitive skin, we asked dermatologists to tell us what to look for when choosing an in-shower cleanser. These experts include:Oat and aloe extracts, known for their soothing and repairing benefits, are infused into this body wash, promoting the healing of your in-crisis skin while preventing future flare ups. And Aveeno is pretty confident this body wash can improve the condition of your skin; they tested it on adult oncology patients with “distressed” skin (a population that’s prone to skin problems during chemotherapy) and found improvement when used in combination with other Aveeno creams. But Dr. Friedler says that many of the common brands with sensitive skin-specific products are dermatology-focused—in other words, they’re designed to be gentle enough for nearly everyone to use. This includes Eucerin, CeraVe, Aveeno, Dove, and Aquaphor, just to name a few (and, if you’ll notice, many of those brands made our list!).

sodium benzoate helps maintain the shelf-life of the product, protecting it from bacteria, yeasts and molds.sodium benzoate Helps maintain the shelf-life of the product, protecting it from bacteria, yeasts and molds. There are many types of formulations of body washes and cleansers, and while none of them are automatically bad for people with sensitive skin, there are a few that should be used with caution.