I’ve been having this debate for a few years now; do I follow what my mom ingrained into me and use Caress bar soap for the rest of my life or do I venture out into the world of hygiene products and find something I actually like?

Soap was invented to help keep the flu and other medical disasters from arising. We have different ways of making it and different smells and different ingredients. We have soaps made from "natural" ingredients; like this company that shares how they create their bar soap, and it lists a variety of oils that sound like they're from an old family recipe for their famous meat loaf. In shower gel recipes this company states it uses "infused fruits and flowers" and "essential oils", so a little bit better than the bar soap that uses nothing but cooking oils.

What exactly is an "essential oil?" According to the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy, "essential oil" is a derivation of quintessential oils, meaning the "spirit" branch of the Four Elements: fire, air, water and earth. They also go on to say it's the way of distilling or evaporating the oils from plants and the like. Basically, it's a super fancy way of saying plant juice.

Bar soap, to me, has always dried out my skin and is just dirtier than shower gel. Bar soap can slip and fall to the shower floor; being in a traditional dorm at a University this is a nightmare, what do you do now? Throw away a huge bar of soap that costs a nice chunk of change? I’m not trying to persuade you use shower gel, I’m simply stating my opinion.

I also asked a few colleagues for their thoughts on the debate and it’s a 50/50 split.

For some, the debate is that bar soap dries out their skin and it is less clean, even though it’s soap. For others it’s a sensitivity battle:

“I have sensitive skin, and I can only use shower gel on a few parts of my body and bar soap on the rest because I’ll break out,” Tianna Hairston, a junior Sports Media major at Oklahoma State University, says.

Shower gel comes in a variety of smells and styles and it is a faster, more bubbly way to clean your body. Bar soap has the control and satisfaction of seeing where exactly the soap touched rather than bubbles taking over your body and hiding spots that didn’t get thoroughly scrubbed.

The only right answer to the question of "Bar or Gel" is totally up to you and the skin type you were born with. Smells are also a huge factor and companies realize this. Some of the population would rather spend money on cheaper soap options that appeal to the sense of smell rather than a soap that works for them and their skin. It's an easy fix if you're stuck in a bind of using your parents' ancient soaping habits or if you can't find the right one; find an appropriate lotion to save your skin from your potentially harmful soap and lather up morning and night. You need to use moisturizer for your body daily anyway but especially if your soap has the opposite affect.

Which form of soap do you use? Why do you choose the one you did?