Product Review: Dove Men+ Care

I was recently contacted by Dove to see if I was interested in trying out their new line of Dove Men+ Care products. Just for the record, I am not a guy who actually cares much about the products I use to clean myself, but I do use Dove products and felt like I might enjoy their line. So I agreed and they sent me a nice package. It was a nice bag with some deodorant, body wash, soap bar and a Dual Sided Shower Tool (they don’t call it a loofah, but it’s a half loofah – we call it the non-loofah loofah).

The Score

Isaac immediately fell in love with the bag. He had a blast taking the stuff out, putting them back in and then adding his toys to the equation. At various times the bag contained a ball from the ball pit, a ball from his ball popper, a ball from his gumball machine, a truck and a small stuffed animal. Sometimes it contained the Dove products too.

Now let me tell you something about how I used to pick out cleaning products. It was a 3 step process.

1) Go to the store

2) Find cheapest product possible

3) Buy said cheapest product

Since Erin and I have been dating/married I’ve gone up a little in the world. Now I only buy the cheapest shampoo, conditioner, deodorant and shaving cream. The one thing I don’t go cheapest on is soap. She convinced me a long time ago that the type of soap actually matters and, believe it or not, we’ve been using Dove and I actually do notice a difference when I use another brand (and usually not in a good way). So Dove coming out with a line geared towards men made me think it was a good idea to say yes.

Let’s start with the Dual Sided Shower Tool (henceforth known as the non-loofah loofah). (All prices are based on what I found on Walgreens’ website)

Dove Men+ Care Active Clean Dual Sided Shower Tool

I might lose some man points here, but for some reason I’ve always kind of liked loofahs. I don’t know why, but I kind of feel like the scraping of my skin means that I’m getting cleaner. Like the slight discomfort they cause means that it’s doing more than just straight soap.

Dove’s Shower Tool is really only a half-loofah because the other half is a scrubber. I’ve found that I use the scrubber side works pretty well for my feet, which is pretty much the only part I use it on. The loofah side (for some reason they really don’t like that word) is seemingly like the other two I’ve ever used in my life.

I will give them credit though. The fact that one side (the scrubber part) is sturdy makes it a lot nicer to hold than if it was just a straight loofah. You can actually hold on to the sides while using it, which is a plus in my book.

So I like it, it’s an improvement over a straight loofah and the scrubber does come in handy. For the $5.49 price tag on it I would say it’s worth the price. I can’t say that I’ve priced other loofahs or anything, but that doesn’t seem unreasonable. Thumbs up Dove.

Now on to the body wash.

Dove Men+ Care Sensitive Clean Body and Face Wash

I started with the non-loofah loofah because to start with the body wash would be pretty pointless. If you’re not willing to use a loofah why would you get body and face wash that goes on said loofah? Doesn’t make much sense now, does it (to me at least)?

I really don’t know what to say about the body and face wash. It works great with the non-loofah loofah and I end up feeling clean, which is the most important thing. Erin has apparently been hijacking some of the body and face wash because it’s unscented. Since it’s designed for sensitive skin they don’t put any fancy smells in that might cause irritation. So apparently the name doesn’t scare women away. Once again the ladies are hijacking our products.

Personally I don’t use the body and face wash as a face wash, but that’s mostly because I don’t want to use the loofah to scrub my face so I use soap instead. I suppose I could squirt some body wash onto my hands and wash my face that way, but for some reason that’s not how I roll.

The body wash also costs $5.49 for a 13.5 oz bottle. Again, seems reasonable.

Dove Men+ Care Extra Fresh Body and Face Bar

Here we get to the bar of soap. For years Erin and I have used the plain, original Dove bar and have had nothing but good things to say about it. It doesn’t dry out my skin and they sell it at CostCo so we can buy 200 at a time and not worry about soap for 10 years.

I didn’t really notice a difference between the Dove Men+ Care version of the soap and the original version of the soap. I don’t know if the two are actually different in anything except the scent. I don’t really know how to describe the smell other than it’s more “manly” (Erin’s words). It’s not like the manly you see in the Axe commercials, but in more of a “Hey, that guy doesn’t smell like a woman” way.

A 6-pack of the soap costs $8.49 whether you buy the original or buy the Men+ Care. All things being equal (which they are) I’d pick the Men+ because it does have a good scent to it.

So, again, thumbs up Dove.

Dove Men+ Care Clean Comfort Antiperspirant/Deodorant

Deodorants are DEFINITELY one of the things that I don’t mind going cheap on. As long as it’s not discoloring shirts I’m fine with pretty much whatever doesn’t smell awful and is cheap. I care so much about it that I send Erin to the store with the instructions of “I need deodorant, get something that smells good” and don’t care what she comes home with, as long as she didn’t spend too much.

That being said, the funny thing is, a little before Dove contacted me I was in need of some deodorant and Erin happened to be the one going to the store. She had a coupon and actually bought me a bar of the Dove Men+ Care deodorant. So, in a way, I had a jump on the product.

It fits all my requirements for deodorant. It hasn’t left any marks on clothes, it’s $4.99 (which from what I recall looking at the store last time is right around average) and it doesn’t smell bad. Not sure what else you want from your deodorant.

So thumbs up again Dove.

In conclusion…

I would buy all of the stuff they sent me (and in the weird case of a guy asking me what bath products he should get I’d recommend it). What I like about the line is that it’s stuff that everyone needs, it leaves my skin feeling good instead of dry and it’s competitively priced. If they were significantly more expensive than the competition we’d probably still buy the bars of soap but pass on the rest, but that’s not the case.

I’m a low maintenance guy who doesn’t really care about bathroom products, so take that into account here. Erin has told me that the reviews sound “on the positive side of neutral” which is accurate, but also about as high of praise as I will probably ever give bath products. Just a fact.

A reminder, I received this stuff free of charge but all opinions are my own. Yes I didn’t say anything negative about it, but they’re bath products so it’s not like they’re going to magically break down after 30 days.