Why a cleanser with no added soap? What about soap?
Soap and non-soap based cleansers do exactly the same thing; they clean the skin. A key difference though is the type of ingredient used to do this. Soap is formed through a chemical process known as saponification, which is a reaction between strong bases. This reaction leaves the soap highly alkaline, which means that it usually has a pH of around 9 or 103. The skin itself has a natural pH of around 5, so an alkaline product like soap can alter the skin's composition4 and potentially lead to irritation. Cleansers with no added soap contain synthetic detergents in place of soap. As the process doesn’t need to be highly alkaline, like soap, the pH of these products can be closer to that of the skin. What this means is that cleansers with no added soap will work just as well as soap with a reduced chance of aggravating or irritating the skin.