The best hand soaps I’ve encountered have always lived in wine bar bathrooms. Living in New York for a few years has nearly wiped away the memories of elementary-school-era neon pink Softsoap goo and watered-down Dial in gas station restrooms. There was a time when even Dove seemed like a status soap to me, if you can believe it. But gone are such simple days of Target-stocked foaming hand soaps—today, our culture has progressed to bergamot-scented glass bottles and bar soaps with names like Petrichor or Mugwort.

So our team got together to investigate the current status of hand soap offerings in 2025 to ask: What are the “nice soaps” a level above Mrs. Meyer? And are they as gentle on the hands as they are easy on the eyes? What gives soaps that wine-bar-bathroom quality we’re after? We tested all the chic antibacterials we could find and came up with a list that features both bar and liquid hand soaps, tested for lather, sensitive skin, what felt perfunctory, and what felt like a true personal care moment. Here’s what we came up with:

Our top picks for the best hand soaps:

• Best overall Soap: Mater Flori Soap, $34
• Luxury soap: Diptqye Softening & Comforting Hand Wash, $80
• Best herbal soap: Flamingo Estate Roma Heirloom Tomato Hand Soap, $46
• Cult favorite: Aesop Resurrection Aromatique Hand Wash, $43
• Best bar soap: Soft Services Green Banana Buffing Bar

You won’t be surprised to know this hand soap came to commerce writer Julia Harrison in a wine bar bathroom in Cobble Hill. “I had bought it before I even left the premises that evening,” she says. “The smell of it was floral and earthy, but not at all sweet or geriatric, as some florals can be. It’s got an aroma that’s a mix of ocean, forest, and the first sprouts of tomato and basil in a spring garden. This soap is smooth, lathering, not sticky at all, and the scent lasts only very subtly after wash, so you can still achieve the endorphins of the best smell on earth without being overwhelmed by it.”

We recommend a lot of Diptyque—particularly their candles—because they’re chic, luxurious, and they look as good as they smell. While we’d know the Baies scent anywhere, commerce editor Audrey Lee branched out into their hand soaps to find “this one from Diptyque that doesn’t dry out my hands and leaves behind a nostalgic floral smell that’s like an elevated version of the soap from my high school’s art room.” With an elegant glass bottle you can refill once you’ve worked your way through, it’ll feel like a worthy investment your hands will ultimately be grateful for.

This soap has become a kitchen sink staple for Harrison. “I handwash all my dishes which means my hands reek of sponge after a particularly large batch—this has been a godsend for replenishing moisture to the dry skin on my hands post-Dawn, as well as erasing the milky, moldy scent left behind by dishes.” For those that are familiar with Flamingo Estate’s cult favorite tomato candle (Harrison also has this and burns it in her kitchen year-round), this soap delivers on everything you love about the matching votive, only you get to wear the scent.

“My love of Aesop’s Resurrection scent knows no bounds,” Lee begins. It’s true—she’s recommended Aesop products for holiday gifts, self-care products that deserve their hype, and as bedroom essentials. The Resurrection is one of Aesop’s always-trending scents, combining orange, rosemary, and lavender for a fresh-smelling, herbaceous experience. “In addition to the soap, I also own the hand balm and hand sanitizer,” Lee says, so she can smell Resurrection wherever, whenever. An added bonus: “This soap is one of the strongest scented washes I’ve tried that doesn’t dry out my hands.”

Soft Services made a splash on the market with their sleek designs and exfoliating formulas. They pronounced with certainty: bar soap is back. And the others followed. Associate commerce director Lori Keong loves their Green Banana Buffing Bar, “which feels like a fitting ode to my favorite midnight snack: It’s subtle enough that it doesn’t linger on your hands (with just a hint of sweetness) but always does the job of lathering up well.” She likes the light sandpapery texture for exfoliation. They’ve since partnered with DS & Durga on a Debaser scent and make stylish soap holders too that elevate your sink to new heights. (It’s also a favorite of Carina Chaz, founder of DedCool.)

A grapefruit-and-sea-salt hand soap achieves exactly what you’d hope for in a bathroom soap—something slightly astringent, obviously antibacterial, and a distinctly fresh scent. This Apotheke liquid soap achieves all that, and looks good perched near the sink. “It has a mellow grapefruit odor that’s not sharp or saccharine,” Harrison says “and dissipates into something a bit more floral as it dries.” While it includes aloe to retain moisture, it’s less moisturizing than some hand soaps, which would be a bummer if it didn’t give you an excuse to pair it with a hand lotion just as elegant.

“While I’m a longtime fan of the Suede scent from Byredo, the new-to-me Vetyver fragrance is perfectly fresh for spring and summer” says commerce director Rachel Fletcher. “It’s a little citrusy and a little romantic—the vetiver, cashmere, and jasmine petals really bring it home on the muskiness. A bottle of this stuff lasts forever, which helps justify the price, and it leaves my skin feeling soft.” We also love their perfumes—particularly Mojave Ghost and De Los Santos, which both made it onto our Scent Week Essentials.

“If I could bathe, sleep, taste, smell, live in Le Labo, I would,” says Harrison, who’s an adamant user of both their Santal 33 (“the smell of 2018, I know, I don’t care”) and their new Eucalpytus 20. They achieve what so many attempt: perfumes with subtle top notes, strong base notes, and a sexy but down-to-earth catalog of scents perfect for daily use. This hinoki hand soap is no different—earthy, piney, only slightly sweet. The soap itself is thick and moisturizing, but if you really want to lock in some moisture, there’s a hinoki hand lotion to match (also recommended by Harrison).

There’s a reason Flamingo Estate is on this list twice, and it’s because they really know what they’re doing, especially with grounding, earthy, herbal scents. This parsley and rosemary scent is suitable across all rooms and occasions—bathroom, kitchen, even body. “It’s not as astringent as you might think with two such potent scents,” Harrison says. “They’re instead musky—not subtle but not acute.” While we think it could be a bit much for a full body cleanse, we also wouldn’t mind riding the subway next to someone who smells of garden herbs. Our ideal scenario for this soap, however, is a five-star farm-to-table restaurant’s bathroom with cotton hand towels instead of an automatic hand dryer and a Flamingo Estate candle burning too.

From Copenhagen-based brand Frama comes another distinctly European scent—sandalwood, cedar, and ylang ylang make for a fresh, invigorating scent experience that feels, as Harrison explains, “luxurious, rich, something so precious it feels bizarre that you could own it.” She swaps this out for her Mrs. Meyer’s when guests are over to “dupe them into thinking I have a grip.” Their full St. Paul’s Apothecary line is something to watch—Harrison has also recommended their herbarium hand lotion in our Sleep Week and Scent Week essentials.

Fletcher calls this the gift to give for the “bougiest person in your life.” We’ll admit—sometimes self-care is just the act of indulging in the brand name and beautiful bottle by the bathroom sink. “I really do like the fragrance of the Tomato Leaves soap–I’m a fan of contemporary tomato scents in general, including the Flamingo Estate line–it’s earthy and complex (you get just as much floral as you do vegetal, which is lovely), and the fragrance really does linger both in the air and on your skin.” She finds the soap to be slightly drying, so she’d recommend this as a powder room choice versus a kitchen one, where you’d be using it more irregularly.