Dove bar soap is a rip off - I grew up using Ivory bar soap. Nothing fancy, but it worked and I liked it. Sometime during college everyone started using Dove, so I figured I would give it a try (my friends and the ads told me it wouldn't dry out my skin as much as Ivory). So since then, for the last 15 years, I have been using Dove even though it's more expensive. Nothing spectacular, but no real complaints. My skin was fine, but I kept using Dove out of habit more than anything else.
But last week Ivory was on sale, making it about half the cost of Dove per ounce. I couldn't resist so I tried it. Not only was the Ivory cheaper I discovered that each bar of Ivory last more than twice as long as each bar of Dove! I have no doubt Dove this on purpose to make its customers spend more money on soap. Moreover, I did not find Ivory to be any more drying than Dove.
My conclusion: Dove is trying to pull a fast one over its customers. It prices it as a "luxury" "moisturizing" soap, but in reality it is very similar to other soaps and doesn't last nearly as long. I don't want to calculate the hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars I have wasted on Dove over the years. I'm back to Ivory and very pleased <img title="Laughing" src="/javascript/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/img/smiley-laughing. Gif" border="0" alt="Laughing" />