I just started using Origins GinZing for my eyes- I love it! It's very light, but moisturizing- I can really see a difference (or maybe I'm just imagining it, but that's good enough for me).

Whaddaya mean beyond soap? That's the most important thing! I use this stuff because I like the smell and it never makes me itch. They also make a nice shaving lotion, it doesn't give me the closest shave (since I shave every day this doesn't matter) but it leaves my face soft, which I like. Like Beyonce, I don't believe in soap on my face, just water, water, water.

For hand lotions I'll use anything but (since my sis-in-law gave me a sample pack last year) I really dig Burt's Bees spicy hand salves and lemony cuticle creams.

If it's really dry and midwintery, my skin will get a bit itchy; I use some kind of Aveeno fragrance-free body lotion, I think it's got oatmeal in it and it's probably labeled for sensitive skin.

I use Pantene Pro-V shampoo, the one formulated for blond hair, and a Pro-V conditioner called "hydrating curls" or some such. The hydrating curls shampoo is also nice, I got the blond stuff on a whim last summer.

I'm big on foot care, I usually wash my feet when I get home. I use Body Shop peppermint foot lotion; actually the incomparable Stewriffic sent me a variety of other peppermint foot products, a soak, a gel, and a cooling spray, all of which are quite soothing for tired dogs.

I'm a little vague on some of my shower products because I take the labels off my toiletries. Toiletry bottle design is usually quite beautiful and the bottles look much better without labels. Also, if I happen to leave my shampoo and conditioner in the shower, I can be pretty sure none of my housemates will use them. Some people don't seem to like a mystery when they're wet and naked.

Hugh Janus never disappoints!

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but for about the last year I started shaving in the shower without shaving cream. Just a bit of lather from my regular body soap. It's been a huge improvement--blades last longer, closer shaves, less irritation.

I always shave in the shower, with no specific product beyond the usual aloe-oliveoil soap. Other than trying to keep clean, I use Cetaphil cream throughout the Winter to keep my skin hydrated, as much as possible.

props for the responses, keep em coming.

I think up until the end of high school I used just soap and shampoo and facewash (and lotion for dry weather and deo of course).

For when I was in the states after that though I noticed that facewash was like a genuinely important thing for my facial skin; it made all the difference in the world compared to soap. I still use the same thing cause I can find it in India (it was one of those widely distributed supermarket brands); L'Oreal's Men's Expert facewash (it's orange colored). Usually I'd use a scrub before it; Neutrogena Men's face scrub (it's white). Then I'd shave after showering (random shaving cream) and use Neutrogena men's post shave lotion (it's a black tube with white lotion; so for a while now I've been using lotions rather than alcoholic aftershave mostly..) Also Axe deo. The shower gels, soaps, shampoos etc I used whatever I'd bought it wasn't important

So now after using just the facewash and random soap for a while I'm going back to using the scrub as well, and the post shave lotion thing rather than whatever aftershave or lotion is handy, but in the meanwhile I've discovered that a lil bit of olive oil can work MAGIC in your hair if you leave it awhile before washing it off, overnight works too. So now I'm like, I'm gonna look into hair masks and things. And as I was in the store (as a guy it's still a bit weird to walk into these stores especially if they're mostly empty but I brave it) looking at hair masks these saleswomen were tryna push toner and other sorts of facial skin care stuff onto me so I figured I'd check it out. And now that the weather has become cold and dry I've decided to try putting lotion all over my skin (or at least, limbs and chest) after showering and I'm like THIS IS THE GREATEST IDEA EVER. So yeah. I was looking at my feet and thinking yo, that could stand a bit of exfoliation .. and like, when we cut our nails and things.. I could stand to do it with a bit more ceremony, you know, put oils into the nails.. lol

Previous editions of this roundtable:
21/July/10: discovering powder
26/June/10: complaining about Axe
16/Sep/07: lips
23/Aug/07: eyebrow shaping (what?)
13/June/07: eyebrow shaping (really?!)

I have wonderful hair, and it's been the only expensive part of my appearance for a while. Just using enough shampoo and conditioner for all this hair means I go through a lot lot of it, but I also really like what Pantene does for it. The individual hairs feel more slick and fat, less split-endy and dry.

I think this may be psychological, rather than physical, but I never actually feel clean no matter what I do. I can repeatedly scrub my whole body with Gojo and still feel dirty. There was a product that actually made me feel reasonably clean--Oil of Olay body wash--but when they reformulated it a few years ago it went from "best on the market" to "get it off my skin!" Damn, you Oil of Olay. I even contacted them to find out how I could stockpile the old formula, and all they did was send me a coupon for a free product. I don't want their new product! Even for free!

Next best substitute: C. O. Bigelow Lemon Cream Body Wash. I feel mostly clean after washing with.

In the absence of the above, I bathe with antibacterial dish soap.

I have, by the way, tried Bronner's. It doesn't get along with my skin (leaves it red and chapped), and doesn't make me feel clean anyway.

I wash my hands about 20 times a day. Last winter for the first time this started making my hands really dry. We're heading back into "winter" now, and so I'm looking for a good product to help deal with dry hands. Never did find a decent one last year. They all make my hands feel slimy and need re-application a couple of times a day. I usually end up wiping the stuff back off as soon as I put it on; can't stand having stuff on my fingers. I may be slightly OCD.

More and more, I'm using homemade scrubs and oils, or edible goods as beauty products. In the winter, I scrub my face with sugar and olive oil, rinse well, then clean with CetaPhil. The sugar-oil scrub is the only way I get reeeeeeeally well exfoliated.

I deep-condition with olive oil (laced with essential oil for a pleasant scent) before shampooing it out. For shampoo, I use baby shampoo, which doesn't strip my gray hair of its natural oils, and every few weeks I use deep purple old-lady shampoo to keep the gray bright and not brassy.

I've been using cocoa butter on my roughest skin once in a while. (I intended to buy coconut oil for a kitchen product, but wasn't paying attention, so I was stuck with cocoa butter, and I decided to try it as a lotion.) It works wonders, especially on my feet! I've deep-conditioned my hair with it a coupla times; it makes my hair feel silky, but it's a pain to wash out.

And I will talk about soap, because I'm particular about my soap. I like a hard-milled unscented beeswax soap (which I used to buy by the case when I worked in a boutique where we sold it: one case for the shop, one case for me), but I use some other soaps from the same company: grapefruit, verbena, milk. Partly, I use these because I know I'm not allergic to them, as I am to so many scents; I carry a mini soap with me when I travel so I don't have to worry about reactions.

For me, it's more about the tools than the products. In the words of an old friend, "you have a big exfoliating monkey on your back." I love to exfoliate. In my bathtub right now: a brush for my face and a brush for my body (the facial one is softer), a pair of exfoliating gloves, an exfoliating shower strip (like a rough nylon scarf), and a big water-resistant super-fine file --- like an emery board for your feet.

But none of this makes me feel particularly sexy, just fresh and luxuriously clean and smooth. The one product that inevitably does make me feel sexy: my Demeter Ginger Ale scent. It's so light and tangy and --- I don't know how they did this, but it smells fizzy!

That's interesting Elsa. When I was talking to my sister about hair masks she was kinda hinting like she makes her own and I think there's something to it; even in terms of food and stuff these days I've been reverting to things that are a bit more 'primal' than manufactured, shipped and packaged so maybe putting the primary ingredients together yourself is also part of that closer to primary-sources aesthetic. I can't help but think crushing a fruit or something RIGHT THERE is just as good as the extract of it synthesized by P&G and probably even feels better. Plus being here in India it's like huge swathes of the population are devoted to the more natural-ingredients-driven way of doing things anyway so I may as well pick up on that information

I use Cetaphil for normal/oily skin in the morning (even though my skin is dry, this one suits me best). I follow that up with my own home-made Vitamin C serum, and on top of that Superdrug Vitamin E moisturiser, which is SPF15. The moisturiser is cheap as chips but still consistently beats much pricier ones in blind testing.

In the shower I like either Dr Bronner's soap (which I dilute in an old shower gel container) or the best shower cream ever, Soap & Glory. I also like Soap & Glory exfoliators.

If I've worn any makeup during the day, I cleanse it off with a mixture of 75% rape oil (canola) and 25% castor oil, rubbed into my skin and then removed with a hot cloth. Before bed it's Elizabeth Arden Advanced Night Repair Serum.

On my hair, I use only conditioner, any old cheap thing from the 99p store to cleanse my hair, rubbed in like shampoo, and then a better-quality intensive conditioner after that. Once a week I'll shampoo with Head & Shoulders, the dark blue bottle that contains selenium.

On the body it has to be Kiehl's Crème de Corps, which is ridonculously expensive but it really is the best.

Major, major Lush.com fan here. I love everything -- the bath bombs, the melts, the soaps, the shampoos, etc.

I also really like dhccare.com's deep cleansing oil.

And finally, a serious soap fan and especially fond of the floral soaps from napa soap.

Firas, my real reason for using edibles: I know what's in them. I can be reasonably certain that they don't contain added fragrance, which seems to be the additive most likely to make my skin all red and angry.

And I really don't make the stuff ahead (though you certainly can!), except for a bottle of olive oil with a few drops of essential oil in it. I keep a jar of sugar in the bathroom and mix it with oil in the palm of my hand. I have made some small packets ahead as gifts, but I always suggest using it up soon.

This thread is reminding me that I need to replace my jojoba oil. I often put a few drops on my still-damp face, especially in winter when the wind is so chapping. I'm going to start buying that in tiny bottles, despite the higher unit cost. I recently started getting hives on my hands and face, and close inspection of all my facial stuff showed a small clump of MOLD floating in my jojoba bottle. I assume some washing water must have leaked in and contaminated the oil.

In any case, a few drops of oil seem to help me in the winter, much more than moisturizer does. And I also sometimes put a few drops of (scented) olive oil on my hands and run them through my hair. It's like a leave-in conditioner and frizz-tamer.

Elsa, can I ask -- what's the deep-purple grey-hair shampoo you use? Now that I've stopped coloring my hair, I think I need to switch up the products I use on it.

kat allison, right now I'm using Matrix Solutionist, which advertises itself as being for blonde or frosted hair. I've also used Shimmer Lights, which was fine --- I just buy whichever is at hand when I need to replace it.

If I use it too often, though, I end up with a faint lavender tint to my hair, so I only use it once or twice a month, and I always follow with a baby-shampoo lather to be sure I've got it all out. Because I'm trying to reduce my shampooing to two or three times a week (and rinsing with conditioner other days), I try to line things up: first, I oil-condition with warm olive oil and let it sit 30 minutes, then I wash with purple shampoo, then I baby-shampoo. It takes two washes to get the oil off, so that works perfectly.

In the shower: The natural food store had Shikai cucumber-melon shower gel on sale a few weeks ago, and I've fallen in love with it. I use Burt's Bees volumizing pomegranate-soy shampoo and conditioner. I just recently started using Tuel chamomile cleansing milk for "reactive" skin after getting way too many lectures from my eyebrow waxing lady about over-exfoliating my skin; now the redness and bumpiness, which I thought was acne (hence the exfoliating) but seems to have been warning signs of rosacea (which is often made worse by scrubbing), has gone away.

After the shower: Recently started with a beta-hydroxy liquid toner, because it's supposed to help with rosacea bumpiness as well as blackheads. Then an under-moisturizer "moisture gel," then a moisturizing sunscreen. I'm trying to get better about body moisturizer; I like the unscented Alba Very Emollient Body Lotion. I have Burt's Bees coconut foot creme, which is the only only only thing I've ever found that keeps my feet from cracking.

In the evening: Tuel's chamomile cleansing oil, then more beta-hydroxy and a lipogen night moisturizer. This is the first time in my life I've used this many face care products. But my face is looking all sexy and happy, so, I guess it's good.

I probably should be doing more with my hair, because it's naturally dry and our hard water really doesn't help, but I have no idea what to use. I think I had a Nutrisse Garnier hair mask at some point, but I don't remember which one.

I use whatever soap is cheapest. That's it. Maybe that's why I'm not sexy.

I know you didn't ask me, kat allison, but I'm salt and pepper and really, really love lush.com's Daddy-O, which is also deep purple and smells sensational. I use it a couple of times a week.

I used to mock and sneer at people who used "product". Whatever soap I had in the dish was good enough for me and maybe the occasional dab of Carmex on the lips in winter.

All of that changed at Mefi10 in NOLA last year, where I was introduced to Lush products.

OMG I WANT IT ALL. They make you smell good, they make your skin and hair soft, and I haven't had a hangnail since I started using this. I now love "product"! Heh.