Dr. Squatch Review: Smells Great, But Does it Last?

There is no denying the uptick in popularity of natural men’s grooming products in recent years.  From beard oil to bar soap, no corner of the men’s grooming market was left untouched.

It’s through this natural revolution that brands like Dr. Squatch have found their ways into the modern man’s grooming routine.

But does natural always mean it’s better?

In this guide, we’re going to put Dr. Squatch to the test.  From an in-depth look at the company to our hands-on review of the soap itself – by the end of this guide you will have a complete (and unfiltered) look at Dr. Squatch.

Let’s dive in:

About Dr. Squatch

Dr. Squatch was founded in 2013 by Jack Haldrup. 

As mentioned in an interview with Throomers, Mr. Haldrup was focused on making a bar a soap that “I wanted to buy myself.”

Fast-forward to today and we not only see a company that is thriving by making ads in the same vein as Dollar Shave Club but it also has a healthy and nearly bootstrapped business model that was built for success through their “soapscription” program.

In addition to their flagship bar of Pine Tar Soap, the product we will be reviewing today, Dr. Squatch has expanded into several other categories including cologne, beard oil, and more.

Why You Should Trust Our Review

Here are a few key points you should know about our review before we get started:

  • This is not a paid postWe don’t accept paid or sponsored posts on this site.
  • We paid for the product featured in this post out of our pocket.
  • We are independently owned and operated.
  • This post may contain affiliate links that help us to cover operational costs.
  • The team at Dr. Squatch is not aware of or reviewing this post before publication

Unboxing Dr. Squatch

For this review, we decided to purchase Dr. Squatch directly off their website.  Therefore should you decide to order this through a different online retailer (i.e. Amazon), the packaging may be a bit different.

Given that this is a $7 bar of soap and not a high-end product, the packaging is extremely plainjust a padded envelope:

Within the envelope, you will have a bar of soap and the packing slip:

Dr Squatch Review Packing

Again, super simple and likely not the reason you are ordering this soap to begin with.

As for the soap itself, here’s a closer look at the front label:

As you can see, the bar of soap is 5oz (142g) in size.

If you like to “vote with your wallet” and buy products that lessen their impact on the environment, then you will like that the packaging has been made from recycled materials:

Dr Squatch Review Recycled Materials

When flipping around the back of the bar, you find some of the key features of the soap itself:

Dr Squatch Review Back Label

As for the biggest selling point, the ingredients, Dr. Squatch relies on an all-natural blend of ingredients that you can pronounce which include the following:

  • Saponified Oils (Olive, Sustainable Palm, and Coconut)
  • Shea Butter
  • Lye
  • Pine Tar
  • Oatmeal
  • Sand
  • Sea Salt
  • Activated Charcoal
  • Kaolin Clay

Here’s a closer look of the ingredient label as well:

Dr Squatch Review Ingredients

Once you pop open the side panel of the box, you have a nice square block of natural soap:

Dr Squatch Reivew Bar Soap

As for the grip, the soap feels and fits pretty firmly in your hand and not too unwieldy:

Dr Squatch Reivew Bar Soap 1
Dr Squatch Reivew Bar Soap 2

As for the actual dimensions, the soap is about 2.5″ wide x 2.5″ long x 1″ high (measurements are approximate). 

Using Dr. Squatch

When you give Dr. Squatch a try, you will quickly realize that this will be very different from your standard bar of soap (i.e. Old Spice, Dove Men, etc.) that you may be using currently.

Natural soaps by their very nature are formulated without all the chemical-based ingredients found in mass-produced soaps.

Therefore, when you use Dr. Squatch it will be a unique experience – to help you learn on what you can expect, I will break this down into a few different subsections:

Soap Texture

First and foremost, this soap will not feel anything like a standard bar of soap.

As you may have caught in the product pics above, this is an exfoliating bar and contains a rather aggressive grit (sand) throughout the bar.

Whether you are rubbing this product on your stomach, arms, or legs, the soap’s grippy texture will give you that tactile feedback that you’re removing both dirt and grime from the surface of your skin.

Now given that this grit is aggressive, some men may be rightfully turned off from using this on delicate areas of skin – notably the groin area. 

However, after using this soap a few times, you will get used to the grit within the bar.

Lather

When showering, many men love to see a nice sudsy lather when washing.  It provides the visual cue that the soap is working as it should.

The lather provided by Dr. Squatch is adequate.

While not nearly as bubbly as your standard bar of soap or body wash, here is what I experienced when simply washing my hands:

Animated GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

As you can see, the soap laters pretty well, especially when you remember that it is derived from all-natural ingredients.

Skin Texture

One thing that I noticed when using this soap was the texture of my skin when rinsing off.

Given that this is made largely from a mixture of oils and an exfoliating agent, I expected my skin to be silky smooth to the touch.

Instead, upon rinsing, the texture of my skin was quite the opposite – rather grippy.

This grippy texture could be one of two things:

From my understanding (disclosure: I am not a chemist), the fats from the soap may have been interacting with the natural minerals in the water (magnesium, calcium, etc.) and resulted in soap scum (source).

What does make me take a pause on this theory, though, is that I live in NYC where the water is rather soft.  Based on other areas of the country where I lived with much harder water, it makes me wonder if this grippy texture could be a by-product of one of the primary ingredients within the soap – particularly the pine tar.

If you have ever watched baseball, pine tar is the sticky substance that players use to get a better grip on the bat (source).  Perhaps the concentration of this ingredient within the bar of soap is a bit higher given that it was a pine tar scent that provided this unique texture when washing.

Regardless, after some thorough rinsing and drying off, the grippy texture wasn’t noticeable after my shower at all and in fact, my skin felt pretty smooth when I dried off.

Rinse & Color

Given that this particular soap is darker in color, when rinsing off you may notice that the water will be a few shades darker as a result of the soap.  

While this isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing – it is different when compared to the traditional white lather you will see when rinsing with a standard bar of soap. 

Therefore, we just wanted to note this for those men trying a natural soap for the very first time.

Scent Strength

When it comes to scent, from the onset Dr. Squatch soap smells quite potent (and rather good).

However, scent is highly subjective and certain smells may work better for one man’s style over another.  Therefore, I want to refrain from strongly recommending a scent that you should try out. However, I thought this bar smelled particularly good.

That being said, I want to just quickly touch on the potency.

You should expect the scent of the soap to quickly dissipate within a few hours of use.  

When buying a bar of soap from Dr. Squatch, I would recommend that if you wear body spray or cologne daily, then you should find a bar that matches these fragrances.

This way your overall scent profile will be harmonious rather than offering up contrasting scents.

Scents

While the product we bought for this review was their flagship Pine Tar scent, Dr. Squatch makes their soaps in a variety of scents.  Here is the complete list of the 11 different scents offered:

  • Pine Tar
  • Nautical Sage
  • Cedar Citrus
  • Cool Fresh Aloe
  • Deep Sea Goats Milk
  • Grapefruit IPA
  • Cold Brew Cleanse
  • Bay Rum
  • Spearmint Basil
  • Eucalyptus Yogurt
  • Gold Moss

Editor’s Note: This is the current list at the time of initial publication and may not reflect their present lineup.

Value

Given that a single bar of this soap costs $7 – the high price tag is a reasonable concern for many men especially if you plan on using this soap for daily use.

What we wanted to learn was how long a bar of Dr. Squatch soap lasts?

The reason for this is that during our research for this guide, we came across several online posts where men stated that a single bar would last only a week at best.

To test this bold claim, I went ahead and used a bar of Dr. Squatch for a couple of weeks to see how it would get used up over time.

As to prevent the soap from dissolving prematurely, I went ahead and removed it after every shower as a control (i.e. so it was only used for body washing and not getting splashed on from other household members showering and making it dissolve quicker).

Editor’s Note: I did use it once on my hands to create the lathering gif that was shown earlier in this article.

Here’s a look at how the soap held up over time:

Dr Squatch Time Use

As you can see from the pictures above, you can expect Dr. Squatch soap to last you about 10 showers.

What does this mean for you?

If you shower daily, then the cost of Dr. Squatch can really start to add up.

However, if you like to skip a day or two between showers, then the price likely won’t be a big deal as you can make a single bar last for several weeks before it needs to be restocked.

At the end of the day, this will be a question that only you can answer based on your showering habits.

But not all is lost…

Whether you shower 3 or 7 times a week, there is a way that you can easily lower the cost of this soap – and that is through the Dr. Squatch subscription service.

Subscription Service

To help reduce the overall cost, Dr. Squatch offers a subscription or “soapscription” plan where you can have the soap delivered to you regularly.

On the Dr. Squatch website, they offer two types of plans at the following rates:

Quarterly (3 months)

  • 9 Bars / Quarter = $54 ($6 per bar)
  • 6 Bars / Quarter = $36 ($6 per bar)
  • 3 Bars / Quarter = $18 ($6 per bar)

Monthly

  • 3 Bars / Month = $19 ($6.33 per bar)
  • 2 Bars / Month = $13 ($6.5 per bar)

As you can see, the quarterly option provides no real savings whether you get 9 or 3 bars – therefore, we recommend starting conservatively and make any adjustments to the quantity needed along the way.

As far as the monthly plan, this does incur a handling charge ($1) plus a higher price per bar.  Of course, you do have the added flexibility to change or cancel your plan within a month rather than 3 months.

Discounts

Beyond their subscription plan, Dr. Squatch offers up a Hero Discount for those men and women who serve in the military, are first responders, or work in the medical field.

I think this is an awesome way to support those who keep us safe and who put their life on the line for this country every day.

Dr. Squatch offers an across-the-board discount of 10% on all of their products to these heroes.

We can only hope that more companies will take notice of this initiative and adopt similar policies.

Coupons & Promo Codes

Everyone loves a nice bit of savings before they pay for any product.

But what is even better than saving money is getting promo codes that ACTUALLY work.

Here are a few ways to save:

Instant Savings

By simply scrolling to the footer of the Dr. Squatch website, you will see an instant discount for 20% off your first subscription order:

One way that you may be able to ‘game’ this is to simply sign up for a monthly subscription plan with this discount and then cancel after your order arrives.

Sales & Personalized Promos

After you make your first order with Dr. Squatch, you will get sent several emails:

While likely most of them will go unread, a quick skim will show you that deals do trickle in now and again (i.e. end of Summer sale, summer Suds bundle).

It’s an easy way to keep an eye out for promos if you are looking to restock.

Other Dr. Squatch Products to Consider

While this guide was focused on their trademark soap, Dr. Squatch has expanded into several other grooming categories as well.

If you are looking to change up some other products in your routine, then you may want to consider the following:

They also sell a few accessories such as a soap saver or soap gripper that helps to preserve the life of the soap.

Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em, Here are the Dr. Squatch Ads 

Everyone loves a good polarizing campaign right…

Well, maybe not so – but regardless, we couldn’t help but watch the Dr. Squatch ads that have been overtaking YouTube as of late.

If you want to check out the ads and have some time to spare, here are a few of their more popular ones:

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What if You Don’t Like the Results?

One really strong point for Dr. Squatch was their no-nonsense “sudisfaction guarantee.”  

As clearly stated on their site, “if you are unhappy with your purchase within 30 days of your order, please contact us for a full refund.”

You can check it out by visiting the following page.

Where to Buy Dr. Squatch

The distribution of Dr. Squatch is fairly limited.  Based on our research and as stated in their FAQ section, Dr. Squatch can only be found at a few third-party retailers.

Some of the places where you can buy Dr. Squatch soap include the following:

Alternatives to Dr. Squatch

Dr. Squatch isn’t alone in the natural soap blitz within the men’s grooming industry.  Some of their most notable competitors are the following:

  • Duke Cannon: Founded in 2011, Duke Cannon is most known for its Big Ass Brick of Soap.  At 10oz, this soap carries plenty of heft and value.  Made in the USA and supporter of a variety of veteran causes – it’s a soap that also does good for the community.
  • Stirling Soap Company: One soap company that comes up in conversation as an alternative to Dr. Squatch is the Stirling Soap Company.  Makers of a wide variety of handmade soaps, Stirling Soap Co. was founded in 2012 and is located in Booneville, Arkansas.
  • The Soap Guy: As an online wholesale supplier, The Soap Guy offers large quantities of natural soap for only a fraction of the price.  So if you are liking this type of natural soap and want to save quite a bit of money, then it’s worth checking out.

Final Thoughts on Dr. Squatch

Overall, I thought that Dr. Squatch provided a decent bar of soap.  If you currently use a standard or mass-produced bar of soap and are looking for a natural alternative, then Dr. Squatch will provide a unique and new experience.

If there was any drawback that men will have about this soap, it will be around value. Lasting about 10 showers at most, some men may find that it is quite expensive when compared to other offerings currently available – especially those who shower daily.

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