Getting clean for free

I've gotten my fair share of requests in the past for doing reviews or something to get me to do text links for some marketing company. I know the goal, create buzz and search results for some product. Now most of these are things that I A] Never heard of or B] Would never use.

Right after the Super Bowl, I received an email from the marketing company working on the campaign for Dove Men + Care. A new product aimed at men. Since that would be me and I shower, I figured I'd listen to the spiel.

Here's the deal, they were doing a marketing push tied to the Super Bowl, you know that big football game that all of us guys focus our lives on for a week or two? They wanted me to try the product and then write up a blog post about it. So, in the effort of full disclosure, they sent me the box you see on the left, for free and I agreed to use it and tell all of you what I think.

I've taken this next part directly from their marketing info:

Now men can literally be comfortable in their skin thanks to new Dove Men +Care (Body and Face Wash + Body and Face Bar)

• Brand’s first ever product line formulated specifically for men’s needs
• Provides the cleansing and refreshment that men want combined with Dove moisturizers to provide total skin comfort
• Built on the Dove brand’s heritage in cleansing, moisturizing and care
• Clinically proven to fight skin dryness
• No irritation or tightness
• Dermatologist recommended

Sounded interesting. I live with 3 females. Products aimed at men always interest me. Most of the shower products we use are as close to a compromise as I can get. They don't smell too girly but yet are designed to keep my skin soft and supple. Am I really suppose to strive for that? All I really want is to get clean and not reek. I remembered their commercials during the Super Bowl and thought I might like to try these anyways. That's really a big reason I decided to do this. It's nice to try for free something I would have had to pay for.

My plan was to use if for a while and then write about it. For me, it was more important to be honest about this then to just put up some shill thing and just take the free stuff. Free stuff is great, but this is my blog and it's my words. I received the box back in February and just finished using most of it. I'm guessing they wanted me to write this post a while ago, but it takes a while to really use soap and see how I like it. Ok, that and I've been busy and barely posting anyways.

You'll notice the box contained a bottle of liquid soap, a bar of soap and scrubbing device. My wife uses those shower poofs. She got one for me once and a liquid soap. I tried it for a little while and then went and bought a bar of soap cuz I really didn't care for it. I really wasn't sure what to make of the scrubbing thing. I figured I'd take the bar of soap to work with me to use at the gym. No way I'm using a scrubby thing at the gym. There's only so far I'd go to get free soap.

I'm gonna spare you the action photos of me using this stuff. I read the instructions and gave it a try (not immediately but the next time I needed a shower...no rushing).

I did really enjoy using these. I had been doing a lot more swimming in my workouts and this product really did help with the dryness. I loved not itching. As far as soap goes, it did a good job of getting me clean. That's really important. Why bother if you are still filthy when you are done. The best part of using the soap was my wife LOVED THE SMELL. Like I said before, most of the bath products in our house are aimed at making both me, a man, and everyone else, women, happy. This stuff made me smell like a guy, and best yet, I even liked the smell. Did I say my wife LOVED THE SMELL? I'm sold.

I got used to the scrubby thing and have actually grown to like using it. It worked great at getting stuff clean. It also fits well in a guys hand.

The bar soap was something I was quite used to using. I work out 3-5 days a week at work, so it's important to me that I don't get dry and itchy. I also don't want to go back to work smelling like a pretty flower.

This stuff held up pretty good. It smelled a little different then the bottle stuff, but I still liked it.

One thing I wasn't a big fan of with the bar soap was it got kinda squishy in my soap bar box in my gym bag. It seemed to do that a lot faster then the stuff I used to use that was pretty good at cleaning my 2000 parts.

Overall, I was pretty happy with all of the stuff.  It smelled great. the scrubby thing was easy to get used to and I really can say it helped a lot at keeping me from drying out from swimming in the pool. One complain I had was it just didn't seem to be as good at the deodorant job as the stuff that cleaned my 2000 parts. I would have expected this to do a better if not equal job of that.

All in all, this experience wasn't too bad. I have no plans at all to make doing reviews a habit. I don't do this for the free stuff and most of the crap people want you to review kinda sucks. This thankfully didn't suck

For your viewing pleasure, here's one of their commercials. Try it for yourself.