My question is, what bar soaps will lather well and not leave curd in the tub, even in a hard-water region? I'd be willing to buy either real bar soap, or an artificial 'beauty bar'. I'm not interested in switching to shower gel.

So far, I've found that Clearly Natural soap leaves the tub clean, but doesn't lather. Aveeno Moisturizing bar lathers and leaves the tub clean, but it's an exfoliant, which I'd rather not use every day.

I've tried guessing whether or not a given soap will work well in hard water, by reading the ingredient list, but I haven't been very successful. Please recommend specific products if you can.

Does anyone have recommendations on a different bar soap?

(An aside, on lather: decades ago when chemistry students had to wash their own glassware in the chemistry laboratory the first lesson taught was "avoid lather". Lather is wasted cleaner unless you like the aesthetics. BTW. Completely, absolutely, lather less products are often more expensive.)

It comes in a lot of different "flavors", all of them are natural: unscented (baby mild), almond (one of our favorites), citrus, eucalyptus, tea tree, rose, lavender, and peppermint.

Whole Foods has the whole line. Trader Joe's sells it cheaper, but only has peppermint.

A bar at Whole Foods is about $3.50, I think.

Another great castile soap is Kirk's. It's at Whole Foods for $1.79 and usually about $1.29 at your local grocer. Look on the very bottom shelf in the soap aisle.

Kirk's comes in only one scent: it's kind of old-fashioned, but it lathers great and rinses clean.

We used to use Dove, but haven't for years after re-discovering how great castile (olive-oil based bar soaps are.)