Formulation notes
Our ingredients
Craft over cosplay. We choose materials for how they feel on skin and how Contour behaves in warm water — not for sterile lab theater or claim charts that never touch your palms.
Every Contour ingredient earns a role: glide, cleanse, body, hydrate, bind, finish, or preserve. This page is the approachable map — what’s in the bar, what it does for feel, and what we refuse to include. Full lists also live on each product page.
How we formulate
Contour material map
What’s in the bar — and what it does
Contour’s launch formula, read as roles rather than a chemistry lecture. Glycerin for glide, surfactants for cleanse, carrageenan for the F5 give-and-hold — and so on down the list.
Glycerin
Glide
Slip between palms and across skin — the glide that makes molding feel natural.
Glycerin softens the wet-hand experience. It’s part of why Contour doesn’t feel chalky when you work it, and why the surface stays inviting as the bar ages.
Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)
Cleanse
Cushiony lather that lifts and rinses — the wash foundation of Contour.
SLES builds the foam and clean you expect from a body bar. Paired with betaine, it supports a rinse that feels thorough without turning the Contour experience harsh or squeaky.
Cornstarch
Body
Soft powder structure that helps Contour feel composed in the hand.
Cornstarch contributes to Contour’s tactile body — how the bar sits in the hand and keeps usable give without collapsing into mush.
Distilled Water
Hydrate
The rinse medium — wet, lather, wash.
Distilled water keeps the formula consistent from batch to batch. In use, water builds Contour’s lather — Contour’s F5 flex is already there wet or dry.
Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Soft cleanse
Gentler surfactant support — creamier foam, kinder rinse.
Betaine works alongside SLES to round out lather and mouthfeel of the wash. It’s how Contour stays cleansing while keeping the hand-feel cushier and more Texture First.
Carrageenan
Bind
The give-and-hold — flex in the hand, compose on the dish.
Carrageenan helps Contour earn density F5. It supports structure so the bar can flex without cracking, crumbling, or melting away through 30+ washes — wet or dry.
Titanium Oxide Pigment
Finish
A clean, considered surface look — not decoration for its own sake.
Used for Contour’s visual finish so the bar looks as intentional as it feels. Pigment stays in service of the object — never glitter, never microplastic filler.
Phenoxyethanol
Preserve
Quiet stability — Contour stays fresh from shelf to last wash.
A widely used preservative that protects the formula between showers and across Contour’s usable life. Chosen for reliability so feel and scent stay consistent.
What we leave out
Ingredients are also decisions not to make
Texture First includes refusal. If a material would make Contour feel worse, pollute the rinse story, or dress the bar in marketing language that doesn’t match the wash — it doesn’t make the formula.
- 01
Microplastics
No plastic beads, glitter, or polymer fillers that linger in rinse water.
- 02
Mystery “complexes”
If something is in Contour, it earns a role on this page. No unnamed blends for label drama.
- 03
Lab-cosplay claims
Ingredient stories stay about craft and feel. We won’t invent clinical theater to make Contour sound like a pharmacy aisle.
- 04
Feel-last priorities
We don’t add materials just because they look good on a claim chart. Every ingredient has to earn its place in the wet-hand moment.
On the product page
Contour lists every material in context
The Contour Bar page carries the same ingredient set you see mapped here — plus scent notes, density F5, and how-to steps for the first wash. Start there when you’re ready to order.
Questions about a specific material, scent, or sensitivity? Write us — we’d rather answer plainly than hide behind a claim chart.
Related: Environmental commitments · Formulation · Texture First