Native body wash is not antibacterial. It contains no antimicrobial active ingredients and is not marketed as an antibacterial product. Native’s formula is a standard sulfate-free cleanser designed to wash away dirt, oil, and odor without the harsh chemicals found in antibacterial soaps.
What’s Actually in Native Body Wash
Native’s body wash ingredient list is straightforward: water, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium chloride, sodium cocoyl isethionate, sodium lauroyl sarcosinate, glycerin, fragrance, sodium salicylate, sodium benzoate, and citric acid. These are mild surfactants (the foaming agents that lift dirt and oil off your skin), a moisturizer (glycerin), and preservatives to keep the product stable on the shelf.
None of these ingredients are antibacterial agents. For a body wash to be labeled “antibacterial,” it would need to contain an active antimicrobial ingredient like triclosan, benzalkonium chloride, or similar compounds. Native’s formula doesn’t include any of them. Sodium benzoate and sodium salicylate act as preservatives inside the bottle to prevent microbial growth in the product itself, but they don’t function as germ-killers on your skin.
Why That Probably Doesn’t Matter
Plain soap and water are considered adequate for removing the types of germs that cause everyday illness, particularly those spread through the fecal-oral route or from the respiratory tract. The CDC has long held this position: regular soap works by physically lifting bacteria off the skin and rinsing them down the drain, not by chemically killing them. You don’t need an antibacterial ingredient to get clean.
Antibacterial soaps do reduce bacteria on skin more than plain soap in lab studies. But here’s the catch: having fewer bacteria on your skin doesn’t automatically translate to fewer infections. In fact, bacterial counts on skin tend to be just as high or higher shortly after bathing with regular soap compared to before you started. Bathing serves more of an aesthetic and stress-relieving purpose than a microbiologic one. The physical act of scrubbing and rinsing handles the heavy lifting.
There’s also a downside to antibacterial products. Widespread use of antimicrobial soap ingredients, particularly triclosan, raised concerns about bacterial resistance. In 2016, the FDA banned 19 antiseptic active ingredients from consumer wash products, including triclosan and triclocarban, the two most common antibacterial additives in soaps at the time. Manufacturers couldn’t demonstrate that these ingredients were both safe for daily use and more effective than plain soap and water.
Native’s Gentle Formula and Your Skin
Native uses sulfate-free surfactants, which are milder than the sodium lauryl sulfate found in many conventional body washes. This matters for your skin’s microbiome, the community of beneficial bacteria that lives on your skin and helps protect it. Research published in 2025 found that properly formulated mild cleansers preserve skin microbiome diversity and can even strengthen the microbial networks associated with healthy skin. Harsh cleansers and aggressive antibacterial agents, by contrast, can strip away protective bacteria and damage the skin barrier, potentially increasing the risk of harboring harmful organisms.
If you’re picking a body wash for everyday hygiene, a gentle formula like Native’s does what it needs to do. It removes sweat, oil, and odor-causing grime without disrupting the bacterial balance your skin relies on.
Native’s Other Products Work Differently
It’s worth noting that Native’s product line isn’t uniform. Their Whole Body Deodorant Spray, for instance, contains piroctone olamine, an ingredient with antimicrobial properties that targets odor-causing bacteria. That product is designed to control body odor for up to 72 hours by suppressing bacterial growth in areas like underarms, feet, and skin folds. But that’s a deodorant product, not a body wash. The body wash itself has no comparable antibacterial or odor-suppressing active ingredients.
If you specifically need an antibacterial wash for a medical reason, such as before surgery or to manage a skin condition like recurrent staph infections, your doctor will recommend a medicated cleanser with an appropriate active ingredient like chlorhexidine. Native body wash isn’t designed for that purpose and wouldn’t substitute for one.