Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps

We always used to get a little freaked out by the text on the bottles of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, but we continued to buy them because they're such good products.

The soaps are all vegetable oil-based, and are made with organic oils. The label claims there are 18 uses for the soaps, including body wash, shampoo, shaving, pet wash, laundry, toothbrushing, and light cleaning. We've actually only used our Lavender Organic Liquid Soap for light cleaning, dishwashing, and washing clothing by hand, and recently realized how silly we are not to have tried any of the other uses.

posted originally from: AT:San Francisco

To make you feel even better about buying the Magic Soaps, Dr. Bronner's also supports and encourages sustainable agriculture, farm worker health, and ecological processing methods. They don't do any animal testing, and their bottles are made from 100% post-consumer recycled PET plastic and soap wrappers from post-consumer recycled paper and hempflax.

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps come in Almond, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Peppermint, Tea Tree, and Baby Mild. They're available in sizes ranging from 2 ounces ($1.99) to 1 gallon ($44.99). Because they're concentrated, they last a long time. We buy ours at Whole Foods because Trader Joe's only sells Peppermint. You can also buy them online.

(Oh, and the website gives additional information about the more than 30,000 words spread across all the soap labels.)

Comments (19)

I've been using this stuff for years--peppermint's my favorite--mostly diluted as a liquid hand soap. Sometimes as a body soap, and, in a pinch, for just about anything else. How is it as a dish soap? Maybe I should switch to it as a floor wash. Or try it as a tub/sink wash.

I didn't know Trader Joe's sells it - I wonder if it's a better price than Whole Paycheck.

I love this soap. Once I started using it, I tried to switch back. Then I realized how much damage my old soap was doing to me. :(

I haven't used it for cleaning either, but I think it's time to just get the biggest container and use it for everything.

I think Dr. B's Sal's Suds is better as a dish soap. I know I used to use Dr. B's regular peppermint for it and it wasn't that great.

Has anyone seen the documentary (Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox)? It's really sweet, positive and just...heartwarming. I had only occasionally been buying Dr. Bronner's stuff but switched back to it for a majority of my cleaning/bath stuff.

They also cap their executives' salaries at something like 4 or 5x what the lowest paid hourly employee makes.

Jesse

I saw the documentary about two weeks ago, and while I'd agree with Jesse (above) that *parts* of it are sweet, positive, and heartwarming (I'm thinking of the hospice parts), not all of it is. In fact, I found a great deal of it almost sinister, juxtaposing Emil Bronner's (the patriarch and master soapmaker) detached (to say the very, very least) parenting style and his obvious preference for his blonde (light) son with his (dark) son's concerted engagement with other people and aggressive righting of his fathers emotional wrongs, so to say. Also, the doc needed a liiiittle more editing. Overall I liked it, and it was definitely interesting.

As for the soap, I LOVE it and use the lavender, peppermint, and baby mild. The baby mild, diluted, is the perfect soap for washing healing tattoos and piercings. Peppermint is perfect post-workout; the tingle does it for me!

my dad has been using the Peppermint for forever. Whenever I smell the scent I think of him.

Until I switched to Dr. Bronner's hemp oil / eucalyptus soap for handwashing, my fingernails were dry, splitting and impossible to grow. Now they are long, strong and healthy. Apparently I was either allergic to the home-made olive oil soap I used to use or the hemp oil soap has a salutary effect.

Carol in Denver

This is true, Nora! I meant more of the current company's practices than the father, who I think was well-intentioned but completely insane!

Jesse--yes yes, I'm feeling that. Current practices are good, with the organic oils and the recycled and recyclable bottles.

I've been using bronner's for a long, long time for everything. I use all the flavors mildly diluted for hand soap, undiluted in the shower; sal suds diluted for dish washing soap, undiluted for laundry detergent. I use whatever bronner is at hand for quick surface washings. Safe for use in the wilderness while camping. It's awesome!

I've been using this as bodywash for years and wouldn't dream of switching to anything else. In a pinch, I've used it as shampoo as well, but it is uber drying.

I tried the peppermint for toothbrushing. While I guess not horrible, it was kind of like what you would imagine soap would taste like. I probably wouldn't try it again unless I was quite desperate. Otherwise, I love this stuff! You can order most of the sizes and scents from drugstore.com and there are frequently sales on it there.

Making a paste with baking soda and Dr. Bronners makes the most fantastic bathroom & kitchen scrub you'd ever imagine!

I'm sold. I've been looking for something like this for a while. I used to use ordinary cleaning products (windex, bleach, CLR, etc...). But I hate the smell, the nausea associated with using them, the effect on the environment, the effect on my pets. So I switched to vinegar and/or baking soda for cleaning. Since Mr. B's can also be used for hand/body washing, I think I've found something I'd like to try. Especially since antibacterial soap is completely unnecessary - all you need is water, soap and *friction* to kill bacteria.

I love the Lavender liquid soap and I would love to use it to mop my wood floor but I am note sure if it will work...must do little research! I just used a little for hadwashing and it worked like magic.
I love soap bars too- both Lavender and Baby Mild are my favorites- very mild and Lavender smells amazing & real (nothing worst than fake lavender scent)

I use the lavender to hand wash my delicates; the peppermint as a body wash, occasional shampoo (I have a flakey scalp and it works WONDERS for it), and to clean the bathtub; and the sals suds for pretty much everything else (diluted as a multi-purpose cleaner, dish soap, etc)!

I love the bar soaps too. I use them in the shower and as hand washing soaps. But, you're right about the text - I once used a sharpie to black out anything I didn't want to see on my large bottle of castille soap because I knew I'd have it for a long time & just didn't want to see it anymore! I know that's extreme but it worked for me.

..can we ask about the eucalyptus liquid soap, can it kill fleas?? pls email us back.. we'll wait.. tnx..

While I do like it as a body wash, I find Dr. Bronner's--scented or not--to be way too harsh to get anywhere near sensitive girl parts. Peppermint is especially bad--"tingle" is nice, "burn" is not. Be careful, everyone! In my experience Kiss My Face pure olive oil soap seems much safer for delicate areas.

In response to Frau: I've had decent success using a healthy squirt of Dr. Bronner's in a bucket of warm water for cleaning wood--it's just vegetable soap, so it's essentially the same as using Murphy's Oil Soap, which is made for wood.

Well, I'm a little late to the game, so maybe I won't get any responses, but a girl's gotta try.... Any thoughts on using Dr. Bronner's on sensitive skin? I've been tested for allergies and seem to be allergic to many soaps and lotions and detergents. I tried Charlie's (laundry detergent), but it wasn't fantastic (and my husband hated it - he seems to require his clothes to be artificially scented). I'm still looking for both body soap and clothing detergent that doesn't make me itch from head to toe.

Thoughts?