Friday, September 14, 2012

Mystical Magical Dr Bronner's Soap

One of the first earth mama products I tried was Dr Bronner's liquid Castile soap. Described by Dr Bronner's and his peeps as "magical", these soaps boast 18 different uses. Considering can you buy this stuff by the quart for about $17 and it's super-concentrated, it's not a bad deal for an Eco-friendly product.  Most of my interest stemmed from a desire to use this as a basic hand soap in my home. Long ago, we'd stopped using antibacterial soaps in our home but I wanted a greener option overall. So I figured any additional uses for this product beyond hand soap were gravy.  I excitedly picked up a couple bottles at my local Target to try.



I had read a bit about the Dr Bronner's Castile soap and knew that it needs to be diluted for most purposes since it is so concentrated. For hand soap, I had read to dilute it with about 4 parts water for each part of soap. This creates a really thin liquid which would be tough to use with a traditional dispenser so I picked up some cheap foam soaps so I would have their dispensers. (Technically, you can just buy the dispensers as well but I wasn't able to find any that weren't outrageously priced.) We have been using the Dr Bronner's soap I our house for about five months and, overall, I'm very pleased! I have begun diluting the soap a bit more than I was in the beginning but we have a water softener so soap goes a long way at our house. Also, the Dr Bronner's can be drying to skin so I try to use the minimal amount to get the job done. Overall, this is a great use for this green product and I have no doubts that we save money by using it. Plus, it is a toxin-free soap, which I love. (No icky triclosan or sodium lauryl sulfate here!) There are a variety of scents you can buy, including lavender, peppermint and almond and there is an unscented version as well.

Another use I'd read about was using the Dr Bronner's as a toothpaste. Since I've already ventured into natural toothpastes, I figured why not try this too? I put a little of our peppermint soap on my toothbrush and began to brush. It started out lovely and minty. Mmm...so healthy!! Go earth mama! Then, it suddenly wasn't lovely at all as it began to taste like...tar, maybe? Whatever the nasty taste was, I couldn't get past it. I never used it to brush my teeth again as it took a couple hours to get the putrid taste out if my mouth (even after using evil, chemical-laden Colgate).

Lots of people also love this soap for shampoo and body wash. I may try it as body wash at some point but I really love my (non-hippie) shampoo.  All in all, these are great products that are very economical as well. Dr. Bronner's is definitely here to stay at my house.


2 comments:

  1. I've tried it as shampoo... maybe I didn't dilute enough, but it really didn't work for me. Somehow made my hair feel really dry and really greasy at the same time???

    ReplyDelete
  2. I haven't heard great things about it as a shampoo so I don't think you did anything wrong. I haven't been brave enough to try it for that since I love my non-hippie (and non-frugal) Redken so much. A girl needs a few splurges, right?? ;-)

    ReplyDelete