The unexpected enthusiasm for Dr Bronner’s soap
In August 2020 I posted a question on a number of Australian permaculture facebooks asking how people use Dr Bronner’s liquid castile soap. I didn’t expect the number of responses or the enthusiasm for the product.
THEY FLOODED IN on the Permaculture 3.0, Retrosubrbia, Permaculture Australia and my own facebook. I had no idea a simple question about how people use Dr Bronner’s liquid castile soap would elicit such lengthy discussions. This was just soap, after all. Well, maybe not just any old soap, it turns out.
Origin
Castile soap is an olive-oil-based soap made in a style similar to that originating in the Castile region of Spain, according to Wikipedia.
The origins of castile soap go back to the Levant, where for millennia Aleppo soap-makers made hard soaps based on olive and laurel oil. It is commonly believed that the Crusaders brought Aleppo soap to Europe in the Eleventh Century, based on the claim that the earliest soap made in Europe was just after the Crusades. However, the Greeks knew about soap in the first century AD and Zosimos of Panopolis described soap and soapmaking in c300 AD.
Following the Crusades, production of this soap extended to the whole Mediterranean area.
Who is Dr Bronner?
Dr Bronner’s is the brand of the particular castile soap we bought. Wikipedia has a page about the brand explaiing that Emanuel Theodore Bronner (February 1, 1908 — March 7, 1997) was the maker of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps. Born in Germany, he migrated to the US.
I wondered about the Christian message on the soap. Wikipedia explains that Bonner used product labels to promote his moral and religious ideas, including a belief in the goodness and unity of humanity. Wikipedia lists Bonner as an entrepreneur and philosopher.
The grandson is the current CEO of the family business.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has a ship, the MV Emanuel Bronner, donated by the soap company.
Truly a multi-purpose product
I had no idea of the range of uses people find for the stuff. Washing dishes, washing hair, washing babies, washing themselves and more. The ideas poured out of the conversation. Organic and fair trade, it seems Dr Bronner has a product valued by many.
As the conversation spanned several days, I realised that all the ideas the commenters were offering would disappear down the facebook timeline into that great pit of information that is there but concealed out of sight and seldom accessed. How to retain all these ideas in a more accessible place? The Permaculture 3.0 blog on Medium offered the solution.
So, here are the responses in list form to my question about how people use Dr Bronner’s castile soap, provided by participants in the facebook conversations. Here we go…
Uses of castile soap
Castile soap washes:
- hair
- face
- body
- babies
- hands
- clothes—a laundry soap.
Castile soap is useful as a:
- household cleaner
- shaving cream
- kitchen spray for cleaning
- vegetable wash
- spray for cloth baby wipes
- bathroom cleaner
- stain remover.
Tips for using castile soap:
- dilute the liquid soap
- most castile soaps are quite drying
- don’t need the toothpaste, I have always used the soap
- teaspoon castile soap, tea spoon almond oil, essential oils of choice, water; in a self foaming bottle; hand wash, excellent; similar recipe for body wash
- lasts well; for all the personal and household cleaning; lovely for hair
- replaced most things with this soap and vinegar, maybe a bit of bicarb
- bought a soap cage and the Dr Bronner’s tea tree soap to do dishes; simply rattle around under water to sud-up; it’s the best dish soap I’ve used so far, and plastic free
- dilute for hand soap, kitchen spray, bathroom cleaner, vegetable wash, even a spray to put on cloth baby wipes!; only thing we didn’t enjoy using for was washing up the dishes; they were clean but felt it wasn’t economical and left a residue in the sink
- grate up one soap bar, mix with washing soda and with borax, and this is our washing machine powder
- I use it in the shower, diluted
- if you are using it for certain things — like hair or clothes washing — it’s good to use a vinegar rinse after washing with castile soap; otherwise, it’s an excellent all-purpose soap that can be used for a million different things
- I have the liquid soap in lavender and rose… use them for cleaning everything around the house!; love it; only use a few drops in a spray bottle of water
- it lathers really well, so you need very little
- I make all sorts with it including stain remover spray (with other ingredients of course)
- it’s gentle and works for my hair and bod; I dilute it too
- I buy the large baby one in the picture and then add my own scent to make it cheaper in our large household; I also use it in a spray bottle with water and tea tree for cleaning; I use their sal suds which has a wonderful spruce smell for mopping and large area cleaning , it foams up nicely with a whisk to use as spot carpet cleaner too.
- 1 litre of the soap lasts me and my partner for a year as a body wash; I also use it as a shampoo and laundry detergent when I travel; also used the toothpaste and shaving cream
- love it, don’t get it in your eyes though
Negative points about using Dr Bronner’s castile soap
- trying to convince people who kindly do dishes when they come over that just because it doesn’t bubble when doing dishes doesn’t mean it doesn’t work
- it contains palm oil (sustainable palm oil is an oxymoron IMHO), and is made overseas, which is why have been using Australian made soap flakes (packaged in cardboard) for many years
- I use an Australian made castille soap; didn’t know about the palm oil until the post above, so looked into it; it’s in there, but I think it’s sourced from Colombia which is maybe less devastating than the asian sources. https://www.theorangehouse.com.au/melrose-organic-castile-soap-original-9l
- I tried Dr Bronners unscented Castile soap (on some advice) when looking for an alternate for dry (eczema) skin, felt lovely, but was horribly drying to already dry skin; would not recommend for body washing; not sure about other uses
- It’s a great product but the carbon miles outweigh any benefit.
- Clearly there is a market for local production.
- I can relate to this way too much. I had a black line on my tooth after eating way to many bakery sweets from a trip to Germany. Ended up using the Dr. Bronner s tooth paste and that completely cured it.
Positive points about using Dr Bronner’s castile soap
- a multiuse soap
- minimal packaging waste
- well thought of in the low-tox community
- local store that has a bulk buy, refill your own container service
- the liquid one lasts for ages and soaps up so damn well.
Comments
- the number one go-to soap for hippies!
- use it all over the house, the cubes I use to make washing-up detergent and it’s really good
- we use it all through the house and yard
- we use it all through the house and yard
- I’m allergic to most soaps and run a family day care; I use it for cleaning, washing clothes etc
- goes a long way; also, I understand that the current CEO has gotten a lot more specific about the ‘all-one’ idea by trying to make the supply chain for the soap more fair and sustainable
- their lip balm and body balm; brilliant for super dry patches
- lip balms are the BEST when lips are super dry
- used it in the past but decided to go with blocks of soap to avoid plastic
Dr Bronner’s… it’s good but not any better than regular Castile soap imho - not worth it for the price difference
- used primarily as a body wash and hand soap; after a while we observed the bathroom sink clogging up; after undoing the S-bend we removed a revolting white solid mass; it appears the Castile liquid soap (not Dr Bronner) was blended with a coconut oil; on contact with cold water and expelled toothpaste in the bathroom drain, it solidified; a check of other drains revealed the same issue was occurring; my message is check all the ingredients and possible impacts
- Aussie product made in the Yarra Valley https://www.drplanet.com.au/
- it is traditionally an olive oil based soap; it performs well anywhere I go and anyone I know … associated with organics, permaculture, natural products … seems to be aware of these products and uses them
the shaving cream is superb; cures fungal infections in beards and moustaches - using it now for my kitchen sink; been using it for decades when hiking but also use it at home no; environmentally friendly
- love the stuff; too slack to make my own; use it for everything; my local health food shop lets me fill up my own bottles
- I love the soap and have been using it for the last 5 years
- I find it funny how the writing on the bottle bothers so many people (that’s why I received it for the very first time as my Catholic friend couldn’t stand it); the product is brilliant in my opinion
- I’ve been using for the last 5 yrs as shampoo/soap in the shower….great stuff!
- the soap with rose essential oils has been a COVID companion in the shower
- oooh LIFE HACK to the max!! 🤯 I’m so getting onto this
- A Dr Bronners story:
I have fond memories of the nude shower rave at Burning Man. Dr Bronners donate enough soap to was thousands of dusty dirty burners every day. Not only that but the soap counteracts the alkali playa dust. Waiting in line in the hot sun, we were separated into groups. As we waited, the groups cycle through various waiting stations, where we were regaled with heartfelt spoken word performances, given bandanas, asked to play games with each other, told the order of events for when we made it to the front of the line. Inside, we put our clothes in safe shelves, were sprayed from fire hoses full of lovely foam, then rained on from above to rinse it all off, then out we went onto a dance floor full of clean dancing naked bodies.. I had somewhere to be so I got dressed and headed out- straight into a dust storm which was so thick I couldn’t see further than my hands! Who knows if there will be another Burning Man. I’m glad I went once, I had wanted to for ten years. Once was probably enough- I already thought the writing was in the wall for international travel, and I had a deep feeling in my bones that the further we got into climate change, the more precarious travel would become… anyway, that’s my Dr Bronners story.
Alternative sources of castile soap
- can be made at home
- been a long term user of Redgum Soaps who are an Australian business that do castille soap, and have actually just recently released a liquid soap line; a business based on permaculture principles
- have a look at the laundry soap on Washpool’s site they have a recipe for making liquid soap from block soap
- moved to using Reed olive oil castile soap; it’s made by a lovely permie (Ed: ie. permaculture practitioner) in West Gippsland; comes in bars, liquid and in between (sort of like soap jelly cubes)
- Eumarrah in Barrack St, Hobart; take your own bottle/container to fill = waste free
- under the Sink is in Victoria & sells it in glass
- Dr. Bronners is nice, but expensive, and you can get a similar result for much cheaper
- you can buy it on Ebay
- used it for years it’s an everything soap but I use the cheapest dish soap to do dishes and cheap shampoo on my hair every 3 weeks or so; it’s nice, they give you so much to read—hail from maui
- I used this Dr Brommers Hemp Soaps — peppermint—my entire 3.5 month trip along the Appalachian Trail plus backpacking around UK for everything!; it’s a bit astringent but I still used it for body and hair as well as pots and clothes‘; brilliant stuff economical plus environmentally friendly too
- It is not hard to make your own Castile soap! You can google endless directions, basically you just need to wear goggles and gloves, and follow directions carefully.
There are two types of lye, one for liquid soap, and one for bar soap. Castile soap by definition uses only vegetable oil, so you can use any kind of oil you have easy access to. There are ‘soap calculators’ online, which will tell you how much lye and how much water you need depending on what kind of oil you are using (olive, hemp, coconut, etc). You can also use other fats, such as essential oils, beef tallow, even beeswax or bacon grease, should you have access to different fats, or combinations of fats and oils — the soap calculators are your friend for getting the right ratios for the desired results - https://thethingswellmake.com/easy-beginner-diy-liquid-castile-soap-recipe/?
A wealth of ideas
So, there it is. A cascade of ideas, experience and opinions. Seems Dr Bronner’s is a popular cleaning product, as is castile soap in general.
The responses on the different facebooks demonstrated the value of online social media in providing helpful information.
If you have ideas,opinions of obsevations about the product that are not in these lists, let’s know in the comments below and I’ll add them.
More Permaculture 3.0
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