We love Dr Bronner's soap

During my research into castile soap one name kept cropping up – Dr Bronner. This American soap has an almost cult status. I dug a little deeper and discovered a family-owned company with some pretty impressive ethical values. There really was once a Dr Bronner. The founder of the business came from a German soap-making family and had moved to the US to escape Nazism in the 1930s. Although Jewish, he was a bit of a religious odd-ball who sought to promote a message of “All-One or none”; the premise of the amalgamation of all religions would achieve world peace. He was clearly influenced by losing both his parents to Auschwitz. Unable to gain a great deal of interest in his evangelical message, Bronner began making soap and printed his philosophy on the labels. The labels are little changed today, heavily printed in small type with instructions for use and advice for life, they are a quirky marketing strategy. 

My American friends were a bit vague about Dr Bronner, but surprisingly OH had a feeling that he’d heard the name before in a song by Natalie Merchant, an American folk singer. After a little YouTube research we eventually found an encore performance in which Natalie asks the audience to suggest a word which she then improvises in song. In response to the prompt ‘washing up’ she sings: “I use Dr Bronner’s soap, I use Dr Bronner’s soap and I read all the words on the label”. He’d always wondered about the reference to the label, but having seen the bottles, this now makes perfect sense.

So, where to buy some of this famous soap? Despite trading since 1948, the product range is fairly limited. The principal product is the castile soap, made of mixture of oils, predominantly hemp oil. It’s organic, fair trade, GMO-free, and available in eight essential oil flavours. Peppermint seems to be the favourite (and is the original). There is also solid bar soap, pump-action hand soap bottles, lotion, shaving soap, hair care, body and lip balms, hand sanitiser, and most recently added, toothpaste, all based on the magical soap recipe. However, my research indicated that some of these might only be available in the US. I couldn’t find any off-the-shelf supplier in France, so as usual I turned to Amazon, and within a few days two 236 ml bottles of peppermint and unscented Dr Bronner’s soap arrived.

 

One of label straplines in 18-in 1, which refers to the minimum of eighteen different uses of the liquid soap, ranging from washing the body to washing the dishes, cleaning windows to cleaning your teeth. There are several blogs and YouTube videos discussing these in detail, including Dr Bronner himself extolling the virtues of his flannel-based washing technique (shower-junkies look away now). During my research I also came across www.lisabronner.com, a third generation Bronner who blogs about GIY – Green It Yourself. A great concept, and just what I needed to help me along with our cleaning conversion.

A significant factor in Dr Bronner’s favour is that the liquid soap is not designed to be used neat or in large quantities. According to the intended purpose, various dilutions are recommended, for example, making up a household cleaner, as a shower wash, or as shampoo. This actually means that the soap is quite cost-effective and that a large €20 946ml bottle goes a long way. The first product that I made up was a shower wash — I can’t really call it a shower gel, although that was what it was replacing. It was simply a matter of diluting some Dr Bronner’s in filtered water in a pump dispenser. Despite its liquid consistency a couple of pumps onto a sponge or wash cloth is sufficient for a thorough shower. Far more efficient than squeezing too much out of a plastic bottle of shower gel and mots disappearing down the plughole. We were both sold on it, and I’ve almost given up the savon de Marseille bar soap, though it is slightly more moisturising.

Next, it was time to top up the all-purpose cleaner. This was the first GIY product I made and has been extremely successful (and economic). Although GIY expert Lisa Bronner uses just liquid soap and water (saving the bicarb for a shaker bottle for when added umph is needed) I decided to follow the recipe I’d used before: 2 cups water, 1 tbsp bicarb, 2 tbsp castile soap. However, I have dug out an old metal Tala sugar shaker that I’d saved from my Mother’s house clearance and filled this with bicarb. This does a great job on the white composite kitchen sink.

The experiments around the house worked well, but the value and adaptability of Dr Bronner’s soap really became apparent when we took it on a campervan tour of Germany. We’ve recently downsized to a smaller van, so space and weight are crucial and minimalism is the mantra. Before we left I made up a pump-action bottle of peppermint shower wash, just like we have at home. Unfortunately, this fell victim to OH’s clumsiness on the first day, as he knocked it over in the shower, the lid came off and the entire 500ml disappeared down the plughole. Not exactly Dr Bronner’s fault. Good job that I had packed the other bottle of unscented soap. Rather than risk a repeat of the accident, we decided to try using it neat, on a wash cloth, just like the ‘words on the label’. Perfect. In fact, so good that throughout the trip we used it as a shower wash, shampoo, face wash, hand washing clothes, and even put two tbsp in a campsite washing machine when we realised we had forgotten to pack any washing powder.

I’d also made up a spray bottle of all-purpose cleaner, according to the usual recipe. This was perfect for cleaning everything inside and outside the van: floor, table, windscreen, toilet, shower wetroom … the list goes on. The only slight issue I found was that re-using old spray bottles (and pump-action bottles, too) doesn’t really seem to work. The spray outlet quickly becomes blocked, probably because they are designed to be disposable. However, I sourced some good value, German spray bottles with a metal insert on the nozzle which overcame this problem. Dr Bronner’s has now become a firm favourite on our list of ethical vegan products and a 236ml bottle covered all our washing needs for a three-week trip.