Get Clean

Soap. It’s a saturated market cluttered with what seems like a new brand every ten minutes, with each one trying to tell us how it’s solved a problem we never knew we had. At the end of the day, they all promise to help us achieve the same goal: to get clean.

To be fair, there are certain refinements and features that some brands have that others don’t. Some have essential oils that counteract harsh detergents that can dry our skin. Others have less oils to help oily skin. Some smell nice. Some don’t. Some don’t smell at all. And do you want a liquid soap or a bar soap? There’s so much to consider.

My go-to for more than 15 years has been Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Soap. It ticks all the boxes on the list of things I want a soap to do while ticking even more boxes that I’ve really come to appreciate.

This highly concentrated paragon of getting clean does the trick like no other soap I’ve ever used, packing ample essential oils that keep my skin from feeling dry or itchy, especially in the winter when there’s no moisture in the air. At the same time, it never feels oily. It gives a good, honest clean. And the Peppermint scented soap (my favorite among the eight different options) leaves me stepping out of the shower or away from the sink with a cool feeling that, thankfully, doesn’t linger and interfere with the Royall Muske cologne I apply later.

Beyond the things I like a soap to do, Dr. Bronner’s is made in the U.S.A. and works with a certified fair trade policy that provides farmers who grow their ingredients with living wages and fair prices. Dr. Bronner’s also introduced something called “Regenerative Organic Certification.” What is that, exactly? According to the bottle’s iconic “all-one/heal earth” hippy packaging…

Regenerative organic agriculture builds rich soil, sequesters carbon, retains and stores water, provides healthy food, creates biodiversity habitat for wildlife – mitigates catastrophic climate change on Spaceship Earth!

Now you know. And if you couldn’t have guessed already, the liquid soap comes in a 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottle.

At the end of the day, this is a company that makes a fantastic product and produces it in a way that makes me feel good about giving them my money. And not for nothing, the bottle and it’s iconic typo-graphic design looks really good in the bathroom (which is, of course, also important to me).

And then there’s my favorite feature: Dr. Bronner’s soap is very affordable. A single 32 oz bottle of the liquid soap, when diluted properly, will last me almost two months.

Get clean.