I love this soap! It is very effective and smells great...peppermint. You can't get any better than this.

I was introduced to Dr. Bronner's three years ago while camping with my fiance. I was new to camping and not aware that traditional soap could not be used to wash our dishes. Since then, we've incorporated Dr. Bronner's liquid soap in the kitchen and the bar soap in the shower. The soap smells fantastic and gives me a little alertness kick while I'm washing the baked on grease. Note of caution: if using the peppermint bar soap in the shower, be careful of how much lather you put on your sensitive areas; essential oils do have astringent properties.

(Price listed here is from Trader Joe's for a 32-ounce bottle.)

If you haven't entertained yourself by reading scraps of their label in the shower, you haven't truly showered. Their website provides a fine example of the Dr. Bronner writing style:

"Dr. Bronner's PEPPERMINT Pure-Castile Soap is our most popular variety. The peppermint essential oil creates an exhilarating chilly-tingly-cool body space. Because therapeutically peppermint oil is a mild stimulant, it increases vitality and clarity, enabling constructive-selfish Peppermint-Castile users to work hard and get done! then sing-dance-play until we're All-One! Naturally, morning peppermint power showers lead to a fulfilling life of service and fun! Exceptions Eternally? Absolute None!"

The print on these labels is teeny, and wacky quotes like this are crammed into just about every possible space, offering months of stimulating entertainment and showertime laughs.

The label also claims that it can be used for shaving, shampooing, dishes, shower gel, hand soap, laundry, toothpaste (toothpaste??) and probably even more things by now. It doesn't, however, claim that it will do all these things WELL. It is certainly not going to produce thick or fluffy shaving lather, for those that need it. And while it makes a perfectly effective shower gel, it... well, it can be a little TOO effective in some areas, if you get my drift. I've heard some customers suggest that it should be diluted before any use, but it doesn't offer any suggestions for how much it should be diluted to be used as toothpaste or soap.

Nor am I willing to try it as a toothpaste; no matter how great the flavors they offer are, I don't want the flavor of peppermint or lemon-eucalyptus AND soap in my mouth. The one flaw with Dr. Bronner's (okay, besides the potential burning icy-hot sensation of too much peppermint oil where no peppermint oil was ever meant to be) is that it frequently falls into the trap of preaching deprivation instead of eco-friendliness. It is not worth it to me to save a few dollars a year by using Dr. Bronner's Soap as toothpaste (nor am I convinced I would actually be saving money that way). And I absolutely draw the line at following their suggestion of saving water by bathing in an empty tub with a damp washcloth moistened with Dr. Bronner's. Low-flow showerhead and greywater system, sure: damp washcloth "bath," no. No the hell no.

Still, when used appropriately, Dr. Bronner's is a cheap, eco-friendly, multi-purpose product with a wide range of nice scents. I would happily use it to wash my floor or scrub just about anything. It just happens to want you to do the footwork yourself to figure out which of their suggestions for use is actually going to work for you.

I was confused by the label and concerned by the price when I first picked up a gallon of Dr. Bronner's. The concern dwindled as soon as I smelled the soap.

The soap is ultra concentrated so in my 2-person household a gallon is split between 2 baths, a kitchen, the pantry and the laundry with about a half gallon to spare. The scents are strong and fresh. The ingredients are natural and organic. You can dilute it with hot water for mopping, you can dilute it with cold water for hand soap and shower soap. You can mix it with baking soda and water for a scrub cleaner. You can mix it with vinegar for a disinfectent cleaner. You can add other essential oils to boost the power or change the scent.

This is the best all around product you can have in the house.

The label is fun to read too.

My mom had a bottle when I was a little girl and I didn't see it again until my 20's. I kind of forgot about it until I saw the The movie Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox. He was a fascinating man way ahead of his time. I use it for everything from washing the baby's bum to dog baths to washing the deck furniture. A little goes a long way. It's full of goodness and doesn't hurt the spaceship Earth-ALL ONE!!

I use Dr. Bronner's lavender soap for ALL of my house-hold cleaning. Bathrooms and floors included! When my current body wash runs out, I'm going to try it for that too.

We used this to clean everything from clothes to dishes on a 3-month road trip. It never failed to please, and we could find it all over the country. Plus not too expensive. Yay!

I remember the day very well. It was Earth Day and I stood and read the label and thought, "Wow, how weird." I love to try anything weird.. so off to the registar I went and couldn't wait to use it. Over the years I have used it for everything from washing a dog, to washing my car. I use it as laundry soap, dish soap, and shower gel. If you have anything but super short hair, I would not recomend it as a shampoo, but it can be used that way too. I add essential oils to spiff it up to match my mood. You can use it as a bug repellant on plants. The uses are numerous. they now even carry little 2oz sizes to travel on planes with. Yippie.

This product is great! I have used this for close to 20 years. I live overseas and can't find it here but when I get to the States, it's an item on my "to buy" list. It's hard to find sometimes but well worth the effort.

You can use this to clean your dishes, or your hair! Love this versatile product!

I have always had a hard time finding any soap that my skin didn't protest - loudly. Dr. Bronner's is simply the best, most skin-friendly soap I have ever used. It comes in a wonderful variety of scents - or unscented - and I've tried the lavender, almond, peppermint and unscented... in fact I have three of them at the moment. It uses all organic oils, no chemical surfactants or sudsing agents. It cleans wonderfully, even in hard water, and a single 16 oz bottle can easily last for 6 months - even using it as shampoo as well as body wash - so the price per size is fantastic - of course the bigger you go the more you save, and you can buy it by the gallon. Besides being animal-friendly and earth-friendly, as a bonus the company is fair-trade on most of it's ingredients, so it also humanity-friendly.

We use this soap for shampoo and body wash. It is really great. My dh loves the almond one and my fav is the lavender. It cleans really well and washes away clean. I can wait a couple of days to wash my hair after using this soap. Very decently priced too. The medium bottle is about 5 dollars, small one is $3.00, and the big one is $8.00.

i was first introduced to dr. bronner's soaps in high school when i worked at a vegan cafe that promoted all things eco-friendly and organic. it was amazing! we used it to wash dishes, mop the floors, and even as handsoap for the bathrooms. ever since then, i've been an avid user! i don't know many products that are as versatile as these soaps! i actually use them for foot soaks and facial steams. they also last forever and smell absolutely amazing (i'm particularly fond of the peppermint!) worst case scenario? you don't like it. at least you'll have some entertaining reading material courtesy of its info-packed label : )

We got a large jug of this in lavender scent to use as a multipurpose kitchen soap in a built-in dispenser - for handwashing and dishwashing. It isn't strong enough for really grimy pots, but is great for light washing and handwashing - thus eliminating the need for multiple soaps. The fact that you can buy a gallon of it is also cost effective.

The only thing I'd do differently next time is get the unscented version. I thought that the lavender scent was a little too strong.

This hand soap is great. I feel good about having it in my bathroom for my young students to use. I know how damaging parabens and phthalates are to young bodies so I am so grateful that this product is on the market for those of us who want to protect the health of people and also the planet. It has a great lavender smell, cleans well, lathers up just fine and rinses off well.

Overall, I like this soap quite a bit. It cleans really nicely (and it's actually a pretty all-purpose soap...I use it as hand soap too) and is gentle if you forget to use rubber gloves while dish washing. And it doesn't generate too many suds.

It's very eco-friendly, organic, and paraben free. The only problem is that it's a pretty thin soap. If you're not careful, you can squeeze out way too much.