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.

I've been using the baby mild version for several years (the others are too strong for my high maintenance skin).  It's great as a hand soap, I found it drying as a body soap when I lived in the desert (with horridly dry skin), but now that I'm in the south I find it much better, but not for sensitive places, if you catch my drift, try the Diva Wash by the Diva Cup people instead).  Love the packaging, but for more entertainment, read the web site.  It does tend to clog up pump dispensers and then come shooting out when the plug is unplugged, but I just clean mine out with a pin when I clean the bathrooms and that solves the problem.

I'm jumping on to an already overcrowded bandwagon here, but I'm a convert to the Dr. Bronner's team. I use the peppermint - it smells amazing, definitely leaves a tingle on my skin, lathers nicely without using too much, and rinses really cleanly. My only complaint is that its consistency is a bit watery, so sometimes I accidentally poor out too much, that that's hardly a complaint.

(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 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.

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 and a body wash mostly...but I have tried it as a dish soaps) and is very.  It's very eco-friendly, organic, and paraben free.  And of course, the packaging is pretty unique and gives you lots of stuff to read as you stand there in the shower washing up. 

The only problem is that it's a pretty thin soap.  If you're not careful, you can squeeze out way too much.  Also, I don't recommend decanting it into a push pump container...I tried that and many a time, I managed to squirt soap all over my shirt because it's so thin and just comes flying out.  As a dish washing soap, it's not my favorite.  It cuts grease pretty well and doesn't generate too many suds but I just end up using tons of it accidentally. 

Hand and body soap = wunderbar.

Good stuff! I've used it for a couple years.

I have been using Dr. Bronners since I was a little girl and my dad used to buy it. A few years ago, my husband started buying it again and I remembered why I loved it so much. It smells great and makes your skin feel super, squeaky clean. I wish it wasn't quite so expensive, but honestly, it's worth the money.

Liquid soap is arguably one of the most wasteful "green" products things you can buy. Let's face it - liquid soap is mostly water. And, it comes in plastic packaging which isn't truly recyclable, it's really just "down-cyclable."

Clearly - using bar or powdered soaps is a more green option.

That said - Dr Bronner's liquid soaps are possibly my favorite soap -- I can use them for my skin, my hair, my cat, my shower, my dishes, my car. The soaps are biodegradable which means -- yes -- you can take them camping. Washing your hair over a bucket and rinsing right onto the ground. The bonus with Peppermint is that it leaves you feeling very tingly and clean -- it's a good thing.

However - I won't be buying anymore liquid soap once I run out of my giant size bottles of Dr Bronner's - it's just not in line with what I consider really green.

My dog was bitten by a brown recluse spider I soaked his leg in the Lavender soap 2x's a day and it made a big difference! Definitely recommend

I just bought the product after reading about it for awhile now. I found it at Walgreens of all places!
It lathers up really nicley. A little goes a long way so that justifies the price.
I love how my face tingles after I wash with it.
I know others have said the package is fun to read but I found it kinda distracting. It does have postive messages though.

My wife read about this soap online and now we make a point of buying it.

Even although $12 a bottle feels expensive (at least to me), it really isn't too bad. It lathers so well that you only need to use a tiny amount each time, so we find that it lasts for months. It's also organic and fair trade, so that helps make it feel like a better deal!

An added bonus is the bizarre packaging - it'll provide you with a little shower entertainment the first couple of times you buy it.

The only thing they could do better is have bulk refill stations (as with most things).

We started buying this soap a year ago, and now we always seek it out. We buy the peppermint version, and use it as soap in the shower and also for soap dispensers at our sink. For soap dispensers, you can dilute Dr. Bronners with about 50% water, which helps it to last longer. It's very strong, so if you don't dilute, you only need a small amount to work up a lot of lather. I love that it is organic, as many natural products are not.

Wonderful, especially the almond and lavender scented soaps. As we are a family with sensitive skin, this line is particularly helpful for us (esp. the baby mild).

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 : )

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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!

So theoretically you can get 18 uses in 1...but why would you stop at 1 Dr. Bronner's? 

Here's what I like different "flavors" for:

Tea Tree (new-ish): nice body wash in the summer, leaves skin smooth and clear.  Good face wash too.  Just be careful not to get it in your hair--it's really dries it out.

Peppermint: It's definitely invigorating!  Good for winter showers, because it helps your blood get flowing.  But careful on sensitive areas!

Lavender: This is my personal favorite--I use it as a body wash and bubble bath, and it works well as a hand-wash detergent for my delicates.  Supposedly you can use it for shaving, but I find I definitely need moisturizing lotion afterwards when I've tried it. 

Citrus: I like this one best for hand-washing, and it's a good for guests. Everyone likes the bright scent of citrus!  This is the only one I've used (diluted) as a cleaner.  It worked well on grease. 

Unscented/baby: Good for washing pets. Probably good for washing babies too, but I haven't tried it ;)

i can't believe its taken me this long to try dr. bronners in the shower.  i got the peppermint oil version of this soap, and it is one of the best body washes i've ever used.  it is so refreshing and minty in the morning.  it washes off and leaves me feeling squeaky clean.  it suds so well on my loofah.  and, as if it couldn't get any better, it's very inexpensive.  just a little bit goes a long way.  i'm a convert!