Dr Bronner's Magic Soaps... and Baby Balm

So, we've had an opportunity to be testing Dr Bronner's products. We were kindly sent and have been testing the Unscented, Rose and Almond liquid soaps, a bar of unscented soap and the organic baby balm on Laurence (and on my lips, *wink*). As far as soaps go, I'd honestly say this is easily the best brand of castile soaps out there in the open market. Not only are the products certified fair trade, they're also made with organic oils.

Now, as far as skin cleansing goes, using these soaps really, really gets your skin well cleansed! They cut through grime and grease so well  you feel the clarifying feel after using them. While my husband's happy to use them on a daily basis, I like skipping a few days between using them just so my skin recovers it's lost oils, as I'm prone to having dry skin. I know of people who also use them as hair shampoos, and I see why... they are serious cleansers, so would out perform so many of the shampoos out there sold for greasy hair... I'm tempted to use them as such, but not yet.

Onto the yummy smells... Oh My God! The rose smells super yummy you'd think you're surrounded by hundreds of fragrant rose flowers. It truly is deliciously romantic. Speaking of delicious, if any of you are fans of marzipan, but can't afford to put your body through the indulgent yumminess regularly, then  I urge you to try the almond soap. Just close your eyes and inhale deeply and be transported. I'm not a fan of marzipan but I love the smell of it and this soap makes me so hungry, I want to eat it!

And guess who spotted them in our local organic store on offer recently and bought the peppermint one.. yes, me! Another fabulous scent that had me testing it on my teeth, it smells that nice! Good thing they are made of edible raw material, produced by mother nature... unfortunately they do not taste as nice as they smell, though had they been meant for ingesting, I have no doubt they's be yummy (random thought, I know!). I'm 100% happy to use them to cleanse not only my skin, hair and teeth, but mt whole household... yes, this is possible! Keep reading and you'll see! And guess what, when Dr Bronner created them, he recorded ''18 in 1'' uses as detailed below:

1.                               Shave

2.                               Shampoo

3.                               Dental

4.                               Soap bath

5.                               Peppermint is nature's own unsurpassed fragrant Deodorant!

6.                               A drop is best Mint Toothpaste; brushes Dentures Clean!

7.                               A dash in water is the ideal Breath Freshener & Mouth Wash!

8.                               Peppermint Oil Soap for Dispensers, Uniforms, Baby, Beach!

9.                               Dilute for ideal  Body Rub

10.                           Foot Bath

11.                           Douche

12.                           Hot Towel-Massage the entire body, always towards your heart.

13.                           Pets

14.                           Silk, wool, washing clothes and dishes

15.                           Body tingles head to toe - keeps cool!

16.                           3 dashes in water rinse most Sprays Off fruit & vegetables!

17.                           1/4 oz in qt H2O is Pest Spray!

18.                           Dash, no rash Diaper-Soap! 

These uses have recently been paraphrased as below to include new products added to the brand:

·         For everyday body-washing: Get wet and pour soap full-strength onto hands-washcloth-loofah. Lather up, scrub down, rinse off, and tingle fresh & clean.
·         For other uses, dilute from one part soap into 40 parts water for light cleaning, to cutting it in half or using it full strength for heavy-duty grease-cutting jobs.
·         For shampoo, though we now recommend our new Shikakai soaps for this, many people are fond of using it as such. The method of application is to wet hair and scalp very thoroughly, squirt some soap into hands and work into a lather. Wash hair, then rinse well. Afterwards use our new citrus hair rinse and leave-in conditioners as directed.
·         For the laundry, use 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup for one regular load; adjust as needed depending on hardness of water. I've been told that adding a dash of baking soda makes it even better.
·         For tooth brushing, apply a drop or two of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap to a wet toothbrush. Brush as you normally would, rinsing accordingly. Be careful about using more than a couple drops of soap, as you might start foaming at the mouth. Many people with sensitive or softer teeth like to use our soap as a toothpaste because it lacks abrasives. 

Wow, this product is truly an all rounder, isn't it? More about the soaps:

Best used with a cloth, towel, loofah or sponge you can use it to clean your body, your mouth & teeth, your fruit & vegetables, your bathroom and kitchen, your clothes and even your pets! It comes in 8 main varieties, the original being the famous tingly peppermint - “nature's own unsurpassed fragrant Deodorant!” - followed by Lavender, Eucalyptus, Citrus, Almond, Rose, unscented Baby Mild and Tea Tree which can even be used to treat minor cuts.

The soaps are most popular for at-home washing, but are also the soap of choice for many campers and hikers. They contain no synthetic foaming agents, thickeners, preservatives, fragrances, dyes or whiteners and use 100% post consumer recycled (PCR) cylinder bottles and paper labels. Completely biodegradable, the soaps are made with certified Fair Trade and organic ingredients sourced from India, Ghana, Palestine, Israel, and Sri Lanka.

 The 100% Pure Castile Soap recipe used in Dr. Bronner’s soap is a simple, ecological, vegetable based formulation, named after the Castile region of Spain where olive oil soaps where invented long ago. The high foaming lather of the soap is from its high coconut oil content, which makes a more luxurious and rich lather compared to any detergent formulation commonly found even in “natural stores.” Dr. Bronner’s superfat their soaps with organic hemp and jojoba oils for a milder, smoother lather and use natural plant-derived vitamin E and citric acid to protect freshness. Apart from flavouring organic essential oils such peppermint, the base soap ingredients are Water, Saponified Organic Coconut*, Organic Palm* and Organic Olive* Oils (w/Retained Glycerin), Organic Hemp Oil, Organic Jojoba Oil, Essential Oils**, Citric Acid, Vitamin E.

Having always used natural ingredients, Dr. Bronner's became officially certified organic by the US Department of Agriculture in 2003, branching into other organic personal care products in 2005. Today, its products are the top selling organic soap brand in the US and are distributed world wide.

Although Dr. Bronner passed away in 1997, his company continued to flourish under his son Ralph, daughter in-law Trudy and grandsons David and Michael. Last year marked the 60^th anniversary of Dr. Bronner’s and 150 years (five generations) of his family’s soap making. 

Now, I know this is a long read, but please bear with me on one last point. The packaging. It's simple, yet very engaging. See the writing on the bottles in the picture above? They say things such as, ''Who else but God gave man Love that can spark mere dust to life!...'' Buy a bottle and if you're like me, you'll sit in a bath reading the writing and going, 'wow'. The origins of these:

The dramatic exhortations on the labels of the soap packaging come from the mind of Dr. Emanuel Bronner, a third-generation master soap maker who spent his life renouncing hate and war on a personal mission to unite mankind. He was born in 1908 to the German-Jewish Heilbronner family, which had been practicing the traditional local craft since 1858. In 1929, Bronner, then aged 21, immigrated to the US working as a consultant soap manufacturer. But following the death of his family in the Holocaust, he embarked on a mission to spread this message of world peace and the dangers of communism and fascism by giving public lectures on these subjects. His strong views landed him in a mental asylum in Chicago but Bronner escaped eight months later in 1948 and continued giving lectures in California. He also began making peppermint liquid soap under the ‘Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps’ brand. He gave away soap during his talks and when he realized people were taking it without listening to him speak, he started writing his philosophy on the bottle in tiny script. These eccentric labels, featuring musings on everything from Hillel to Confucious, are still used today. 

 Dr. Bronner’s is available UK nationwide including Liberty, select Waitrose stores and leading health shops including Fresh & Wild, Planet Organic and Whole Foods

To find your nearest stockist call t: 0845 072 5825

www.kinetic4health.co.uk

RRP for 18-in-1 Hemp Pure Castile Soap 8 fl oz £4.99, travel size 2fl oz £1.69,

solid bar £3.50

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post