For those of you who geek out a little on the DIY homemade and natural products, I’d like to tip you off to a few discoveries I’ve made in the last few weeks regarding liquid castile soap and it’s properties…not all liquid castile soap is made the same!
I have traditionally used Dr. Bronner’s Liquid Castile soap for all my recipes mostly because that was what seemed most highly recommended by trusted specialists and also because it was the most readily available for me at my local store. However, I decided to branch out one afternoon when I was tipped off that my favorite castile soap (almond) was for sale on amazon under a different brand name (Dr. Wood’s) for a much less expensive price than the Dr. Bronner’s brand. So I thought, “why not! Let’s give it a try!”.
Upon the much anticipated arrival of this new product, I discovered it had a much more “pungent” almond smell than the subtle, smooth scent I had grown accustomed to with the Dr. Bronner brand. Not to be dissuaded, I began using it in my body washes and cleaning products such as my “soft scrub” recipe. What I discovered was that it reacted completely different with the other ingredients! The body washes did not maintain their creamy, lathering characteristics but instead became a watery, separated mess! The soft scrub recipe wasn’t awful but I had to add a considerable amount of additional baking soda to compensate for the resulting runny consistency. And the smell that was so pungent never dissipated and became overwhelming to the detriment of the other essential oils I was adding to the recipes.
Conclusion: Dr. Bronner’s is going to stay on my shopping list! It is well worth the few extra dollars to have the luxurious body washes and effective cleaning agents. Although I did find it available through Thrive Market for less than half price! Good luck and happy DIY-ing!
Analysis: (for my fellow DIY-ers that like to know what the different ingredients actually do!) I created the graphic above to illustrate the differences between brands. For instance, why is there rosemary extract in an almond castile soap?? And why sea salt? I did a little research and I’m pretty sure the sea salt could be the ingredient that was causing my recipes to go amuck. Sea Salt apparently will reduce the lathering capabilities of recipes! Here are a few additional reads that will help those of you interested to understand the various ingredients and why they do what they do:
- Check out this little read from The Wellness Mama on what adjustments would be advised in a recipe using sea salt: “How to Make Sea Salt Soap“.
- For those of you curious, as I was, about the differences in vitamin E (tocopheryl…there are 3 different types, did you know?), you might want to give a quick read to this article: “Vitamin E: Natural vs. Synthetic“. It really helped me understand better how to shop for my Vitamin E oil both as an addition to my recipes and as a supplement. Did you know it acts as an antioxidant, helping to reduce the damage caused by free radicals? It also helps strengthen the immune system and aids the body in properly using vitamin K. But too much vitamin E can be dangerous, increasing the risk of bleeding and possible birth defects.
- Those of you interested in the purposes behind the ingredient potassium hydroxide, check out this little read from the “soap queen”: “How to handle Potassium Hydroxide“.
Please comment if you have tried another brand of castile soap you have had success with!
Welcome 
