5 Best Natural Dish Soaps (+ 5 To Avoid!)

Are you looking for the best natural dish soap options that actually work, aren’t full of hidden chemicals, are perfect for sensitive skin, and are easy on your hands? Look no further! Here are 5 best (+worst!) natural dish soaps that can help you find the best choice for you and your family 🙂

Having a family means there are lots of dishes to wash! It also means using a lot of dish soap.

If you’re like me and working on creating a non-toxic home, you definitely want an all-natural dish soap that is free from toxin substances and harsh preservatives, but also actually works!

After quite a bit of research, I have found one that I feel is at the top of the safest natural dish soaps and 4 others that are close runners up.

Here’s what we’ll go over in this article….

• Best natural dish soap (in my opinion)
• 4 good dish soap options
• Natural dish soap honorable mentions
• 5 Worst “natural” dish soap options
• Dish soap ingredients to avoid
• FAQs about non-toxic dish soap
• Last thoughts on natural dish soap
• Related articles

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Best Natural Dish Soap

If you’re looking for the safest dish soap options for you and the environment, check these out!

Other Good Options For Non-Toxic Dish Soap

So, these 4 brands of dish liquid weren’t my top pick, but they are definitely strong contenders!

Molly’s Suds Dish Soap

Eco Me Dish Soap

Better Life Dish Soap

Attitude Baby Bottle & Dishwashing Liquid

Cleanest Dish Soap Honorable Mentions

A list of best natural dish soap options couldn’t be complete unless it included

• Dr. Bronner
• soap nuts (soap berries)
• Meliora dish soap bar.

The reason I didn’t include them in the top 5 safes dish soaps is that, while I absolutely believe that they are great, natural products, I found that they don’t suds up like we generally believe dish soap should (even though that doesn’t mean the soap doesn’t work, we’re just used to that happening!).

With Dr. Bronner’s soap, I also didn’t feel that the dishes rinsed clean as well. It seemed like maybe there was some residue left behind.

Since it is very natural I wasn’t really concerned with a small amount of residue but I still like squeaky clean dishes, you know?

A few things I really liked about these natural soaps is:

• they are made with safe, natural ingredients
• there is minimal packaging
• the soap can be used for multiple cleaning purposes

5 Worst Natural Dish Soap Products

So, we went over the five best natural dish soap products, let’s go over a few of the worst.

Now, keep in mind, this is the worst of the “natural” brands.

These are products that are in some way marketed as “natural”, “green”, or “eco-friendly” but when you look at the ingredient list, it becomes clear that those are just words used as a marketing ploy.

Here are the five on my worst list.

Be aware though, there are MANY brands out there that market a more natural or “green” product, these are just five of the most popular and well-known brands.

Be sure to stay far away from these if you’re looking for truly natural products!

Method (Frosted Fir, most other Method products get a D rating)

Green Works

Kirkland Eco-Friendly

Melaleuca

Simple Green Naturals

Why Do These Dish Soaps Land On The Naughty List?

If you’re looking for the best natural dish soap and reading labels, here are a few ingredients that you’ll find in the 5 worst products (and other dish soap brands) you’ll definitely want to stay away from.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate– a surfactant, detergent, and foaming agent that, according to EWG.org, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) can cause aquatic toxicity, irritation to eyes, lungs, and skin.

Methylchloroisothiazolinone– this ingredient is listed by the EPA as very toxic to aquatic life. It is also known for causing skin irritation or allergy.

Polysorbate 20– a surfactant, emulsifier, and ingredient in fragrance that is used in many cosmetic or personal care products. According to the Derm Review, “there are concerns about the presence of ethylene oxide in this ingredient. This is because the process of ethoxylation may lead to contamination with 1,4-dioxane, a potentially dangerous by-product. In fact, 1,4-dioxane is a known animal carcinogen that penetrates readily into the skin. This ingredient has also been linked with skin allergies.”

Fragrance– just like laundry soap, companies aren’t required to disclose all ingredients on their product label so whatever is used for different scents could be listed under just fragrance. The problem is that the chemicals that make the fragrance often contain endocrine disruptors. Endocrine disruptors are just what they sound like, they are chemicals that negatively affect the endocrine system.  These chemicals have been linked to human health issues such as some cancers, hormone issues, and lowered fertility, to name a few.

Other ingredients to stay away from would be dyes, antibacterial ingredients such as triclosan, formaldehyde, DEA (DIETHANOLAMINE), MEA (MONOETHANOLAMINE), TEA (TRIETHANOLAMINE), ammonium sulfate, and sulphuric acid, just to name a few 😉

FAQ’s

Have a few questions on your quest to find the best natural dish soap? Let me see if I can help!

1. What should you look for in natural dish soap?

We went over a few of the ingredients to avoid but some things to look for before deciding on a brand is how transparent a company is about their ingredients, their score on EWG, user reviews, and then be sure to look up any ingredients that you aren’t sure of.

You’ll also want to look at what, if any, essential oils are listed on the label- especially if you are sensitive or prefer unscented.

2. Does natural dish soap kill bacteria? Will the dishes actually be clean?

Good questions! Soap will clean dishes but not sanitize them. Normally soap and water are all you need to make your dishes sparkle, but If bacteria or sickness is a concern you can wash dishes in the dishwasher on high heat or sanitize setting or soak dishes in boiling hot water (as long as they are not plastic or other material that will melt!).

3. Does natural dish soap really work?

I’m going to be honest, some work better than others.

A few of the dish soaps I have tried seemed watery and I felt like I used a lot just trying to wash a sink full of dishes. Then there are others that seem like they would work fine if you just had a few drinking glasses, but if you wanted clean pots and pans, they just didn’t get the job done.

The 5 best natural dish soap options that I listed at the beginning aren’t perfect, but they are the best (and most natural) of the ones I have tried. And I can tell you, I’ve tried A LOT of them!

4. What can I use instead of dish soap?

If you would rather not use dish soap you could always go with the products I listed above like Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap or Sal Suds, a bar soap, or soap nuts.

These are really useful products because they are low waste, great for camping or hiking, and are good all-around eco-friendly soaps.

Or, you could go a different route and make your own homemade dish soap.

If you’re looking for a dish soap recipe, just be sure you choose a recipe that calls for natural ingredients.

Final Thoughts On The Best Natural Dish Soap Options

All of the dish soaps I have listed at the beginning of this post are natural, work well, and are rated ‘A’ by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

At the time of this writing, they do not contain any of the toxic chemicals that are listed above and are commonly found in commercial dish soap products.

These companies have high standards, are concerned with the health of people as well as the environment, and choose to use natural or certified organic ingredients.

These non-toxic dish soaps are biodegradable and will not harm our water supply, plant, or marine life.

And while many of us are not a huge fan of plastic bottles, these can often be recycled or refilled, or if that’s not an acceptable solution for you, there is always the soap nuts or dish soap bar that has very minimal packaging!

No matter which of the best eco-friendly dish soaps (or honorable mentions!) you choose, you can feel good knowing that you are choosing a product that is safe for you and the environment.

So give them a try and see which one you like best! 😉