The Best Non-Toxic and Clean Dish Soaps
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Want to wash the dishes and not worry about your health? Time to start using a non-toxic, clean dish soap. A simple and sustainable choice can lead to a cleaner, greener, and safer home! Traditional dish soaps can cause health issues such as respiratory effects, asthma, skin allergies and irritation, developmental and reproductive toxicity, and cancer.
So how do you know if a dish soap is clean? The best way is to check all the ingredients, however, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a good tool to use as a guide. The EWG employs a rating system ranging from A to F. EWG-verified products represent the utmost cleanliness and safety, followed by those rated A, B, and so forth, with F indicating the highest level of potential hazards.
With this said, I’d like to reiterate that I simply use the EWG website as a guide to find products in order to check their ingredients. The EWG is not a perfect tool to use just like everything else in the world. Sometimes products get ratings that are ok but still contain harmful ingredients.
I have compiled a list of non-toxic, safe, and clean dish soaps below. I have looked through a ton of dish soaps and these were the only ones that I found that I would be comfortable using. Even brands that claim that they are clean, are not. I know this list isn’t long, but I was super strict with ingredients. However, I’m continually adding to my posts when I find new clean products so feel free to check back!
Pick a clean dish soap below and join the movement towards a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle, one dish at a time!
1. Meliora Cleaning Products Dish Soap Bar, Lemon
EWG Rating: No rating, but I looked up all the ingredients and they were rated very well on the EWG website and they looked clean to me as well.
I was hesitant to try a bar dish soap at first. I thought it wouldn’t be as easy as liquid dish soap, but I was wrong. I kinda love this little bar. I also love that it’s portable and I can take it through TSA. Yes, I take my own dish soap with me when I travel. I also think it works well. It’s not super sudsy like traditional dish soaps, but it still got my crockpot clean.
This clean dish soap doesn’t have preservatives because it’s a bar soap, unlike normal liquid dish soap. Bar soap is also better for the environment because it eliminates the need for a plastic container. This non-toxic dish soap is free of dyes, SLS, synthetic fragrances, and palm oil. It’s made in the USA and all ingredients have the Made Safe Label.
How do you use it? Simply rub a wet sponge, cloth, or brush over the dish soap to work up a lather then scrub your dirty dishes. If you want to fill up a pot or sink with soapy water, run the dish bar under the running water. It has a great lemon scent and it is also Leaping Bunny Certified and vegan. This company also donates 2% of its annual revenue to environmental causes.
2. MamaSuds Castile Liquid Soap
EWG Rating: A
This clean dish soap can be used to clean anything around the house. It can be used for baby wipes, all-purpose cleaner, body wash, floor cleaner, fruit and veggie wash, hand soap, toilets, and a scrub/scouring paste for stoves or floors (just by adding baking soda). This comes in an unscented version, a lemon scent, and a lavender scent. The unscented soap has only two clean ingredients, distilled water and potassium olivate (saponified olive oil). The scented versions are the same ingredients plus essential oils. It’s a great product and very clean and natural. I always like products with fewer ingredients. You know exactly what you’re getting.
3. Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Soap, Eucalyptus
EWG Rating: A
This clean dish soap is made with over 90% organic ingredients, over 70% of ingredients are certified fair trade. It doesn’t contain any synthetic preservatives, thickeners, or foaming agents. This dish soap is different from the others on this list because you can also use it for laundry, mopping, cleaning house, washing pets & more. You can get so many uses out of it. On the back of the bottle, it gives you instructions on how to dilute it depending on how you are using it. Also, there are many different scents available and many are rated an A.
How do you use this as a dishwashing liquid? Here is the cheat sheet from the Dr. Bronner’s website: Pre-dilute 1 part soap with 10 parts water. Squirt on a scrub brush and scrub dishes. Alternatively, add 1-2 Tbsp. (15-30 mL) Castile Soap in a large sink of water. Use a small squirt of soap for one pot, or more if needed. You can purchase these squeeze bottles on amazon to dilute your Dr. Bronners.
4. Earthley Wellness Dish Soap Bar
EWG Rating: A (for the lemon-scented one, but all of the ingredients are the same for all the dish soap bars except for different essential oils in each)
This clean dish soap comes in four different scents: lemon-thyme, eucalyptus-spearmint, grapefruit, and unscented. Each soap contains essential oils that are antibacterial and antimicrobial. This dish soap has absolutely no sulfates, fragrance, phosphates, petrochemicals, allergens (soy, corn, dairy, tree nuts, gluten, peanuts, sesame, fish), preservatives, formaldehyde, chlorine, ammonia, or other junk. It contains minimal ingredients which I love. Only organic saponified oils (olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil) and essential oils. That’s it! Can’t get much cleaner than this. The unscented one does not contain essential oils.
Here are the instructions for use: Apply a small amount to a sponge or dish brush (rub against the bar) and use it to clean dishes. Keep the soap bar on a wooden dish where it can dry thoroughly between uses to prolong the bar’s life.
This natural dish soap is septic-safe, biodegradable, plant-based, and tough on dirty dishes.
