With today being the 20th anniversary of Dr. Emanuel Bronner’s passing, we thought it only fitting to shine a little light on his most beloved creation—soap!
If you’re not too familiar with Dr. Bronner or his world-renown products, you’re likely at least familiar with their packaging—those large, rather distastefully designed colored bottles of brownish-gold liquid with what looks to be a novel’s worth of letters and words scribbled across them. Yup, that’s Dr. Bronner’s iconic packaging, and we say iconic because Dr. Bronner’s has been a staple in the organic community way before most people even knew what organic was, let alone were willing to shell out 2-3 times more money to pay for it. And while the brand now has several different types of products under their label, their most recognizable and most popular is easily the one that originally put them on the map—their classic 18-in-1 Pure-Castile Hemp Soap.
So what’s so special about it? And better yet, what’s with the “18-in-1”? Well, the 18-in-1 means it has 18 uses, all in 1 liquid. As per their website, we’re talking face washing, body, hands, hair, bathing, shaving, brushing teeth, rinsing fruit, aromatherapy, dish washing, laundry, mopping floors, washing windows, scrubbing toilets, washing dogs, controlling dust mites, killing ants, and, if all that wasn’t enough, a general all-purpose cleaner. Go ahead, count ‘em. That’s 18!
In other words, it’s super versatile, and the best part is that all that versatility doesn’t come at the expense of your health (or that of anyone else’s), because the soap is made with only organic and certified fair trade ingredients without the use of synthetic preservatives, detergents, or other dangerous foaming agents commonly found in many of today’s popular household and grooming products.
Instead, Dr. Bronner’s uses an all vegetable-based soap—”Castile” soap—that gets its name from the Castile region of spain, where one of the first vegetable-based soaps was made with the use of olive oil. It then adds additional natural organic oils like coconut, palm kernel, jojoba, and our favorite, hemp, which acts an effective anti-inflammatory that, among other things, does wonders for swelling and itching caused by face and body acne.
But one of the coolest and, dare we say, most impressive things about Dr. Bronner and his legacy is the loyal following he left behind. A quick google search yields hundreds of sites and blogs with die-hard fans who swear by the stuff, offering up various tips and suggestions for how to use the soap along with different methods of dilutions, dosage, and other wild combinations for all sorts of innovative functions, from standard face and body washing to dish washing, floor scrubbing, and even bug spray for your plants. And while his legacy and name continue in the form of his wonderfully unique and versatile creation, it’s only right, especially in today’s challenging racial and political climate, that we also remember his “ALL-ONE” mission: unite the human race across all religious and ethnic divides, so that the world may know peace! Amen to that. And his soap.
