FAQs

Some Dr. Bronner’s customers have been concerned that the palm, palm kernel, and coconut oils we use in our soaps may come from plantations that were established on recently-cleared tropical forestland or from operations that otherwise contribute to environmental destruction. But rest assured, we purchase from growers who are all certified organic—no agrochemicals (chemical fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides) are used, and soil fertility is replenished naturally using compost, manure and mulching with crop residues. And unlike palm oil grown on huge plantations like those in Indonesia, the production of our oils does not contribute to deforestation.

Our palm oil comes from about 2,500 acres of smallholdings in Ghana that were established decades ago, and our palm kernel oil comes from various projects that support small sustainable farmers. We support growers in improving palm fruit yields by getting more oil out of the same area of land. Our coconut oil comes from about 500 small to mid-size farms in Sri Lanka, most of which have been in the owner’s family for generations. We encourage our growers to intercrop with other beneficial species and supply organic fertilizer at subsidized prices. This improves the soil fertility, yields, and profitability of small farms, allowing them to compete with larger plantations.

To learn more, see our Our Suppliers page.

You asked for less plastic, and we listened! Dr. Bronner’s is launching a new 32 oz. Pure-Castile Liquid Soap Refill Carton offered in 8 scents (Almond, Baby Unscented, Citrus, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Peppermint, Rose, and Tea Tree) to build on its commitment to sustainability and spaceship Earth.

As of July 2023, our eco-conscious All-One! community can purchase the Dr. Bronner’s 32 oz. Pure-Castile Liquid Soap Refill Carton to refill their current Dr. Bronner’s PCR bottles, or other bottles they use, for cleaning and personal care. Now the most ecological soap is in the most ecological packaging. By purchasing a 32 oz. Pure-Castile Liquid Soap Refill Carton, our customers will use more than 80% less plastic than our PCR 32 oz bottles. Reduce your plastic footprint with our ultra-concentrated soap and by reusing your Dr. Bronner’s bottle to refill.

The Certified Organic and fair trade ground, roasted coffee is sourced local to our manufacturing location in Switzerland.

After thorough lifecycle analysis, this paper carton—with minimal plastic/aluminum lining for shelf stability—was chosen for low environmental impact over shower sustainability. We do not recommend storing the carton in the shower or on wet surfaces, as the paper carton will not maintain its shape. Instead, we recommend using the carton to refill your empty Dr. Bronner’s bottles or other non-shattering/durable bottles you use for these environments.

If taken into the shower, the carton will break down within about a week. Our refill cartons are intended to be stored in a dry place and poured into other containers such as our 32 oz. PCR PET bottle to then take into the shower instead.

Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate has 12 - 17 mg of caffeine per serving, depending on the flavor.

Yes! We currently have the following products EWG Verified in the EWG Skin Deep® Cosmetics Database and are working to verify the remainder of our products by 2024:

• Pure-Castile Liquid Soap: Baby, Citrus, Lavender, Peppermint, Tea Tree
• Pure-Castile Bar Soap: Baby Unscented, Lavender, Peppermint, Tea Tree, Citrus
• Organic Sugar Soap: Baby Unscented, Lavender, Lemongrass Lim, Peppermint, Tea Tree
• Organic Lip Balm: Lemon Lime, Naked, Orange Ginger

Dr. Bronner’s products were not previously EWG Verified as our products are certified to rigorous third-party organic standards. Our products are certified by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) to NSF/ANSI 305 by OTCO (Oregon Tilth Certified Organic), to the European organic and natural cosmetic standards BDIH by IONC (International Organic and Natural Cosmetics Corporation), and Natrue by EcoControl. Additionally, our fragrances use natural components of essential oils rather than artificial chemicals or synthetic fragrance components and are objectively evaluated by our third-party certifiers.

However, you asked, so we listened! Many of our customers requested that we add the EWG verification to our long (and growing) list of certifications as an added reassurance. So, when you’re shopping for your favorite Dr. Bronner’s in 2024, you’ll be able to purchase a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s soap with the EWG Verified logo.

The 32 oz. Pure-Castile Liquid Soap Refill Carton is available for purchase on drbronner.com as well as in select Whole Foods Market and Jimbo’s stores throughout the U.S.

We use coconut sugar in our products to offer chocolate lovers a wholesome and more healthful product. We love that coconut sugar comes from trees and has a better environmental footprint than cane or beet sugar. Coconut sugar is also said by some to have more nutrients and a lower glycemic index compared to cane or beet sugar.

Yes! Best-case scenario, the carton is used to refill an existing container and then recycled. Worst-case scenario, even if it goes to landfill, the carton still has less of an environmental impact (according to our lifecycle analysis) than a single-use PCR PET bottle getting recycled. This is because the materials and manufacturing of the containers make up a larger portion of the environmental impact than the end of life of the container.

To recycle your Dr. Bronner's carton, remove the cap and rinse the container with water. Then simply replace the cap before placing it into the recycling bin.

Recycling systems, facility capabilities, and the market value of recycled materials vary around the world. Visit recyclecartons.com to find out if carton recycling is available in your community.

Reduce your plastic footprint with our ultra-concentrated soap and by reusing and refilling your Dr. Bronner’s bottle with our new carton. The 32 oz. Pure-Castile Liquid Soap Refill Carton is a multi-layer carton made of 69% FSC paper, 5 % aluminum, and 26% PE with a PP cap. By purchasing a 32 oz liquid soap carton, you will use more than 80% less plastic than our PCR 32 oz bottles.

To recycle your carton or bottles, remove the cap and rinse the container with water. Then replace the cap before placing it into the recycle bin.

Recycling systems, facility capabilities, and the market value of recycled materials vary around the world. Visit recyclecartons.com to find out if carton recycling is available in your community.

Yes! All Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate flavors are organic, Fair Trade, vegan, B Corp, gluten-free, and non-GMO.

Yes! All Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate flavors are organic, Fair Trade, vegan, B Corp, gluten-free, and non-GMO.

All Magic All-One Chocolate is made with Regenerative Organic Certified cocoa, coconut butter, and coconut sugar. Our farmers will also be certified to the new Regenerative Organic Certified™ (ROC™) standard. This standard combines demanding requirements for ecology and soil fertility with provisions for climate protection, Fair Trade practices, and animal welfare. These certifications allow us not only to prove our products’ high quality, but also to access the premium market, pay fair prices, and finance support for farmers and social projects.

In general, we recommend using Dr. Bronner’s body care products within three years of the manufacture date. Soaps are self-preserving, but it’s best to not leave them on the shelf for too long. Also, the soaps are good for 24 months after opening the product, within that 3 year window.

To find out when our personal care products were manufactured, you can consult the “lot code,” a number that appears printed or etched on the packaging, typically just below the label. We do not use expiration dates, instead we use Julian dates. The first digits refers to the year (i.e., “17” is 2017, “20” is 2020, etc.), while the next three digits refer to the day of the year out of 365 total days. So if the first five digits of a lot code are “17165,” the product was manufactured in 2017 on the 165th day of that year (June 14th). You can always search for a Julian date calendar for the specific year that your bottle was manufactured in online.

For easy reference, our Fair Trade & Organic Virgin Coconut Oils (VCOs) are labeled with a “Best By” date next to the lot code. Due to space limitations, we use a different system to code our Organic Lip Balms.

Our Magic All-One Chocolate is making its way to stores around the country! You may find it at your local Sprouts, Pharmaca, New Seasons, Milams, Lassens, Jimbo’s, Hive, Harmons, Green Acres Market, Earth Fare, as well as many independent natural grocers. To locate your favorite flavor near you, visit our Store Locator. If it’s unavailable at your local retailer, ask the store manager to order Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate.

You can also purchase Magic All-One Chocolate online at drbronner.com , Hive, and Thrive Market.

Our seasonal Cherry Blossom and Green Tea scents will be available for purchase from drbronner.com spring 2024. Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date!

While we no longer ship to Canada from drbronner.com, our Canadian customers can still shop with our authorized Amazon seller, WishingUWell. WishingUWell is the only Amazon vendor that we recommend purchasing from as we cannot guarantee the quality of our products when purchased from unauthorized vendors. For in-store purchases, ask for Dr. Bronner’s at your local natural market or wherever you purchase personal care products.

For information on Dr. Bronner's Privacy Policy and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) or to exercise your rights under the CCPA law, head over to our Privacy Rights page.

Experiencing cloudy soap is completely normal. Our Pure-Castile Liquid Soap and Sal Suds Biodegradable Cleaner turn cloudy white when they are exposed to colder temperatures. Some varieties of our Pure-Castile Soap will even turn cloudy faster than others as every essential oil has unique chemical and physical properties.

Previously opened bottles may also turn cloudy more readily. This is because once our soaps are opened, they can begin to lose their water content. The more the soap’s water content has evaporated, the more susceptible the soap becomes to turning cloudy when the temperature drops.

To regain the clarity of the product, you can reheat the bottle gently in a sink or bowl of warm to hot water, not boiling. Rest assured that this will not affect the quality or efficacy of the soap.

The praline in our Smooth Coconut Praline does not contain nuts. Instead, it is a creamy coconut filling. However, it does contain fair trade organic coconut sugar and fair trade organic coconut milk powder. Coconut sugar comes from the sap of the coconut palm tree rather than coconut meat. Coconut milk is made by squeezing clean water through ground up white coconut kernel. Powdered coconut milk is then made by spray drying this milk.

We offer two bars with neither whole nuts nor nut butters, our Salted Dark and Smooth Coconut Praline. However, both do still contain coconut sugar, and while it does not taste like coconut, coconut sugar comes from coconut, which is considered by the FDA a tree nut.

Our chocolate is made in Switzerland by award winning chocolatiers who have been honing their craft for over 160 years. We searched high & low for the right chocolate manufacturing partners who share our values, produce amazing chocolate, and are as excited as we are to deliver the most delicious chocolate made with coconut sugar.

Three of our Magic All-One Chocolate bars do not contain added salt: Roasted Whole Hazelnut (5mg sodium), Smooth Coconut Praline (10mg sodium), and Crunchy Hazelnut Butter (10mg). Nutritional information for all our bars can be found on drbronner.com.

Dr. Bronner’s saw an opportunity: Pair world-class Swiss chocolatiers with fairly-treated cocoa farmers practicing regenerative organic agriculture to create a rich, delicious dark chocolate that enriches our world.

When we learned that many of the 800 farmers in our Serendipalm project in Ghana also grow cocoa, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to create a line of chocolate that benefits farmers, the planet & consumers. The chocolate trade has a well-documented history of causing widespread ecological destruction, climate instability, poverty, worker exploitation, child labor, and even slavery. Our mission is to address these ecological & social issues in the chocolate industry by modeling more sustainable practices in the sourcing & production of Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate.

We recommend storing your chocolate in a cool, dry place away from heat & humidity.

The shelf life of Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate is 20 months from the date of manufacturing.

The lot code number & best-by date are printed in a white square on the outer wrapper, below the nutrition panel.

The outer wrapper of Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate bars is made from 100% recycled paper with a minimum of 80% post-consumer recycled (PCR) fiber. The paper wrap is recyclable, but the aluminum foil is unfortunately not.

Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate is certified organic to the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) standard, which means it contains at least 95% organic ingredients. That means both the ingredients in our Magic All-One Chocolate and the practices used to grow and process those ingredients follow the requirements of organic production at every step in the supply chain.

Our organic Magic All-One Chocolate is produced using practices that support soil & water quality, conserve biodiversity. Farmers in our supply chains do not use chemical fertilizers, such as urea, nor synthetic pesticides or herbicides. Rather, our partners, like Serendipalm, support farmers with improving soil fertility and crop yields by natural means, such as the introduction of agroforestry and improved farm maintenance.

Dr. Bronner’s is certified fair trade under the Fair for Life program, which is overseen by the respected international certifier, Ecocert.

“Fair trade” means that the prices paid to farmers, as well as the wages & working conditions of farm & factory workers, are fair. For example, the price we pay cocoa farmers for their cocoa crops is 15% higher than the conventional price. In case of low market prices, at least the fair trade minimum price is paid. This safety net assures that costs of production are always covered, and that the farmer earns an income, and enables them to meet their basic needs, such as good food & accommodation, schooling, the ability to participate in social life, and provisions for times of need.

An additional 10% is paid into a fair trade fund (estimated $80,000 per year, on average) for community development projects in education, healthcare & infrastructure. These are just a few of the many ways we ensure true fair trade partnerships with farmers & workers.

Other ways Dr. Bronner’s helps farmers achieve a higher income:

• Farmers receive intensive training and support aimed at improving cocoa productivity and quality, e.g., regarding farm maintenance and renovation of unproductive cocoa crops.
• We support farmers in diversifying their farms and marketing additional crops at a fair price. Thus, we enable them to achieve higher and more stable farm income and to improve the level of food security in their communities.
• Farmers also receive in-kind support, e.g., provision of planting material, tools, and equipment.

The cocoa in Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate is produced by several organic & fair trade certified cocoa projects in Africa. The cocoa for the cocoa mass, or liquor, comes from Ghana and the Ivory Coast, the world’s two largest cocoa producers. Our cocoa beans come from Ntotano and Abocfa, two organic & fair trade Ghanian cocoa cooperatives, and Dr. Bronner’s sister company Serendipalm Co. Ltd., also in Ghana. Since 2020, we’ve worked closely with KANY Corporation, a cooperative of women farmers in Ivory Coast.

The beans for our cocoa butter come from Esco, a cocoa project that practices regenerative organic agriculture in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The coconut sugar used in Dr. Bronner’s Magic All-One Chocolate is sourced from Aliet Green, an award-winning woman-owned business in Indonesia whose products are certified organic & fair trade.

None of the Magic All-One Chocolate flavors contain soy. However, our Magic All-One Chocolate bars are made in a facility that also processes soy, as well as other allergens.

Our chocolate is not processed in a Dutch fashion (it is not alkalized).

You can use Dr. Bronner’s soaps for washing your face, body, hands and hair, for bathing, shaving, brushing your teeth, rinsing fruit, aromatherapy, washing dishes by hand, doing laundry, mopping floors, all-purpose cleaning, washing windows, scrubbing toilets, washing dogs, controlling dust mites, ants and aphids. Now, that’s eighteen uses right there, but customers have told us over time about many more uses they have found for our soaps. Let us know what else you use our soaps for!

To get you started with recipes and dilutions, check out Lisa Bronner’s “Liquid Soaps Dilutions Cheat Sheet .”

We discontinued the use of the silver seal, as customers told us it could be excessively difficult to remove. Because the Toothpaste is already packaged in a protective sealed box, the silver seal was wholly unnecessary, and removing it allows us to reduce waste.

Yes, absolutely, and many people do! However, it is important to pair the soap with an acidic conditioning rinse like our Organic Citrus Conditioning Hair Rinse.

Our soaps clean hair very well, but they can leave a tangly look and feel. Our conditioning rinse tamps down the cuticles in your hair and leaves it smooth and silky.

To learn more about shampooing with our soaps, check out Lisa Bronner’s related blog post.

Dr. Bronner’s soaps are exceptionally mild and safe for babies, however they are not tear-free so it’s important to be very careful that the soap does not get in your baby’s eyes.

For babies, we especially recommend our Unscented Baby-Mild line, as their skin can be sensitive to the essential oils in our scented soaps.

Yes! Dr. Bronner’s soaps are wonderful for washing pets, especially dogs—see Lisa Bronner’s demonstration. For cats, you have to be a little more careful. Many essential oils can be toxic to cats, especially tea tree, lavender, and peppermint oils. So for cats, as for babies, best to use one of our Unscented Baby-Mild varieties.

In earlier centuries, an all-vegetable-based soap was made in the Castile region of Spain from local olive oil. By the turn of this century, “Castile” had come to mean any vegetable oil-based soap, as distinct from animal (tallow) fat-based soap. “Pure-Castile” is now also your guarantee that what you are using is a genuinely ecological and simple soap – not a complex blend of detergents with higher ecological impact and slower biodegradability. Unfortunately, many synthetic detergent blends are deceptively labeled as “liquid soap” despite the fact that they contain absolutely no real soap whatsoever.

Dr. Bronner’s Pure-Castile Liquid and Bar Soaps are both completely vegetable oil-based. The difference between the liquid and bar soaps is that the liquid soaps use potassium hydroxide to saponify the vegetable oils, while the hard bar soaps use sodium hydroxide instead.

To learn more about the difference between our liquid and bar soaps, check out Lisa Bronner’s related blog post.

You can read Dr. Bronner’s return policies here. If you have any questions about them, please contact our Customer Service Department.

All of Dr. Bronner’s products sold in the U.S. and Canada are Certified Vegan, except for our Organic Lip Balms and Organic Body Balms, which contain organic beeswax. All of our products carry the “Leaping Bunny” seal, which means they are certified cruelty-free and there is no animal testing done with them.

Although our product lines are otherwise vegan, we do use certified organic beeswax in our lip and body balms. We have not yet been able to find a certified organic plant-based wax, and Sue Kastensen, the creator of our balms, has not found a plant-based substitute for the amazing qualities of natural beeswax. Based on her experience, and her extensive training and mentoring under the Native American herbalist Keewaydinoquay, Sue formulated her original lip balms with just avocado oil and beeswax, because beeswax has natural antibacterial and sunblock qualities and provides a superior barrier to keep moisture in.

It’s not common (most experience a “tingly cool” feeling from the menthol) but some people have told us they feel a burning sensation, especially over sensitive areas. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to be done in this case and our only recommendation is to switch to one of our other scents.