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93 Comments

  1. Thanks so much for this helpful list! Looking for a safe dish washing liquid for our dishes AND baby bottles. Is there one you would recommend above others? The powder in Blue Land won’t work in our kitchen.

    1. In their dilution guide, Branch Basics has instructions as to the proportions of the concentrate and water for washing produce.

  2. Helli – I have been trying to find out if Sunlight soap has any limonene or citric acid in it- most sites do not have a comprehensive list of ingredients – are you able to help/direct me to detailed ingredients?
    ManyThanks, Marjory Vinet

    1. We encourage you to do the same as we do – contact the company for a full list of ingredients.

  3. This is so helpful. I did want to let you know that Attitude now has preservatives (potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate). Would it be in the best category now? Also, would their scented dish soap be safe to use? I believe they use natural fragrance confounds but not essential oils.

    1. Thank you for your feedback and the info! We will update our post when it gets to its turn. As for scented dish soap, we prefer unscented ones.

  4. Hi Irina,
    Is sodium lauryl sulfate in a dish detergent the same as sodium laureth sulfate? From my understanding, it wouldn’t have the same by products you mentioned due to the ethoxylation process but I wasn’t sure if that made sodium lauryl sulfate safe or not.
    Thanks!

    (The product I’m looking at is Blueland Dish Soap which lists the following ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Methyl Oleyl Taurate, Sodium Citrate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Hydrated Silica, Caprylyl/Myristyl Glucoside)

    1. Hi Sofia,
      Thank you for your interest in our opinion!
      They are not the same: sodium lauryl sulfate is not an ethoxylated ingredient.

  5. What about aspen dish soap? They also make laundry detergent and dishwasher pods. EWG has them listed as verified. Is this a safe brand? Thank you 🙂

    1. Hi Maria! Thank you for reaching out to I Read Labels for You! To get an email product review, please follow the instructions in the “Services” section in the menu at the top of our website.

  6. Hi! So I’m currently using Dr bronners Unscented soap for my newborns baby bottles. I was a bit concerned as I don’t see any preservatives listed, and you stated preservatives are needed to prevent mold and bacteria. Would you mind giving me more insight on this soap and preservatives please?

  7. I use a cpap machine and it’s recommended to use dish washing liquid , Dawn is the one most recommended, once a week for the hoses. After the Philips Respironics recall of machines because they were causing cancer, I started checking ingredients more closely on all recommended products and have found it to be incredibly frustrating and incomprehensible and find your website to be a phenomenal resource. What soap, or maybe is there a soap, that doesn’t have chemicals that can be released into the lungs from any residue?

    1. Hi, Christine! Thank you for reaching out to I Read Labels for You and your kind words about our work – we are happy to be of help! As far as your question is concerned, the list of soaps without chemicals can be found in this post above. However, we are not medical professionals to be able to say if any of them can be used with CPAP. Please, consult your doctor regarding anything you take in your body. Thank you for understanding!

  8. Hi Irina,

    Have you checked Puracy dish soap? I heard many crunchy bloggers suggest it. Here are the ingredients:
    Organic Lemongrass
    Purified water (Aqua, eau), Lauryl/myristyl glucoside (Coconut-based cleanser), Cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine (Coconut-based cleanser), Sodium lauroamphoacetate (Coconut-based cleanser), Lauramine oxide (Coconut-based cleanser), Sodium chloride (Natural salt), Vegetable glycerin (Plant-based skin softener), Benzisothiazolinone (Biodegradable preservative), Tetrasodium glutamate diacetate (Plant-based cleanser), Sodium lauroyl sarcosinate (Coconut oil-based cleanser), Lemongrass essential oil (Organic), Natural fragrance, Citric acid (Plant-based pH neutralizer), Sodium citrate (Plant-based pH neutralizer), Himalayan pink sea salt, Aloe barbadensis (Aloe vera) leaf juice

  9. I didn’t see a post on dishwasher detergents. Do you have any recommendations? I was curious about the Puracy dishwasher pods.

  10. Hi Irina,

    Have you looked at Puracy dish liquid? I’m in search of safe dish soap and dish detergent but not having luck.

  11. Speaking of the Made Of soap, do you recommend all of them, even the scented or just unscented (like you recommended for Dr. Bronner’s)?

    1. Hi, Ty! Generally, we recommend unscented soap when it comes to babies and kids. In other instances, if the scent comes from essential oils, it is a matter of personal tolerance and preference. Hope this helps!

  12. Is there any update on Better Life dish soap, whether it can be categorized as best stuff or is it still bad stuff? Thank you for all you do!

    1. Thank you for asking, Ty. They started disclosing preservatives now. And the preservatives are Methylisothiazolinone and Chloromethylisothiazolinone, not good ones. But at least now we know. ~Irina

      1. Thank you for the update Irina. That is unfortunate, but nice to have the clarification. I’ve ordered some Made Of dish soap and am looking forward to using it when it arrives. Tough to come by at the moment as it’s out of stock almost everywhere I looked. I reached out to them and they hope to have new stock by the end of the year.

  13. You have Better Life Dish Soap listed under the bad, since you hadn’t received a response on the preservative. In the table it states “No preservative,” does this mean you received a response and that’s the update? I.e. is the soap still classified as bad? Thank you for your time and all you do!

    1. I have not received any response from them but I see that they now disclose preservatives so I will modify the post Given the preservatives they use, the product will remain in the bad category. ~Irina

  14. Thank you for researching, writing this article on non-toxic dishwashing soaps, and sharing it with the world. You saved me a lot of research time. Many thanks.

      1. everytime I use dawn dish soap without gloves my hands become inflamed with a rash. normally I wear gloves but got holes in the last ones. when looking further into it found out under fragrance they hide the fact that it contains formaldehyde. I now use castile soap and rinse in hot vinegar water. thanks for all your research

  15. Thank you for this article- I am so frustrated by my search for dish soap. I was hoping to buy the Honest Company Free and Clear but it looks like they only have a grapefruit scented one. Do you know anything about this one?

  16. Hi, I contacted attitude too after seeing this post. They told me they use green tea extract as preservatives. So then I obviously googled “green tea extract as preservative” and it seems it can be used as preservative. Curious to hear your thoughts and if this is what you were told as well?

    1. Thank you for doing the research, Christine. I believe green tea extract is used in food as a preservative. As for personal care products, it is a great antioxidant but in my consulting practice to formulators, I have not seen it to be used as an antimicrobial preservative. And if it is used as an antimicrobial preservative, just like GSE it probably gets its potency from the other ingredients in it. It is so frustrating because otherwise, this brand could be a good option. ~Irina

      1. So if it can behave like GSE, could it have the same potential negatives as GSE (I believe it was the 1-4 dioxane contamination?)

        What do you think about Attitude laundry detergents then (specifically the baby ones)? I think they have similar ingredients?

    1. Hi! If they can assure you that their fragrances are made of 100% essential oils and nothing else and you trust them, then the essential oil fragrances are fine. Does it make sense? ~Irina

  17. Ahhhhh, FINALLY! I have needed to see your recommendations for dish soaps 🙂 My husband tries to get what he thinks is decent but it is all so confusing for him and he just doesn’t get it! We love Honest products for the most part but their dish soap is so difficult to find! I am liking the fact that MADE of brand seems to be at the top of many of your lists lately. Thanks so much for your hard work!

  18. The name of your web “I read labels for you” is genius! Thank you for reading labels for us! :)) sometimes we are too busy to make health conscious choices. It’s very helpful to refer to a source where someone has done the job for you.

  19. I tried it last night and used vinegar as my rinse (as I normally do) and they came out perfect. Very clean and the glasses were sparkling. My rinse dispenser only holds enough for each load, so I don’t have to worry about the vinegar eating away at the seals, rubber, etc. I’m really pleased. Some of the others were not available in most of the stores here, but Fit was. I’ll try their laundry detergent and their dish soap as well. I should add that I do rinse my dishes well before they go into the dishwasher and we do not have hard water.

  20. Hi Irina,

    Thanks for the work you do on your blog. Are you familiar with Fit Organic dishwasher gel (free and clear)? Ingredients are Water, Organic Alcohol, Organic Glycerin, Organic Guar Gum, Natural Mineral (Potassium Hydroxide), Organic Berry Saponins, Organic Sunflower Oil. Says certified under Oregon Tilth. I have not tried it yet, but am hoping it works.

  21. Hi Irina,
    Thank you so much your wonderful article. I would like to buy coconut oil soap with extra virgin coconut oil to clean my baby’s dishes. Can you please let me know whether it is listed EWG database and it has any other certification for its 100% natural ingredients. Is the performance great on cleaning dishes. Thank you.

  22. I was doing much research and came across Attitude Little Ones Baby Bottle & Dishwashing Liquid Fragrance Free, whose ingredients are: aqua, coco-glucoside, myristyl glucoside, lauryl glucoside, sodium chloride, sodium gluconate, sodium citrate.
    Does that look safe? I am trying to find a safe, non-toxic dish soap for the baby’s dishes as well as ours.

    1. Hi, Cynthia: That looks good except that I do not see any preservatives listed. You might want to email them and ask what broad spectrum preservatives they use. Thanks. ~Irina

        1. Hi Ashley, thank you for reaching out to I Read Labels for You! As of today and based on the available scientific data, we consider the following preservatives generally safe: potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, sodium phytate, ethylhexylglycerin. We hope this helps!

  23. I am just loving your blog. Thank you for all your time and effort that you put in to provide us with all this information. I do not live in the States and a lot of these we do not get here so I rely on a LOT of online shopping at the moment like iHerb etc. I came across the brand Attitude and the dish wash soap rated A on EWG but not all the ingredients are super safe. What do you think of the brand and are there any other brands that you would recommend I check out as this is really important to me to go more Green and Natural? Thanks so much Irina. xxx

  24. Hi Irina,
    Thank you for your quick reply! I will be buying the Mama Suds dishwasher detergent and liquid Castile soap to use as hand washing soap in my bathroom. I will definitely share my opinion on both these items as soon as I get a good sense of their effectiveness.
    Thank you for all your great work! It’s very comforting to find some of the products that it has taken me hours upon hours of research to find as recommended on your blog! It gives me a greater piece of mind!

  25. I see where there was a recommendation for a natural rubber glove at one time, but I have been unable to find a link or see where a brand was mentioned. Could you tell me what natural rubber gloves you recommend? Thanks so much!

  26. Thanks! Ok so it WAS Ewg that she saw it on. It was a long time ago like a year or more ago. Either they changed the formula and then got a lower rating or it was the dishwasher soap. Bummer!

  27. Thank you again for your amazing research. I can’t remember the source but my mom found that Honest Company’s dish soap was rated pretty good Like a “B”, “A” being the highest. I haven’t read their ingredients or bought it just yet. I’ll have to check EWG’s rating….
    Also, DO NOT wash your cast iron pans. they are to be wiped out with towel or scrubbed with a brush with no soap on it. You can sometimes rinse them but NEVER use soap on them. Not only will it rust them and ruin them but you ruin the natural “seasoning’ They also need to be seasoned, or oiled if you will, every so often.

    1. Hi, Teresa! It is rated C. You can see here. Yes – you are right about cast iron pans. Although the manufacturer’s instructions say that mild soap can be used. Thank you for leaving the note! It is good to hear from you.

  28. I can’t wait to try one or some of these out! Thanks Irina! One item to note for anyone buying the rubber gloves – the small are SMALL! I have what I consider to be normal-sized hands, and I couldn’t get the small on. I’ve bought small in other brands and didn’t have an issue, so just something I wanted to mention! So if you have small hands and always feel other gloves are too big on you, you will likely love these. They fit my mom fine so I’ll just grab a larger pair for myself. 🙂

    1. Good morning Kira,

      I’m seeing the article and post today, as of May 22, 2022. I must have missed what type of gloves to purchase for cleaning. Could you please share what brand you buy? Thank you in advance.

      Barbie

      1. Unfortunately Ava Anderson has been called out as greenwashers due to their labels listing ingredients that are not there and due to the fact that they were using SYNTHETIC FRAGRANCE in their products!!!! I’ll never buy from them again and no one should.

  29. Oh man! I’ve used Ecover for YEARS also. What a disappointment. I dread trying to clean dishes with these toxic free versions…. but I’d rather not be putting carcinogens in my children’s food. Boo! (Thanks Irina!)

  30. Hi, one more post — thought I’d share some add’l pricing info from Amazon since these are relatively pricey soaps.

    The Eco-Me soap is available on Amazon at a slightly better price if you buy a 6-pack: $39 plus free shipping.

    http://www.amazon.com/Eco-Me-Dish-Soap-16oz-Pack/dp/B002NI6060/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1403843727&sr=8-3&keywords=eco-me+dish+soap

    And the Better Life soap is available with Amazon’s subscribe and save – bringing it to $4.55/bottle if you purchase enough items to qualify for 20% off. http://www.amazon.com/Better-Life-Dish-Soap-Unscented/dp/B007S0PLEK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403843971&sr=8-1&keywords=dish+it+out+dish+liquid

  31. Hi Irina
    Thanks as always for another useful post! I wonder if you could list out some ingredients that you *do not* like, so we can check on the products we use? Is sodium laureth sulfate something to avoid?

    I’ve been using Ecover (aqua, sodium laureth sulfate, lauryl glucoside, lactic acid, sodium chloride, sodium citrate, fragrance, limonene, hydrolyzed wheat protein, citral, aloe barbadensis leaf juice) and just recently tried the Costo/Kirkland brand of “environmentally responsible premium liquid dish soap” which has a bunch of nice labels on it stating tough on grease, biodegradable, naturally derived & recognized for safer chemistry. I recognize this is marketing and not regulated 🙂 – it contains sodium lauryl sulfate, water, lauramine oxide, sodium laureth sulfate, sodium xylenesulfonate, alcohol denat., fragrance, benzisothiazolinone (proprietary), methylchloroisothiazolinone (proprietary), methylisothiazolinone (proprietary), citric acid.

    typing out all these crazy names, I suspect I know what you are going to say… I’m especially curious on your opinion of Ecover as I have been *thinking* I’m using a safe brand all this time and wonder if I really am!

    thanks!
    Joy

    1. Hi Joy,

      Ecover was tested by the Organic Consumers Association and they found that it is contaminated with 1,4-dioxane. The test was done in 2009 but I have not heard of any changes to the formulation. Here is the link to the test results http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/ShoppersSafetyGuide.pdf. Sodium Laureth Sulfate is pretty bad one. You can read about it here. I do have a list of ingredients I recommend staying away from. You can see it here. And the Costco “soap” does not look good: fragrance, benzisothiazolinone (proprietary), methylchloroisothiazolinone (proprietary), sodium laureate sulfate are immediate concerns. Have you seen my post about ECOS dishwashing liquid?

      1. Thank you!! Not only are you super-informed, you are very speedy in your response tonight! 🙂 I will give ECOS or one of your other suggestions a try. Appreciate the links to your older articles – I had seen them a while ago but it’s always good to be reminded of the resources on your site.