Dr. Bronner’s soap brand became a touchstone of wellness culture | Hacker News Reader

Dr. Bronner’s soap brand became a touchstone of wellness culture

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Dr. Bronner's grandson David Bronner is not only CEO (Cosmic Engagement Officer) of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, but also also a big contributor to and on the board of directors of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

https://maps.org/about/board

>David Bronner is President of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps. He is a grandson of company founder, Emanuel Bronner, and a fifth-generation soapmaker. Under David’s leadership, in 2003, Dr. Bronner’s was one of the first brands to certify their soaps, lotions and balms under the USDA National Organic Program. Today Dr. Bronner’s is coordinating certified Fair Trade projects for all major ingredients, including olive oil from the West Bank and Israel, coconut oil from Sri Lanka, and palm oil from Ghana. David pioneered the use of 100% post-consumer recycled PET bottles for the liquid soaps and a hemp/recycled paper blend to package the bars. David was the main coordinator of the Hemp Industries Association’s successful multi-year litigation against the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to protect sales of hemp foods and body care in the U.S. (2001-2004). He is an active supporter of both the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) and Vote Hemp, working to bring back hemp farming in the U.S. David was born in Los Angeles in 1973 and now lives in Encinitas, California with his wife Kris and daughter Maya. He enjoys coaching his daughter’s soccer team and dancing late into the night.

https://maps.org/news/bulletin/articles/420-bulletin-spring-...

>Why We’re Donating $5 Million to MAPS

>Written by David Bronner, CEO of Dr. Bronner’s, Board Member of MAPS

https://www.drbronner.com/media-center/executive-team/

>David Bronner is Cosmic Engagement Officer (CEO) of Dr. Bronner’s, the top-selling brand of natural soaps in North America and producer of a range of organic body care and food products. He is a grandson of company founder, Emanuel Bronner, and a fifth-generation soapmaker. Under David and his brother Michael’s leadership, the brand has grown from $4 million in 1998 to over $111 million in annual revenue in 2017.

The same great advice that applies to Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Soap also applies to Pure Liquid LSD: DILUTE! DILUTE! DILUTE! ALL-ONE!

Lmao, I love this angle (calling himself the Cosmic Engagement Officer and donating to MAPS.) It makes me like Bronner's even more

This article kind of glosses over some of the tougher parts of their origin story. I saw a documentary about Dr. Bronner's on, I think, Netflix perhaps 7 years ago and it talked about how their dad, the company's founder, was essentially an absentee father because he was off preaching his self styled religion and making soap. Apparently he also spent some number of years in an insane asylum in IL before heading out to California as I recall.

Love the product, don't feel like this article does their origin story justice.

Edit: looks like it isn't on Netflix streaming any more but I think it was called, "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap Box" [0]

[0] https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Dr-Bronner-s-Magic-Soapbox/700...

Absentee father does not seem like the right term for a man that “actually put his children in foster homes and orphanages” https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=118136...

Love the stuff. Buy one bottle and you can shower with it for months.

That's kind of my take on it. I started wondering why we need so many specialty soaps and decided you could use it for showering, shampoo, shaving. It probably would make a bad toothpaste though.

> It probably would make a bad toothpaste though.

I can confirm, it is bad, I tried it camping once. But I mean you could uses it if you had no alternatives.

I've used it for toothpaste for years, in a sprayer (actually an old Dr. Bronner's hand sanitizer sprayer, though I would not recommend that product as it is quite strongly scented). It needs to be very diluted (even a drop of full strength is too much) and tastes disgusting at first but I was mostly used to it after a week or so and now only find it unpleasant if I use more than usual. I'd recommend brushing a second time with just water to prevent aftertaste and since soap in the digestive system can limit absorbtion. The nice thing is that it leaves the toothbrush much cleaner than with regular toothpaste (and is essentially free if you use it for anything else).

I can't really say how well it works; my teeth are in bad shape but that is presumably because I love sugar and vinegar. I think dentists would tend to recommend baking soda as the simple inexpensive toothpaste alternative, however at least one study someone mentioned here not too long ago found that using toothpaste vs water doesn't seem to make much difference. I've heard some theorizing about abrasive vs. non abrasive toothpaste but I haven't looked if there are any studies on that question.

I knew a guy who probably spent most of the year camping and only worked enough to fund himself for the rest of the year. He used Dr. Bronners for EVERYTHING. To bathe, for his hair, brushed his teeth with it, washed his dishes, everything. When camping he carried a small bottle of it and it took care of all his needs.

I was trying out a Korean facial cleanser with tea tree oil that I stopped using because it was too drying. But I found it was very effective at cleaning grime from my sneakers and as a spot treatment for white shirt stains.

Showering, shampoo, shaving, washing dishes and vehicles.

I used to love it, then I tried other soaps. It's insanely drying on my skin and god forbid you use it on your hair. I actually prefer detergents over soaps now(acidic pH, better skin). I appreciate the company though. They're good people.

10 years ago a store near me was going out of business and had a 1 gallon jug of Peppermint Dr. Bronner’s for $22. I still have about 1/5 of it left!

A friend of mine uses this stuff, the screed on the bottle reminds me of Time Cube.

In style, absolutely. Time Cube was negative and overwhelmingly abrasive though. The stuff on Bronner's is fairly positive and agreeable. (RationalWiki has a good summary [1].)

[1] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Dr._Bronner%27s_Soap

Near the end of 2015 I joined a startup and was relocating from Victoria to SF. The startup was in a Haight Ashbury house converted into multiple units. So this made it extra convenient to sleep in the office until I found a place to rent. Also, my family didn’t plan to join me for a few months. There were a couple other non-local coworkers who regularly shared the space in the early days.

Dr Bronner’s Peppermint soap was in the shower. Not knowing any better, I did a good lather. When I started feeling a tingle in my critical region, I didn’t know what to do. Thankfully, rinsing off kept me from becoming uncomfortable.

This lead to some cautious conversations with the coworkers, and as we confirmed a similar experiences this contributed to a very different experience to bond over.

There is additional backstory, where the Peppermint was bought be accident to replace a previous blue bottle that had generously been left there. The purchaser of the replacement had been equally surprised by the effects.

Since then I’ve gotten to enjoy rotating to the peppermint or tea tree oil soap from time to time.

> Not knowing any better, I did a good lather. When I started feeling a tingle in my critical region [...]

“a breath mint for your balls.”[0]

[0] https://gizmodo.com/lessons-learned-from-a-year-living-in-a-...

Then you used too much. A little goes a loooong ways. It's quite concentrated. A few drops is all that's needed.

> a previous blue bottle that had generously been left there.

Sounds like that might have been the baby unscented variety instead of the peppermint. Both have blue labels but the peppermint one is a darker shade.

Also the unscented is sometimes placed in the baby section (at least Whole Foods does this) that makes it even harder to notice that there are two with blue labels. Also the peppermint goes on sale much more often than any of the others.

I once met someone who wrote a song about the tingly effect (probably not the only one...).

Since I am commenting late I'll mention here that I suspect the main reason for the current popularity in the US is that it became a universal feature of health food stores and co-ops before they were all that popular. When Whole Foods took health food stores mainstream they sold it and when supermarkets responded with natural products departments they started selling it too. So now it is not only a good quality soap with a relatively short ingredient list but very widely available.

I think they did a fabulous job with the product label on their soap bottles. It looks like a super cramped newspaper / exam cheat sheet and is what caught my attention a few years ago at the grocery store amongst hundred of other soaps. I also love the peppermint smell and it lasts forever!

It seems to hearken back to the 20s or 30s? when everything you can say about a product was labeled on the product: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/32/cb/43/32cb43687e9d39e31466...

No, if you actually read the label you'll notice it's basically a religious tract preaching a weird quasi-spirituality nonsense. I do like that in those days you have to actually create a useful product so people would listen to you, instead of now where you just need a Twitter account

> Emanuel wasn’t a businessman (or a doctor, for that matter). He was an activist who, in the wake of his parents’ deaths in the Holocaust, began using his soap’s label as a, well, soapbox for proselytizing his “All-One!” thoughts and ideas. His philosophy, which he eventually named the “Moral ABC,” comprised a grab bag of religion, spirituality, environmentalism, and self-help, and its peculiarity was matched only by its ambition: peace and harmony on “Spaceship Earth.”

I was speaking design-wise. Never read one of the labels!

Every hippie on Dead or Phish lot (or in Humboldt county, etc) everywhere swears by this stuff lol. You can even use it to kill spider mites on your marijuana plants (true story.)

The best advice I ever read for Dr. Bonnner’s was to buy one scent for the shower and a different one for the kitchen.

As no-one wants their dishes to smell the same as their private parts.

I've got a better tip for you. Only use soap in the shower, when you're actually dirty. Sweat washes off just fine with water only. Your skin will thank you.

I find this quite interesting, I'd never heard of this until a while ago (I'm in the EU) but apparently it seems really, really popular with American travelers and backpackers and even people who got in touch with it in the US. I see the downvoted comment about mountain hiking, but I meant more the urban folks. Also while it's probably a small sample, there basically don't seem to be any alternatives if you look at a few subreddits on that topic :P

Originally he learned to make soap in Europe, so I wonder if there are any soap making artisans still around who learned the same techniques.

Dr. Bronner himself is a quintessentially American figure though. An immigrant fleeing Europe, he became a prophet of his own bizarre religious movement, and was persecuted by the authorities and fled West, where he became a wealthy California entrepreneur. All three of those are archetypal American stories.

It's an excellent product except for one flaw - it clogs pumps and even their bottle caps very rapidly. I wish it didn't.

Dilute! Dilute!

Haha, someone has read the bottle :D

OK!

I'm impressed that when Dr. Bronner decided to take his teachings to the soapbox, he literally printed them on boxes of soap.

David Bronner was my roommate my first semester of college. At least I think he was- he said he only had a room because he was required to pay for one - he was almost never there, preferred to crash on friends couches and I never got to know him at all. Missed opportunity, apparently.

Also known as: crazy writing hippie soap.

The Straight Dope did a column on him in 1988:

https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/904/why-the-weird-...

Label is crazy ok ok but think your reading it will entertain while you brush teeth oh no not this Bronner use other bottle ok ok good stuff ok.. peppermint have good smell hands... Man the label jive drove me crazy.

I make my own bar soap, but I keep a bottle of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint around anyway. It's quite concentrated, so it can be used to clean around the house as well as a body soap.

I gave out their bars of soap to people all the time, even in business settings. I'm a disciple for sure.

I've loved their products for decades. Nothing beats their peppermint toothpaste. For taste, anyway. Dentists tell me that I need fluoride, so I alternate.

But damn, that's some odd theology on the packages. His "All-One-God-Faith". But see Chapman (2016) Dr. Bronner’s "Magic Soaps" Religion: A Tikkun Olam Response to the Holocaust, the Atom Bomb, and the Cold War.[0]

> Abstract: This essay explores the historical and cultural context in which the late Emanuel Bronner began marketing Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, a natural brand known for its unusual labels that promote an "All-One-God-Faith" solution for saving "spaceship Earth." An amalgamation of Judaism and American pluralism, Dr. Bronner's plan for world peace was a response to the anxieties caused by the Holocaust, the advent of atomic weaponry, and the ongoing Cold War. Although Dr. Bronner was an escapee from an insane asylum and came to be regarded as a kook, it should be recognized that he conformed to the behaviour of a prophet or holy fool. His message corresponds with tikkun olam, the Jewish vision of "repairing the world." Dr. Bronner’s natural soaps and the accompanying call for global harmony served as a purification ritual for the American counterculture youth of the 1960s and 1970s.

0) https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.3138/jrpc.25.2.287

The musings on the bottle are made from someone who’s really out there. Perhaps mentally ill. It’s expensive, I think $15 for a 32oz bottle. Lasted two weeks.

Holy cow, that’s quick. I use 32 ounces and it lasts about 4-6 months of daily showers.

Were you diluting it? How did you use over two ounces of concentrated liquid soap every day? You must have been really fresh and tingly.

Label:

“For everyday bodywashing: Get wet and pour soap full-strength onto hands-washcloth-loofah. Lather up, scrub down, rinse off, and tingle fresh & clean!”

It's ultra concentrated, you're supposed to dilute it.

At first I was offput by the text on the bottles as well, but I've come to appreciate the uniqueness and it is mostly just about God and love. No more different than your typical Christian. Plus, they make really great soap.

I have had a 4 ounce bottle last me 5 months of near daily showers. You should use max 3-4 drops for your whole body

Label:

“For everyday bodywashing: Get wet and pour soap full-strength onto hands-washcloth-loofah. Lather up, scrub down, rinse off, and tingle fresh & clean!”

We take Dr. Bronner's when we go camping. Wash up in a nice mountain lake without worrying about hurting the environment.

I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be washing up with soap in mountain lakes. Biodegradable doesn't mean it can't harm something before degrading. I find a rinse to be more than sufficient for most of my trail needs. If I need soap for some kind of washing I take some water out of the source and wash elsewhere.

It's all-natural, organic, kosher, and vegan. Vegetable oil-based. They even say you can brush your teeth with it.

Unfortunately, none of those things imply that it is safe for wildlife in a mountain lake.

Here's a good overview: https://grist.org/living/ask-umbra-is-it-ok-to-lather-up-in-...

I'm well aware of what phosphorus and surfectants of your average soap can do but Dr. Bronner's has none of that. Here's the entire ingredients list:

- Citric Acid

- Mentha Arvensis (flowering plant in the mint family)

- Organic Coconut Oil

- Organic Fair Deal Hemp Oil

- Organic Jojoba Oil

- Organic Olive Oil

- Organic Peppermint Oil

- Potassium Hydroxide (AKA Saltwater soap)

- Tocopherol (oils containing vitamin E)

- Water

OK, when you mix that caustic potash (AKA Potassium Hydroxide) with vegetable fats, a chemical reaction called saponification occurs and you get surfactants. This is exactly how they made soap in the olden days.

Fish are extremely sensitive to surfactants, as their skin is covered with a thin protective fatty membrane that gets dissolved.

If you're still not convinced: go buy a goldfish, put a drop of this stuff in his bowl, and watch him die.

Some of those are toxic to fish and insects. The soap will still mess up the ecosystem in the lake if it doesn't have a good flow of water in and out of the lake.

Jojoba oil is roughly 12% Eugenol, which is used to euthanize fish (other cheaper Eugenol oils are typically used though). Peppermint Oil is a pesticide (specifically the Menthol). Those were the only 2 I looked up, I suspect several of the others would imbalance the ecosystem too.

Just because a product contains only natural ingredients that are safe for humans, doesn't mean its safe for use in small bodies of water.

All soaps have surfactants, it's literally what makes soap soap.

Surfactant production is achieved by mixing an alkaline with fat to produce a chemical reaction. In this case potassium hydroxide is the alkaline and the vegetable oils are the fats.

But even if that wasn't the case, at the very least, you shouldn't be introducing peppermint oil to aquatic ecosystems as its toxic to many animals.

None of that implies "does not disrupt aquatic ecosystems."

Soap disrupts aquatic ecosystems.

> It's all-natural, organic, kosher, and vegan. Vegetable oil-based.

None of those things means it's safe to put into a body of water. Leave no trace.

Wash away from the lake next time. Carry your water and rinse the soap far away from the lake, and you will minimize your impact.

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