Dr. Bronner’s Castile Lavender Liquid Soap offers a cheap, relaxing makeup brush washing experience

Apparently right, I’m the last person on earth to have heard about or tried the Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps. I vaguely recall coming across it a while ago, but it was always touted as this magical all-in-one cleaning product by hippie green-scaring people and websites, and you know how I feel about all-in-one products, right? You don’t? Well, I think they’re bollocks 😛 Ok, the greeny-scary people scared me too.

But you know what? I’m not a greenie-monster (pinky promise!) and I’m not going to tell you how wonderful this product is for cleaning the 1001 things in your house. Instead, I’m going to share just what an excellent brush cleaner I’ve found! 😀

Another brush cleaner, PB? How many do you need?!

Well, ok just one if I’m to be honest LOL! Previously I’d told you about how useful the Dove soap bar is for cleaning brushes. So cheap, and so good. I’d also told you about the Daiso brush cleaner, but that one comes with a warning from me. Don’t be over-zealous when using it on natural hair brushes or be faced with a dried out, scratchy brush. You don’t want your precious blue squirrel hair brush to die right?

I moved houses and in the process, I tossed my Dove soap bar (it lasts ages and ages!) but I picked up a bottle of the Dr. Bronner’s 18-in-1 Help Lavender Pure Castile liquid Soap and this is now my brush cleanser. Cheap, good, smells lovely and is gentle. It’s awesome, I promise you! 😀

I don’t know much about this brand except that they make soaps. Soap bars and liquid soaps. I’m not a soap bar girl, so I picked up the bottle of liquid soap instead. This is an organic product and biodegradeable and vegetable based. I don’t want to offend but this ticks all the boxes for the greenies. It’s no wonder they’re all over it.

The product is like a shower gel consistency. Slightly viscous but liquid. It comes in various scents and I picked up Lavender, which I’m happy to report, smells of lavender and does not smell fake and headache-inducing.

The product is supposed to be concentrated so you are supposed to dilute it with water and you can use it for a myriad of uses, from showering and washing your face, to cleaning your kitchen. That actually makes this product quite economical because it’s a one size fits all product right?

Well I’ve never tried it for anything else other than washing brushes. I might use it for a shower if I was pressed, but not for my face. Maybe for my kitchen. Who knows.

But we’re not talking about household cleaning here (although if you’ve used it for household cleaning, please tell me how effective it is!) but instead how useful it is for cleaning your makeup brushes and for that, I give this the thumbs up!

For brushes that I use with cream products – foundation brushes mostly, I use this full strength. I usually drop a couple of drops onto my Daiso pan holder brush washing thingamajig and run my brushes up and down until they’re clean. With dense brushes like the Shiseido Perfect Foundation brush or similar, it can take me a while.

If it’s a white haired brush like the Wayne Goss brush No. 1 it gets clean more quickly, and here’s the best part. It gets the brushes all clean and white again! It’s just as effective as the Daiso detergent, but so much more gentle on my brushes because none of them look like they’re going to die on me. Instead, they all feel lovely and soft after washing and drying.

With brushes I use for powder products – blush, eyeshadow etc – it gets them clean quite quickly. If the brush isn’t very dirty, I drop a few drops into a bowl, fill halfway with water and swirl my brushes in them and rub a little on my Daiso brush egg and all is clean in a jiffy!

Best of all, they smell lovely thereafter with a faint scent of lavender. Doesn’t stay very long, but hey, it makes the cleaning process a relaxing one!

The only thing is, I don’t know where or if it is sold locally. I’ve never seen it but then I don’t go to stores that sell natural/organic products so if you’ve seen this anywhere locally, please holler so someone else can enjoy this product too.

I used to see these on iherb but they seem to have been discontinued from there. If you shop at Asos then I’ve seen them on sale there, but I bought mine from Bath & Unwind. It comes in 3 different sizes and prices seem cheaper on Asos where this bottle retails for about £8.50 (approx RM46) for 237ml which, if you’re like me, will last forever. You could even use it to shower and not make a dent in it 😛

IN A NUTSHELL

The Dr. Bronner 18-in-1 Pure Castile Soap is an organic soap formula that is biodegradable and organic and gentle on the environment. It is a concentrated formula so you may need to dilute it when using it for body cleaning. I’m not sure, I’ve never tried as I only use it for washing my brushes. It gets my brushes clean quickly, it smells lovely, and it’s above all, gentle on my brushes, from the synthetic ones all the way to the expensive squirrel hair ones. It’s also super affordable and your only problem if you’re in Malaysia, is where to find it, which isn’t a problem if you’d just shop online! 😉

PROS: Affordable, Gentle on makeup brushes, Cleans makeup brushes easily and quickly, Only very little is needed so it is very economical, Lasts a long long time

CONS: Unable to find in Malaysia

WHO WILL LIKE THIS: Anyone who wants a gentle, organic brush cleanser for your makeup brushes

Here is the ingredient list for this liquid soap.

Have you used this product before? What other uses have you used it for?

I’ve come across people who use this as their shower gel because their skin can’t handle soap. It’s less drying I’m told but I haven’t used it for that purpose. So far, only my makeup brushes have “bathed” with this and I think they’re quite happy about it LOL! 😀

Paris B

Dr. Bronner’s 18-in-1 Hemp Castile Soap comes in soap bars and liquid soap in various scents Price: From £3.28 onwards Availability: Asos, Bath & Unwind and other online stores