Comment on The best smelling soap I've ever tried........... by dickie

Parent Post: The best smelling soap I've ever tried...........

dickie · 6/1/2026, 9:31:29 AM · permalink

**The Great Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Schism**

I used to be a Dr. Bronner's guy.

Not casually. Religiously.

The blue-label peppermint bottle was everywhere in my house.

Soap? Dr. Bronner's.

Shampoo? Dr. Bronner's.

Shaving? Dr. Bronner's.

Need to wash dishes, clean a countertop, shower, shave, and possibly achieve enlightenment? Dr. Bronner's.

Back then the stuff was thick.

Really thick.

The label wasn't joking when it said:

DILUTE! DILUTE! OK!

You actually had to dilute it.

One bottle lasted forever because half of it eventually became other bottles.

Kids today don't understand. Modern soap comes out of the bottle ready to use. Old Dr. Bronner's came out like concentrated peppermint reactor coolant. If you used it straight, you quickly learned why the label was shouting at you.

And then there was the label.

Oh, the label.

You'd pick up the bottle looking for directions.

Twenty minutes later you're reading about morality, religion, world peace, human unity, and trying to figure out whether the soap company had accidentally printed its entire theology on the container.

The soap wasn't the product.

The label was the product.

![image](https://us-lax-1.linodeobjects.com/sojooo/comments/2835/1780306288596-77cde1e37c2df8ef.webp)

The peppermint soap was just the delivery mechanism.

I even have a few of the Moral ABCs booklets around somewhere.

That was the pre-internet Dr. Bronner's world. The bottle had an address where you could write away and request a copy.

Think about that.

Today every company has a website, a newsletter, a podcast, social media accounts, and a statement on every issue imaginable.

Back then the bottle itself was the website.

You sat on the toilet reading microscopic text, mailed away for the booklet, and waited several weeks for additional philosophy to arrive through the U.S. Postal Service.

It was weird.

But it was charming weird.

Then Emanuel Bronner died in 1997.

A couple years later hemp oil was added to the formula and things started changing.

Maybe the chemistry changed.

Maybe my memory changed.

Maybe both.

But the old peppermint formula felt thicker. More concentrated. More like something that genuinely required dilution instead of merely suggesting it.

To me there was a clear dividing line:

Old Dr. Bronner's and New Dr. Bronner's.

Then came the final break.

In 2022, David Bronner, grandson of the founder and CEO of the company, publicly came out as using he/they pronouns and published an essay about it.

That was the point where I realized I no longer had the same relationship with the company.

Not because I need my soap company to agree with me.

I don't.

I just need my soap company to make soap.

Somewhere along the way Dr. Bronner's evolved from:

"Here is an extremely concentrated peppermint soap."

into:

"Before washing your hands, please review our positions on twelve social issues."

The old company was eccentric.

The new company feels like it has a communications department.

Old weird was better.

The old blue bottle felt like it came from one eccentric man with strong opinions and a printing press.

The new brand feels like a committee.

I still miss the old peppermint formula.

Nothing has ever duplicated the experience of:

1\. Ignoring the dilution instructions.

2\. Taking a shower.

3\. Discovering parts of your anatomy capable of feeling absolute zero.

4\. Reading the label while recovering from the experience.

5\. Promising never to do it again.

6\. Doing it again six months later.

These days I've mostly switched to Kirk's.

Kirk's doesn't explain the universe.

Kirk's doesn't require a manifesto.

Kirk's doesn't ask me to join a movement.

Kirk's just says:

"Here's some soap."

And honestly, after decades of reading what looked like the Dead Sea Scrolls wrapped around a peppermint bottle, that's refreshing.

For scent, I've become partial to Kingfisher's Bergamot & Amber Woods.

That sounds like grooming, not a philosophy seminar.

Soap should clean you.

Bergamot & Amber Woods should make you smell good.

Neither should require homework before you get in the shower.

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hyokkim · 6/1/2026, 2:38:12 PM · permalink

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j.k.harwood2 · 6/2/2026, 6:21:18 AM · permalink

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