If you cook a lot from scratch as I have since 2009, you have a dishes problem.
I have a dishes problem. I can’t help it.
If I could send you a dishes fairy I would, but I haven’t found one for myself.
I’m always focusing on how we can save the environment, save our budget, save time and keep our families healthy, so let’s do a natural dish soap review of an environmentally friendly, waste-free dish soap solution.
It’s a constant problem, and Molly’s Suds is a company that has created a plastic-free dish soap solution that’s good for the environment.
What happened when the Kitchen Stewardship® household tried it out?
Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for an update since filming the video.
Molly’s Suds Natural Dish Soap Review
Can’t see the video? Watch our Molly’s Suds dish soap review here on YouTube!
The Molly’s Suds plastic-free dish soap solution contains a long wooden brush with medium abrasive bristles, a short little brush with more abrasive, firm bristles, a cute little soap pad, and a bar of dish soap.
I’m always honest when I do my product reviews. Usually, they’re happy with a few disadvantages.
Unfortunately, for our family, Molly Suds dish soap solution didn’t really work well so my review is mostly disadvantages.
Dishwashing Efficiency in Action
So first of all, how does this work? You’re at your sink, you have to get the brush wet, then you have to get the soap bar wet to prime it, and then you go back to the soap for each dish that you do, which for me, is a lack of efficiency.
Maybe you wash a glass bowl that’s not super dirty, and that’s fine. Then you wash something like our Caraway pan that we make eggs in, (check out that review here), and this is pretty easy. I don’t have to go back and get more soap very often at all.
However, there are so many instances where this isn’t the most efficient solution. For example, silverware (you have to go back to the soap too often), or bottles that are too small for the brush, anything that’s dried on that you need to soak.
I’m a tub of dishwater girl, I use the liquid soap, I use my falling apart ugly-looking dish rags, because I just want to do all my dishes at once. It feels quicker to dip the rag into the soapy water than to take the brush, get it wet, swirl on the bar soap, etc.
I’m also a touch person. So I want to be able to use my strength and push and feel whether I’m getting the debris and the dirt off the dishes.
I want that tub of soapy water where things can soak, where the water is right there rather than the whole process of turning the water on taking the brush back to the soap turning the water off. So for me, it was a loss of efficiency.
That just didn’t work. For me.
The bar has the potential to be attractive looking, but it’s slippery. It gets crumbs and debris in it and ends up looking not super attractive.
Personally, I know this is not a product for our family because we keep ignoring it. We’ve had this in our home for probably six to eight months. It just sits there.
The only time I tend to reach for this is if I have a cookie sheet that has some crumbs on it so it’s not very dirty.
Wish You Knew All the Answers to Keep Your Family Healthy?
How about a crash course?
I’d love to send you a 7-day “Quick Start Guide” email mini-course to give you Health Agency! When something goes wrong in your family, YOU can be the agent of healing and not allllllways have to call a doctor for every little thing.
Imagine this email series as a virtual chat over the backyard fence with your own neighbor, a wise older mom who’s raising 4 kids with intention, trying to avoid unnecessary medication and being kind to the earth.
Looking forward to connecting to help you learn EXACTLY what you need to know to stock your natural remedies “medicine cabinet,” deal with normal childhood ailments, and even the dreaded, “What’s that on my skin?” issue! 🙂
Is the Molly’s Suds Natural Dish Soap for You?
If you are a person who likes those scrub brushes or sponges that have the soap in the handle your system is probably perfect for this if you want to save on plastic.
When I go to an Airbnb if they don’t give me a dishcloth I’m going to find a washcloth and get it into the kitchen because I just don’t like using other solutions.
Maybe I’m stubborn and the defect is with me.
Natural Dish Soap Performance
This soap for whatever reason leaves water stains and a film on glassware and stainless steel. So if that’s a deal-breaker for you, this is probably not the soap solution for you.
It’s very hard to find eco-friendly dish soap without SLS. I sometimes call myself mint green. I 80/20 some things, I can’t do it all.
Dish soap is definitely more of a compromise area for me because you just have to get the dishes done, right?
Saving the environment. Yes. Losing my sanity? No. I just can’t do it.
So if you’re super committed to being plastic-free, this is an awesome dish soap solution if you can put up with looking at streaky dishes, right?
If you love your dish soap wand maybe this will be a good solution for you too.
For us. It just didn’t work, and that’s okay.
Not every product works for every family.
Bottom Line on Molly’s Suds Dish Soap
Honest review from Kitchen Stewardship®: it’s a thumbs down for Molly’s Suds plastic-free dish soap solution.
I do love their laundry soap and it’s one of the few that are in my rotation. I have different ones for cold and hot.
RELATED: My review of Molly’s Suds laundry powder.
But for this for dish soap, it’s not a win. But wait…
Asking Questions: Can We Make This Work?
I have an interesting update for you that’s not in the video.
One of my team members was helping finalize the post for publishing and asked a really good question. She said, “It sounds like your biggest problem with this product is the brush. Have you tried the bar soap with just a cloth, or even in a sink full of soapy water? Would that work?”
This is why I hire good people who know how to ask questions. Usually that’s my job, but you can’t always see the forest for the trees. I immediately went to test the theory.
Incredibly, the only dirty dishes were my daughter’s mixing bowl spatula and two cookie sheets from making cookies. This means they were a little greasy and also not my responsibility. So Leah was very happy we were testing the product that morning. 🙂
The Molly’s Suds dish soap bar made a great lather on the cloth and I can definitely see how that system would last for multiple dishes, holding the suds better, compared to using only the brush.
When I allowed the suds to go into a sink collecting water, I saw exactly what I expected: cloudy water. You’re not going to see any soap bubbles in a sink full of water with a bar of soap.
However, when I’ve used truly natural liquid dish soap before (one without any sodium lauryl sulfate(SLS)) I’ve had a very similar experience. The water goes cloudy fairly quickly.
For those of us used to SLS, an ingredient that creates a lather and bubbles, water that looks like that means your soap has died and you need more. In this case, I must say that I was able to clean those dishes fairly effectively without going back to the soap bar even once, and Molly’s suds definitely cut the grease
So the new bottom line is that if you are highly committed to avoiding SLS and you’re used to cloudy water instead of sudsy water anyway, Molly’s Suds has created a great product to help you completely avoid the plastic bottles that you’re stuck buying with any other natural dish soap.
However, I would still recommend some sort of double rinse or something because the dishes definitely dry with some cloudy spots.
If you’re interested in trying it out for yourself, get Molly’s Suds natural dish soap here.
I really like bar soap (I use Bend Soap Company’s soap) for washing dishes. It cleans everything well, even grease. I also have to use a dishcloth. I like that I don’t have to fill a sink full of water to do dishes, especially when I only have a small amount. The one thing I don’t like is the messy soap dish when the bar gets smaller. Sometimes I go back to liquid because of the mess. If I could solve that problem, I would definitely stick with the bar.
Thanks for sharing. I’ve used liquid castile soap to wash dishes before when we’ve run out of dish soap and it doesn’t work well. Good to know that regular bar soap will work better!
I actually recently tried this product (just the soap bar, not the brushes) when I found it on Thrive Market. I had a similar experience as you. I definitely prefer a sink or tub full of soapy water, and while I know that the lack of suds doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not working, this just didn’t do it for me.
I do however really like the bar for times when I have just a dish or two that needs washed. (Like if the skillet I need for dinner is still dirty from breakfast, or I just made a smoothie and want to wash the blender right away.) I always feel like even the tiniest squirt of liquid is too much and ends up being wasteful in these situations, so the bar works really well for that!
That sounds like a good way to use it to reduce soap waste!