Safe Dish Soap Guide

Wow. When it comes to dish soaps, almost everything is Sneaky Stuff, even the stuff I used to think was Good Stuff. The 10 sneakiest dish soaps are as follows (in no particular order).

1. Common Good dish soap–despite the amazing glass bottles–contains a bunch of bad ingredients, including sodium hydroxide, tetrasodium glutamate diectate, and sodium citrate.
2. Dapple dish soap uses alkyl polyglucoside as a surfactant, which is safe, but it also contains tetrasodium iminodisuccinate (a C on EWG), synthetic fragrance (although they specify that it’s “made from ingredients consistent with the guidelines of the Natural Products Association”), and benzisothiazolinone (definitely Bad Stuff). When we tried to get more info from Dapple on their fragrance, we got no response (via phone or email). NOTE: Dapple sent me some free dish soap and other products to try. Obviously, this didn’t affect my review.
3. Ecover is a big, fat fraud! No wonder their dish soap works better than all the other natural ones. Here is some of the gross stuff it contains: SLES, limonene, citral, and something called 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol, which is an immunotoxin rated by 8-10 on Skin Deep. By the way, you won’t see these ingredients listed on the label. Ecover uses clever euphemisms for all of them; SLES hides in the “anionic and nonanionic surfactants,” for instance. What’s really upsetting is how many health blogs and websites recommend Ecover products. Tree Hugger, however, did call them out on the 1,4-dioxane in their dish soap, and if you’re interested in reading Ecover’s response, here you go. Oh, and you are correct if you recall my former endorsement of Ecover laundry detergent. I’ve since updated that section of this site, feeling foolish that I accepted their dodgy response about SLES: “Not at concentration levels in our products. SLS and SLES can cause skin irritation just as any other plant based surfactant; even soap can do that.  All depends on the concentration of the solution, the synergy with other ingredients in the formula, the temperature of the solution and the exposure time, to name just the most important factors…There is no specific negative effect linked to the use of SLS and SLES, which are both based on coconut oil.” Note: Ecover sent me laundry detergent to review. EWG score: C. Check above under Good Stuff: “Best of the Worst” for my new assessment of Ecover.
4. Earth Friendly Products used to list the ingredients in their Dishmate soap as just “water, salt, organic grapefruit oil, and 100% natural anionic coconut kernel oil-based surfactant.” They have recently started disclosing all of their ingredients, which include cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium coco-sulfate, cocamidopropylamine oxide, phenoxyethanol, and methylisothiazolinone. Super sneaky! EWG score: D.
5. GrabGreen changed their formula, and their dish liquid now contains sodium laureth sulfate and cocamidopropyl betaine.
6. Mrs. Meyers Clean Day’s PR company sent me bottles of all of their dishwashing liquids, hoping to have it reviewed on this site. While I did in fact use all four of delicious-smelling and totally effective dish soaps, I won’t buy or recommend Mrs. Meyers. They are indeed scented with essential oils, as the label claims, but they also contain synthetic fragrances (although a Mrs. Meyers rep assured me they are free of phthalates). While Mrs. Meyers does not contain SLS or SLES, it does have cocamidopropyl betaine, methylisothiazolinone, and benzisothiazolinone. EWG Score: C to D, depending on scent.
7. The Sierra Club endorses Clorox Green Works dish soap, but we can’t do the same, thanks to synthetic fragrance (I’ve been unable to get an answer on whether or not this means it has phthalates) and artificial color. Green Works uses lauramine-oxide as a surfactant, which is rated a C by EWG. There are also a lot of other undisclosed ingredients, and for this EWG grades them an F.
8. Method dish soap uses synthetic fragrance and color (this one is free of phthalates), and also contains synthetic preservatives, SLS, and ethanol. Still, I admit to using some of Method’s other cleaning products—I love how their bathroom cleaner smells and can’t break the addiction. EWG score: D-F, depending on formula.
9. Caldrea dish soaps contain methylisothiazolinone, benzisothiazolinone, sodium coco-sulfate, cocamidopropyl betaine, and undisclosed fragrance. EWG score: C-D, depending on formula.
10. Trader Joe’s doesn’t disclose any specifics about their dish soap, but we know it has artificial colors. EWG score: F.
11. When I wrote the first version of the dish soap safety review (back in 2009), Biokleen was tight-lipped about the specific ingredients they use (“Unfortunately, our surfactants are a proprietary blend and therefore we do not disclose that information to the public.”) Biokleen did assure me, however, that their detergent is free of both SLS and SLES and that they don’t use synthetic fragrances or dyes. They sent me their material safety data sheet (MSDS) and their surfactant blend is not considered hazardous or possibly carcinogenic. Given all of this information, I felt that Biokleen should be considered Good Stuff. Unfortunately, Biokleen recently changed their formula and, to their credit, chose to disclose all ingredients. These include cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium lauryl sulfate (I’m actually okay with this ingredient, but I know some of you may not be), lauramine oxide, and something called C10-16 alkyl glucoside, about which I can’t find any information. NOTE: Biokleen sent me some free dish soap to review.
12. Honest Company’s Honest Dish Soap has changed their ingredients for the better since the original version of this guide. But it still contains  sodium benzoate, cocomidopropylamine oxide, phenoxyethanol, sodium coco-sulfate, and cocamidopropyl betaine. EWG score: A (Obviously, I disagree with this rating.)
13. Sapadilla Lovely Liquid Dish Soap contains cocamidopropyl betaine.
14. Seventh Generation is totally transparent about their ingredients, so they get points for that. Another plus is that they test the SLS in their dish soap to ensure that it does not contain detectable levels of 1,4-dioxane. Unfortunately, there dish soap also contains methylisothiazonlinone and d-limonene (which gets a D from EWG). EWG Score: C to D, depending on the formula.
15. Shaklee is a brand that we are asked about often. Unfortunately, their dishwashing liquid contains Poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl), .alpha.-sulfo-.omega.-hydroxy-, C10-16-alkyl ethers (yes, that’s one ingredient!), which may be contaminated with carcinogenic 1,4-dioxane. It also contains tetrasodium EDTA and C10-16-alkyl glycosides, both of which EWG rate a C.
16. Sun & Earth dishwashing liquid contains sodium laureth sulfate, cocamidopropyl betaine, and phenoxyethanol. All of this is Bad Stuff! EWG Score: A (I cannot figure out why!)