MM DIY Dish Soap (Sal Suds-Based)
Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds instead of castile soap as the base — a meaningfully stronger degreaser than the castile soap used elsewhere in the MM soap lineup, formulated specifically for dishes rather than borrowed from the hand/body wash recipe.
Base Recipe (mixes in about 3 minutes)
- 2 cups warm water
- 1 tbsp kosher salt (thickens the mixture to a usable consistency)
- 1 cup Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds (the base surfactant)
- 4 tbsp lemon juice (rinse aid)
- 2 tbsp vegetable glycerin (moisturizes hands)
- 10 drops lemon essential oil (optional, scent only)
Combine in a bottle, shake to dissolve the salt as much as possible.
Why it works: Sal Suds uses a blend of three surfactants — sodium lauryl sulfate, coco-betaine, and decyl glucoside — that together cut grease effectively while staying milder on skin than a single-surfactant soap. That's a meaningfully different formulation than plain castile soap (used elsewhere in the MM lineup for hand/body wash and shampoo) — castile alone is a weaker degreaser, which is why Sal Suds is the right base for dish soap specifically rather than substituting in castile from those other recipes. Glycerin counters the drying effect of repeated surfactant exposure on hands, the same moisturizing role it plays in the MM hand/body wash. Lemon juice's citric acid acts as a rinse aid, helping prevent hard-water mineral spotting on glassware as it dries — the same citric-acid-vs-hard-water mechanism used elsewhere in the MM cleaning lineup (windows, dishwasher detergent). Kosher salt thickens the diluted mixture to a usable dish-soap consistency; without it, the mix is too thin to use practically at the sink.
Additional Uses
- Diluted in a spray bottle, the same mixture works as a shower cleaner.
- Also usable as a makeup brush cleanser.
Caveats
- Sal Suds and castile soap are not interchangeable across MM recipes — Sal Suds is the stronger degreaser, castile is gentler; don't substitute one for the other in a recipe that specifies a particular base.
- Shake before each use — the mixture can separate slightly with the added glycerin and lemon juice.
Skip Entirely
Substituting castile soap for Sal Suds in this recipe to save a trip to the store — castile is a genuinely weaker degreaser and won't cut kitchen grease the way this recipe is built to. Keep both on hand rather than treating them as interchangeable bases.