The Top Line:

BUY Gelo Hand Soaps. On a price comparison basis, it is cheaper than drugstore brands. The plastic bottle is ok, maybe you have your own bottle - that’s ok too. The Gelo refills offer a more earth-friendly option that minimizes plastic and emissions by using lightweight pods that make foaming hand soap refills. The ingredients are cruelty-free, phthalate-free, SLS-free and paraben-free. Note: unless getting the Clear, Clean, and Dye free option, the Gelo soaps do contain essential oil fragrance. Additionally, the pods are wrapped in PVOH, which dissolves in water but we are optimistically cautious - as we haven’t seen strong impartial research on this. Finally, the scent is lovely, but contains essential oil fragrance unless you go for the clean, clear option which is both fragrance-free and dye-free.

The Breakdown:

• Cost & Products: $7.00 for the starter kit, which includes 1 reusable bottle and 4 refills. Refills are $5.

• How ‘Clean’ Is This? Pretty clean - Biodegradable, Phthalate and Cruelty-Free. Note that there is fragrance via essential oils unless you get the Clean, Clear and Dye-free hand soap option.

  Packaging: Bottle is made of plastic but reusable and the shipment came in a cardboard box.

• Purchasing & Shipping: Pretty straightforward, shipping was $4 for us since we did not meet the minimum.

• Note: Also available on Amazon

• What’s Your Impact? With Gelo Hand Soap, and any other refillable hand soap, you severely cut down on the amount of plastic that is going in the landfill (most plastic is not recycled). Also, since pods are being used, the emissions are lower due to the smaller space/less weight.

The Good:

✔ Scent is lovely

✔ Hands are not really dry

✔ Refillable, reusable bottle included for $2

✔ Cruelty-free, SLS-free, Phthalate-free, paraben-free

✔ Zero-Waste

✔ Fragrance-free option

✔ Fast dissolving (faster than tablets!)

✔ Bottle is functional..

The Bad:

✗ … but the bottle is not the prettiest we’ve seen

✗ PVOH is controversial (but we are optimistically cautious - as we haven’t seen strong impartial research on this)

The Experience

What we typically use: We have been refilling our glass soap pump with brands like Method, Mrs. Meyers, and any other drugstore brand that touts green ingredients in a refillable format. We typically stick to gel-like soaps, but we’ve moved in on foam with the likes of Petal, Forgo, and such.

• Pods are very easy to use, 2 per bottle or 10ounces

• Bottle is clear so you can see how much water needs to go in

• Instructions say to gentle shake, but you need to give it a good martini-shake and it does dissolve

• Scent is lovely and stays on your hands for a bit

• Pump is like a grocery store plastic pump - nothing special but functional and sturdy

The Cost

We checked out typical grocery store brands and other limited ingredient hand soaps, like Seventh Generation, Cleancult, Grove Collaborative, Mrs. Meyer’s, Dawn, and Soft Soap. We assumed that you would go through 160oz of soap per year.

Money Report: Holy Cheap. If you can avoid the shipping costs, then Gelo Hand Soaps in terms of price is up there with drugstore brands like Softsoap! Can’t be beat.

Our Recommendation:

BUY Gelo Hand Soaps. On a price comparison basis, it is cheaper than drugstore brands. The plastic bottle is ok, maybe you have your own bottle - that’s ok too. The Gelo refills offer a more earth-friendly option that minimizes plastic and emissions by using lightweight pods that make foaming hand soap refills. The ingredients are cruelty-free, phthalate-free, SLS-free and paraben-free. Note: unless getting the Clear, Clean, and Dye free option, the Gelo soaps do contain essential oil fragrance. Additionally, the pods are wrapped in PVOH, which dissolves in water but we are optimistically cautious - as we haven’t seen strong impartial research on this. Finally, the scent is lovely, but contains essential oil fragrance unless you go for the clean, clear option which is both fragrance-free and dye-free.

We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!