The Top Line:

BUY. Soap Sense Foaming Soap Tablets are easy to use and smell great, thanks to essential oils. Made with limited ingredients, they drastically reduce the amount of plastic due to their compact size. Additionally, they are cruelty-free and paraben-free, and big plus for carbon emissions: made in the USA. Lastly, Soap Sense is one of the cheapest hand soaps when bought in subscription or bulk (the packages are super tiny, about 5” high!)

The Breakdown:

• Cost & Products: $11.99 for 12 Tablets that make six-8oz bottles (Amazon); this was unavailable at our time of purchase, but they also have an 8oz Foaming Soap Dispenser

• Available on the Soap Sense website, $10.99 for refills with free shipping, and 15% off on subscribe and save!

• Note: If you are buying on Amazon, you can save 17% when you purchase 2 or more and save 25% when you purchase 5 or more. This brings down the per ounce cost to $0.17.

• How ‘Clean’ Is This? Pretty clean, with only a few ingredients. Does contain SCS.

• Packaging: Paper and plastic sachets that are recyclable (but not compostable)

• Purchasing & Shipping: Amazon, which is where we purchased, but the Soap Sense website has free shipping on refills!

• What’s Your Impact? Fewer ingredients. Like with other refillable products, fewer plastic bottles in your wake as well as reduced emissions because of the small products and lower weight.

The Good:

✔ Nice scent (eucalyptus mint) from essential oil

✔ Pretty easy to dissolve (does need a little shake!)

✔ Limited ingredient list, paraben-free, SLS-free, and phthalate-free

✔ Cruelty-free, vegan friendly

✔ Significant reduction in plastic waste

✔ Price is the lowest end of the range!

✔ Made in the US

The Bad:

✗ SCS, maybe? Otherwise none…

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 have been trying foam-soaps recently, with the likes of Petal, Forgo, and Gelo.

• Tablets are easy to use — two tablets for 8oz of water.

• Because the bottles weren’t available at our time of purchase, we reused another bottle.

• Directions don’t say that you need to shake, but we recommend you do! After 1hr, the tablets do dissolve completely.

• The scent is lovely eucalyptus mint.

• Hands are not left dry

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: Not bad! Even without a subscription, Soap Sense Soap Tablets are not that expensive, but with the subscription, they are pretty cheap!

Note: If you are buying on Amazon, you can save 17% when you purchase 2 or more and save 25% when you purchase 5 or more. This brings down the per ounce cost to $0.17.

Our Recommendation:

BUY. Soap Sense Foaming Soap Tablets are easy to use and smell great, thanks to essential oils. Made with limited ingredients, they drastically reduce the amount of plastic due to their compact size. Additionally, they are cruelty-free and paraben-free, and big plus for carbon emissions: made in the USA. Lastly, Soap Sense is one of the cheapest hand soaps when bought in subscription or bulk (the packages are super tiny, about 5” high!)

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!