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This Eco-Friendly Foaming Hand Soap Has Won My Heart

Laura Fenton
Laura Fenton
Laura Fenton is the author of The Little Book of Living Small. She writes about home design and sustainability, and is a regular contributor to Apartment Therapy. Her work has been published in Better Homes & Gardens, Eater, New York Magazine, and Real Simple.
published Jan 11, 2023
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Refillable Blueland hand soap packets shown with the glass soap bottle
Credit: Blueland

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I’ve been on a crusade to rid all aspects of my life of unnecessary single-use plastics, but there are certain categories that have proved more challenging to reduce my waste. Hand soap, for example. This seems like an easy one, just swap out the liquid soap for a bar soap, right? But do you have a small boy living in your home? Every time I’ve tried to switch over to bar soap next to our sink, we’ve ended up with a soggy bar and a mess of soap scum all around the sink rim. Plus, my kid just didn’t like it.

So, we stuck to liquid soap, buying it in bulk and refilling a reusable pump until I found an even better solution: Blueland’s Foaming Hand Soap.

Why I Love Blueland’s Foaming Hand Soap

This has become my family’s go-to soap because it is low-waste and easy to use. It comes in a powdered tablet, not unlike the ones you might use in your dishwasher, meaning its shipping-related carbon footprint is tiny. Plus, the tablet is packaged in a wrapper that Blueland says is compostable (I have not tested this out myself). Not only does this delight the treehugger in me, the powdered tablet format is a major win for my small space: I can store months worth of soap in the space that I normally kept a single refill. I’m also a bit picky about fragrances and Blueland’s current “classic” scents are appealing to me: Lavender Eucalyptus and Perrine Lemon are my faves. (In the past, I have tried holiday scents and I didn’t like them, FYI.) Most importantly, my kid likes to use this soap and even prefers it over liquid soap.

Cons of Blueland’s Foaming Hand Soap

One drawback of this wonder soap is that you’ll have to buy Blueland’s soap pump, too. You can’t just pop the tablet and water into any old soap pump, you’ll need a special one designed for foaming soaps. The Blueland soap dispenser is also glass, which may give some parents pause, but I can say that it’s pretty heavy and therefore unlikely to tip over. If you already own a foaming soap dispenser, it might work, but the tablet is big, so it might not fit in the neck of some soap dispensers (you could pre-dissolve the soap in order to make it work). 

Another con that I have discovered is that once in a while, the Blueland pump acts up and doesn’t foam properly. I think this may be when undissolved soap gets clogged in its inner nooks. I have managed to fix mine by thoroughly rinsing the pump, but I would be thrilled if Blueland offered a higher-quality pump top in the future.

Would I Buy Blueland’s Foaming Hand Soap again?

I would definitely buy Blueland’s foaming hand soap again. Not only is this soap sustainable, nice-smelling, kid-friendly, and easy to store, it’s cheap. If you buy a 10-pack, it works out to $2.50 per refill; up your order to 30 and it’s just $2.25 or “subscribe and save” for recurring deliveries of 10-packs for $2.20 per refill. Plus, each refill lasts for longer than an equivalent quantity of liquid soap, so the savings are even greater. 

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