I’ll be honest with you: I was skeptical the first time I made a solid dish soap bar.
I’d been using liquid dish soap my whole life. I knew how it worked. I knew exactly how much to squeeze onto a sponge. I knew where the bottle lived beside the sink.
Changing that felt like solving a problem that didn’t need solving.
And then I actually used one.
It lathered. It handled the greasy pans. It didn’t leave me missing the plastic bottle. And once I got used to rubbing a brush over a bar instead of squirting soap onto it, the whole thing felt surprisingly simple.
Here’s what I know now that I didn’t know then—and what I think is helpful to understand before making the switch.
Solid Dish Soap at a Glance
- How it works: Wet a dish brush or sponge, rub it across the bar, and wash your dishes as usual.
- Best tool: A dish brush picks up lather easily, but a sponge works too.
- Most important care tip: Let the bar drain and dry completely between uses.
- What to look for: A clear ingredient list, a properly cured bar, and a well-draining soap dish.
- First time trying one? Start with the complete set—or pick up a refill if your sink is already equipped.
What Is a solid dish soap bar?
A solid dish soap bar is a concentrated bar of soap made for hand-washing dishes.
Instead of squeezing liquid from a bottle, you wet a dish brush or sponge and rub it across the bar to pick up the soap. Then you wash and rinse your dishes as usual.
That’s the basic idea. No complicated new dishwashing ritual required.
The biggest difference is the setup: because it is a bar, it needs a place where it can drain and dry between uses. Give it that, and it stays firm and ready for the next round of coffee cups and mysteriously greasy sheet pans.
Why choose solid dish soap?
For me, the appeal started with the packaging.
A solid bar does not need a single-use plastic bottle, and the refill itself can be very simple. Once you have a brush and a draining dish, all you need to replace is the soap.
But I also wanted the formula to be simple and functional. Fig & Grove’s dish soap is made with coconut oil and castor oil. Coconut oil helps create a firm, highly cleansing soap, while castor oil supports the lather.
That’s it. Two oils, chosen because they have jobs to do.
What to look for in a solid dish soap
Not every solid dish soap is made in exactly the same way. Here are a few things I would look at before choosing one.
A clear ingredient list
You should be able to find the complete ingredient list and understand why the main ingredients are there.
A short ingredient list is not automatically better, but transparency matters. You should not have to dig through six pages of a website to figure out what you’re washing your dishes with.
Our bars are made from coconut oil and castor oil: one helps provide the strong cleansing action, and the other helps build a satisfying lather.
A properly cured bar
This part is easy to overlook, but it makes a real difference at the sink.
Handmade soap needs time to cure. During that time, water gradually leaves the bar, helping it become harder and longer-lasting.
We hand-cut our dish soap bars and cure them for a minimum of four weeks before they leave the shop. A well-cured bar is less likely to become soft or disappear faster than it should—as long as it’s also allowed to dry between uses.
A way for the bar to drain
This may be the least glamorous advice in the entire article, but it’s also probably the most important:
Do not leave your dish soap bar sitting in a puddle.
A slotted or well-draining dish keeps the soap elevated so air can circulate around it. This helps the bar stay firm rather than softening between rounds of dishes.
A brush or sponge you enjoy using
I prefer a natural-bristle dish brush because it picks up lather easily and keeps my hands out of the dishwater a little more.
A sponge can work too. You may simply need to rub it across the bar a few extra times to load it with soap.
There is no prize for using the “correct” dishwashing tool. The best option is the one you’ll actually reach for.
Values that matter to you
Some people are primarily looking to reduce plastic. Others want an unscented or simply-formulated product. Some want palm-free soap, refill options, or something made in small batches.
Fig & Grove’s bars are palm-free, and we offer both a complete starter set and individual refill bars. Once you have the dish and brush, you don’t have to purchase the full setup again.
How to Use a Solid Dish Soap Bar
Once your sink is full of dishes (and somehow it always is) using the bar is straightforward.
1. Wet your brush or sponge
Run your brush or sponge under warm water.
2. Rub it across the bar
Move it over the surface of the soap a few times until you see lather forming.
You don’t need to attack the bar. A few gentle swipes are usually enough to get started, and you can return for more soap whenever you need it.
3. Wash as usual
Scrub the dish, rinse it thoroughly, and reload your brush as needed.
Warm or hot water can be especially helpful with greasy cookware, provided the item’s care instructions allow it.
4. Let the bar drain and dry
When you’re finished, return the bar to a draining dish away from the direct stream of the faucet.
This one habit will do more than anything else to help the bar last.
Will coconut oil leave a film on the dishes?
This is one of the most common questions we hear, and it makes sense. Coconut oil is an oil, after all.
But soapmaking changes it.
During saponification, oils react with an alkali and are transformed into soap. The finished bar is not simply a block of coconut oil sitting beside your sink.
Used with warm water and rinsed thoroughly, the soap should leave your dishes feeling clean rather than oily.
If you do notice residue, try using a little less soap, rinsing more thoroughly, or increasing the water temperature when the dish allows it. Hard water and mineral content can also affect how traditional soap behaves, so there may be a little experimentation involved from one kitchen to another.
How to keep a solid dish soap bar from getting soft
The answer is wonderfully unexciting: keep it dry.
Do not store it at the bottom of the sink. Do not leave it directly under a dripping faucet. Do not let it soak in the water collected beneath the dish.
A draining tray with space underneath gives the bar somewhere to dry. Our handmade resin dish includes a slotted upper tray and a basin below, so the bar stays elevated instead of sitting in the runoff.
The basin will catch some soapy water. You can use that water during the next round of washing rather than immediately sending it down the drain, which is a frugal move that extends the life of your bar.
What surprised me about making the switch
When I first made this soap, I thought its appeal would mostly be about reducing packaging and using a simpler formula.
And those things still matter to me.
What I didn’t expect was how quickly it would feel so….normal.
There’s no bottle sliding around beside the sink. No cap collecting a mysterious crust of soap. The bar has a place, the brush has a place, and the whole setup looks intentional on the counter.
That last part is not the most important reason to switch.
But it certainly doesn’t hurt.
Ready to try solid dish soap?
If this is your first solid dish soap, our complete set includes a nine-ounce bar, a natural-bristle bamboo brush, and a handmade draining resin dish.
If you already have your setup, you can purchase the refill bar on its own.
Explore Fig & Grove’s solid dish soap sets and refills.
A slightly different way to wash the dishes, reduce waste, and keep your drain system happy.