Product Reviewed: Method Foaming Hand Wash Soap

Place of Purchase: Bed Bath and Beyond, but also found at most major retailers (ie. Target, Jewel, Pick ‘N Save etc.)

Purchase Price: About $4

Product replaced: SoftSoap, Dial, various petroleum-based hand soaps

Ingredients: (Direct from the bottle) Water, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Cocamide DEA, Cocamidopropyl Betane, Glycerine, Aloe Barbadensis Gel, Tocopheryl Acetate, Citric Acid, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Citrate, Benzophenone-4, Methychloroisothiazolinone, Methylisothiazolinone, Parfum, Yellow 10, Green 5

Use: General hand washing in the kitchen and bathroom. I’ve been using two different bottles of the Method Foaming Hand Wash, each with different scents, for about the last 2 months. I’ve been exceptionally pleased with a few aspects of the product.

• The Good: My hands feel great when using the foam wash! I’m certainly not sacrificing by using what is marketed as a “greener” product for a less enjoyable experience or less clean hands. All it takes is one pump (sometimes just a half pump) to get enough foam to clean even heavily soiled hands. Also, the product is Triclosan free and is not tested on animals.
• The Bad: Did you see the ingredient list? A lot of long scientific words that I have to look up to know what they mean and what they are. As a general rule, the longer the name, the higher the chances of a problematic ingredient.
• The Ugly: Specifically, other Method products we’ve tried, such as Method Surface Cleaner and Method Dish Soap, both had excellent performance and a list of rather green ingredients.  But this hand soap seems to cheapen the Method Brand by cheating on its reputation as a greener alternative to petroleum-based ingredients.  In short, take a look at the Wikipedia entry for:  Methylisothiazolinone listing it as alergenic and cytotoxic.  Parfum and sodium lauryl sulfate are also suspect ingredients.  Further, Cocamide DEA is made by reacting coconut oil with diethanolamine (DEA), which is, according to its wikipedia entry, “suspected of increasing the risk of cancer. DEA can combine with amines present in cosmetic formulations to form nitrosamines (N-nitrosodiethanolamine), which are known to be highly carcinogenic. Studies also show that DEA directly inhibits fetal brain development in mice by blocking the absorption of choline, a nutrient required for brain development and maintenance. DEA is also associated with miscarriages in laboratory studies.”

The Final Thought: Method’s Foaming Hand Wash Soap is, unfortunately, definitely not “green” and has some damning ingredients that make it downright “bad” for the environment and rather unhealthy for its user, when compared to greener soaps on the market.

If there is any redeeming quality to a soap like this, the foaming hand wash provides an exceptional hand washing experience and may just be the key to breaking someone into a “green” product line that they may not have tried otherwise. Perhaps we can think of this product as a type of, “gateway green,” product that ultimately leads its users down a greener path, utilizing other “green” or at least “greener” products.  Still, it provides false comfort to someone who may be consciously trying to green his or her life.

While this product is not petroleum-based, some of its ingredients are harmful to the initial user and as more and more toxic ingredients accumulate in our environment, the resulting toxic froth that ends up in animals, plants, humans, and all of our food, air, and water supply chains is the big problem with a brand like Method, which purports to have greener products.  Many of theirs are greener, but for them to come out with one that, while not oil-based, is basically more of the same — a somewhat toxic, polluting product, despite having some “less bad” ingredients and qualities, is disappointing.

Shame on Method and this product gets a failing grade from EnviroHumanImpact for not living up to the greener options normally offered by this company, for using ingredients that could be replaced with greener alternatives.  Hopefully, Method gets its handsoap into line with its greener options on the market.

EHI There! What green products are you using that you love? What products are you trying to replace? Got an idea for a product you would like to be reviewed? We welcome guest columnists; just contact us!

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