| We are excited to announce the 60th anniversary of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps! |
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It’s been a long, wonderful trip since Dr. Bronner started making his famous peppermint liquid soap in 1948 in a tenement hotel in Pershing Square in Los Angeles, California. Once a small, quirky niche product in a natural products industry that didn’t even register on mainstream America’s radar, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps exploded into the counter-culture in the late 1960’s, reflecting the yearning for simpler and more ecological living in a peaceful world. We are honored to inherit our grandfather’s legacy — and inspired to live up to the social and environmental activism and ideals he expressed on the labels of each one of his unsurpassed soaps.
Serendipitously, 2008 marks not only the 60th anniversary of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps in modern form (founded by Dr. Bronner in 1948), but also exactly 150 years and five generations of soapmaking excellence, which began in 1858 in southern Germany. Dr. Bronner was a third-generation master-soapmaker, born in 1908 to the German-Jewish soapmaking Heilbronner family, which means he would be exactly 100 if he were still with us today.
We have completely overhauled our Web site to share this remarkable history with you. Check out our revamped site to find all sorts of new and interesting things, including a detailed timeline and a set of 32 videotaped vignettes from Dr. Bronner’s son and spokesperson Ralph Bronner.
We think Dr. Bronner would be pleased with what we’re doing this year in celebration of such an important anniversary:
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- Our classic liquid & bar soaps are now certified Fair Trade by the respected Swiss certifier IMO under their “Fair for Life” program! In addition to being certified under the USDA National Organic Program, our Fair Trade organic coconut, palm and olive oils benefit farmers and their families with fair prices, good wages and community funding.
- We are now offering two wonderful new scents of our classic liquid soaps: Rose and Citrus Orange.
- We are pleased to introduce our new SHIKAKAI (“Shee-kah-kye”) line of elevated organic personal care products, proudly displaying USDA and Fair Trade seals. Shaving gels, hair care and pump soaps now join our USDA certified organic lip balms and lotions. Organic Shikakai comes from the seed pods of the small South Asian tree Acacia Concinna, and has been used in India for millennia as a gentle conditioning cleanser for both skin and hair.
- As mentioned above, we overhauled our Web site for our anniversary to feature our history, family and founder, as well as our classic soaps and new products. We’re especially thrilled to share our Timeline page and Uncle Ralph’s (Dr. Bronner’s son’s) video diaries. We have also created pages about our activist causes and projects, including organics, Fair Trade and industrial hemp.
- Please review Dr. Bronner’s “Truth and Lies in Organic Personal Care” page. We are taking necessary and dramatic steps in concert with the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) to clean up the natural personal care industry. Dr. Bronner would be rather incensed by the rampant organic fraud perpetrated by companies and brands that should know better, but he'd be pumped about how we are stepping up in his shoes to address the situation — just as he would have done.
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Enjoy exploring all this and more at our Web site. All in all, we’re sure Dr. Bronner is smiling.
Love in All-One!
The Bronner Family |
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