Dr. Bronner's Pure Castile Liquid Soap Bodywash Refill Carton - Unscented - 32 fl oz: Paraben-Free, Vegan, For Normal & Dry Skin

A: Thank you for contacting Dr. Bronner's! While you can dilute our Pure-Castile Liquid soap, rest assured that this is not necessary for all uses and mostly comes down to preference. For example, some may prefer just pouring a few drops into their hands for handwashing, and others may prefer to dilute our soap at a 1:3 ratio in a foaming pump. It's truly up to you and your needs. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when first getting started with our Pure-Castile Soap. Firstly, our soap is 2 - 3 times more concentrated than most soaps on the market; therefore, less is definitely more. Additionally, diluting our soap with water does reduce its shelf life because we do not add any harsh preservatives to our products. Generally, diluting with tap or filtered water results in a shelf life of about 2 weeks to a month, while dilutions with distilled water can last up to 6 months. Using distilled water can also reduce natural soap separation that may occur with hard water. Please keep in mind that we encourage cleaning your containers out thoroughly before refilling them with diluted soap to promote freshness from batch to batch. Lastly, it's important to note that our Liquid Soap does not work well with pump dispensers. We have tested a variety of pumps and dilutions over the years with little success. Inevitably, the very concentrated soap clogs the pump. We recommend keeping the soap in its original bottle and using just a drop or two for each handwashing. On the other hand, our Liquid Soap does works very well in foaming dispensers. Foaming dispensers “thicken” the soap with water and air producing a velvety cloud of soap. If you decide to use a foaming dispenser, make sure to dilute the soap at a ratio of 1 part soap to 3 parts water. Here are some suggested ratio examples: 8 oz. bottle = 2 oz. soap and 6 oz. water 12 oz. bottle = 3 oz. soap and 9 oz. water For an extensive guide on recipes and applications for our products, we highly recommend checking out Lisa Bronner's blog, Going Green with Lisa Bronner, where she provides incredibly handy dilution cheat sheets (https://www.lisabronner.com/dilutions-cheat-sheet-for-dr-bronners-castile-soap/). We truly hope you enjoy your journey with Dr. Bronner's products! Should you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out!