I bought my first bottle of Meyer’s Clean Day dish soap about three years ago because someone on a cleaning forum wouldn’t stop raving about it. I figured it was just another overpriced soap in a pretty bottle. Turns out, I was half right and half wrong, and that’s exactly why this review exists.
Meyer’s Clean Day has become one of the most recognized names in the “natural cleaning” space. You see it at Target, Whole Foods, and even your local grocery store. But does the soap actually perform, or are you just paying extra for lavender-scented marketing? After using multiple scents across hundreds of sink loads, here’s what I honestly think.
What Meyer’s Clean Day Dish Soap Actually Is
Meyer’s Clean Day dish soap is a plant-derived, biodegradable formula made without parabens, phthalates, or artificial colors. The brand positions itself as a step up from conventional dish soaps, using essential oils for fragrance and plant-based surfactants for cleaning power. It comes in a range of scents including lavender, basil, lemon verbena, honeysuckle, and seasonal options that rotate throughout the year.
The ingredient list is relatively clean compared to mainstream dish soaps. You won’t find triclosan or formaldehyde donors on the label. The company is transparent about what goes into the bottle, which is more than you can say for a lot of brands that slap “natural” on their packaging without backing it up.
If you prefer DIY cleaning solutions, our post on how to clean a dishwasher with vinegar shows what you can do with one simple ingredient.
How It Performs on Everyday Dishes
For daily dish duty, meaning plates, cups, silverware, and light cooking pans, Meyer’s does a solid job. A small squeeze on a wet sponge creates decent suds that last through a reasonable sink load. It cuts through butter, sauces, and general food residue without any issues. If your household runs a dishwasher for the heavy stuff and hand-washes the overflow, this soap handles that role well.
Where it falls short is on heavy grease. If you’re scrubbing a cast iron skillet that just cooked bacon or a sheet pan caked with roasted chicken drippings, you’ll notice Meyer’s doesn’t hit as hard as Dawn or Ajax. You’ll need more soap and more scrubbing to get through baked-on grease. That’s the honest trade-off with plant-based surfactants. They’re gentler on the environment and your skin, but they don’t dissolve grease the way petroleum-based formulas do.
If you are building a natural kitchen cleaning kit, Plant Paper fits the same philosophy. Their towels are compostable and genuinely useful for everyday kitchen cleanup.
A clean kitchen means more than the surfaces. If you have not thought about indoor air quality, Alen air purifiers are designed for exactly the kind of cooking and cleaning fumes a kitchen generates.
Looking for help tackling bathroom grime? Check out our guide on how to remove soap scum for practical tips that actually work.
The Scent Factor
This is where Meyer’s earns its cult following. The lavender is the bestseller for good reason. It smells like actual lavender, not that fake purple chemical smell you get from cheap cleaning products. The basil scent is surprisingly pleasant and not overpowering. Lemon verbena is bright and clean without being artificial.
If you’re someone who dreads doing dishes, having a soap that makes the experience slightly more pleasant is worth something. It’s not going to transform dish duty into a spa experience, but it’s a genuine upgrade over the harsh chemical smell of conventional soaps. The scent lingers lightly on your hands without being sticky or overwhelming.
The Price Question
Here’s where opinions get polarized. A 16-ounce bottle of Meyer’s typically runs between $4 and $5, while a comparable bottle of Dawn costs around $3. Over a year, that difference adds up, especially for larger households. You’re paying roughly 40 to 60 percent more per ounce for Meyer’s compared to mainstream options.
The question is whether the cleaner ingredient list and better scent are worth that premium to you. For some people, absolutely. If you have sensitive skin, the gentler formula might save you from the cracked, dried-out hands that conventional dish soaps can cause. If you care about what goes down your drain and into waterways, the biodegradable formula matters. But if your priority is pure grease-cutting power at the lowest cost, Meyer’s isn’t going to win that fight.
For more cleaning tips on a budget, see how white vinegar works for cleaning floors throughout your home.
What I’d Change
The bottle design looks great on your counter but the pump doesn’t always dispense consistently. Sometimes you get a full squirt, sometimes barely a drop. A flip-cap would honestly work better for dish soap. The company also runs limited edition seasonal scents that people love, then discontinues them. If you find a scent you’re obsessed with, stock up because it might not come back.
I’d also like to see a concentrated version. Method and some other brands offer concentrated dish soaps that use less plastic and last longer. Meyer’s could easily do this and it would help offset the higher price point.
If cleaning your kitchen feels like a bigger project than just the dishes, When You Were Never Taught to Clean covers the full kitchen foundation for $11.99.
Who Should Buy Meyer’s Clean Day Dish Soap
This soap is ideal if you want a plant-based option that performs well on everyday dishes, you enjoy having a pleasant scent at the sink, and you’re willing to pay a small premium for cleaner ingredients. It’s a great fit for households that use a dishwasher for the heavy loads and hand-wash lighter items.
Skip it if you need maximum grease-cutting power, you go through dish soap quickly and want the cheapest per-ounce option, or you genuinely don’t care what your dish soap smells like. There’s no shame in that. Dawn Ultra exists for a reason.
The Bottom Line
Meyer’s Clean Day dish soap is a legitimately good product that does what it promises. It cleans everyday dishes effectively, smells genuinely great, and uses ingredients you can feel decent about. It’s not the strongest grease fighter on the shelf, and it costs more than the big-name conventional brands. But for the right household, those trade-offs are completely worth it. I keep a bottle at my sink and a backup of Dawn under the cabinet for the tough jobs. That combo covers everything.
