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Welcome to Clean Enough, a new kind of cleaning column for busy home cooks who have better things to do than scrub and sanitize around the clock. Every other week, neurodivergent writer and mom Emily Farris shares tips, tools, and products that can help you stay on top of the dirtiest spots in the kitchen while also dispelling a few cleaning myths and cutting down on clutter.
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” is a thing I’ve been known to belt out in Target when I notice that the Mrs. Meyers Iowa Pine dish soap has finally hit shelves for the holiday season, which usually happens sometime in early November. I’m a sucker for the smell, which is sweet and spicy with notes of cedar, fir, and, well, a little soap. And until I sniffed every pine-scented dish soap I could get my hands on this fall, it was the official smell of Christmas around my house, too. But now I have a new favorite, as well as a few new less-festive options to use after the holidays.
Whether you want your kitchen to smell like a candle shop at Christmastime or you prefer just a hint of pine, here are six pine-scented dish soaps to make hand-washing dishes more fun and festive this holiday season.
The best-smelling pine dish soap: Williams Sonoma Winter Forest Dish Soap
This Williams Sonoma Winter Forest dish soap smells like a cozy Christmas dream and most of the fragrance comes from birch bark extract combined with pine and cedar leaf oils. I think what puts this one above the rest, though, is the warm, slightly-spicy cinnamon notes. Whether sniffing it straight from the bottle or sudsing it with hot water, it’s perfectly clean, warm, and balanced with undertones of patchouli, thyme, and citrus. I’m not a patchouli fan but it’s so subtle, I might not have noticed it if it weren’t in the product description. True to its name, it will make your kitchen smell like a winter wonderland, and it’s now my new favorite holiday dish soap—well, until my husband finds out I’m spending $15 on a 16-ounce bottle. Like the Mrs. Meyer’s Iowa Pine, there’s a full collection of Winter Forest-scented products including hand soap and candles, so just take all my money already, Williams Sonoma; my kids don’t need more toys anyway.
The second-best smelling pine dish soap: Thymes Frasier Fir Dishwashing Liquid
Based purely on the packaging and price, I was expecting to love this bougie frasier fir-scented dish soap—and I do. Taking a whiff straight from the bottle, it verges on Lysol-y, but like a fine red wine, it really blossoms when it gets some air. Hot water further enhances the fragrance and brings out the warmer sandalwood notes, and even after the dishes are done, the smell lingers in a more subtle, but still very pleasing way. This is the only dish soap I tested that doesn’t use any sort of leaf or needle oil for fragrance and it doesn’t degrease as well as something like Dawn, but if degreasing were your only concern you wouldn’t be here right now, would you?
The best budget pine dish soap: Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Iowa Pine Liquid Dish Soap
Scented with fir and cedar leaf oils, Mrs. Meyer’s limited-edition Iowa Pine is sweet, spicy, and warm—and as soon as I see it on the shelves (or, online in more recent years), I stock up on the soy candles, hand soap, hand lotion, all-purpose spray cleaner, and of course, the dish soap. I once cleared an entire Target shelf of everything in the collection, and I was so happy to have enough to last through January that I didn’t even feel bad. So it pains me to admit how easily the Williams-Sonoma and Thymes soaps turned me into a pine-scented dish-soap snob. While this is absolutely the best-smelling pine dish soap you can get for less than ten bucks a bottle, compared to the pricier soaps it’s just a tad sweeter and maybe even a little soapier. That said, I’m sure I’ll continue to hoard it with enthusiasm (especially once my husband finds out I’m spending $16 on 16 ounces of dish soap) and I still highly recommend it for anyone who wants to get excited about washing dishes for one or two months out of the year.
A less-festive wintry dish soap: Caldrea Gilded Balsam Birch Dish Soap
This Gilded Balsam Birch dish soap from Caldrea has a lovely scent that’s warm and spicy thanks to notes of cinnamon and citrus that play well with the more prominent birch and balsam. It’s beautifully balanced and complex, and gives off major rich bitch vibes, which I love. Though it’s wintry and luxurious, it’s not quite festive enough for my pre-Christmas liking, but I will absolutely bust this out in January as a transitional soap.
An all-purpose liquid soap with a subtle pine scent: Sal Suds Biodegradable Cleaner
Sal Suds is an all-purpose liquid soap from Dr. Bronner’s, and though it isn’t actually marketed as a pine-scented or seasonal dish soap, it is scented with pine—Siberian fir needle and spruce leaf oils, to be exact. If for some asinine reason you don’t want your kitchen sink to smell like a candle shop at Christmastime and prefer something more subtle than the dish soaps I’ve recommended above, this one is a good choice for just a hint of pine.
An eco-friendly option for those who love frankincense: Rebel Green Super Deluxe Frankincense & Pine Dish Soap
I wanted to love this "super deluxe" plant-based frankincense and pine dish soap from Rebel Green, and I do like the way it cleans dishes and also the way it feels on my hands. Unfortunately, the frankincense essential oil overpowers the pine so the smell reads more medicinal than festive. Like the Caldrea, I'm not opposed to it for a fall dish soap, or maybe even something to use in the new year, but it's definitely not the pine-scented dish soap of my holiday dreams.
