Aldi stocks a small selection of toiletries, including facial cleanser, bar soap, razors, and liquid hand soap. I’ve been buying Aldi’s liquid hand soap for years.
Source Moisturizing Hand Soap.
Source Hand Soap is a Regular Buy that is on shelves year round, and it cost $0.75 for a 7.5-oz. bottle at the time of publication, which is a bit cheaper than similar bottles of name-brand Softsoap sold at Target. It is sold as a Regular Buy in Moisturizing or Clear (with a fun fish background on the bottle) varieties. Aldi used to sell an antibacterial version of this hand soap as well, but I couldn’t find it the last time I looked in my local store, and this may be due to the fact that current science does not support the use of antibacterial soaps.
Source Clear Hand Soap ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
Source Moisturizing Hand Soap ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
The Source Hand Soap bottle says it is comparable to name-brand Softsoap, and it is triclosan free (a key ingredient in antibacterial soap) and contains no parabens, a common preservative in personal care products such as soap, deodorant, and cosmetics. The soap is not tested on animals, and it has a Safer Choice seal indicating it meets U.S. EPA Safer Product Standards.
In addition to the Regular Buy soap that is available all year, I enjoy looking for Aldi’s seasonal scented liquid hand soaps, which often get rolled out for a limited time during the spring, fall, and holidays. These ALDI Find (Special Buy) soaps usually come in a larger pump bottle, often 10 ounces, and are priced differently — usually at $0.99. This past fall, I purchased Source soap in Apple Spice and Sweet Harvest Spice scents. During the Christmas season, I found Source soap in Sugared Cherry and Sugared Plum scents.
A few of the fall and Christmas soap scents I picked up at Aldi this past year.
One thing to be aware of about Aldi’s liquid hand soaps is that sometimes the pump dispenser mechanism is glitchy, failing to properly twist up to open when you go to initially use the soap. I usually can get the pump opened after a few minutes of fiddling with it, but sometimes it does not open at all, and that’s when I typically will swap the new defective pump out for the functional pump from my previous bottle of hand soap. When I purchased some of the holiday hand soaps this past year, the Aldi employee who rang me up said he had just had a customer return some hand soap they could not open.
It can be a potential annoyance, but it’s generally not bad enough to convince me to stop buying Aldi hand soap. There’s also an easy workaround: I sometimes twist open the pump dispenser in the store before I put the soap in my cart to make sure I’m getting a bottle that works.
Some of Aldi’s more brightly colored ALDI Find seasonal soaps (I’m looking at you, Sugared Cherry) tend to leave rainbow streaks in our bathroom sinks, and I often have to wipe down the sink bowl, especially after my kids have used the soap. They don’t stain our sinks but simply leave red or pink globs and trails of soap all over. This has never been a problem with the white or clear Regular Buy soaps, though.
Another downside is that sometimes the seasonal ALDI Find soaps get watery and runny after a while. I’ve seen that happen with other inexpensive store-brand soaps from regular grocery stores as well, so that’s not a problem exclusive to Aldi, and it’s not a problem with Aldi’s Regular Buy soaps.
My only other very minor quibble is that I wish Aldi offered hand soaps in a larger refill bottle so we could reuse the pump bottles. That might be asking too much of a low-inventory grocery store, though.
The Verdict:
Source Hand Soap compares to name-brand Softsoap and works well at getting the grime and germs off hands. It’s sold year round, but Aldi also sells limited-time seasonal scents at various times throughout the year. Sometimes the pump dispenser is difficult to open, so you might want to twist it open in the store to make sure you’re getting one that works.
Thank you Rachael – I was gifted some of the Sweet Harvest Spice and absolutely love!
At home- 100% solution for hand pumps that won’t unlock: Use an adjustable pliers to grab the collar and hold it still with one hand. Simultaneously rotate the pump top until it pops up. Done!
The collar is right above the threaded “lid” and the pump plunger pipe goes through the collar.
Yes..used pliers last night to open mt pump bottle purchased yesterday in Bolivar, Mo.
I had a bottle today that just kept spinning when I tried to open it for the first time. I twisted it back in the opposite direction and it locked tightly again and when I retried it worked as it should
Worst soap ever
I purchased the pink source 10 oz anti bacterial hand soap and because of the smell I think it might be the 1st soap I ever buy and immediately trash.
Mine wouldn’t open after I tried twisting the top like you’re supposed to.
Can’t open it to dispense soap!
I wish someone would review the actual cleansing strength of these hand soaps, and compare them to each other. I am a truck driver, who purchases the small bottles to clean my hands before I grab a snack while driving. I don’t know if this hand soap is actually effective at removing bacteria because I don’t have water to rinse with afterwards, and I simply use paper towels to dry after using this soap. I hate trying to analyze the ingredients and determine what’s missing or if this is an actual quality product.
Most hand soaps work the same: the soap traps the pathogens, which are then rinsed off. For that reason, you’ll get best results with soap if you have access to water (and in fact water is pretty good on its own at removing pathogens, although not as good as with soap). In the absence of soap, you might consider hand sanitizer, which will do a better job of killing things without rinsing.