Dawn Simple Pleasures Enters Our Kitchens

Our PnP reviewers were asked to try the new Dawn Simple Pleasures dish soap. What did they think of it? Keep reading to find out!

I have a finicky nose. When the bottle of Dawn, including air freshener, arrived I could smell it before I even unpackaged it. Had it been on a shelf at the store, I would have held my breath and walked as quickly as possible past it, searching for the unscented versions of natural cleaners.

However, I felt as though I should at least give the soap part a shot. There was the perfect pan in my kitchen to test it - chicken spaghetti that had been reheated in the same casserole dish the next evening. It was dirty, crusty, and taunting me beside the sink.

I had intentionally not soaked it, in order to put Dawn to an even more difficult challenge. I squirted a little Dawn into the pan, wet my sponge and went to work.

The Dawn worked. It cut through all of the baked on nastiness that used to be my chicken spaghetti. I cleaned the dish quickly and easily, even though my sinuses were screaming out over the stink of fake waterlilies and jasmine.

In fact, it worked so well that I started searching for the ingredient list to see exactly what might have been left behind on that dish in residue form. It makes me a little nervous. So I sent the Dawn home with my father-in-law who thought it was awesome and gives it huge props. I, however, will be going back to a little soaking and some more natural, less intense smelling dish washing liquids.

~by Canape

I love air fresheners and things that make your home smell good, so when I first saw Dawn’s new product combining soap and scented beads I was thrilled! I do not buy generic when it comes to dish soap and Dawn is my preferred brand of choice. They offer a lot of variety and their product has always been powerful when it comes to scrubbing pots and pans.

The scent I tested was Water Lily and Jasmine (they also make Lemon & Tangerine and Apple & Pear). After taking off the sticker covering the vent I was almost knocked over with the strong aroma. Even my husband (who never notices anything) kept asking what that overwhelming scent was in the kitchen. Within a few days of sitting out by the sink it toned down a bit and was more pleasant.

Aside from the strong scent, my biggest issue is that I usually keep my soap bottle hidden and out of sight under the sink. This bottle is designed to be smaller and would make the sink look less cluttered, but my OCD behavior just couldn’t handle looking at it.

~by Emily

When I opened my box of Dawn Simple Pleasures, I immediately noticed a difference from the Dawn dish soap of the past — the scent! While I generally try to stay away from air fresheners and their strong synthetic scents, I must admit the water lily and jasmine scent was nice.

However, after I removed the little pieces of tape over holes of the scented compartment located on the bottom of the newly designed and much sleeker, curvier bottle I found myself overwhelmed by the fragrance within a few minutes. It was really, really strong and I was compelled to put the tape back on the bottle on at least one side. It was just too much for me.

After a week or so, I really didn’t notice the scent anymore which was probably for the best as strong perfumes and fragrances tend to give me a headache after a while.

As for the soap itself, it’s the same old Dawn and it still works really well on the greasiest, nastiest dishes, pots and pans, only now with a different smell.

If you can tolerate very strong fragrances, you’ll probably like Dawn Simple Pleasures. If you’re more like me, you might want to go with an earth-friendly dish soap like I normally use that’s scented only with grapefruit extract.

~by Izzy

We are not “fragrance” people in our house. We don’t use air fresheners, unless you count an open window on a breezy day. We tend to use unscented soaps, detergents, and what-have-you. I don’t really wear perfume, and my husband doesn’t use aftershave. We both tend toward the as-unscented-as-possible antiperspirants.

So it was with trepidation that I opened the box containing my sample of the new Dawn Simple Pleasures dish washing liquid and air freshener.

It is a bottle of dish washing liquid on top, and below is a plastic compartment with vents in it, and in there is a bunch of little pearly beads. I tore the tape off the bottom of it (like it said to on the package) and set it on my counter. We received the Water Lily and Jasmine scent, and right out of the box it was strong. Almost overpowering. It’s deep aqua color is pretty, and the scent is pleasant, if abundant.

I was prepared not to like it, and at first, I didn’t. The scent was just so strong that it overpowered the flavors of my food. The dish washing soap is quite concentrated, so a little bit goes a long way. If you are like us, and you don’t like strong fragrance, I recommend leaving the tape over the air freshener, at least initially, so that the fragrance is more subtle and doesn’t interfere with your food.

Now that it has vented for a week, the scent is toned way down, and I find that I don’t mind it and may, in fact, actually like it, but probably not enough to replace the Seventh Generation dish washing liquid that I normally use.

~by Mary