Mater Soap Multipurpose Kitchen Block Review 2021 | The Strategist

Lisa Corsillo

Liza Corsillo, a former high school French teacher, is a fan of Italian surgeon’s clogs, perfectly crafted artifacts, and everything to do with her dog. She is also an artist and illustrator.

Photo: Jersey Walz for Mater Soap

I have a heavy hand when it comes to liquid dishwashing detergents. I like seeing a lot of bubbles so I know it’s working, but also when I’m rushing to do a task that I don’t like as much as washing dishes, I don’t slow down to just one to squeeze out a bit of Dawn or Ms. Meyers. I don’t know how long a bottle of dish soap is supposed to last, but at my home we’re lucky enough to take a month. Even though we recycle, that still means sifting through a dozen plastic bottles a year just for dish soap.

I never really thought about all those empty bottles until my favorite local soap brand, Mater Soap, launched a container-free soap bar for dishes. I met Mater Soap’s founder, Addison Walz, through our parents, who were friends when they were all art students at the Pratt Institute in the 1970s. But I got to know the brand’s hand soap when I used it in the bathroom at Dimes Cafe, and the body soap from a number of cool Brooklyn stores like Lolo, Salter House and Sounds, where it was often one of the nicest items on display.

The calm colors of the body bars and the deeply exhaling fragrances – my favorite is geranium – make showering like a visit to a spa. So I thought the kitchen block might help with my disdain for washing dishes. (And I wasn’t upset about finding an excuse to buy another Mater Soap bar, along with a way to cut down on the amount of plastic I use.)

The bar consists of natural vegetable oils such as coconut, olive and castor seeds as well as kaolin clay instead of harsh detergents. So it is non-drying, biodegradable and contains no waste as it is packed in a compostable envelope. After using it on plates, glasses, greasy pans, the top of my oven, and even a cashmere sweater that I wore while cutting beets for over a month, I can say that washing dishes is much more pleasant with it. It feels good to know that the soap I use is good for the environment as well as my hands, which have got dry and cracked after most dishwashing cycles. And I actually find the routine of rubbing my sponge on the chunky rod and then using it to methodically clean a cup comforting. The scent doesn’t hurt either: a subtle mix of lavender, eucalyptus and cedarwood.

Mater soap multipurpose kitchen block

In addition, the multipurpose kitchen block is just as beautiful to look at as the other Mater products. I have a very ugly faux marble countertop in my cramped eat-in kitchen in Brooklyn, and the addition of the chunky green bar with its bamboo soap dish made the whole situation less depressing – and a little more like the sink in an imperfect but charming artist’s studio.

It takes a little practice to get the best results. I like to wet my sponge with warm water and then massage the block with the scrubby side of the sponge until I get a good lather. When I clean plates and glasses I go right there, but when I have something that needs to be soaked (like a saucepan, pan, or bowl) I first fill it with hot water and then lather my sponge and squeeze everything put the soap together into the water. I will repeat this a few times for particularly tough jobs. I’ve cleaned some very dirty, greasy, and crispy things with the Mater bar, and it’s just as effective as liquid soap. And no matter how hard I scrub it to get that foam or how many times I go back, I doubt I’ll ever use up the whole bar. It’s been over a month and I still can barely see a dent on the top.

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