Duke Cannon soap is not an all-natural product, though its base ingredients come from natural sources. The flagship Big Ass Brick of Soap is built on plant-derived fats (palm oil and coconut oil) processed with lye, which is the traditional method for making soap. But it also contains synthetic fragrance, mineral colorants, and other additives that move it away from what most people mean when they ask if something is “natural.”
What’s Actually in the Soap
The ingredient list for Duke Cannon’s Big Ass Brick of Soap (High Country variety) is relatively short compared to many commercial body bars. It contains sodium palmate and sodium cocoate, which are the saponified (lye-processed) forms of palm oil and coconut oil. These make up the bulk of the bar and provide the cleaning action. Vegetable glycerin, a byproduct of the soapmaking process, is also included as a moisturizing agent. So far, that’s a pretty straightforward soap.
The remaining ingredients are where things get less “natural.” The bar contains synthetic fragrance listed as “parfum,” which is an umbrella term that can cover dozens of undisclosed chemical compounds. Titanium dioxide provides the white color, and chromium oxide greens adds a green tint. Sodium chloride (table salt) acts as a hardening agent, and citric acid adjusts the pH. None of these are unusual for commercial soap, but fragrance and mineral colorants are the main reason the product wouldn’t qualify as natural by most consumers’ standards.
How It Compares to “True Soap”
The FDA defines true soap narrowly: it must be made mainly from fats or oils combined with an alkali like lye, those saponified fats must be the only cleaning agents, and the product must be marketed purely for cleaning. Duke Cannon’s bar soaps meet the first criterion since their cleaning action comes from saponified palm and coconut oils rather than synthetic detergents. That puts them ahead of many popular body bars (like Dove or Irish Spring) that technically qualify as synthetic detergent bars, not soap.
However, being a “true soap” by FDA standards is different from being natural. The FDA doesn’t define “natural” or “organic” for cosmetics or soap at all. There’s no legal standard a brand has to meet to call a product natural, which means the word is essentially meaningless on a label. When you’re evaluating a soap, the ingredient list is the only reliable guide.
Safety Ratings and Certifications
The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database rates several Duke Cannon bar soaps as “low hazard,” which is the best category in their system. The Big Ass Brick of Soap, the Everlasting Puck, and the Army-Navy Brick all fall into this low-hazard range. Duke Cannon’s liquid products tell a different story. Their body washes and face washes generally land in the “moderate hazard” category, likely because liquid formulas require more synthetic ingredients like surfactants and preservatives to remain stable.
Duke Cannon does not carry Leaping Bunny certification, the most widely recognized third-party cruelty-free standard. The brand is not listed in the Leaping Bunny shopping guide. If cruelty-free status is part of your definition of a natural or ethical product, that’s worth noting.
Natural Soap vs. Duke Cannon
If you’re comparing Duke Cannon to what the natural soap community typically considers a clean product, the gap is mainly in two areas: fragrance and colorants. Brands that market themselves as truly natural (like Dr. Bronner’s or small-batch cold-process soapmakers) typically use essential oils instead of synthetic fragrance and skip artificial colorants entirely. Some use clays, herbs, or activated charcoal for color instead of mineral pigments like titanium dioxide.
That said, Duke Cannon’s bar soaps are simpler and closer to traditional soap than most drugstore options. A typical commercial body bar might contain a dozen synthetic surfactants, preservatives, and conditioning agents. Duke Cannon’s list of around nine ingredients is comparatively minimal. The soap base itself is plant-derived and uses a genuine saponification process rather than relying on detergents for cleaning power.
The honest answer is that Duke Cannon sits in the middle. It’s a real soap made from plant oils, not a synthetic detergent bar disguised as soap. But the synthetic fragrance and mineral colorants keep it from being a product most people would consider fully natural. If avoiding synthetic fragrance is your main concern, Duke Cannon’s bar soaps won’t meet that standard. If you’re mostly trying to avoid detergent-based bars and want something with a short, recognizable ingredient list, they’re a reasonable option.