Is Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Safe? What You Should Know Before Buying

Mrs. Meyer's Lavender Dish Soap rates D on EWG. Their ingredient glossary flags fragrance allergens across dozens of components, and they've been SC Johnson-owned since 2008. Full ingredient breakdown inside.

By Joseph Wead, March 5, 2025

Published by Natural House

Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day has one of the most effective brand stories in the cleaning aisle. The Iowa farmstead aesthetic, the garden-scented product names, the cheerful label design, it communicates wholesomeness and simplicity in a category that's historically been dominated by clinical-looking blue bottles full of warnings.

This has made Mrs. Meyer's a genuinely popular choice among consumers who care about what's in their cleaning products. And that's exactly why it's worth looking carefully at what's actually inside.

This is not a takedown piece. Mrs. Meyer's products are not dangerous in any conventional sense. But there are specific ingredients and facts about the brand that safety-conscious consumers deserve to know, and that the garden-and-farmstead marketing does not communicate.

The SC Johnson Question

The first thing worth knowing: Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day is owned by SC Johnson & Son, the same company that makes Raid insecticide, Pledge furniture polish, Windex, Scrubbing Bubbles, and Ziploc bags.

SC Johnson acquired Mrs. Meyer's in 2008. The Iowa farmstead brand story remains intact on the packaging, but Mrs. Meyer's is now a product line within one of the largest household chemical companies in the world, a company whose other brands use the very synthetic chemicals that Mrs. Meyer's brand narrative implies it has moved away from.

This matters for two reasons:

  1. Transparency and sourcing: SC Johnson's supply chains are global and complex. "Plant-derived" claims on Mrs. Meyer's products coexist with ingredients that, while plant-derived at source, are processed and modified in ways that would surprise consumers who picture an Iowa farm.
  1. The authenticity gap: Consumers who switch to Mrs. Meyer's because they want to support an independent, values-driven brand are actually buying from SC Johnson. This is a well-documented consumer disappointment among people who research the brand before purchase.

Mrs. Meyer's Ingredient Concerns

Mrs. Meyer's publishes an ingredient list for its products, which is more transparency than many competitors offer. However, several commonly found ingredients have raised concerns on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Skin Deep database and among independent researchers:

Preservatives: From MI to Benzisothiazolinone (BIT)

Mrs. Meyer's historically used methylisothiazolinone (MI), classified by EWG as a High Concern ingredient and linked to skin sensitization and contact dermatitis. Following consumer pressure and European regulatory restrictions on MI, Mrs. Meyer's reformulated several products to use benzisothiazolinone (BIT) instead.

BIT is a step forward, it is permitted at lower concentrations and has a slightly better safety profile than MI. However, EWG still rates it a C in the Guide to Healthy Cleaning, with documented concerns:

The reformulation shows that consumer pressure can shift formulations. It does not mean the concern has gone away.

Synthetic Fragrance

Mrs. Meyer's product names, Lavender, Basil, Lemon Verbena, Mint, evoke natural, botanical origin. However, Mrs. Meyer's uses synthetic fragrance compounds to achieve and stabilize these scents, not simply essential oils.

The word "fragrance" on a cleaning product label is a legal disclosure catch-all that can include dozens of undisclosed chemical components, including phthalates, which are endocrine disruptors, and musks, which bioaccumulate in human tissue.

Mrs. Meyer's has disclosed some fragrance components on their website, and their formulations have improved over time. But "plant-inspired" scent does not mean "made from plants" in the fragrance chemistry of most Mrs. Meyer's products.

Methylparaben

Some Mrs. Meyer's formulations contain methylparaben, a preservative in the paraben family. EWG rates methylparaben as a Moderate Concern ingredient. Parabens are weakly estrogenic, meaning they can mimic estrogen at a biological level. The research on parabens in cleaning products (as opposed to personal care products, which have higher and more direct skin exposure) shows lower risk, but the ingredient remains a concern for pregnant women and people managing hormone-sensitive conditions.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)

SLS is a surfactant (cleaning agent) that is effective and widely used. It is plant-derived (from coconut or palm) but is known to cause skin irritation in people with sensitive skin, eczema, or dermatitis, particularly with frequent contact. SLS strips the skin's natural oil barrier. For general household surface cleaning this is a limited concern, but people with frequent hand contact with cleaning products (hand soap, dishwashing soap) may notice skin reactions.

EWG Product Ratings: The Real Numbers

EWG's Guide to Healthy Cleaning rates Mrs. Meyer's products across their line. Here are the verified ratings for specific products:

Mrs. Meyer's Lavender Dish Soap: Grade D EWG's worst-rated product in the Mrs. Meyer's line. Specific ingredients of concern flagged by EWG include:

Mrs. Meyer's Multi-Surface Everyday Cleaner: Their product page states it's "Made without parabens, phthalates, glycol solvents, phosphates, or artificial colors", a genuine improvement over earlier formulations. However, BIT (benzisothiazolinone) remains a component and the EWG rates the multi-surface cleaner at C to D depending on the scent variant.

What the ingredient glossary reveals: Mrs. Meyer's does publish an ingredient glossary at mrsmeyers.com/pages/ingredients, a transparency step that most conventional brands don't take. However, scrolling through it, the phrase "Contains fragrance allergens" appears repeatedly across dozens of ingredients. For consumers with known fragrance sensitivity, this pattern across many scent variants is significant.

For comparison, products rated A by EWG have fully disclosed ingredients, low hazard ratings across all components, and no high-concern preservatives or fragrance allergens.

What Mrs. Meyer's Does Well

To be fair:

The criticism here is not that Mrs. Meyer's products are dangerous. It's that the brand's carefully cultivated natural/botanical image does not fully align with the ingredient reality, particularly for consumers who are specifically seeking products without synthetic preservatives, synthetic fragrance, or endocrine-disrupting compounds.

How to Find Products That Match the Mrs. Meyer's Promise

If the reason you chose (or considered) Mrs. Meyer's was the combination of:

...then the product you're actually looking for is different from Mrs. Meyer's.

The standard for genuinely transparent, plant-based cleaning with full ingredient disclosure:

Plant-derived surfactants, fully disclosed: Look for coco-glucoside, decyl glucoside, or sodium coco-sulfate on the label. No synthetic fragrance: Either fragrance-free, or essential oils listed individually by name. No synthetic preservatives in the MI family: Look for benzisothiazolinone (BIT) instead of MI, it has a significantly better safety profile and is permitted at lower concentrations. Independently owned: Verify brand ownership if this is important to your purchasing decision.

Natural House is independently owned, publishes a full ingredient list for every product, uses probiotic Bacillus bacteria as the primary active ingredient, and formulates without synthetic fragrance, without chlorine bleach, and without glycol ether solvents.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mrs. Meyer's good for sensitive skin? Mrs. Meyer's products containing methylisothiazolinone may trigger contact dermatitis in people with MI sensitivity, one of the most common contact allergens in Europe and North America. If you have sensitive skin or known contact dermatitis, check individual product ingredient lists for MI before use.

Is Mrs. Meyer's plant-based? Mrs. Meyer's describes its products as "plant-derived", meaning ingredients are sourced from plants before being processed. However, many ingredients undergo significant chemical processing, and synthetic fragrance components are used alongside botanical ones. We don't claim it's a fully natural formulation.

Does Mrs. Meyer's have parabens? Some Mrs. Meyer's formulations contain methylparaben. Check individual product ingredient lists via the Mrs. Meyer's website or EWG's Skin Deep database for specific products.

Is Mrs. Meyer's owned by a big corporation? Yes, Mrs. Meyer's has been owned by SC Johnson (the company behind Raid, Pledge, Windex, and Scrubbing Bubbles) since 2008. The brand operates with significant independence in terms of formulation, but SC Johnson is the parent corporation.

What's a good Mrs. Meyer's alternative? If you're looking for genuinely plant-derived, transparent ingredient lists, and no synthetic fragrance, Natural House is worth comparing directly. The full ingredient list for every product is available on the product page, and the probiotic cleaning mechanism provides ongoing surface protection beyond what any conventional cleaner, including Mrs. Meyer's, can offer.

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The Mrs. Meyer's brand story is compelling, and the products are not dangerous. But for consumers who are genuinely investigating what's in their cleaning products, the ingredient reality is more complex than the lavender-and-farmhouse label suggests.

Explore the Natural House product range, every ingredient disclosed, every formulation independently developed, and a probiotic cleaning mechanism that goes beyond anything in Mrs. Meyer's line.