Monday, August 31, 2009

Transitioning to greener products

I'm transitioning to greener products for cleaning and personal care. It's kind of a pain, because there's some experimentation involved and I have been doing a lot of research on the internet plus checking out products at the grocery store and three different small local stores. If it wasn't summer vacation, I wouldn't have the time, but when school starts this week, I'll have several new working products in place. Here's what I've settled on so far:
For the automatic dishwasher, Ecover tablets work just as well if not better than the brand-name liquid I was using, plus Ecover is biodegradable and phosphate-free. It's also not tested on animals. My husband gives this product the thumbs-up as well, and he's a skeptic.
For the laundry, I first switched to the Hannaford natural brand of liquid laundry detergent, which is biodegradable and phosphate-free, but I am also trying Soap-Nuts, which are literally nuts that produce a natural soap. You crack them and put them into a little cotton bag and throw them in the washing machine with the load of laundry. Just a few nuts will do many loads and after they're used up, you can just put them into the compost bin! So far so good -- the clothes are clean and there's no scent to it at all. In fact, that would be the only problem -- if you wanted scent in your laundry -- but I have been using unscented detergent for a long time, free of dyes and scents, even before looking for phosphate-free detergent. That was the issue for me with the Hannaford brand, actually, that although the scent is mild, I still don't want perfumed laundry. Plus, it doesn't have the leaping bunny logo or any indication that it's not tested on animals (which means that it probably IS) and it comes in that plastic bottle that has to be recycled. The soap nuts come in an organic cotton bag!
On to the personal products:
It took me a long time to find a natural shampoo and conditioner that I liked as well as the chemical stuff. The conditioner was the problem. I like that smooth feeling of chemical conditioner. I finally found Smooth As Silk by Giovanni, which my local natural food store caries. It is certified organic, with no animal by-products, and caries the leaping bunny logo (not tested on animals) but more importantly, IT WORKS. Hooray!
For moisturizer, I'm using Nature's Gate Skin Therapy lotion. I have dry skin, so I use it on my arms and legs daily. No animal testing or by-products, natural ingredients.
Jason makes a great vitamin E cream for intense moisturizing before bed. It's too greasy for daytime use for me.
Tom's of Maine deodorant is one I've used for a very long time. I like Honeysuckle Rose.
Here's a fabulous product I just discovered: Preserve toothbrushes and razors. They are made from recycled #5 plastic -- the kind I can't recycle in Saratoga -- the kind that yogurt containers are made out of. I have been collecting my Stonyfield Farm yogurt containers and (after reusing them to freeze garden produce) boxing them up and sending them back to Stonyfield Farm for their take-back program. But you can also send them to Preserve and they will make them into toothbrushes and razors! And what's more, you can send the toothbrushes and razors back to be re-recycled when you're done with THEM. You can even get a postage-paid mailer from Preserve. Isn't that amazing? And don't you wish more companies would do stuff like this? I love it.

OK, so here's what I still need a recommendation for. I need something to replace Oil of Olay Complete Defense. It's a light, non-greasy facial moisturizer with SPF 15 that I have been using daily. But I need to replace it with something natural and cruelty-free. Any suggestions? I'd also like a new toothpaste made by a company that doesn't do animal testing, but I'm afraid I really like the super-sweet commercial toothpaste (crest cinnamon burst -- yum!) and I hate the baking soda-y, gritty, yucky natural toothpastes... I know, it's bad. Any suggestions other than "grow up!" for me and my teeth?

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