Thank you! This entry was so helpful.
I stumbled on these products yesterday and decided to give some a try. But as soon as I smelled tham, I thought, "Something is not right, these smell icky and fake."
I found your site while trying to pin down if they are, in fact, synthetic.
Looks like years of only using natural products has made me keenly sensitive to the smell of synthetics.
I will be looking through your site to find real products that are effective and healthy.
Thanks!

Your on the right track, but just at the start of a long, disappointing journey. You can settle for the so-called "natural" degergents out there, but read this:

Unfortunately there isn't a completely "natural" detergent out there that I could find. I have been searching for a couple of months and have many bottles of the recommended "safer and natural" detergents none of which tell me exactly what is in it, especiall the "plant-based surfactant" part you see first on the list. They need to keep this a secret so no one else will copy it so us as the consumer suffers.

A couple of them list the Data Safety Sheet on-line, but don't put down the ingredients. Sure, they don't have all the additives like the general supermarket brand but what I did find out was that they are all hybrids that are 50/50 because in order to be a detergent they have a surfactant (which cannot be obtained from a plant) and is really just added to the plant based ingredients.

This is why it says "plant-based" because there is the coconut or corn or palm oil and then they add the petroleum surfactant to it. These surfactants are not natural they are synthetic and they are almost always ethoxylated alcohol which is a probable carcinogen to humans because it is almost always contaminated with 4,1-dioxane. Look that up and you will not believe it is being used in products that are called "natural". It causes cancer in animals and does not readily biodegrade which means that the other 3-30% that some of these natural detergent websites claim as biodegradable is just sitting in your soil accumulating for who knows how long.

When they say biodegradable you have to say to yourself "sure everything will biodegrade over time, but how long 20 years?, will I end up drinking it from my well water supply or will my fish be swimming in it in my pond"? because it is accumulating before it degrades? Of course these "natural" detergents are a huge step in helping us all live better lives, by 50%. I am not going to settle for it and until they find an alternative (or use one that is there but costs them more) I will try to figure out how to use a soap effectively. If there is anyone at all out there who can tell my they know of a natural detergent that does not contain ethoxylated alcohol, please let me know. I would be eternally grateful to you.

In my experience, soap must have Baking Soda added to work for dishwashing. Then it seems to work as well as anything we used to use. I'm primarily refering to Bronner's, but also to detergents from the Natural Food COOPs....otherwise they won't be able to deal with the grease in most foods.

Just buy the cleaning shake canisters of soda (they state not to use for food purposes, but after calling them, this is because they travel from factory to store with other cleaners that are not natural.)

Once they are empty, just refill with the cheapest baking soda you find. When washing dishes by hand just shake in a little soda with the soap and wash as usual. For baked on grease, use the soda on a damp dishrag and rub with suprising little pressure....don't use a scrubbie...the flat surface of the dishrag works much better. It's cheap so if it stops working, move to another damp part of the dishrag and a little more soda....it's amazing how well it works!

Speaking from my hands-on experience in professional cleaning settings, I've compared the following two brands for light-to-medium duty general-surface cleaning in several different kitchens in San Francisco. With both brands, I sprayed, then wiped clean with a cotton cloth.

The two brands I tested:

* Aubrey Earth-Aware All-Purpose Household Cleaner (I diluted the concentrate)
* Method All-Purpose Grapefruit (ready-to-use) spray cleaner


Aubrey wins, overall, for weekly cleaning. While both products seem to work equally for weekly (light-to-medium-duty) cleaning, Aubrey is environmentally better, being a concentrate (less packaging and fuel waste), and more natural (all plant ingredients)

Method works fine, but has wasteful packaging (ready-to-use spray). Also, the grapefruit scent was too strong for me, and I don't even have mcs. And the spray bottle is too unweildy since it's too big.

To use Aubrey Earth-Aware All-Purpose Household Cleaner: Dilute approx. 3/4 teaspoon in 16 oz. cold water in spray bottle. (Don't add vinegar or anything else). Spray. Scrub if needed, with a non-abrasive brush or scrubbing pad. Wipe dry with a cloth.

Has anyone else used this Aubrey product? What was your experience?

I love Aubrey's Earth Aware and also their Liquid Sparkle. I use them both every day. It's amazing how well soap and herbs can clean dishes and leave no film. I also use it for laundry, and floor washing, basically anything.

I used to be a fan of Ecover until I found out that they use sodium lauryl sulfate and other synthetics.

Liquid sparkle has soap, herbs and alcohol, so it also gives a bit of a disinfecting action to it.

Does Aubrey have a website where I can order their products? I,ve seen their body care products in health food stores,but none of the cleansers. I would love to try them.
Thanks

Great comments here. Just to let you know, I am an Independent Representative with ONE Group. We just came out with a new household cleanser that I am personally very excited about. It will be available after August 8 on my website (www.elyorgnics.com).

The product is a probiotic household cleaning concentrate. A very interesting concept...instead of being an antibacterial, it will contribute good bacteria to the environment.

I have not had a chance to use it much because I only have a small sample of it. I have used it on my kitchen counters and to clean my cupboards (where I recently had a moth infestation). It is a household and an industrial cleaner. I have not tried it all around the house yet but I will let you know more when I do.

Here is the complete ingredients list: Purified and structured water, organic sugar cane molasses, lactobacillus cultures, organic mineral powder, sea salt, organic rice bran, vanilla extract.

It is highly concentrated, a 1:50 dilution so it comes in a small bottle and you do not need much to clean.

Regards,
Erin

For those interested in Aubrey Organics products such as Liquid Sparkle and Aubrey's Earth Aware, www.vitaminlife.com sells them and many other Aubrey products at a great discount. I have been ordering Aubrey's cleaning and body care products for several months now at Vitamin Life and been very happy with their service and PRICES.

I called Aubrey Organics to make sure the products were the same as what they sell and not outdated or anything like that. The customer service rep assured me that Vitamin Life carries their products and just offers the great prices to get you to shop with them. Vitaminlife.com sells many other natural products from other brands too.

They now have "naked" Method products available.

Ingredients for dish soap from their website:

blend of naturally derived and biodegradable surfactants
corn alcohol
table salt
citric acid
light stabilizer
aloe vera gel
vitamin e
preservative (under 0.1%)
purified water

Debra, how do these ingredients stack up?

Debra,

Couldn't the surfactant be what you call a hybrid-natural?

Also, vitamin e could be natural or synthetic.

Try Maggie's Soap Nuts - available from Maggie's Soap Nuts. I really like them. They are great for washing clothes.

For cleaning everything I use Thieves Household Cleaner by Young Living Essential Oils. I even add a few drops to smelly laundry.

I just wanted to add that the more expensive microfibre cleaning cloths are great, chemical free, minimal water and no product required in most instances.