Your turn to help me –
There are eco-friendly products that work even better than their conventional counterparts — and there are eco-friendly products that just don’t work. Meyer Lemon Hand Lotion from Natural Spa by Earth Friendly Products (17.5 fl. oz for $15) is one of the latter — a product I’m afraid some newbie environmentalist will pick up and decide never to buy green again.
Inconsistent texture’s the main problem with this lotion. At the top of the bottle, the “lotion” was all watery and gross — like the “watery stuff” at the top of some ketchup bottles. It took a few pumps before anything resembling lotion came out.
When I got to the bottom, the “lotion” developed the consistency of old peanut butter — hard, chunky, clumpy. Add on top of the fact that the lotion had a slightly medicinal smell and doesn”t absorb very well, and you have an eco-product disaster.
Apparently, Earth Friendly Products realized their lotions had problems — because I found out after a call to the company yesterday that as of a couple months ago, the company’s stopped making its spa line — at least for now. However, the product’s still available at Amazon and other online retailers.
Ever bought an eco-dud yourself? Share the details in the comments so we can all learn to avoid it!
Image via ecos.com
Tom’s Unscented aluminum-free deodorant. I’m still on the hunt for such a deodorant that actually deodorizes.
Comment by Olivia — June 9, 2009 @ 10:26 am
Once I tried those Method Smarty Dish pellets or tablets or whatever they are in the dishwasher, and two of my stainless-steel knives rusted.
Comment by How Green Is My Valley — June 10, 2009 @ 12:41 pm
I don’t know if this is more of an eco-dud or eco-caution. I really wanted to like the Aromacreme deodorant from Lush. I both live and work near Lush stores, so they are super convenient to walk to, there can be no packaging involved, you can buy in whatever quantities you need in the physical stores, there is no aluminum in the product and the scent meshed well with my body chemistry. Things were fine for a while and then I started having what seems to be a common reaction – burning armpits!
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Comment by M — June 10, 2009 @ 7:37 pm
Eco-deodorant seems to be, in general, a v. problematic product area…. I too have tried Tom’s of Maine’s deodorant and not liked it….
Comment by Siel — June 11, 2009 @ 6:52 pm
I agree about the deodorant, Tom’s sucks. I’ve also tried Avalon Organics to no avail. They both smell nice, but they only seem to hold up for about an hour. However… I found one that seems to work great for me. The brand is Earth Science, and I use the Tea Tree variety. I don’t know if it’s the brand that is good, or the fact that it has Tea Tree oil in it, but it works all day for me.
I’ve had problems finding good soaps too, but seem to have found some that work.
For dish soap, Seventh Generation seems to be pretty good, I think even better than Ecover. I am using Ecover now, but it seems like I need to use more than with Seventh Gen to get it to create suds. Ironically though, Ecover dishwasher tablets seem to work great. I had trouble finding dishwasher soap that worked, a lot of the gels didn’t seem so good. I know I had problems with the Trader Joe’s brand of dishwasher gel, it didn’t do much.
Ironically though the TJs vegetable based hand soap seems to work well for me.
I was knocking Tom’s deodorant, but their toothpaste seems good, except that I just noticed sodium laurel sulfate in the ingredients :( And even though the Avalon Organics deodorant didn’t work, their lotion seems fine for me, though I am a guy and use it sparingly, but so far no problems.
Seems that you can’t do a brand by brand comparison, they all have strengths and weaknesses depending on the product, so it makes it equally frustrating to try to find consistency.
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Comment by Russ — June 19, 2009 @ 11:03 am
Russ — I too agree about the brand by brand stuff. I’m a Tom’s of Maine toothpaste devotee — I can deal with the SLS, which has a low hazard ranking on EWG’s skin deep — and there is at least 1 flava that’s SLS-free, which I use when I have a cankersore.
Comment by Siel — June 24, 2009 @ 5:57 pm
ecos liquid laundry detergent seems to do nothing
Comment by jenny — December 11, 2009 @ 12:21 am
Haven’t tried it myself, but good to know!
Comment by Siel — December 13, 2009 @ 5:31 pm