Seventh Generation Review

Recently I was the very lucky winner of the Seventh Generation giveaway over at Mad Boastings of a Cheapskate Mom. The prize was a complete starter kit featuring a fantastic selection of Seventh Generation products, and I've now had the chance to try them all. Here are some thoughts on each of the different cleaners:

Natural Paper Towels - These arrived just in time! We were down to our last roll of paper towels from the Jumbotron-sized package we'd bought from Costco in 2002. :-) The towels are thinner than the ones we normally purchase, but when I used them to clean the kitchen counters, they held up perfectly. I've seen these in some supermarkets, but have never really looked at their prices, so I'm not sure if I will buy them once I finish these two rolls.

Ruby Grapefruit & Herb Natural Glass & Surface Cleaner - I had to work with this one a bit more than I might normally have to when using Windex (Mr. Bean splashes as much water on the mirror as his face when he's washing up, so there's always smudges). However, I was grateful that it didn't make my nose itch like Windex always does.

Green Mandarin & Leaf Natural All-Purpose Cleaner - This one might just be enough to handle most of my day-to-day cleaning. I used it to clean the sink, wipe down counters, and pick up a small spill off the kitchen floor.

Green Mandarin & Leaf Shower Cleaner - I haven't used this very much as we just have a bathtub, but it smells good and I plan to alternate it with the Tub & Tile Cleaner.

Emerald Cypress & Fir Tub & Tile Cleaner -I was amazed at how powerful this stuff was. The smell was very subtle, and yet the formula managed to pick up all of that icky soap scum left over from my bubble bath.

Wild Orange & Cedar Spice Kitchen Cleaner - This one smells fantastic! It makes cleaning up after meal preparation super easy.

Summary: Although I am having a hard time finding a place to store all of these cleaners, my house is clean and smells fantastic. No more "chemical clean" smells. Seventh Generation is available at a number of chain supermarkets, including Whole Foods. For a store locator, visit Seventh Generation here. Special thanks to Seventh Generation and Cheapskate Mom!

Sula Beauty Paint & Peel Nail Polish

When I was in college, Cover Girl came out with a nail polish that you could apply to your nails, let dry, then peel off when you were tired of it. The formula was never perfected, I guess, because it was discontinued after a few months. I'd tried a couple of colors out before they all went on clearance - one worked great, and the other one peeled off on its own accord. Very frustrating.

Sula Beauty has now reinvented this wheel by releasing a line of nail polished called Paint & Peel that doesn't require polish remover. As the product's name implies, simply paint your nails, then peel off once you're ready to start over with a new color or go bare. Based on the FAQs found on the site, it sounds like you can expect each coat to last at least full day. To keep it going beyond that, apply Sula's Clear or Metallic top coat for extra durability.

The polish is "free from gormaldehyde, toluene and phthalates and is also free of the remaining cancer-linked ingredients still found in standard polish." Sounds like you can't lose with this polish!

Paint & Peel comes in two collections: the Sula Collection, which includes four colors that are more traditional for the nails, and the Trend Collection, which offers users a few more "out there" colors including Dove/grey and Crush/dark purple. Currently you can buy them through Sula's website or at a few locations through the US and Canada. Each bottle is $9-$10 - I just might have to try these!

5 Etsy items to help with Spring Cleaning

I can hardly believe that it's almost March. Where has the time gone? Are you planning to do some spring cleaning soon? I'd like to say I plan on it, but so far I don't. I like it when our apartment is really clean, but it's the actual cleaning part of that scenario that always scares me off. What better way to kick off Spring Cleaning than with a few treasures I found on Etsy?

Clean In-Style Gloves - trimmed with Floral Carnival and Light Blue Oilcloth (by Etsy seller Julie Meyer), $12.50. Although this is my favorite pattern, she also carries this products in a variety of other designs and styles.

Very Concentrated Room Spray (by Etsy seller Red Leaf), $14. Available in nine scents. There are lots of room sprays on Etsy, but this store's packaging really looks sharp to me.

Carpet Freshener (by Etsy seller Craft Scentiments), $5. Choose from more than 25 scents. My favorite is the Lemon Bundt cake - YUM!

Ecofriendly Dry Dusting Floor Mop Head - Fits Regular Swiffer Sweeper (by Etsy seller Picket Basket Crafts), $9. A great way to go green while supporting an Etsy artist!

All-Purpose Cleaner (by Etsy seller la petite vie), $6. Not a lot of info about what the scent smells like, but I love her packaging!

Now you're armed with the tools to clean, clean, clean? Need a little push? Try Real Simple's Spring Cleaning Checklist.

Java Juice Extract - coffee concentrate

Here’s something I hadn’t seen before: a liquid coffee extract.

Java Juice is a triple coffee concentrate that is extracted straight from the bean and combined with a bit of triple filtered water. It was created in Venice, California to solve the problem of weakening espresso by icing it. It’s coffee extract that to me resembles mud and comes in quart-sized bottles and a more portable 0.5 ounce package. For people who don’t want to brew coffee, Java Juice is a single serving coffee miracle and comes in Original, Decaf, French Vanilla, and Hazelnut. You can find these packets on Amazon.com - each serving ends up costing about $2.20.

I like their slogan: Simply Rip it, Drip it, and Sip it. And I was also highly entertained (and shocked) by the following info I found in their media kit:

Java Juice could save you money. Consider this:
If you spend $3.75 per day (the average cost of a commercially produced espresso drink)
Multiply that times 7 days = $26.25 per week
$ 26.25 per week = $105.00 per month.

Check out the savings over the course of a coffee drinking career.

$105.00 x per month invested at a rate of 10% annual return =
1 year = $ 1,260.00
2 years = $2,526.00
5 years = $ 6,300
10 years = $12,600
15 years = $ 18,900
30 years = $37,800
40 years = $50,400

Wow, now I will feel VERY ashamed of my meager savings account when I next run to Starbucks for their oh-so-delicious chai lattes!

Spa treatment recipes

Recently I featured a few ideas for thrifty DIY spa-at-home treatments that I thought you might like to try out. Since then I've found a list of spa treatment recipes at Spa Index for face, body, lips, hair, hands and feet. Choices include everything from a Chocolate Facial Mask (I think I might try to eat this) to Champagne Bubble Bath to a Bay Rum Aftershave for men. There are 100 recipes on here, so there's bound to be one that suits your needs and that you can make using normal everyday ingredients you probably already have in your household.


Last night I found that I had all of the ingredients to make the Honey Oatmeal Facial, which includes buttermilk, ground oatmeal, and honey. I decided to make 1/2 of the recipe and then followed the instructions and found that I had made a paste that resembled...well, oatmeal. Yet I bravely smeared the mixture across my face and neck, thereby earning the name "Oatmeal Face" from Mr. Bean. I left it on for 15 minutes, then rinsed it off using a warm washcloth. The results? Nothing spectacular so far. I'm not sure if this is supposed to be moisturizing or help your skin look brighter, etc. but it was kind of fun to do something at home using things I already keep around. Let me know if any of you decide to try any of these recipes. I'd really like to try the Bath Cookies recipe sometime soon!

3 Cool (and Green) Alternatives to Your Laundry Detergent

It's really sad when you suddenly realize just how many dirty pieces of laundry you can create in under a week. I'd never really noticed it before Mr. Bean and I moved to an apartment that has a community laundry room rather than washers and dryers in each unit. Previously I could get away with washing a small load here, a small load there, and fluffing a stale smelling winter coat...all at no charge to me aside from electricity. No massive laundry day that I dreaded and procrastinated against for days and days. With the coin operated machines downstairs, these same loads can cost $3 or even $4 depending on how much I need them to be dry!

The good news, however, is that I've come across a few laundry acoutrements that make the whole task a little, shall we say, dull. No, I have not yet found a detergent that will do your laundry for you, but I have found a few products that are a bit unique and even interactive:

SoapNuts, which appear to resemble prunes (or cat poo!), are actually the fruit of a tree found primarily in India, Indonesia, and Nepal. They are 100% natural and are organically grown and processed. The outer shell of the soapnut contains saponin, a natural substance which company Laundry Tree claims is known for its ability to cleanse and wash. Accordingy to the website, SoapNuts “are incredibly gentle on clothes AND skin. They are especially great for those with sensitive skin — including babies and those that suffer from allergies, eczema, and psoriasis! They’re totally biodegradeable, so they’re better for the environment than regular detergent, and they’re antimicrobial, so they’re even good for septic and greywater systems!” Samples are available for $1.99.

Dropps are detergent packets made with a casing that dissolves in water (similar to Listerine Breath Strips). Toss 2-3 into your laundry load and you’re set. They are not tested on animals, won’t irritate your (or your baby’s) skin, and do not contain anything bad for the environment. Out of the three detergents this post covers, Dropps is the only one that I have actually samples so far. It seems to get my clothes as clean as All Free & Clear does, but the lack of smell (I bought unscented, it does come in a Fresh scent) made me wonder if my clothes were actually getting sudsed up enough. You can buy Dropps online or at your local Target or WalMart (I bought mine at a local WalMart for a dollar or two cheaper than what the Dropps website charges and saved on shipping, too) for about $5/bag.

Crunchy Clean is named after people who are “crunchy,” or who decide to “go green.” Made by a fellow Etsy seller, Crunchy Clean is a homemade laundry detergent that contains all natural ingredients, is phosphate-free and non-toxic, and planet friendly. It also claims to be safe for sensitive skin and babies. The cool thing? You can get this detergent in unscented or in your choice of over 50 fragrance oils and essential oils! I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to wash clothes before seeing Crunchy Clean’s available fragrance list! Samples for $3.50.

Have you tried any of these, or are you planning to do so soon? Leave a comment and let me and everyone else know!

Wine blending at home

I can’t say that I’m a big boozer, but I love all of the “experience kits” that have been popping up on the shelves of local wine shops, such as Crushpad’s fusebox. To give you a little bit of a back story, Crushpad is a San Francisco-based (read “less than an hour from Napa/Sonoma”) winemaking facility that specializes in providing the experience of wine production to the people. Basically, if you’ve got $5,700+ to throw around, you can come to their space in the city and they’ll walk you through the entire process of producing a bottle of wine, from the very beginning to cracking the seal on a Saturday night on your back patio (the price includes a barrel of your wine). For those of us who don’t quite have that kind of cash saved up just yet, Crushpad also offers fusebox, a 15 pound kit that contains everything you + 3 friends need for a wine blending experience of your own. Retailing for $120, the kit contains:

-Six 375 mL bottles of blending wine (including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc)
-One 375 mL bottle of Mystery Wine
-One graduated cylinder and four pipettes
-Four wine evaluation cards
-Four tasting place mats
-Recipe cards
-Vinography aroma card
-Corkscrew

This sounds like it would be a great activity if you’re having a couple of best friends over for the evening, or even for a shower of some sort. This also might be a good learning activity for wine newbies in general – for example, I know very little about wines BEFORE they are blended, much less once they are (at least I’ve been told not to smell the cork).

Speaking of wine bottle corks, you can now send in your wine and champagne corks for recycling in the USA through Yemm & Hart, a company in Missouri dedicated to converting used wine cork stoppers into a useful, self-sustaining product that extends the useful life of cork for decades. To find out more or to get their mailing address (they request that you pay the shipping for them to be sent in), visit their website.