Mindful Momma

Honest Products from The Honest Company {+ a Giveaway!}

I'm not much of a celebrity groupie but I have to admit I'm pretty impressed with Jessica Alba. Last spring, she used her star power to rally for stronger Federal chemical laws on Capitol Hill. Now she is busy helping to run a new natural product company called The Honest Company.

The Honest Company offers an eco-friendly line of family essentials (diapers and wipes, bath and body care, and household cleaners) sold exclusively through their website, Honest.com. In a nutshell, here's what they are all about:

"Savvy style, sustainability, and extraordinary service & convenience all wrapped in a passion for social goodness, tied with a bow of integrity and sprinkled with a little cheeky fun."

Eco Strengths

The goal of The Honest Company is to deliver products that are as non-toxic, healthy and earth-friendly as possible while being effective, beautiful and fun at the same time. Check out their list of health and sustainability standards - it is quite impressive.

• Bath products are free of parabens, sodium lauryl sulphate, artificial fragrances and many other yucky chemicals.
• Diapers are made with sustainable, plant-based materials and are chlorine-free.
• Cleaning products are biodegradable and free of common chemicals like 1,4 dioxane and formaldehyde.
• Full ingredient list is available on website and product packaging.
• Charitable partnerships including Baby2Baby.org means the company is giving back to people and the planet.

What I appreciate about The Honest Company is that the are honestly trying to do better. Not only better than other companies, but they strive to make their business better and better each day.

Fav Products

Honest Hand Soap - I'm not a fan of highly fragranced hand soaps. This one has just a touch of yummy citrus scent. Plus the adorable bottle looks sweet on my bathroom counter.

Honest Lotion - A lightweight but rich lotion - a style that I love. It's fragrance-free, which is exactly what you'd want for baby. If it came in a citrus version like the hand soap, I'd be in heaven!

Honest Laundry Detergent - I only had a small sample to try (1 load) but it did a fine job on our dirty clothes. The product fragrance and dye free, making it suitable for babies, delicates and the whole family.

Honest Shampoo & Body Wash - I love multitasking beauty products and this one certainly delivers! It's super mild and safe for color-treated hair. And the vanilla tangerine scent is divine!

Second Thoughts

Up until now, the company business model has been to sell products in bundle only. However,they have listened closely to customer requests and will be offering the purchase of individual products in just a couple of weeks!

The hand wash contains two preservatives that are a bit controversial - Cocamidopropyl Betaine and Phenoxyethanol. It is my understanding that these preservatives are considerably safer than parabens and other popular preservatives but if you are uncomfortable with them you may want to skip this product. Meanwhile, the company is already working on reformulating the product. (see what I mean about working to do better?)

Giveaway!

Wouldn't you love to try some products from The Honest Company? I've got a Family Essentials Bundle to give away to one lucky Mindful Momma reader!

Win a one-month supply of non-toxic body care and household cleaning products for your entire family. Package includes Honest Shampoo, Body Lotion, Hand Soap, Healing Balm, and Laundry Detergent. ($35.95 value). Enter using the Rafflecopter form below.

Good Luck!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How to Make Homemade Soap Out of Soap Scraps {Tutorial}

Sometimes I think I'm a bit too frugal. I've been saving up soap scraps in a mesh bag for a couple years now, without a solid plan of what to do with them. Finally, when the bag was overflowing, I did some research and realized you could make new bars of soap out of old soap scraps. So I tried it and the results were.... interesting. My new soaps are perfectly usable but not quite as wonderful as I was expecting. Let's just say, I won't be giving them as gifts!

There doesn't seem to be one tried and true recipe for making new soap out of old soap. Just follow these simple steps and be prepared to wing it depending on the type and amount of soap bits you have.

Start with a bunch of soap scraps. The more the merrier!

Grate the soap bits with a cheese grater. Soft, glycerin based soaps will be easy to grate but some soaps are quite difficult to grate and produce more of a soap dust than soap flakes (cover your nose & mouth so you don't inhale any). Some of my soaps were so hard that I just broke them into bits instead of grating them.

Put the soap flakes in a microwave safe, glass container. Add a little bit of water - about 1 Tablespoon per cup of soap flakes (I did not measure mine). Keep in mind that the more water you add, the longer it will take your soap to dry in the mold. Microwave the mixture in about 30 second intervals. Mix after each time. In my case, the soap mixture never "melted" completely. There were still chunks of soap showing but everything got very soft and mushy.

As you can see from the photo below, I made two batches - one was smoother and one was more chunky. I actually like the chunky look because you can still see the colors from the different soaps. At this point you can add some essential oil scent if you would like. I added a lavender chamomile blend to one of my batches.

Spoon the soap mixture into your mold. I used muffin tins and I sprayed them with cooking spray first just to make sure the new soaps wouldn't stick. I've heard you can also use a bread pan and then cut the large soap into slices.

(This is not a pretty picture of my well worn muffin tin....)

Let your soaps dry out for a few days or even a week before you try to take them out of the mold. I was expecting my soaps to be a bit drier and more solid. Instead they are soft and will break apart easily if you try.

Like I said before, these "new" soaps are perfectly good but won't win any beauty contests. The pretty colors of the original soaps are largely gone and the resulting colors are a bit greyish. However, I've been using one in the bathroom and it works just fine! Next time though, instead of going to the effort of molding the soaps, I might just melt the scraps down and turn them into liquid hand soap or laundry soap.

Do you save soap scraps? What do you do with them?

 

(this post is linked up over at Your Green Resource)

J.R. Watkins and the Natural Products Association Seal

Last fall, when I visited the J.R. Watkins headquarters in Winona, MN, I had the pleasure of meeting the company Vice President of Sales & Marketing, J. R. Rigley. He and company president, Mark Jacobs, were very excited to tell us all about the history of the J.R. Watkins brand (over 140 years old!) and their line of personal care, home care and gourmet products.

As part of my quest to make sense of personal care product labels, I wanted to know more about the process of getting J.R. Watkins products certified by the Natural Products Association, something they have been working hard on for the past couple of years. J.R. was kind enough to answer some interview questions on the subject:

MIndful Momma: Why did you choose to go for the Natural Products Association certification vs. other certifications like USDA Organic, EcoCert or others? 

J.R. Rigley: It was really important for us to partner with someone that was truly an independent third party and not for profit. We were looking for an organization that could evolve the J.R. Watkins Freedom Code and create a recognized standard for the entire industry. Partnering with NPA really was a natural fit. The NPA has been recognized for being the credible voice in the natural products industry and we are honored to carry their seal. 

What percentage of the company’s personal care products currently has the NPA seal?

Currently, more than 70% of the JR Watkins Natural products in the personal care category are certified or pending certification, including the brand new baby line.

How many products did you need to reformulate to meet the NPA standards?

Through our Freedom Code, which you can see online at J.R. Watkins for each category --- home care, personal care and gourmet --- we followed manufacturing protocols and ideals consistent with what you see in the NPA standard. It was important for us to do this from the beginning, even prior to the NPA certification. We are always formulating our products to the highest standards. And, today, as the NPA standard evolves with industry advances, new ingredients and breakthrough personal care processes, we will continue to tweak and improve our formulas.

What kind of feedback have you had from customers about having NPA certification?

Consumers are becoming aware of what the NPA seal means. There has certainly been an increased demand for certification as retailers aim to distinguish their natural sets from their competitors. It has certainly become a strong selling point for our brand.

You were part of the team that created the standards. Can you explain a bit about the process, the goals and the challenges you ran into?

The creation of the standard was a collaborative effort among manufacturing, retailers and suppliers of natural ingredients. We were excited to be a part of the group.  Like any committee-based process, there are different opinions and voices every step of the way, but the objective from the start was to successfully agree on a standard for natural products that would be credible and easy to understand for consumers looking for natural products. It needed to be easily recognized across the industry in order to be credible and effective.  

There is some criticism that the NPA standards were written by manufacturers and retailers who have the most to benefit financially. Can you explain how outside input was considered and reflected in the standards?

Manufacturers and suppliers are at the forefront of natural personal care industry, which offers a forum to share advances in technology, natural ingredients and product formulations. That information sharing is critical, and created a really sound discussion from which to build the standard.  There have been other standards written by for-profit companies, but the NPA is an independent, not-for-profit group.

Is there anything else you would like us to know about J.R. Watkins and your use of the NPA seal?

Our goal is for consumers to realize that the term “natural” is not regulated in the market, and applying the NPA seal can help distinguish those products that are truly natural from the imposters. The auditing process to receive certification is extensive, and we encourage people to learn what the seal means and how it coincides with their lifestyles.

Are certifications like the Natural Products Association seal important to you? Have you seen it on any products you buy?

How to Green Your Laundry Room

So you’re on a mission to eat healthy and live more lightly on the earth, but how do your laundry habits stack up on the eco-friendly scale? You may not realize it but conventional laundry products and practices can have a negative impact on both your health and the environment. Many products contain questionable ingredients that are not regulated and not even listed on the label.

Read the rest of my post about greening the laundry room over on the Clear Conscience Blog at J.R. Watkins....

(Image credit: clarita via morgefile)

Eco-Friendly Stain Removers

With two boys in the house, we get a lot of stains on clothing - grass stains, pen and markers, dirt, blood....you name it! So having an arsenal of stain removal stuff is pretty important to me. Still, I like to spend as little time as possible doing laundry so I appreciate products that are easy to use. Here are a few that I have tried:

Stain Removal Products

Vaska SpotOff - A spray-on spot remover made with botanical surfactants that will not harm fabric.

Thumbs up: Just grab and spray - it's so easy! Free of NPEs, chlorine, phosphates and optical brighteners. Biodegradable and color safe.

Second thoughts: Full ingredient list not available. Seems a bit pricey at approx. $10.99 for a 22-oz bottle but it will last you a long time.

Ecover - A plant based stain remover gel with a built in brush.

Thumbs up: Use brush to rub stain remover into stubborn stains. Affordable at $4.50 for a 6.8 oz bottle and you only need a smidge per stain. 

Second thoughts: According to Goodguide and Skin Deep, there are a couple of questionable ingredients in the formula, including 2-BROMO-2-NITROPROPANE-1,3-DIOL, a preservative linked to immunotoxicity.

Roux Maison - Fragrance free, naturally derived liquid stain remover.

Thumbs up: Readily biodegradable and free of the usual nasties like parabens, SLS, phthalates and formaldehyde.

Second thoughts: Complete ingredient list not available. Expensive at $8.95 for an 8-oz bottle.

Home Remedies

If you would rather try your hand at home remedies, here are some ideas from my book:

What are your tried and true stain removal techniques?

(Full Disclosure: I received samples of Vaska SpotOff and Roux Maison stain removers in exchange for my honest opinion.)

(This post is linked on My Green Resource over at Live Renewed. Check it out for more green living ideas!)

Easy Eco-Tip: Turn Diapers into Dusters

Calling all cloth diaper users! What do you do with your prefold cloth diapers when the baby stage is over? You could pass them on to another parent of course. But if you still have some laying around in your cupboard somewhere, I suggest pulling them out and repurposing them as dusting cloths. That's what I do!

Most cloth prefolds are 100% cotton (although some are bamboo) and are super-absorbent and perfect for dusting. Other reusable dusting cloth ideas include:

• Bath towels that are too shabby for the bathroom
• Dish towels that are stained or otherwise unworthy of display in your kitchen
• Old cotton t-shirts cut up into smaller pieces (approximately 10 x 12 works well)

Instead of the ubiquitous yellow can of dusting spray, try an eco-friendly furniture polish or make your own homemade Lemon Olive Oil Furniture Polish.

Looking for more Easy Eco-Tips?

Buy Soap without the Box

Give Sponges One Last Dirty Job

Buy Meat from the Butcher

(image credit: hannah8ball via flickr)

Homemade Furniture Polish

Yesterday I asked my Facebook readers if they had ever come across an eco-friendly dusting spray. I was thinking of something to replace the ubiquitous can of Endust or other such conventional sprays that so many people grab automatically. I don't think anyone makes an actual aerosol spray (not that I think anyone should - I was just curious) but there are certainly some greener, safer products available to use for dusting. Earth Friendly Products makes a Furniture Polish which I recommend and Vermont Soap Organics makes a product called Liquid Sunshine that reader Meg swears by for dusting.

Reader Laura had a great suggestion for a homemade furniture polish made with 2 ingredients: olive oil and lemon. I whipped up a batch right away this morning and I think it's fabulous!

 

 

Lemon Olive Oil Furniture Polish

1/4 cup olive oil

2 T lemon juice

Combine ingredients together in a spray or pump bottle. Be sure to shake before using as the oil separates from the lemon juice. Squirt polish onto a dusting cloth (I use old cloth diapers!) and notice how your wood shines!

I recommend using this up within a week or so because fresh ingredients could go rancid. I'm keeping mine in the refrigerator so it will last longer. As Laura joked - if you don't use it all up, use it as salad dressing!

What do you use for dusting around the home?

Looking for more homemade cleaning recipes or other DIY ideas? Check my Make It Green page!

Non-Toxic Holiday Tips

You know what I would like for Christmas? I'd like to be able to shop without worry. To buy gifts without a lingering uneasiness that they might be unsafe in some way. To buy food without concern about chemical contamination. To make purchase decisions based on joy, not fear. Is that too much to ask?

I don't think it is. That's why the best gift I could hope for would be passage of the Safe Chemicals Act. My progressive Minnesota Senators are already on board to help get the bill passed but some Senators still need a friendly nudge to remind them that we need commonsense limits on toxic chemicals! If you haven't already, will you send your Senator your family holiday photo over on the Safer Chemicals Healthy Families website?

Meanwhile, since it's still the wild west out at the mall and the grocery store, follow these tips to make your holidays safe and non-toxic!

Shop safe

Obviously, you wouldn't knowingly give someone a gift loaded with toxic chemicals, but how are you supposed to know what's safe and what's not?

• Buy from companies you trust with a reputation for safety.
• Choose natural materials like wood and natural fibers over plastic and other synthetic materials.
• Skip the dollar stores. That cheap stuff made in China is more likely to contain nasty chems.

Resources:

Safe Mama's Safer Holiday Toy Guide

WVE Holiday Shopping Guide

Green Moms Carnival Green Gifts Roundup

Moms Rising Non-Toxic Toys and Non-Toxic Beauty Gifts

Mind what you eat

It's true, we do tend to eat a bit more than usually during the holidays, but it's possible to eat more and stay healthy as long as we're eating clean food, free of toxic additives. (the diet can start in January!)

• Skip BPA-laden canned foods.
• Buy organic when possible (at least avoid the dirty dozen).
• Avoid processed foods with artificial colors and flavorings.
• Use safe cookware and bakeware.

Resources:

Non-Toxic Kids Non-Toxic Holiday Tips

Katy Farber's Eat Non-Toxic Book

Essential Safe Products Holiday Gift Guide

Clean green

As we prepare for holiday entertaining, a big scrub-down of our house is in order. You can bet we won't be using toxic, conventional cleaning products to do the job!

• Scour the ingredients list before you buy any new cleaning product. A company that doesn't list ingredients has something to hide!
• Make your own cleaning products using natural ingredients like vinegar and baking soda.
• Use elbow grease instead of toxic cleaners.

Resources:

Groovy Green Livin - What's Hiding in your Cleaning Products?

Healthy Child Healthy World's Recipes for Safer Cleaners

15 Ways to Use Vinegar in the Home

What do you do to stay non-toxic during the holidays?

(image credit: deborah.soltesz via Flickr)

An Historic Trip to J.R. Watkins Naturals

Last week I had the pleasure of visiting the headquarters of the J.R. Watkins Naturals Company in Winona, Minnesota. They invited me and four other bloggers to spend a couple days getting to know the products and the history of the company. Believe me, there was a lot to learn because this company has been around for over 140 years!

With my first step into the historic company administration building, I knew this was going to be a memorable trip. Built in 1912 by Prairie School architect George Washington Maher, the building is beyond gorgeous.


Even more amazing is that the company's original factory buildings are connected to the office building and are still in use to this day! The factory tour was a special treat for me because I am a total factory geek - I LOVE seeing how things are made!

The Watkins factory is unique because it is on multiple levels rather than all one level as most modern factories. This allows them to use sustainable, gravity-fed filling processes. Products get mixed on one level, then fed downstairs through big pipes and into the fill machines. We happened to be there when the Tub & Tile Cleaner was being filled.

After the tour, we sat down with company president, Mark Jacobs and other Watkins executives to chat products. We asked some tough questions about ingredients and the use of the term natural in personal care and home products. I was happy to learn that the company is truly dedicated to living up to the natural designation on their famous apothecary-style labels. In the last couple years many products have been reformulated and they have been working to get the Natural Products Association Certified seal on the majority of their personal care and home care products. (I'll be writing more about this topic soon - there is a lot to know!)

We also got to hang out in the company test kitchen and sample new products, like this brand new baby line that will be hitting stores in December:

No blogger trip would be complete without some wining and dining (or so I am told - this was my first blogger trip!) and the J.R. Watkins team did a fabulous job of making that happen. We stayed in the historic Alexander Mansion where we were treated to a bag of Watkins goodies and chocolate & Bailey's at bedtime.

Last but not least - what a treat to spend time with these wonderful bloggers: (from left to right) - Jodi from Mom's Favorite Stuff, Kiersten from The Type A Housewife, Jennifer from Savoring the Thyme and Lori from Groovy Green Livin (I'm the tall one, second from the right). 

I'm looking forward to sharing more about J.R. Watkins Naturals - it's a really cool company and there is a lot to share!

Have you ever tried J.R. Watkins Naturals products? What's your favorite?

Image credit for top photo of Watkins building - Jodi Grundig of Mom's Favorite Stuff.

(Full Disclosure: The J.R. Watkins company paid for this trip in exchange for my honest opinion.  I was not compensated in any other way.)

How to Survive a Home Renovation Project Safely and Sanely

It was a strange summer. As you probably know if you stop by this blog regularly, we've been undergoing an extensive renovation of the exterior and the third floor of our house. It's not a full-on green remodel by any means but we're doing what we can to keep things eco-friendly and safe for our family. While the project has been fun and exciting in many ways, there were also some known challenges (lead paint) as well as some negative impacts that I did not count on.

Challenge #1:  We had no yard for our kids to play in. Luckily we live close to a park but it still curbed those spontaneous games in the backyard and general time outside. It also meant that we didn't eat meals outside like we usually do in the summer. Except for a couple instances of dumpster dining, we ate indoors to lessen our exposure to construction dust and debris.

Challenge #2:  We had to keep our windows closed most of the time. This was primarily to keep out dangerous dust from lead paint and general construction. You see, the original siding on our house was painted with lead paint (see photo above). It had been covered up by metal siding for years but was exposed when they took the metal off last summer. This summer the lead painted wood was completely removed - using appropriate lead abatement techniques of course. I had my 6 year old tested for lead poisoning last summer and he was fine. I'm planning to get him tested again now that all of the lead paint is gone. It's a bummer because it is a blood draw (not a finger prick), which is very traumatic. I hate to make him go through it again, but I think it's important. (For more info on lead poisoning - a huge issue with old houses - visit LeadFreeKids.org.)

Are you planning a home renovation or remodeling project? Here are a few tips to keep things safe and sane for your family:

• Find out if you have lead paint in your house. Test kits are available at most hardware stores and online.
• If you do have lead paint, make sure your contractor is certified in lead paint abatement procedures.
• Keep dust out of living areas as much as possible. That might mean opening or closing windows depending on where the work is happening. Use fans to move dust out of the house.
• Vacuum regularly using a vacuum with a HEPA filter to capture tiny particles of lead dust and other toxins.
• Wet-wipe and mop frequently (dry dusting just moves the dust around).
• Invest in high-quality filters for your furnace or air conditioning and change them frequently.
• Have a shoes-on policy in all construction areas (no bare feet!)
• Plan on being out of the house as much as possible. (This was tough for us because we do not have any relatives in town but we took trips and even had a staycation at a hotel when our spray foam insulation was being blown in.)
• If you are concerned about lead paint exposure, get your kids tested. The biggest threat is to babies and kids under 6 years old.

At this point the major construction is over but there are still TONS of finishing details left. Here's what our house looks like as of today. The outside is scheduled to be painted later this week and the inside is being dry-walled as I type. After that, tiling the shower and installing fixtures in our new 3rd floor bathroom will begin!

Next summer, I am looking forward to fresh breezes throughout the house and lots of outdoor play time all season long!

Do you have any remodeling stories to share? How did you handle the dust, debris and disruption?