It's Really Just a Love Story...

Frequent and/or long-time readers of my little blog, if there is such an animal, will have noted by now that many of the posts that fall under the "tip" or suggestion category will include a benefit aside from the positive environmental impact.

The simple reason for that is that in my experience most people won't necessarily pay more, or go through additional effort, to be "green". I actually don't blame them, since many claims of greenhood are disputed. So I like to look for additional incentive when I find it, whether health-related, money-saving, whatever.

Here's a side-benefit that I have yet to "promote". Soft hands.

I bring to your attention, Nature Clean Dishwashing Liquid.



This product (and other members of its family) are fairly easy to find. They tend to be included in the organics section of grocery stores. We'd noticed them before, but they cost a little more and Mrs THIT had never heard anything particularly good about natural household cleaning products so until recently, they'd been ignored.

She tried this one because of it's tea tree oil content. Christine works with chemicals and her hands suffer because of it. They become extremely dry, cracked and painful. It's precision work, so she's unable to wear gloves while working. She'd heard that tea tree oils can be good for dry skin however and on that basis decided to give this product a try.

It seems she's quite pleased with it. She'd tried a number of moisterizing creams and what-not over the past couple of years to little success, but after less than two weeks of using this product she's already seeing a difference.

This particular benefit is hardly a surprise when one looks into the history of the company:

In the early 1960s, Mrs. Ross, the wife of our founder, suffered from skin rashes caused by dish detergents and shampoos. In an effort to alleviate her suffering, her husband began developing natural formulations. Since then the Ross family has continued the tradition of creating natural non-toxic alternatives for almost every product in your home. Over the years the love story surrounding our brand has extended far beyond this. Natureclean® is about caring for your family's health, it's about the passion we feel for protecting our natural world, and it's about loving ourselves enough to use safer products.

Group hug!!

Looking around their site, I found their Produce Wash interesting as well.

Most pesticides can’t be removed from produce with water alone because they are designed to be water resistant. This way, they won’t wash off in the rain.

Fruit & Veggie Wash Concentrate was designed for produce which requires soaking such as grapes, berries, broccoli, and spinach. This type of produce has more hidden crevices where contaminants can hide. Our formula has no taste, is odourless, residue-free and helps remove surface pesticides, chemicals, bacteria, wax and dirt. For firm produce like apples and tomatoes, we recommend our Fruit & Veggie Spray Wash.

Even organic produce should be washed. It can be exposed to everything from contaminated irrigation water to fertilizers, animal feces and human contact.

All told, I'm tremendously pleased that Christine has found a natural product that rids her of a nagging physical discomfort. So pleased in fact that I'll leave the dishwashing duties to her entirely! Sure, I probably washed dishes about once a year on the average, but I wouldn't want to take away something that benefits her, so I'll sacrifice that anniversary-like event for her sake. ;-)