Nellie's All Natural Laundry Soda

my husband and i have been using nelly's for a couple of years now and it's great. i totally recommend this to everyone...reallly i do.  it's all natural with no scent and the clothes come out smelling like real clothes. not like spring flowers or pine cones or water lillies or whatever else they have you smelling like. 
i first used it on my towels and though hesitant, it kicked me on my butt with a big "ha!".  totally cleaned my towels and they come out soft as well.  btw, i don't use fabric softener but that's another post on its own.
back to nellie's. 
the website at first glance is quite interesting. it's like a cartoon or something you'd expect your kids to be looking at.  it's something like a puppet set with messages and characters that pop up the longer you're on that page.  then you see nellie and her story.  she's a real person that first came up with the idea of hypallergenic, all natural, and friendly for the environment detergent.

the detergent is HE machine compatible and uses about 1 tablespoon. for a $10 tin, it washes 100 loads.  Costco sells a huge bin for $100 and you can get 1000 washes..that's what we use. we bought it about 2 year ago and are still working on it. and that's after giving some away to friends and family.  we use it on towels, colours, whites and dress shirts.  even dish towels come out clean. and yes, they smell like clothes.

It's a powder that is quite fine textured so when you're scooping it, it can easily go up your nose so be careful. it contains (from her blog):
SODA ASH – (SODIUM CARBONATE) also known as washing soda. In domestic use, it is used as a water softener during laundry.
SODIUM METASILICATE – A major use is as a builder (a material that enhances or maintains the cleaning efficiency of a surfactant, principally by inactivating water hardness) in soaps and detergents
SODIUM CHLORIDE - Sodium chloride, also known as common salt, table salt, or halite.  As well as the familiar uses of salt in cooking, salt is used in many applications, from manufacturing pulp and paper to setting dyes in textiles and fabric, to producing soaps and detergents.
CITRIC ACID – This is a weak organic acid. It serves as an environmentally benign cleaning agent and acts as an antioxidant.

here's the nellie's link. they sell other cleaning products as well so take a look.  and totally try it out. what's $10 for the livelihood of the planet??

http://www.nelliesallnatural.com/

The Guelph Soap Company

The Gueph Soap Company

We've been using this soap for the last year or so in place of our regular shower soap. The various scents are quite lovely and not too harsh on the nose. Whether the scent is artificial or not, it's not quite clear. It lathers easily and doesn't leave that soapy feeling on your skin nor does it dry your skin too much.

The company itself specializes in various products ranging from concrete additives, dry mix products, surfactants, liquid blending and lard oils.

The website is quite simple and doesn't give too much product information but does mention the use of essential oils.

The soap itself is a vegetable bar with a blend of palm, palm kernal and coconut oils depending on the the bar.

It can be bought in most supermarkets and health food stores for about $1.20 each.

I would recommend anyone trying this out as a small step to something less artificial and a little more natural. It's not a big change nor is it tough on your wallet.

Try it and let me know what you think.