I’m currently revisiting my Approved, So-So, Not Recommended lists that I began wayyyyyy back in 2012 when I started my blogging journey. The most recent update to most of those lists was in 2016. Wow, how time flies. So a revisit of all brands, as well as what’s new out there, is definitely in order. Beautycounter has been on my Not Recommended List since I published it, and I was very curious to see what, if anything, has changed in the past several years?? I would be absolutely thrilled to have more brands on my So-So list even!
The answer is no, I still cannot recommend this brand whatsoever. My motto has always been: ingredients speak for themselves. They just need a voice. I’m helping be that voice. Just about every label I looked at contains potassium sorbate, phenoxyethanol, sodium benzoate at the very least. The majority of the rest of the ingredients are so-so. Not the worst, but certainly not the best for those of you like myself who are on a mission to find products that work well, are made of as many organic ingredients as possible AND also affordable. If you share those values with me, this is NOT a brand that should be on your radar at all. Any brand on my So-So list would align with those values more than this option.
There are numerous ingredients they are using in their products that are available organically grown, they apparently are choosing not to support those options, yet they are charging double, triple, quadruple what brands who ARE using organic ingredients. That is maddening to me. Talk about marketing…. If you’re looking for better than the worst products on the market, I’ll give them that. If you’re looking for best of the best, or even so-so (which are much better than the worst), this brand is NOT for you. I honestly did not see a single product I’d use (thus recommend). For every, single item in every category, there is something I can suggest that has fewer ingredients, more organic ones, and is a fraction of the price.
Organic Sunflower Seed Oil is the singular organic ingredient. Several of those ingredients could be organic (any of the oils, shea butter, aloe). But they’re not. It has 5437 reviews with a 5/5star rating.
I looked at a ton of products and found them all to be extremely disappointing. I just grabbed a random example of what the labels look like. There is nothing in this $35 bottle of Countermatch Refresh Foaming Cleanser that would tempt me for a second to use nor recommend it:
I didn’t generally comment on prices as much as I am with this round of refreshing my entries on these lists, but more than ever, everyone I know is on a tight budget. However, it’s common to see price tags in the $70-$100 range for creams. Hand lotion is $62 for a 16 oz bottle. I cannot believe people actually pay these prices. I guess I live in an alternate reality, no one I know can afford these prices. Coupled with the fact that there are 1 or 2 organic ingredients, this certainly is not a brand I can recommend to anyone. IF you are a customer of this brand, and justifying the money you are spending, it shows we have extremely different values. And that’s okay. I’m not judging you. We live in alternate realities and have opposite criteria for what makes a great product. For me, that would be organic ingredients at an affordable price. Anyone reading this who would like to know what those recommendations are, see my So-So and Approved lists. In my humble opinion, Beautycounter is a greenwasher.
In June I’ll have been a Guide with Poofy Organics for 10 years!!! And honestly, I’ve never been more excited, hopeful, optimistic about everything the company offers and stands for! I know direct sales are seen in a less than positive light by many. I also used to not be too thrilled about at one time in my life. But, it’s hard to deny that the opportunities presented by Poofy Organics (I can’t speak for any other company) are just too good to pass up. MANY of you on this page are Stay-at-Home-Moms. Some of you work part time. Many of you have experience selling Mary Kay, Pampered Chef, or other names, but would love to find a better fit for your “crunchy” lifestyle. I don’t know anyone who can’t use extra grocery money (we all know feeding our family healthy, organic food is NOT cheap).
I have been devoted to finding the safest products on the market for over 12 years now, and looked at just about every line known- NONE of them compare to Poofy. With an almost full line of personal care, home (except laundry and auto dish soap, hopefully those will come eventually) & make-up & everything in-between line, there’s something for everyone. I know of no other line offering more USDA certified organic products that they are making themselves in-house. Other brands on my Approved List that are also USDA certified organic are making a small fraction of what Poofy makes. The prices are VERY reasonable for certified organic, handmade to order daily products. Are you paying more because this is a direct sales opportunity company? NO. You are paying full retail price. The same price you’d pay through Poofy.com. Poofy gives us Guides the products at wholesale price, a price every single product you buy is available at, so we can earn something too, and I think that’s truly amazing! There are no sponsored trips to Mexico for whoever sells the most products built into the prices you pay, just the true, honest cost of making these amazing products & bringing them to market.
There are 2 fees: $9.99 to join + $9.95/month for your webpage, which is where you & others place orders, you get supplies, etc. The website has just been revamped & is simply FABULOUS! You only have to sell $200 worth in a 4 month period to remain “active”. You also will never be auto-shipped anything that you didn’t order (CAN’T believe some companies do this), and do not ever have to keep inventory on hand. If you have NO experience with direct sales, and no or very little knowledge of Poofy products, it could definitely take a couple weeks, or months even, to get familiar with the process & products. If you do have some direct sales experience, and are familiar with Poofy’s line, you could hit the ground running & be getting your 1st paycheck within weeks. The sky is the limit, and you are your own boss! If you do not have a circle of family/friends/co-workers, etc who are interested in organic products & are concerned you won’t be able to sell $200 in 4 months, this honestly probably isn’t for you… This is a business opportunity, and I’m looking for those who will approach it as a serious opportunity to both make a little money, and help educate & spread awareness about the best products on the market– Poofy Organics!
I just really want to get this info out there. There are barely 300 Guides out there currently. Yes, you read that right, 3hundred. Not 3,000, not 30,000. 300. The time to join has NEVER been better!! Think of where the first few hundred people that joined Mary Kay, Avon, Beautycounter, etc are a decade or 2 later if they stuck with the company! I’d be thrilled to have you on team Eco-Poofy USA, if you think this is the right opportunity for YOUR family!
If you have ANY questions, please send me an email: ecofriendlymamausa@gmail.com. I’ll be the one you turn to with questions, and if I can’t answer them off the top of my head, I will find the answer.
I updated this post a bit and since it’s buried as it’s a decade+ old originally, I thought I’d bump it to the top. Nothing has changed. I wish I could say they’ve improved, but they certainly have not. As you can see, the post before it is sharing how important organic is to me, so this is a good example of 1 extreme to the other. POST: https://ecofriendlymamausa.com/2013/11/07/melaleuca-the-very-definition-of-greenwashing/
I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for quite some time: the costs associated with becoming a USDA certified organic brand in the personal care product industry, and why I place such great value on brands who are willing to go the extra mile to become certified. Also, some pet peeves of mine such as when companies say: trust us, we’re using organic ingredients and/or we’re better than organic.
The most basic reason I value the USDA certified organic seal is I really do appreciate some degree of oversight. Some checks & balances. Especially when it comes to the word organic. Brands can charge a lot more if they’re using organic ingredients. And they should, because organic farming is more labor-intensive, thus the ingredients cost more. So when I see brands charging top dollar for their products, but then not carrying the USDA seal, and sometimes even getting a snarky response like: we’re BETTER than organic, it doesn’t sit well with me. We need a set of standards we can rely on. You can tell me x, y, z about how “clean” your products are, but unless you’re a family member, or my best friend, you’re asking me to have full faith in what you’re promising me. And in my 44 years on this earth, I’ve learned that people will say anything to make money. A small example of what I’ve heard myself from an elderly farmer at my local farmer’s market. I heard someone ask if she used organic practices to grow her vegetables, her response: no. I later heard someone else ask her the same question, her answer: yes. This is just a tiny example of how we have to trust what people tell us, or not. And I’ve been through enough in my decade+ as a label-reader and advocate for organic products that I’m extremely jaded. I’ve seen fraudulent products on the market. I’ve demanded answers from companies when ingredients didn’t add up. And one very large company even went out of business when their products were found to be fraudulent (Ava Anderson Non-Toxic). They were charging big bucks for products labeled as using organic ingredients, when in fact, that was not the case at all. So those are some of my reasons for valuing a system of checks and balances to make sure the products you’re telling me contain x, y, z organic ingredient actually do. Is it a perfect system, no? There is always room for human or technology errors, as well as corruption, with any system.
Let’s talk about cost. I hear this a lot as an excuse: it’s too expensive for my small business to get certified. I call BS! The USDA WANTS more businesses to attain their certification, there is a sliding scale, and even a reimbursement program that might reimburse up to 75% of your cost!! I’ve seen very small businesses do it and not find it prohibitive by any means. I feel that if you’re going to talk the talk of valuing organic, you should walk the walk too. Yes, it entails quite a bit more work for business owners/employees, but this is why they are justified in charging more for their products. What really irks me is there are small brands charging more for their non-certified products than brands who ARE certified. So personally, I will put my money where my mouth is and support those who are jumping through all these hoops to give us, the consumer, the assurance that they are going above & beyond to give us the peace of mind that they are not only using organic ingredients as they say they are, but appropriate cleaning supplies and methods, etc.
I recently wrote to Poofy Organics, the line making more USDA certified organic products than any other brand that I’m aware of (if you know of a brand offering more, please let me know), to gain some current insight on this topic. I asked specifically about the cost of becoming certified.
Response (12/28/23): “Regarding your question I don’t know that there is a simple answer because it is dependent on a number of factors. The specific certifying organization that is licensed by the USDA to administer the process, the paperwork, the audit, etc. The size of the organization being certified (based on actual organic products volume) plus, other costs a business has to incur to meet the stringent guidelines of the USDA. This is important because the cost is not just about the certification fee. From our knowledge just the certification fee can range from $500 to over $15,000 but that is based on volume of organic sales and of course $500 would is for a very small sales volume. Again, that is only one step because business have to meet a number of specific criteria and it can be costly for companies to get their operation ready for those guidelines. This includes things like:
–Record Keeping: System in place to track important information every step of the process, from organic certified suppliers, supply receiving and logging, appropriate storage and separation of organic from non-organic, tracking supplies, production logging, quality checks, etc. –Ingredient compliance information –Cleaning and sanitizing procedures – to avoid contamination, etc –Pest control measures – using a professional organization that only used organic supplies, and logging all services provided and incidents –Plus, others This is to provide context that in order for an operation to get certified, they must be willing to invest in its ability to meet the business operation requirements. Before an entity can get its products certified, the business itself must first become certified to be able to manufacture and sell organic products.”
To go into more depth on the procedures and checks/balances involved, because I really appreciate knowing all this and hope you will too, I’ll share the following which was written by Kristina, the former owner of Poofy in 2017. It’s about more than JUST the ingredients.
“What does it take for us to become certified? I will try to make this as simple and EXCITING as possible lol. First, we needed to fill out what seemed like an eternity of surveys/questionnaires. The questions were extremely detailed down to the most minute piece of information. We were asked about our water supply, how we clean & sanitize work stations, how we clean & sanitize our equipment. Meticulous records needed to be maintained from start to finish of ANY product being manufactured. (If a facility has pests, only certain pesticides may be used. Luckily, we have not had that issue.) Back to keeping records, for instance, a record of each ingredient we use is kept. When we order an ingredient, it goes in our record. We need to list who the supplier is (and of course they must already be certified as acceptable to use by the USDA certifying company. In our case, it is Baystate Organic Certifiers). We need to track what date the product was ordered and when it was received, who received it, the lot # and where the ingredient was stored. Another record we keep is our manufacturing record. On it, we list what product we are making, the date it is being made, who is making it, ALL the ingredients AND units of measurements for those ingredients, all lot numbers associated with the ingredients and how many products were yielded. Then our products are assigned lot numbers. It is quite a process for every time a product is made, especially because Poofy Organics has over 100 organic products. it can become quite hectic! Another record that is kept is the cleaning/sanitizing record. Every time a product is manufactured, we must document how we cleaned & prepared the equipment and how it was purged. Lastly, we have a cleaning/sanitizing record for our facility. This includes when and how we clean our floors, etc.
Anytime a new product is created, we have to send an OPP- Organic Product Profile to our certifying company. On it, we need to list all the ingredients, the supplier and the concentration of those ingredients. Any non-organic ingredient that is allowed in the organic product (and those are very few and minute percentages), needs to go through another process which maintains that the ingredient has not been manufactured using sewage sludge or ionizing radiation and has not been created using GMOs (genetically modified organisms). An example of such an ingredient would be baking soda. Because baking soda cannot be found organically, a company like Bob’s Red Mill is a staple for organic companies. It upholds the highest standards in the industry. A new product considered for certification also needs to go through a rigorous “label” certification. Even the labels have standards and rules. Each label is sent to the certificating agency to make sure it is in compliance with those rules.
We are inspected annually. Each year a new application for certification needs to be completed- some of the information is stored so it makes things a bit easier. During inspections, records are sifted through to make sure all ingredients, products, manufacturing, labels and cleaning/sanitizing is in compliance. Batches are randomly picked to make sure the ingredients and numbers add up to the number of units sold. It is quite a heavy-duty process. It is often misunderstood that once a company is certified, the job is over. It is a CONSTANT process- always keeping records, always turning in new documents.”
So I don’t know about you, but I really value that companies are willing to go above & beyond, create more work for themselves, but give me the peace of mind that they are following best practices and not just asking me to trust them, it’s all good….
Recently I’ve been going through my personal care recommendations, starting with my Approved List and working my way down. To be on my Best of the Best List, the company must be certified organic. There is a subsection down below that for brands that aren’t certified but still good, based on what they are claiming they use, and as long as they don’t contain ingredients from my Ingredients to Avoid list (a work in progress). 2 companies moved from my Best of the Best list, a place very few companies hold.
Trillium Organics moved to my So-So List: “We held the USDA organic certification from 1999 to 2020 We let it go during the chaos of Covid So no we are no longer certified. But we have not lowered our sourcing standards or production practices. So it’s really just a matter of whether you trust trillium. We sure hope you do!!” Again, this issue of trust. You want to charge top dollar, and I’m just supposed to trust you’re using the finest organic ingredients and doing the right thing, even with no oversight or accountability whatsoever? Sorry, just can’t do that. While it’s a very small line, the products are quite pricey, quite a bit more than their certified organic counterparts. This, in addition with adding potassium sorbate to one or more products led me to move them from my Approved (best of best) list to my So-So List
Then there’s Lovely Lady. I noticed their products no longer carried the seal either, and wrote in to inquire. From their customer support (12/26/23): “after approximately 10 years of operations with the USDA certified organic program, we decided to discontinue that relationship a while back. While we do continue to source certified organic ingredients from our base of suppliers, the additional operational costs to maintain the seal compliance vs the benefit to Customers no longer made sense for us. So, like many others in the health and beauty sector industry who once had, or once actively pursued such certification before ultimately reaching a similar conclusion, we also decided to part ways with them. Please let us know what other questions or concerns you may have. We are pleased to report that when that decision was made and shared with our subscriber base a few years ago, they well understood the decision and rationale and have remained loyal knowing that we have not waivered in our mission nor commitment.”
Me: “Very interesting. So did your prices go down once you ended your certification? Can you help shed some light as to how much it costs to be certified? It has always been my understanding that it’s proportional to annual sales, so that smaller businesses don’t pay as much as larger ones. I would love some insight to help me understand the situation a little better.”
Response (2/2/24): “Respectfully, the aperture of the lens needs to be much wider when speculating on the downstream impacts with this kind of decision. Operational costs in the way you have referenced would mean looking solely at the charges to be paid annually to whichever organization provides the seal. You are correct in that there is a sliding scale. However, there are exponentially more things to consider when taking on or maintaining a program like that as it involves additional staff time for more frequent inventory checks, significantly more time spent on reconciling documents and reserving additional facility time for annual inspections, opportunity costs for needing to submit new product concepts months in advance for review with no guarantee of approval, having to scrap packaging that was once approved and then having to reinvest in replacements, not to mention a lot of unprofessional conduct by the certifier itself which led to the ultimate decision to discontinue and you can be sure we did not take that lightly nor did we do it in a vacuum. Hope this context is helpful as it is purely aimed at being constructive and enlightening.”
In my opinion, everything they just listed is precisely what I want them to be doing! My response (to which they have not responded, but we all know the answer): “So this begs the question, did you lower your prices once you no longer had to spend all the additional money on staff time, etc?”
Finally, let’s look at Toups & Co. They’ve said they’re working on their organic certification for years now. I wrote in to ask about the status and was told: “We have found the certification to be a rigorous process, however we are still working towards it with some of our products.” Looking at some labels I found they list organic coco-glucoside in their baby & men’s wash. To my knowledge, that ingredient can’t be certified organic. I wrote in, and was sent a certificate from their supplier as proof it was organic. Well, it didn’t even list coco-glucoside, it listed potassium cocoate. I responded with: what am I missing here, this isn’t even the same ingredient. The response: “I’ve confirmed that we are indeed using potassium cocoate and not coco glucoside. That has also been corrected on the website as that is not the correct ingredient. We changed that some time ago and the correction was never properly made so it’s great you brought that to our attention.”
Mistakes happen, I get that, I’ll give her grace there. But it just begs the question: what else changed and wasn’t updated? There is absolutely no assurance that anything is accurate on the labels, and/or that she truly is using organic ingredients at all. Also, the certificate she shared with me lists the potassium cocoate as made with organic ingredients, which means it’s 70%+ organic. She lists it as organic, which would mean it’s 95%+. These details matter to me. It’s an example of trust, when I find errors like these, my trust goes out the window. Egregious enough to move off my Approved list, I guess not. But you will not find me making any purchases for these products, especially at those prices.
In conclusion: yes, I think it’s possible to regulate an industry to death. But I also know for a fact that some people will do and say anything to take our hard-earned dollars. Consumers are trying really hard to make good, healthy choices, and ARE willing to pay more money. That’s a fact. We vote with our purchases. If you’re willing to pay as much, or more, for a brand that tells you they’re using organic ingredients, just trust them, so be it. If you’re willing to trust a brand that tells you they’re BETTER than organic, for x,y, z reason, again, your choice. Can they prove it? No. Personally, I will stick with the brands who are going above and beyond to prove that they believe in all things organic. Actions speak louder than words, something I find myself saying pretty much daily in my house (with a 10 & 13 year old!)!!
If you’re new to Poofy Organics and want to save on your purchases, contact me for details on my rebate program, as well as a 10% off coupon code! Email: ecofriendlymamausa@gmail.com. And be sure to visit my Approved list shared above for other options as well!
This is an on-going project, but I’ve tried enough brands now to get an idea of what works for me, what absolutely doesn’t, and a few that are so-so. So I thought I’d share what is working in my dishwasher, get recommendations on what else to try, and get YOUR feedback too. What works for you, do you have hard or soft water, etc?? My machine is a Frigidaire Gallery, and important to note is I have hard well water, we do not use a water softener. So that certainly affects my results. Also, my dishwasher is full of entirely glass (plus our silverware). We use no plastic. My plates, bowls, drinking glasses, all glass, and clear glass at that. So it’s pretty easy to tell if they’re clean (or at least not filmy) or not.
I, and many of you, used Better Life Auto Dish gel and were really happy with it. Then they reformulated and added 2 preservatives I refuse to use in any product: Methylisothiazolinone and Benzisothiazolinone. True, you’re really not coming into contact with it while it’s washing your dishes, so that alleviates the exposure to humans, BUT, it is really bad for the environment as well! It lists acute aquatic toxicity as a precaution. I live on the banks of a precious river, and absolutely refuse to use any products that include it. Thankfully I had a pretty huge stash of the pre-reformulation blend, but eventually that ran out and the search for a replacement has been ongoing. And it hasn’t been fun. One of the chores for my kiddos chores is emptying the dishwasher (they alternate weeks). Many times I’d hear one of them say: Mom, when are we gonna get some good dishwasher detergent again? Some of the ones we tried were really, really bad performance wise. But the following were all ones I felt comfortable enough ingredientwise to give a try and hope for the best. A couple things I could’ve messed around with to try to get better results is adding citric acid, vinegar, or a rinse aid. In the end, I’ve settled (for now) with Ecover Zero Powder + Ecover Rinse Aid.
BEST RESULTS:
Ecover Zero Powder– I got mine from Frontier Coop with my last buying club order (I just looked though and didn’t see it listed there currently?!). I tried it solo and went through a whole box and thought it did a good job. When it was time to reorder I saw they had a rinse aid so grabbed that too, and I do think it’s doing a really good job between the 2. I’m quite happy with it!
This should be pretty readily available locally to those of you who live in bigger cities. I live in the middle of nowhere so have very, very few local options. So, here’s my Amazon affiliate link if you decide to go that route, I’d appreciate you using it: Powder: https://amzn.to/48flbED Rinse Aid: https://amzn.to/3NnhVzo
SO-SO RESULTS:
If you Care tabs- These were interesting. My friend loves them and gave me a handful. The 1st tab actually did 3 loads, it just kept dissolving slowly. And the 1st load actually came out pretty good, I was hopeful. But then the 2nd & 3rd were meh, although acceptable but again, still the 1st tab! After the 1st tab was used up, I tried a new tab and it did dissolve almost completely, but the results were pretty meh. I think possibly with a rinse aid like the Ecover I am now using, this would maybe be an acceptable option for me. But I’m just really not a fan of tabs, I’d rather just dump the powder in.
Seventh Generation Free & Clear powder– Acceptable performance, but not as good as the Ecover powder. I bought this at my local grocery store when I found myself out of product at one point (very rare for me!). If I was in a pinch, I’d buy this locally again. But honestly, I’m really not a fan of Seventh Generation as a brand and prefer not to give my money to them. Was it better than several others on this list I tried in terms of performance though? Yes, it was.
DIDN’T WORK WELL FOR ME:
Biokleen Powder– It left a whiteish filmy residue on the outside of the glasses, but the inside seemed okayish. Still, everything looked absolutely terrible. I used this a few times and said NOPE!
Eco-Me Gel- The worst of all I tried, really, really bad. I gave it exactly 2 uses before I put it aside and said NOPE!
Ecover Tabs– These did a terrible job at dissolving, I really dislike tabs, they just don’t do well. Is it just my machine!? They did not perform well. I really wanted to like them, gave them several tries and kept hearing the kids say Mom, the dishes aren’t clean as they’d put them away. I gave them away to a friend.
MamaSuds– It left a film and dishes did not appear clean. However, my niece has a water softener and she says these work great for her! I love this small business, and love that she offers samples. If you want to give this and anything else she offers a try, use my referral link please. Shipping is free over $99. Since we’re on the topic of dishes, I’ll note that I LOVE her solid dish soap bar for handwashing dishes. I’ve tried several dish soap bars from other vendors, and this is by far the best, no filmy residue! www.mamasuds.com/ecofriendlymama
I mentioned MamaSuds bar for hand dishwashing. That is 1 great, safe option. What I’ve used daily for many, many years now is Poofy Organics. It has ingredients I feel 100% confident in, with no concern for aquatic toxicity, and no concern for myself in having my hands soaking in it at the same time. No, it is not cheap, but it is super concentrated. I go through just a couple bottles/year as most of my dishes are going in the dishwasher. I’ve been a Poofy Organics Guide for almost a decade now. I offer my customers a 5% rebate on all orders, all the time. If you’re brand new, you can register using my link, order, then message me for a 10% rebate on that 1st order. Shipping is free over $70, and they have 3 sitewide sales/year. I mention this all because with a little planning, you can save a decent amount AND truly be using the very safest products out there. I’ve not seen a dish soap that compares to the ingredients in Poofy’s, and that works fantastic as well. Poofy Organics
I’d love to hear from you. What are you using?! I’m always happy to look at ingredients and give you my feedback!
Now that I’m not offering the buying club for the foreseeable future, I thought it’d be a good time to set up affiliate links with the vendors (who offer them) you’ve come to love and will surely still order from! You will find free shipping and/or a small discount below. Just be aware they likely will not be able to be combined with other promos offered directly from the vendor. Still, if you start with the links provided, the order will get tracked to me and I’ll earn a little something from the vendor as a thank you, which is MUCH appreciated by me. I was the best customer of the buying club, so if I can earn my products from these vendors, I’ll be super happy as well. Win-Win-Win!
**Amazon:https://amzn.to/46tJiy8 I just grabbed a link to some of my favorite mugs, you don’t have to buy these (but they’re great), but if you start your search from here, it *should* tie the rest of the items you put in your cart to me.
These lists are several years old now, but a TON of made in USA ideas for kitchen & home on my Made In USA tab from my blog: https://ecofriendlymamausa.com/
**Mamasuds: www.mamasuds.com/ecofriendlymama Start with my link and I’ll earn some commission for your purchase! LONG time buying club offering. Best known for her castile soap, but recently many of us have tried and loved her dish soap bar! Of all the solid bars I’ve tried for dish soap, hers is by far my favorite. It suds nicely, and doesn’t leave a film on my glassware (almost all my dishes are glass!).
Free shipping on orders over $75, all the time. **Any codes can’t be stacked or applied if there are any Subscribe and Save products in the cart.
15% off holiday sale starts on Black Friday at 12:01am EST and goes through the rest of November. TONS of great, new holiday gift sets and brand new scents under the holiday tab.
**1st time customers receive a 10% back rebate, all subsequent orders earn 5% back, all the time! Must register as a customer using the above link.
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**salonsolids- https://salonsolids.com/?ref=ecofriendlymama. Another former buying club vendor that was well-loved for her plastic-free shampoo and conditioner granules that you add water to and make into liquids. Use code: ECOMAMA for 10% off your order!
Tangie: https://wastefreeproducts.com/product/zero-waste-laundry-detergent/ So this is actually not an affiliate link. I’m not a fan of the platforms he uses for affiliates, so I opted just to send you directly to her and once/year when I want to stock up on my laundry soap, she’ll give me a good deal in return 🙂 I have no plans to use any other laundry soap, this is IT for me! Her hand soap bars, and shampoo/conditioner bars also were pretty popular via the buying club! Just a heads up that I’m not a huge fan of the shampoo bars that contain sodium coco-sulfate (labeled shampoo bars). They’re not terrible but she does offer 1 that is sulfate-free (labeled sulfate-free) and I prefer that option myself.
Holiday products are here, and they will continue to be released over the next few weeks! New scents and entirely new products are on their way! Here are the important details:
The holiday sale will offer 15% off and will run for 7 days from Black Friday, November 24th until the end of the month on Thursday November 30th 11:59 pm PST. Must be logged in with your customer account to see the discount.
As always you’ll be able to cash in on my additional 5% rebate. Shipping is still free over $70. I hope this helps you plan your holiday shopping!!!
How cute are these new soap bars?! These are just the beginning of the new, cute, awesome assortment of products! Something for everyone, and all budgets! Most of them come with gift packaging, so your work will truly be done when you place your order!
ANY questions, as always, just ask!! ecofriendlymamausa@gmail.com
Thought I’d check in and let you know what I’m up to. I mentioned a while back that I really wanted to get back into blogging. Back into researching products/companies, seeing what’s new out there, and revisiting old ones to see if anything has changed. I started this blog when my 1st born was 1, he will be 13 in a few months. My family’s needs have changed, and so have yours. Products we would never use on our babies and toddlers we might consider perfectly acceptable on our tweens.
I have SO many ideas for resources I’d like to see come to fruition. But I feel the best place to start is with my Approved/So-So/Not Approved Greenwashers Lists…. If I can encompass as many companies as possible with those lists, it can be utilized when shopping at a place like Wal-Mart, Target, Amazon, maybe 1 company is on the So-So, the other on the Not Recommended, that could help you with your decision. I know many, like myself, are on a budget more than we’ve ever been. So I feel a master list could help you determine which is the safest product you can actually afford as well. $25 bottles of shampoo are out of the budget for many… So then what?!
These lists were originally shared a DECADE ago, in 2013! And of course added to with suggestions over time. In 2016 I did the 1st revision, and again in 2019. So a revisit is long overdue. Things can change overnight. I guarantee some of these companies went out of business during Covid. And of course, new ones will be added.
So my plan is: start from the top, work my way down with revisions. When I’m done, I’ll ask for new additions. This honestly might take me an entire year. It feels overwhelming to think about. But I’m ready to start chipping away a few companies at a time! Starting is always the hardest part!!
You can check those lists out here on my blog under the personal care/cleaning tab up above this post you’re reading now.
Additionally, a sub-list I’m currently working on is Auto Dishwasher detergent recommendations. I’ve tested out several now, and am not having very good luck with the results from the “cleanest” ones ingredientwise. So the struggle is to find something that is safe AND works. My kids alternate emptying the thing, and can often be heard saying Mom, these are NOT clean. So this is a continual project too, but before long I can at least share which have worked better than other. For my machine and hard water that is 🙂
I just learned about a coupon code that is available for each customer to use once for 10% off your order. I knew about the code, but I thought it was for 1st time orders only. Nope, each of you can use it once. So, if you need a few items, or want to stock up and save even more, here it is: POOFY-VIP10. No expiration.
Can’t be combined with any other Poofy promos from them, but since this isn’t out of my pocket, you can still hit me up for your additional 5% rebate (based on the product total after their discount). So, enjoy. Thanks Poofy!!!
You MUST use my link to qualify for my rebate. I offer 10% off on your 1st ever order after you register as my customer and then each & every order earns you 5% back, all day, every day. Shipping is free over $70. Link: https://ecofriendlyusa.poofyorganics.com/
Any questions, just ask: ecofriendlymamausa@gmail.com
As implied, there is a part 1, detailing how I found myself at 235# here:
2 words: diet AND exercise. It’s true. No magic pill. I have nothing to sell you. Here’s my story: I touch on One Meal A Day (OMAD) in the part 1 post, but here is where I’ll go more into detail. Reading Delay, Don’t Deny by Gin Stephens was very eye-opening and truly helped put me on the right path. 99% of diets fail because they’re too restrictive and just not sustainable. I love the idea of NOT denying whatever it is you want to eat, just being mindful of how much you eat, and when. I never feel like I’m starving, and when I’m craving a certain food, I work it in to my OMAD. This way of eating, along with hitting the treadmill and otherwise staying active, as well as drastically reducing my alcohol consumption is how I’ve got where I am now, currently at 162# as I type this. It’s INSANE to think about 70# of weight loss. I try to visualize it via comparing to a 50# bag of flour or beans, for example, and it’s just so hard to think about it being on my body, and then losing it. One thing is for sure: it didn’t come on overnight, and it didn’t disappear overnight. But YOU can make remarkable progress in months, or 1 short year. And it is certainly worth it. You just have to get started…. So, here’s my story!
I dropped my 1st 20# pretty easily, mainly following a Keto diet which focuses on high (good) fat foods. Many do really well on this diet. I found myself stalled out. And while in visiting my primary doc for something unrelated, I mentioned that I really wanted to drop some weight (I was around 215# at that time, Feb of 2022) so we discussed what I was eating. And she said: you know Jess, a high fat diet isn’t for everyone. Especially with women, she had seen them put on weight following the keto diet (reminder how all our metabolisms are so very different). And a light bulb kinda’ went off. I needed to switch things up. So I started focusing on OMAD, low-fat (naturally, not processed) foods (fruits and veggies) and lean proteins. Low carb, but not no-carb. I believe any diet that restricts entire food groups is just destined to fail. This way of eating is considered a lifestyle, not a diet. And I do believe it is something that I can stick to, for the most part, for the rest of my life.
So here’s what I love about intermittent fasting: you don’t starve yourself. You don’t deny entire food groups. You can eat what you want. Just in moderation, and during a small window of time during the day (to fit your schedule/comfort level). Some have a 6 hr window open, some 4, some 2, it’s all up to what works for you. There are many other benefits as well, not just weight loss! The basic concept is this: every time you eat your body produces an insulin response. So when you can fast for longer periods than just overnight, your body is able to tap into its fat stores, eliminate waste cells, helps curb blood sugar. The more strict you are, the better the results of course. Then when your window is closed, you don’t snack, you’re done. It definitely takes some trial & error and just plain ol’ time to figure out what works for you. Many consume their OMAD at dinner time. They work a traditional 9-5 job, so this works with their schedule, they get home and eat. When we started our journey, we went for that schedule. But by 2-3 in the afternoon we were starving and wanting to snack. So, being we’re fortunate enough to work from home for the most part, we realized we could have our OMAD when we were starving: early to mid-afternoon.
It takes quite a bit of time to get used to how much to eat during that one meal. Your instinct is to eat a LOT because that’s it for the day. So we’d overeat, and be absolutely stuffed! But like anything else, over time, you tweak it until you find your sweet spot. I have no desire to give up my coffee habit, so since I don’t like it black, that breaks my morning fast. If you can drink it black, or are a tea drinker, it isn’t considered breaking your fast. But, I realllllly enjoy my cup or 2 or 3 (lately) of coffee with cream + sugar. That’s what I sip on throughout my morning. Then, around 1-3pm, I eat my meal for the day. Sometimes I will snack a bit before it, during the 11-1 hours, and if so, it’s almost always a piece of fruit, which I try to switch up throughout the week, or make a fruit salad so I’m getting a variety of nutrients. But the key is, once I’m done with that meal, I’m done for the day. I’m always reallllllly hungry when it’s time to eat, and I swear, food just tastes much better when you’re starving. If we spend all day snacking, and truly are never really hungry, our body doesn’t appreciate the food as much, at least mine doesn’t. And then I take my sweet ass time to enjoy that meal. I eat very slowly. Enjoy every bite. Knowing I’m not eating again until tomorrow. Again, I didn’t get here overnight. It took months of tweaking to get it all figured out, and gain confidence, and know I was never going to starve.
I remember how excited I was when I finally broke 200#! And then when my new low number becomes my high number. 195 was the new low, then it was the new high. Pretty soon I saw 180. 175. 170. Currently, as I write this I’m at 163. My ideal weight, according to the BMI charts based on my height, is ~150. I know those are just a very rough guideline. But I do know I can get there and I look forward to it. However, if I didn’t lose another pound from where I’m at currently, I’d also be totally happy. Mainly I’m working on toning up now. I have quite a bit of loose skin around my belly from 2 children + the weight loss. And I have been working on toning my arms, specifically my triceps, for the past year. I’m definitely making progress and am happy with my body as is. But I still know there is room for toning. Soon I will not feel the need to step on the scale.
So, let’s talk weight loss vs maintenance. It’s all about how strict you want to be. When I could buckle down and stick to my OMAD, focusing on a healthy, lean lunch for a couple weeks in a row, and no snacks, no alcohol, I could lose ~.5#/day, so 3-4#/week. So I’d hit it hard for a couple weeks or have a really good month of staying on track, and then kinda’ fall into maintenance for a while. That meant eating more maybe, satisfying cravings more, that maybe weren’t super lean or healthy even. But continuing to hit the treadmill daily to offset, so I’d just stay stable.
Learning to say no to food and drink is not easy. Our society revolves around breaking bread with friends/family. And, especially in Wisconsin, one of the top alcohol-consuming states in the nation, it seems like everyone drinks, all the time. This adds soooooo many calories to your diet. You are literally drinking calories. I recently heard a woman turn down an alcoholic drink at an event, saying: I’d rather get those calories from a piece of chocolate cake instead of that beverage. And I think that’s a great way to look at it. But people do certainly think this way of eating & living (OMAD) is weird. They don’t understand. They insist, common’, you gotta eat. I remember a graduation party last year, the entire family ate before we went, and my kids were going to a pizza party at a friends afterwards. The hosts of the graduation party had such a hard time accepting our polite declines for the food. It’s just weird to sit around and socialize, but not eat, nor drink when everyone else is.WHY is it not okay to drink water and socialize just the same?! So it definitely takes some getting used to. But the more you say no, the easier it becomes! And it’s a great example for kids to see that you’re not letting others peer pressure you into consuming things you don’t want to be!
Of course I have days that I eat outside of the OMAD: holidays, gatherings, just plain ol’ hungry for something later in the day and I oblige. But for the most part, day in & out, I do stick to it. I’ve found, that the longer and harder you work towards your weight loss goal, the less you want to derail your progress. Especially early on, there were lots of ups & downs. I’d make progress, then spend a weekend with friends and indulge, drink beers, etc and by Monday morning the scale would be up 4# from Friday. The more you see that happen, the more you’re like: do I really need those beers, I worked so hard to take off a few pounds this week now I put them right back on. And you start back where you were a week prior, instead of continuing your trajectory of loss. Of course, we can’t add 4# of fat in a day or 2, so often it’s just a flux of water weight. I do step on the scale quite regularly, as I find it’s valuable at keeping me on track. But it’s not the end all and be all. I’ve learned the numbers can sway quite a bit in a couple days, but then sway back a couple days later. But overall, I’ve seen those numbers go down, down, down.
On having kids to feed: I feed my kids when they’re hungry. We unschool at home, so I wait until I hear: Mom, I’m hungry, before I make them breakfast. Sometimes they wake up hungry, other days I don’t get a breakfast request until noon. Learning to eat based on your body telling you it’s time vs the clock saying it’s time is an extremely valuable lesson to teach them. So many people eat according to the clock: breakfast, lunch, dinner at certain times out of habit, and not when their body tells them they can’t wait any longer. And kids certainly shouldn’t diet. But my kids are both overweight, so a big part of my desire to do this is to be the change I wish to see. By modeling healthy habits, I know it’ll rub off. There is always a tossed salad in the fridge here. Often when my Son wants a snack he’ll come out of the kitchen with a salad! But that has to be there, ready to go, for that to happen. My daughter has started using the treadmill (she’s 9). Nothing serious, more for fun than anything, but she is using it. When my kids eat, I ALWAYS sit there with them, even though I’m often not eating. That’s very important to me. So while yes, it’s a non-traditional approach in many aspects, that’s how we live our lives in general, non-traditional 🙂
When I’m trying to lose, it’s lots of amazing salads + lean protein: fish, chicken or venison frequently (I have a gallery of assorted meal pics at the end). And I try to eat meat every other day at the most. So the off days will be something like a black bean quesadilla or something else high in protein. If I’m in maintenance mode, I’ll often do a salad/lean protein one day, followed by a craving meal the next day. The craving meals are often things like homemade pizza, breakfast (have recently made a tradition of eating whatever breakfasty foods I’m craving on Sundays), a burger, pb & J, a bowl of cereal, even ice cream. Truly nothing is off limits, I just work it in. It’s fun to kinda’ plan out the week, think hmmmm, what do I want to work in this week, and then work it in. And as long as I keep hitting the treadmill, I don’t gain. It’s going to be amazing to get to my goal, and just stay in maintenance mode indefinitely, I’m SO close!!!
So what I eat & when is a huge part of the journey. The other is exercise:
Last spring, as I was beginning my shift to low fat eating, I also started upping my exercise. I had always taken walks with the kids, but you know how that goes, we would dawdle along at a very slow speed. We got out and enjoyed nature, but it wasn’t exercise by any means. I finally started making time to get more active, and mainly it was a fast walk, or a shuffle as I called it, not really a run. I came to really enjoy this time alone, usually accompanied by my dog, we’d go shuffle 1.5 miles up the dead-end road near my house, and back. Sometimes I’d get up at 5am even, and enjoy that cool morning air, such a lovely time of day. I progressed to often fitting in an evening shuffle too! But really didn’t do a whole lot more than that. I could tell it was making the pounds come off quicker though. Once June came, and the hot, muggy summer days, even 5am jogs were hot, and I wasn’t loving them. So, I turned to Craigslist and bought probably the best $100 purchase ever: a treadmill! We made room in our garage, which naturally stayed a bit cooler than the outdoors, set up some high-powered fans on it, and set up a pair of speakers next to it! All those things made an awesome difference. I never felt comfortable running on the road with ear buds in, I wanted to be aware of my surroundings (we live on a country backroad). Music is one of the most important things in the world to me, so being able to suddenly march on the treadmill, with a big ol’ fan and my favorite tunes blaring made it so, so doable!
My bare minimum was/is 3 miles/day. Many weeks I would take 1-2 days off (often weekends when we had stuff planned). Recovery days are important! But also, I wasn’t/don’t hit it super hard, I stick to my shuffle, so realized I don’t truly need recovery days like heavy-duty weight lifters, etc. So I do 3-6 miles/day. Each mile burns ~200 calories. I alternate between inclines and speeds, to target different muscle groups. I spread my miles out throughout the day, which I really like vs my Hubby who does his 3-5 miles all in 1 burst. I am always multitasking in the house, with the kids, etc so spreading out my time in 15-20 minute pushes works much better with my schedule. I don’t get as tired or feel as overwhelmed going out there knowing I’ll be there for an hour. And I feel like it might jog my metabolism and keep it on its toes more throughout the day. Ultimately, you need to do what works with your schedule and preferences, all that matters is you make it work!
Other than that, I lift some weights to tone up my arms and do some core-focused easy stuff. But that’s pretty much it. Now that I’ve shed the majority of the weight I want to, I’m going to start shifting gears to more toning routines. I still will hit the treadmill 2-3 miles/day minimum, I just feel really good about knowing I’m burning a base of calories every day. But I also have developed an owie on my foot from all the repetition. A good reminder that we can wear ourselves out if we stick with 1 thing for too long. That’s my biggest fear, especially as I age (I’m 43 currently): a chronic injury that prevents me from staying active. So it’s a good time for me to start laying off the treadmill a bit. Also, our muscles have memory, so it’s important to switch up our routines to keep them on their toes.
I really wanted to share all those details as a reminder that you do not need a gym membership, or a basement full of fancy, expensive equipment! There is SO much you can do with next to nothing! And Craigslist is full of used stuff, if you do feel the need for something fancy, since most people don’t stick to their regimens. And YouTube is FULL of free workout videos if you need some help knowing what to do to tone certain areas.
Conclusion: It truly is about mindfulness. A friend once said: I eat for survival, not for fun. Or something along those lines. He has lived in China and traveled a ton to very impoverished areas. And that comment changed how I looked at eating a bit. I feel, especially here in America, we’re just not mindful enough. From what/how much we eat, to how much waste we create, there’s often not a lot of mindfulness involved. As someone who has been promoting organic/all-natural products for a decade+ now, I’ve learned a very valuable lesson in that regard. If you’re paying $20 for a bottle of shampoo because it has safe ingredients, you darn well ought a be mindful of how much you’re using. So many just glob on a huge handful of shampoo, often using many times more than they need. So just slowing down, being mindful in all areas of your life, has SO many benefits. I strive to be mindful in everything I am doing, including eating. I don’t deny myself, I am just mindful of how much I eat, and when, and then keep my butt moving on the treadmill to burn those calories. And it’s working well!!
Here is an assortment of meal pics I found on my camera roll.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, comments. Is this something that interests you? Do you have experience with intermittent fasting fasting/ OMAD? Always nice to hear the experiences of others!!
Eco-Friendly Mama: Safe product recommendations with a focus on organic and Made in USA! 