Earth Friendly Dishmate Washing Up Liquid Eco Product Review

Nigel’s Eco Store offered me an alternative to Ecover when it came to environmentally-friendly washing up - Nigel’s Eco Store Earth Friendly Dishmate Washing Up Liquid.

For reasons only known to our landlord, our dishwasher is incredibly difficult to open so it sits there doing nothing looking smug as I scrub the dishes. But I actually don’t mind washing up and have been using Ecover for years so am used to not having many bubbles, and this Dishmate follows suit. I’ve been using the natural grapefruit ‘flavour’ (made from essential oils) but couldn’t smell it really apart from when sticking the bottle up my nose, which I don’t recommend by the way. But smell isn’t something needed when cleaning dishes.

It’s said only 1.5ml of the ‘ultra concentrated’ liquid is needed (500 bowls per bottle!) for a bowl of washing up but unless you measure it out a small squirt is cool enough. It’s a bit more like traditional washing up liquid in that it’s quiet thick and it’s in a similar bottle. And it’s also tricky to squeeze out with one of those pull out tops. The reason I haven’t taken a picture of my own bottle is that I dropped it attempting a big squeeze. To be fair it survived the fall, albeit with a bash on the shoulder.

Earth Friendly Dishmate has a raft of environmental claims, including: neutral PH value, contain no petrochemicals, ammonia, caustic soda, chlorine, phosphates or formaldehyde, are vegan and GM free, formaldehyde free, safe to use with a septic tank and the bottles can be recycled. Presumably ‘where facilities exist’.

But how does it clean? And the answer is perfectly well. It doesn’t offer any fantastic results that amazed me, it did just the job it was asked and did it well. I’ve been using it a while now and it seems to be lasting a long time so am really happy with it. If they could just sort out the opening thingy so I don’t have to squeeze it so much, I’ll be pleased as punch.

A 1.5 litre bottle costs £3.40 from Nigel’s Eco Store and is available in grapefruit, pear and almond. The ingredients are: water, naturally derived coconut oil surfactants (not sodium laurel sulphate), salt and essential oil.

Shea Butter Eco Product Review

Ethical Babe sent me some lovely Shea Butter made by Akamuti to review. Described as a ‘the most delicious treat for skin’ I couldn’t resist giving it a go myself, although I suspect it may be for babies and ladies. Naturally rich in Vitamins A, E & F, it is said to help treat skin problems such as eczema, sunburn, itching, insect bites & skin blemishes.

The first thing I noticed was how thick it was, for some reason I expected it to be like butter. It also contains a natural substance called ahhahsh which is similar to latex and explains the smell - a bit like rubber bands. The smell starts off quite strong as you apply it but after a while goes away. It takes a bit of effort to apply as it is thick but it rubs into the skin quite nicely and you’re not left with any oily residue or anything.

I used it on an area of dry skin and it worked wonderfully, felt better than moisturiser for some reason and although it doesn’t last forever, seemed to last longer than conventional moisturiser, I liked it a lot. I haven’t tried it on my lips (I’m a bit like Larry David in that manner, once you start to moisturise there’s no going back and you have to do it all the time) but I’m told it’s great for chapped lips. I’m looking forward to using it after doing a bit of DIY and my hands are hurting.

Virgin Shea Butter is organically grown and fairly traded from Togo, West Africa. It costs £4.95 from Ethical Babe which was founded in 2006 by Claudia and Claire. They have lots of great stuff for adults and babies - have you seen the poncho bathrobe?