Clorox Green Works

Have you tried the Green Works line from Clorox? I recently had the opportunity to try several of their products thanks to my lovely friends at Mom Central.

Let me cut to the chase with these products. I love them! I've been testing green cleaning products for a while now and I've been disappointed time and again. I opened the All Purpose Spray and went right to work on my kitchen. The smell of this product is amazing! In the past, the natural cleaners have seriously lacked in the smell department and that is very important to me. Another good thing is that the spray actually works, too! Good smell, safe product AND it works? I'm devoted.

In addition to the All Purpose Cleaner, I also tried the Dishwashing Liquid, Bathroom Cleaner, and Dilutable Cleaner. I love each one so far. They all have a nice smell without being overpowering, which I've mentioned is very important to me. More importantly, they all WORK. Even better than that, I feel good about letting my kids come around after I've cleaned because I know the products are safe. I also know I'm not washing something down the drain that could contaminate our water supply. I'll be using these products from now on.

The folks at Green Works have developed a web site, 30 Days To Natural, to help you on your own journey to being green. You can receive tips on going green from them and watch videos about regular people who are doing the same. You can invite your friends to learn along with you. This is a site that I'm learning to love. There are a lot of tips, ranging from the very simple to things I hadn't thought of.

If you've tried these products, let me know what you think. I personally love them and since they are affordable and they work so well, I'll be using them for a long time.

Oil Cleansing Method

Recently, my friend Christy posted about something new she was trying for facial cleansing. My initial reaction was, “Ewww.” Getting over that, I was intrigued.

Have you heard of the Oil Cleansing Method? Basically, you combine caster oil with either olive oil or sunflower oil and clean your face with it rather than your normal, most likely chemical based facial cleanser.

Sounds simple, right?

It totally is! The hardest part was finding caster oil. Let me save you some time, head for Walgreens because I live in a fairly large city and they were still the only place that carried it.

You can experiment with how much of each oil you’ll need. I have crazy skin that’s oily in some places and flaky dry in some so I started with mixing a small amount in case I needed to adjust. I started with 20% castor oil and 80% extra virgin olive oil and that seems to be working well for me. Read the article to find out what mixture will work best for you.

I had some fears going into this. First, that I’d smell like an Italian hoagie. Not at all! While I’m massaging the oil into my skin, the smell of the olive oil drives me batty. As soon as I’m done, the smell is gone. I have even asked my husband if he can smell it and he says that he can’t.

I was also afraid that I’d have problems with this making my skin really oily. Sure, I’d read that the castor oil actually breaks up the oil on your skin but the thought of rubbing oil on my skin seemed contrary to taking the oil off. Believe it, friends. It works!

My final fear was that I'd have to use a seperate product to remove my mascara. This works as well as any cleaner I've used in the past (and I think I've used them all!) at removing all of my eye makeup.

I have been able to eliminate my nightly moisturizer since I started using this method just over a week ago. On top of that, I hadn’t yet found a “green” facial cleanser and this keeps me from having to try out all of the expensive ones.

If you have tried this method, please let me know! I’d love to hear how you like it.

**Photo credit: Liv Friis-larsen - Fotolia.com

Well, Well, Well

I'm sure you guys probably thought I was gone forever, didn't you? I have been away from this blog for way too long and I have been itching to get back.

The truth is, I haven't written here because I didn't feel like I had anything new to share with you. We have been cruising along quite nicely with all of the changes that we made to make our lifestyle more green but hadn't tried anything new.

It occurred to me that I originally wanted this blog to be about sharing my journey with you but I also wanted a dialog with you about what you are doing and how this journey is working for you. I wanted to share products with you that I'd either heard about or tried...the good and the bad. I wanted to encourage each other as we tried to make our lives better and take care of the world we live in.

I'm ready to get back to those things. I'm ready to talk. Do you have something that you want to hear about that I haven't covered? If you guys are still reading, let's chat. I'll have at least two new posts up this week and in two weeks, there will be a giveaway here that you won't want to miss. So, bring your ideas, questions and tell your friends because I'm back, baby.