Cath Kidston Kitchen Cleaner Eco Product Review

If you hate cleaning, like me, you should get the job of testing cleaners out. It’s amazing how it focuses you as you wipe the grime away and you start thinking more about the product than the actual cleaning. Try it, it works. In fact, buy this Cath Kidston Kitchen Cleaner from Big Green Smile and let me know if like it – then you’ll be cleaning and reviewing at the same time!

Anyway, part of the Washing Line er line of products, the kitchen cleaner comes in a simple, friendly bottle with an Eco Friendly cloud on the front. The ingredients list reads: aqua, alcohol, alkyl polyglucoside, sodium citrate, sodium lauryl sulfoacetate, benzophenone-4, parfum and lactic acid. It says it’s non-toxic, biodegradeable, contains no animal products, parabens or sulphates.

As you would imagine, you simply spray it onto the surface and wipe away. I initially tried it on my stainless steel sink and while it didn’t work as well as Method’s stainless steel cleaner, it did quite a nice job. And on the usual work surfaces it did as good a job as any other cleaner I’ve used – eco-friendly or not.

The nozzle is quite good and helps cleaning as you can choose it to either spray or stream the cleaner out depending on what job you’re doing and amount of cleaner you need. Maybe a lot of cleaners have them and this is the first time I’ve realised, but it’s quite useful.

Another way it stands out from other eco cleaners is the smell. Most have a neutral or citrus scent, but this is ‘cotton fresh’ which actually rather pleasant and was a nice surprise as I wasn’t expecting it.

It’s good a big name like Cath Kidston has gone down the eco route with its line of cleaners and you’ll be happy with the result. The Washing Line Kitchen Cleaner cost £3.95 for 750ml from Big Green Smile.

Twist Dish Dumpling And Ravioli Scrubby Review

BuyGreen sells some green products I haven’t seen anywhere else, and some of the ones I wanted to take a look at were from the Twist range.

The Twist Dish Dumpling (on the left of the picture) is a piece of sponge covered in a rough agave wrapping. It’s dye-free and biodegradable, and you can clean it in the dishwasher (top rack) or sterilize it in the microwave or boiling water. It’s fairly rough on the surface so there is a possibility it may scratch some surfaces, but no more than a normal kitchen sponge.

The Twist Ravioli Scrubby is the best looking of all, very aptly named for it’s giant ravioli appearance. It’s made from hemp burlap with biodegradable sponge inside.

I don’t do much hand washing these days as the more water efficient dishwasher does most of the work, but a few pots and items have to be done each night and these both work great, you can’t tell the difference from using something else, except I’m guessing these will last longer than a cheap sponge and look a lot better too.

I also received some Sponge Blossoms, that are sponges that grow when you add water, like when you were a kid and you could “grow” your own toy by adding water. I haven’t had a chance to give them a go yet, but they look very interesting.

Find out more about Twist here, and buy them from BuyGreen.

5 Litre Kitchen Composter Eco Product Review

I was a little sceptical about having a composter in the kitchen having grown up with a large one in the garden, mainly for grass cuttings. And I don’t throw that much away that needs composting… do I?

It turns I do, or I did, as I don’t any more. The beauty of this composter is that you can just keep it right next to the sink or near the bin and then you just throw stuff in. Eggshells, vegetable peelings, teabags, banana skins and so on can just be tossed in. It’s amazing how much stuff used to go in the bin. Even things like paper can be composted and it’s good for the compost to throw some in occasionally. In fact, if you search the internet you can find ‘recipes’ for good compost.

With a secure lid that stops smells coming out and a carry handle, the design is simple but effective. And the fact that it’s small stops it becoming too smelly as you’ll fill it up quickly and empty it often.

The 5 Litre Kitchen Composter is available from Ethical Superstore for £4.95.

Method All Purpose Spray Eco Product Review

After testing Method’s Stainless Steel Cleaner, Flushable Wipes and Soy Candle, Big Green Smile sent us some All Purpose Spray to review. Firstly I’ll get out the way how much I like the bottle shape and tounge-in-cheek writing on the bottle – all products should be like this – but it’s more important to find out if it works well.

I didn’t get the same colour as pictured on the website, I think Method must just update them as mine was pink as pictured below, although I’m sure it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference to how it works.

I gave it a stern test – my cooker top which hadn’t been cleaned for a couple of weeks. And I just used a cloth so I would have to work at stubborn stains. But I didn’t have to really. I turned the nozzle to ‘on’ and off I went, a few sprays and a quick wipe and I was done. Well almost. There were a few places which needed a further wipe but what I discovered was that if you sprayed a drop of the Method cleaner on the area, left it for about 30 seconds, it then wiped off easily.

The smell wasn’t quite as nice as other Method products and it did seem a bit ‘chemically’ but I wasn’t worried about breathing it in or touching it with my hands like I am with other cleaners. It’s made with naturally-derived surfactants and is biodegradable.

Method All Purpose Spray costs £3.00 and is available from Big Green Smile.

Method Stainless Steel Cleaner Eco Product Review

I’ve seen Method products on the shelf at my local Waitrose supermarket but Big Green Smile are the only place online that officially sells it and they kindly sent me a whole host of Method products to review.

I first got busy with what is actually called ‘method stainless steel, streak-free, clean + polish’. Lovely stuff. I was actually going to give this to a friend to test as there’s only so much cleaning I can cope with, but I took a look at the state of our sink and draining board at home and thought I’d better give it a quick go. I’m not giving it up.

The thing is, I love the look of the draining board and sink now, I’ve become obsessed with how clean it is, it’s lovely. But back to the beginning. Well there’s not much to say really but my sink was dirty so I gave it a clean. The directions suggested a soft cloth but as it was so dirty and scratched anyway I went with a rough cloth and boy, did it need it. I think I should have gone with a normal cleaner first as this isn’t something that gets ground on dirt off easily, it took quite a bit of scrubbing but it let a hell of a shine. I went with the soft cloth after and it’s brilliant and has given a whole new dimension to my washing up!

I’m not joking I love it. I also didn’t use rubber gloves, I wasn’t bothered about getting it on my skin and I was fine, there’s no great smell to speak of so felt very comfortable spraying the fine mist onto the sink. I hope the rest of the Method range lives up to these results.

Another thing I love is the packaging. Well, not the plastic, it is recyclable but there’s no getting away from plastic where chemicals are concerned, but the design of the bottle is great and the directions and writing is fun and helpful. All design and packaging should be like this, it almost makes cleaning fun.

Method stainless steel cleaner costs £4.00 from Big Green Smile. Here’s a bit of blurb about Big Green Smile as we haven’t featured them on Life Goggles before:
“We sell an extensive range of green, ethical, recycled and eco-friendly gifts and gadgets that will help you to help our environment, with lots of ways to save water & energy and reduce your carbon footprint. We work closely with suppliers to ensure that our products are the most environmentally friendly of their type on the market and that we offer as wide a selection of products to our customers as possible.”