Last week LaundryTree gave away a $20 gift certificate to a dkMommy Spot reader. (Congratulations to Kira!) Now I have two more $20 gift certificates to give away. This time, it will be a little different. Since I already told you all about my experience using all-natural Soap Nuts to clean my laundry, I thought we’d talk about what is in the average laundry soap. Here are some of the more common ingredients and why they’re not so good for our families:
Petroleum distillates (or napthas): Linked to cancer, lung damage, lung inflammations, damage to mucous membranes.
Phenols: Toxic. Nonyl phenol ethoxylate, a common phenol in U.S. detergents, is banned in Europe. Stimulates growth of breast cancer cells.
Optical brighteners: Can cause allergic reactions when exposed to skin that is later exposed to the sun.
Sodium hypochlorite (household bleach): Highly poisonous when ingested, and can mix with other chemicals to create deadly gases.
Artificial fragrances: Many of these are made from petroleum, and they can often cause allergies and skin and eye irritation.
Whew! And I left out the ones that are bad for the environment, although I can’t imagine any of these are so great for the earth either.
I wouldn’t tell you all of this if there wasn’t a simple solution. Soap Nuts are all natural. They’re a little dried fruit off a tree that grows in India, Indonesia, and Nepal. Better yet, they work great. I did a little math and found that using Soap Nuts would actually be much cheaper for my family than any of the conventional laundry detergents. Want to try them?
3 Ways to Win (One winner will be chosen from Comments, another from active email subscribers):
1.) Go take a look at the laundry detergent you have right now. In the comments section of this post, tell me one ingredient you found there. (Don’t worry–spelling doesn’t count.) I’ll go first. Let’s see here–aha! I found it. Ingredients: Soap Nuts.
2.) Email subscribers are entered into this and all future giveaways, for as long as their subscription is active. Just click here: Subscribe to dkMommy Spot by Email (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you don’t receive it, check your junk mail. Only verified subscriptions are entered for all the giveaways.)
3.) Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back to this post. Come back and leave me a Comment with a link to your blog post.
Do all three, and you’ve got three entries to win! You have until midnight EST on Sunday, July 20, 2008, to enter.
For another shot at LaundryTree’s Soap Nuts, check out the Gimme Recipes! Contest. LaundryTree has added a $20 gift certificate to the gift bundle going to the submitter of the best healthy recipe.
I am slowly but surely turning my family into a “Green” family. When my kids were little I used baking soda and vinegar to the laundry because they all have very sensitive skin. I recently discovered seventh generation products and now use all of them. The main ingredient in the free & clear laundry detergent is: A low foaming blend of naturally derived cleaning agents (coconut derived surfactants & glycerin.). I have never tried laundry tree soap nuts before or even heard of them, I would love to try them! Great giveaway, thanks.
I’ve been using Dr Bronners on my diapers… one ingredient is “saponified organic coconut & olive oils” I throw in some washing soda too to help it along. I love Charlies Soap, but have been out of it for quite awhile. I’d love to try some soap nuts!
mama ks last blog post..La La Linky Love
I linked to the contest here:
http://mamaknj.blogspot.com/2008/07/la-la-linky-love.html
have no idea what this is but nonionic surfactants is in there
Baking Soda
Surficants–what are they?
Bleach
I also found biodegradeable surfactants in mine.
Thank you for offering this prize.
My detergent–Tide HE Free and Clear–actually doesn’t have a real list of ingredients–it just says “includes biodegradable surfecants and enzymes.” No phosphates, and no dyes or perfumes. So could be worse… But I really want to try these soap nuts!
Ingredients: biodegradable surfactants
Mine has anionic surfactants!
HMMMMM IT SAYS biodegradable surfactants and cleaning agents it’s not very detailed as to what all the ingredients are kind of makes you wonder
biodegradeable surfactants
anionic surfactants
surfactants???
The only things is lists are: biodegradable anionic surfactants and enzymes – yikes, that concerns me!
Hmm, anionic surfactants in mine, not quite sure what that is, probably not good!
seems to have anionic and/or nonionic surfactants…………….weird!
borax
biodegradable anionic and/or non ionic surfactants
enzymes
I just spent several minutes researching soap nuts, I have never heard of them and think this is so very cool! The ingredient in my detergent is: baking soda.
The artificial fragrances are what make my head hurt!
perfume
baking soda
fragrance
Like another poster, I also use Tide HE and found that it has anionic surfactants. I am really curious about how the soap nuts wori.
naptha????
Soap Nuts
Biodegradeable Surfactants
Mine has anionic, nonionic and cationic biogradable surfactants! Wow, thanks for opening our eyes and introducing us to Soap Nuts!
How do they work? Do you just use one per load? Now how do we replace our fabric softener?! Thank you!