My house is actually full of candles in beautiful glass jars. I’ve always loved candlelight. But after reading about how toxic some candles can be (here and here and here), I’ve decided to switch to soy, non-toxic, clean burning candles.

There are a variety of candles that fit the bill out there, but the ones I’ve ordered are called Pure Malie Candles. Out of all the reviews online, these candles seemed to have the most positive feedback. And they come in delightful scents, too: Pikake, Plumeria, Coconut Vanilla, Koke’e, Organic Mango Nectar.

The candles are made from clean-burning waxes and are petroleum-free with 100% cotton wicks.

I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new Coconut Vanilla candle and will definitely let you know how it works out!

I wish you could smell things through the internet. Their website is quite pretty though and I can almost taste/smell the fruit in the banner!

Recently I tried out Green Beaver’s “Rejuvenating Cranberry Shampoo and Conditioner for dry, damaged or colour-treated hair” (two separate bottles, to be clear). Picked these up from Topia Greenstop (Clyde and Woodward) right here in Ottawa, Ontario. These products are 100% natural, biodegradable, vegan and gluten-free. They do not contain: Paraben or hydantoin preservatives, sulfate detergents, artificial aromas, fragrances or dyes, phthalates, quaternium, EDTA, propylene glycol or petrolatum. All kinds of awesome, especially considering my hair colour.

I dye my hair regularly. But I don’t use just any hair dye — my hair, as many of you have noted — is quite a bright, fluorescent, unnatural red. Most over-the-counter pharmacy/grocery store shampoos and conditioners cause my hair colour to bleed out significantly. Because of this I usually limit myself to one good shampoo/conditioning per week. This plan works well, but isn’t ideal as by the end of the week my hair is getting oily enough that I can’t wear it the ways I would like to because it’s heavy and unmanageable.

I gave Green Beaver a shot because I figured that maybe, just maybe, the chemicals in ‘normal’ shampoo/conditioner are what strips the colour from my hair.

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Alright – the laundry experiment has been completed! I washed a load of my clothes with Nature Clean Laundry Detergent and a load of my clothes with a popular orange-bottle’d Mountain Fresh scented brand detergent.  Results?

The other brand – My clothes are clean! No surprise there. I’ve used this brand all my life, so why expect a surprise? My clothes smell like… mountains? I’ve never smelled mountains, but I’m pretty sure they don’t smell like whatever this chemical is… Now, it’s not bad, it’s just clearly a chemical smell.

Nature Clean Laundry Detergent – My clothes are clean! And they smell — like clothes. This might sound odd, but clothes smelling like clothes means that they don’t smell like chemicals — a good thing for a laundry detergent that markets itself as a natural product.

Ingredients: Water, Fatty Polyglycoside (from cornstarch and palm kernel oil), Pure Castile Soap (from soya and canola), Coco-Bentaine (from plant source), Sodium Citrate (salt of citric acid), Cellulose Collides (from cotton and wood), Potassium Sorbate (food grade preservatives)

The detergent doesn’t foam up as much as your standard orange-bottle’d detergent which might fool you into thinking that it’s not very effective (why is it that suds = effective for me? hrmm). But I can assure you, it worked just fine! And, while I do appreciate that it is natural, I’m not quite at the “dark green” level yet — so the big selling point for me? Bulk! It’s available from Topia Greenstop in bulk! You can bring in your own container and fill it up. I’m going to be just like my grandmother; I’ll have countless containers and boxes with masking tape on them labeled ‘laundry detergent’ and ’sugar’ and ‘dried peas’ in my house. I can just see it now.

So, looking for a great, natural alternative to the strong-smelling, chemical-filled laundry detergent you currently use? Try this stuff out! … and be sure to let me know what you think.