Trader Joe's Room Spray: Coriander and Bergamot

My bathroom occasionally smells less than fresh, as I'm sure yours does. I've actually avoided (even eco-friendly) room sprays for the most part, but Trader Joe's has a way of talking me into things I wouldn't otherwise consider!

Last time I was there, I nabbed a bottle of their essential oil-based coriander/bergamot "Next to Godliness" room spray and I'm really enjoying the scent. I've had the urge to spray it on myself a few times. Never felt that way about Lysol spray, that's for sure. Now granted, I could make this stuff myself with the essential oils in question ($17 for coriander and $13 for bergamot; I already have the bergamot.) and some water, and I may try that. But I have to credit TJs for selling this stuff cheaply and giving me the idea for the scent combination (and for making it non-aerosol.) The scent could linger a bit more, but it seems to mask stinky bathroom aromas nicely, at least temporarily.

Depending on how much air freshener spray you go through and whether you'd use the essential oils for anything else, you might be saving money by buying the TJs version.

Most essential oils have directions on the packaging for how much (distilled) water to combine with EOs to make a room spray or linen spray. My favorite linen spray "recipe" = 18 drops of oil for every 1 oz water combined in a spray bottle.
(Aura Cacia also sells prepackaged EO blends for those of you who don't have a full medicine cabinet of oils like I do.)

South of France hand soap

I'm biased against bad packaging. I know... it means I probably bypass good products and spend more on cleaning products overall, but as some of you know, I'm an ex-design professor. So when I told my husband he could pick out our hand soap and he returned with a brand called "South of France" whose label design I wasn't overly fond of, I kind of assumed it couldn't be that great. It looked so "generic drugstore brand"!
The texture though, was totally different from any hand soap I've tried before. It's creamier somehow, and a lot more moisturizing. I really like it! The "green tea" scent doesn't smell like actual green tea to me (as usual), but it's quite fresh and herby.

Apparently this hand soap is "kettle cooked in small batches using a traditional recipe from Marseille". Well, that's kind of cool. The company makes bar soaps too. It contains essential oils and no SLS. Judging from the reviews floating around online, people either love it or hate it.

And, to combat purchasing for aesthetic reasons, I found a great site the other day: debranded home. They encourage you to make your own personal care products, and/or to purchase in larger quantities and refill plain jars. We do this! We have lovely recycled glass soap dispensers that we refill with hand soap. It's a fun site.