New (and not so new) things at the store

I love Casabella products. Everything they do is so well-designed. Their sponges are attractive, I prefer their microfiber cloths to anyone else's, and I've waxed poetic about their magnet mop in the past (it's the best mop ever, I'm convinced). Anyway, I saw something cool in my local BBB today- a stylish spray bottle with three different types of microfiber cloth in it. And printed on the side of the bottle were formulas for making your own basic cleaning products from simple ingredients. If you happen to need either a spritz bottle, or microfiber products, it's pretty sweet.

I also saw the Method hand soap refill jugs for the first time at BBB- HUGE! If you use their hand soap, this is a pretty good deal. I haven't seen refills this size at Target or Whole Foods. This size doesn't seem to be available anywhere online-apartment therapy only saw it in person at Costco.
It seems like it was much cheaper at CostCo, actually. To my surprise, I like the smell of the Sea Minerals and the Green Tea+Aloe self-foaming hand soap. As a bit of a tangent, the spring limited edition Mrs Meyer's smell- snap pea- smells awesome, really like fresh peas! I'll link to it on drugstore.com, since mrsmeyers.com is no longer selling it.

Trader Joe's (HE) Liquid Laundry Detergent

I should be grumpy at you, Trader Joe's. I just moved from Chicago, land of TJs, to Houston, and in the entire state of Texas there is not a single TJs. Not even in Austin. Nonetheless, I'll forgive TJs and lament the loss of their delicious lime habanero salsa.

First: A great, informative post on Earth friendly laundry detergents here.

Anyway, I was slightly concerned about buying TJs detergent because it only comes in a lavender EO scented variety, and my dog has experienced skin reactions to eco friendly scented detergents in the past, although I cannot see why he'd have a problem with lavender EO, per se. Especially in limited quanities. (I wash the dog beds and blankets as needed.)

Like the reviewer on grist, I've had fairly consistent results with all of the eco detergents I use, so your best bet is to go with one in your preferred scent (or scentless) and pay attention to cost effectiveness (which goes hand-in-hand with greater eco friendliness, in that if you're emptying bottles faster, you're creating more waste), and overall environmental impact of the formula.

So... the smell on this detergent is actually lovely. It's quite mild, and doesn't seem to linger through the drying process in my dryer. I have tested some grim stains on this stuff- red wine, salsa, bloody mary- and all came out easily. My clothes, towels, and bed sheet all feel soft when they come out of the dryer. If you have an HE washer, you won't need a ton of detergent, but even if you don't, this is a fairly concentrated product. The powder is even more so, as water is still an ingredient in the liquid version.

Alas, for me, I'll be going back to Seventh Generation Free & Clear, my old standby, as this isn't an option for me anymore.

p.s. A good run-through of the ingredients can be found on the greener one blog