Eco Egg

Hiya Guys!

I hope you are all doing well and are ready for Autumn, I know I certainly am! There is nothing better than cosy nights in wrapped up in a big warm blanket with a hot chocolate, whilst it's dark and cold outside.

As I am sure you've heard me talk about many times, this year I have really started to focus on living a more eco friendly lifestyle - whether this is by massively reducing my meat and dairy consumption to cutting out single use plastic in our household, both myself and my boyfriend Alex have been making a really big effort towards this.

I wanted to do a post today about Ecoegg who are a company who focus on eco friendly laundry products, I bought an Ecoegg Laundry Egg back in July and I have not looked back since! I will never use conventional laundry products again, I wish I'd have found Ecoegg sooner. I will also be doing a give-away for an Ecoegg product at the end of this post! 

Ecoegg Laundry Egg

The first Ecoegg product I tried was their Laundry Egg, which I bought in July and I have to say that this product is the most practical eco friendly product I have bought with regards to everyday usage and how much waste we have reduced. It is a reusable product that you use in place of laundry detergent and fabric conditioner - simply pop it into the washing machine drum along with your washing and it's that simple! 

The Laundry Egg includes the egg itself as well as the pellets that go inside the egg, there is a instruction manual included which advises how many washes the pellets will do before having to replace them. They last around 70 washes, then you simply purchase the refill pellets and top up your egg. 

Ecoegg have found that if you switch from liquid detergent and fabric conditioner to a Laundry Egg you will save up to 40 bottles of plastic each year (based on 7 washes a week). If everyone made the switch to a Laundry Egg can you imagine how much we could reduce plastic waste! 

Another benefit is the amount of money you will end up saving in the long run. The only laundry product I have bought since using the Laundry Egg is one bottle of Ecover Fabric Softener which I use for my towels as I find that using the egg alone leaves the towels a little harder than I like them. Other than that I just use the egg on it's own for all my washing. Many people have asked me if it cleans clothes as well as the conventional products do and seem worried that it wouldn't smell nice or may come out stained. In the 4 months I have been using the Laundry Egg I haven't had to re-wash any clothes due to smells or stains - it cleans my clothes as well as any other product I've used before and leaves clothes smelling lovely and fresh - I use the Fresh Linen scent. 

You can buy the Laundry Egg in two scents - Fresh Linen and Spring Blossom, they also have a Fragrance Free option. They include no harsh chemicals and as well as being kind to the environment they are kind to your skin, perfect for those who have to be careful with which laundry products they use due to having sensitive skin or a skin condition. 

You can purchase the products on their website or in most Waitrose stores.

Laundry Egg

Ecoegg Instant Stain Remover 

I can't recommend this product enough, Ecoegg kindly sent over their Instant Stain Remover for me to try out alongside my Laundry Egg and I absolutely love it! I rarely need stain remover as I find my Laundry Egg gets out most marks, however if I had a tougher stain I always used a 'soap bar' type stain remover that I would rub on before putting in the washing machine.

On the day my Instant Stain Remover arrived, it was like fate - as I managed to get paint all over my black t-shirt when trying to touch up the paintwork on the landing at our house. I was using one of those little tester rollers and when squeezing the paint to come out it fired out in all directions all over my face and t-shirt! How planned this sounds is so funny - but it was honestly a lifesaver. 

I did this once before and tried getting it out with the bar and washing it however it didn't come out and I was absolutely gutted. However as soon as it happened, I ran it under the tap and sprayed it with the Stain Remover then popped it straight into the washing machine with my Laundry Egg and it came out! I was honestly SO chuffed. 

Just like the Laundry Egg this product includes no harsh chemicals and has been dermatologically tested and is hypoallergenic.  

Instant Stain Remover

Ecoegg Dryer Eggs

The final Ecoegg product that I have tried is their Dryer Eggs, along with the Stain Remover I was kindly gifted this product to test out. In our house we have a washer/dryer and honestly hardly ever use the dryer unless we really need to. I'm not sure whether it's because it's a washer/dryer rather than just the dryer on it's own however when I've used the dryer option in the past, it seems to take forever to actually dry the clothes - it got to the point where we would have it on for an hour however the clothes still came out damp so we then dried them on the clothes horse.

So when I received these Dryer Eggs I was really looking forward to testing them out as Ecoegg claim that it reduces drying time by 28% which is a huge difference since dryers are one of the most expensive Household Appliances. I have used the product a few times now and I am really surprised at how much they really work! I now find that when I put the clothes in the dryer alongside the dryer eggs, the time it usually takes to get clothes fully dry is reduced quite a bit and I can now allow clothes to dry rather than taking them out damp and drying on the clothes horse. I always did this as I couldn't justify how long it used to take my clothes to dry.

These are such a good investment if you regularly use your dryer - something as simple as popping them in the machine with your clothes can reduce the drying time and in the long run save you money! Just like the Laundry Egg the Dryer Eggs come in two scents  as well as Fragrance Free - the fragrance sticks add a delicate scent to your laundry. 

Dryer Balls

GIVE AWAY

Ecoegg have very kindly given me a set of Spring Blossom Dryer Balls to give away to someone, I am holding this give away over on my Instagram, so if you click HERE it will take you to my page and you can go ahead and enter if you'd like to be in with a chance of winning these for yourself.

As always, thank you very much for reading. If you have any questions about Ecoegg, feel free to ask away and I will try and answer the best as I can. Let me know your thoughts on Ecoegg and if you use any other eco friendly laundry products I would love to know!

Amber xxx 

Eco Living

Hiya Guys!

One of mine and Alex's New Year Resolutions this year was to become more Eco Friendly. If you follow me on Instagram you may know that unlike most resolutions this is one that we have really stuck to and are trying to do more and more as time goes by.

I wanted to share my experience with Eco Living and tell you what we currently do to make a difference and what we are planning on doing going forward. 

I saw a great quote the other day that I think is so incredibly important - 'We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.' 

A small change is better than no change at all, whether this is as simple as using metal or bamboo reusable straws and buying bamboo toothbrushes rather than plastic. People should not be shamed for only making a few small changes rather than living 100% zero waste. They should be congratulated on the small changes they have made and encouraged to make any further changes that they can. 

I am going to share a few changes that we have in our House on our journey towards a more Eco Friendly lifestyle. 

Metal Straws and Chopsticks 

It starts with the simple things, these metal straws and chopsticks were the first things that we purchased. There is a big push in the media at the moment to get rid of plastic straws, which is really good to see a big audience getting on board with! There are many more things we can all be doing to make a difference, however this is a great place to start and are super inexpensive to pick up on eBay. 

Bamboo Toothbrushes

Another simple place to start is with a Bamboo Toothbrush. I recently read that Plastic Toothbrushes take over 400 years to decompose, we switched to Bamboo over 6 weeks ago and I can't believe we didn't do it sooner. It is so incredibly simple, again very inexpensive and doesn't feel any different to using a Plastic Toothbrush - so there is no reason not to make the change! 

Recycled Candles 

Recycling Candles and Wax is something that we have been doing for around 2 months now, as an avid user of both Candles and Wax Melts I couldn't help but notice how much waste it created. I've noticed with multiple candle brands that when the candle has finished burning and the wick will no longer light, there is still so much wax left over that would simply be wasted. This is the same with wax melts, once the scent has finished you're left with wax that is simply put in the waste. 

Which is why we have started melting this left over wax down and making our own candles and tea lights. We have been re-using glass jars and empty tea light cases that we have kept over the weeks and pouring the melted wax into these - the wicks are cheap enough to buy online. I will be filming a YouTube video on this process soon, so you can follow along and make your own! 

Reusable Cotton Pads

Reusable Cotton Pads are quite a new change for me, I picked these up from a shop on Etsy called Leave No Trace. You use them as you would regular cotton pads with your micellar water or toner and then simply pop them into your cute little bag that is included and put them in the washing machine and they can be used over and over! 

Eco Egg 

I wish I would have known about this product sooner, the Eco Egg is an eco friendly alternative to laundry detergent and fabric conditioner. Simply stick it in the drum with your washing and let it work it's magic! This little egg lasts up to 1 year and when required, you just replace the pellets - the egg will last a lifetime. It is amazing to think how many plastic bottles we can avoid using by switching to the Eco Egg. 

Lush Naked Products 

If you know me you will know how much I love Lush and how long I've been using their products. More recently they have been creating more and more naked products (packaging free) - from Solid Lip Scrubs and Body Scrubs to Naked Face Wipes and Facial Cleansers. I would really recommend checking out what naked products Lush sell and seeing if they would work in your routine. Even the smallest change from using Shower Gel and Liquid Hand Wash to Soap makes a difference!

Cotton Produce Bags

Something we've always done is not use the awful single use plastic bags in supermarkets. Why they are still in shops is beyond me, you don't need to put your bananas in a plastic bag which is going to go straight in the bin when you get home. Cotton Produce Bags and so cheap to pick up and do the exact same thing if not better! I bought these from Poundland for £1 and Poundstretcher for 50p. 

Teal Trunk

Finally we have the Teal Trunk which I was kindly gifted by the lovely owner Tara, I was looking for an eco alternative to washing up sponges and came across this unique product, I'd never seen anything on the market like this before! It's a silicone scrubber which can be re-used over and over and due to the material it is made from doesn't hold on to any bacteria. I have seen so many people on my Instagram use this for so many things, from cleaning make up brushes, scrubbing their veg, cleaning the sink and so much more. I haven't tried this yet as I still have a couple of sponges left from the last multi pack we bought, but as soon as I do I will post my thoughts on my Instagram. 

Following on from that is something I want to mention when it comes to Eco Living, finding an eco alternative is amazing however it shouldn't mean that you throw away your none eco product which still has plenty of life in it. Use your sponges and one use cotton pads up that you may already have, then once they're used you can go on to your new exciting product. Do not create waste for the sake of something new.

I am always interested in new ways to become more Eco Friendly, should anyone have any suggestions of things they currently do please let me know! We have today found a Zero Waste shop in our local town that allows you to refill your dry foods such as pasta and rice etc as well as cleaning products and things such as Shampoo and Conditioner. This is such an amazing thing to come to our small town and we can't wait to start using it!

I hope you enjoyed the read and can take something from this blog, the more people that make any changes the bigger difference we can all make to looking after our planet. 

Amber xxx