Little Furrow 11 Natural Products We Love!

These days, there’s a huge influx of natural products that have made their way onto the market. Some are legitimately wonderful products, while others boast a laundry list of eco-friendly benefits that they can’t really stand behind. This makes it a bit hard to weed out the green washers. Here, I’ve compiled a list of items I feel good about, use regularly, and love to keep in my home. I know it can be hard to make the switch to a lower waste lifestyle, but these products are totally worth it!

Skincare and Hygiene

Image from Bluem

Bluem Kakadu Plum and Finger Lime Serums—I can’t say enough good things about Bluem and their skincare. They are a climate positive, fair trade, B Corp certified, natural/organic Australian brand that makes the most beautiful products. My skin absolutely thrived when using these serums and I felt like they were healing my skin on a deep level, compared to some skincare that simply felt like a bandaid fix. I recommend taking a look at their sustainability claims and how they source their ingredients to learn more about the positive impact they are making in the skincare world. We LOVE Bluem! Clean tip: Wash, sterilize, and save your bottles to use for homemade tinctures and remedies.

Dr Bronner’s Pure Castile Soap – This is what I use to wash my face and body. I find it to be super gentle and feel it does an amazing job at removing makeup and general dirt after a long day. It also comes in bar form and paper carton refill, which is a great option for even less waste. Clean tip: Research if your town has a store with a Dr. Bronner’s refill station!

Image from Mad Hippie

Mad Hippie Triple C Night Cream – Mad Hippie products are a total win. Being made in the USA and clean, you’d expect the price point to be far higher, but lucky for us it’s quite affordable. I’ve used a couple of their serums as well as their night cream and I can truly attest to their quality and effectiveness. Clean tip: Save and clean your glass jar to use for homemade remedies and balms!

dr Bronner's unscented organic magic balm

Image from Dr Bronner’s

Dr Bronner’s Organic Skin Balm —Basically a non-toxic petroleum jelly, this balm is perfect for dry and cracked hands and feet in the winter. Check out the arnica and menthol balm as well for sore and achy muscles! Made with ingredients you can trust that don’t come from oil and gas production, this magic balm is a no-brainer. Clean tip: Wash and save the container to store vitamins or small necessities in your bag.

Cleaning

Dr Bronner’s Sal Suds—I LOVE Sal Suds. It’s an all purpose hard surface cleaner that is great to have around the home. I dilute it and use it in my kitchen for everything, but you can use it as laundry detergent, mop your floors with it, or mix it with baking soda to make a great abrasive cleaner. It’s an all around great product, plus Dr. Bronner’s really cares about keeping things clean, ethical, and good for the planet! Clean tip: Once you’re done with your Sal Sud jug, cut off the bottom and use it in your garden to protect young tender plants in the spring. It’s essentially a mini green house! It works best with the gallon sized jug.

ZWS Dish Brush and ZWS Bottle Brush—You can find brushes like these at any zero waste or health food store. They are an all around great addition to any kitchen and a super easy swap for their plastic scrubby cousins. With a handle made from bamboo and bristles from agave fiber, you can feel good about disposing of it when it’s past its prime. Simply compost, or even bury in your yard. Clean tip: For even more use, don’t compost your scrub brush when it’s spent and no longer suitable for cleaning dishes. Save it to use for outdoor cleaning projects like scrubbing out your terra cotta pots when the gardening season is over.

Food Storage

Weck Jars—I love jars! Basically every bulk food I buy goes in a jar. While I thrift many of my jars, I don’t often come across Weck, but I love Weck. Weck Jars are made in Germany and are super high quality. This is important to me as I only buy jars made in the USA or Europe, because of quality/food safety. Something else I love, is the variety of sizes and shapes they offer. They truly have jars for everything. While I love Weck, I also wanna mention a few other brands I love and have had success thrifting. Bormioli Rocco, Le Parfait, and Ball are all wonderful and I highly recommend picking these up new or used if you come across them. Clean tip: Take your jars directly to the store and fill them with bulk foods. This saves on plastic!

Stasher Bags—Stasher bags are great for those who like the convenience of plastic bags, but don’t love the waste and toxins that plastic bags are known for. They are dishwasher, oven, and microwave safe up to 425 degrees fahrenheit and are free from BPA, BPS, lead, latex, and phthalates. They are beyond handy and easy to wash. I love them! Clean tip: Stasher Bags can be used for storing anything, not just food. Use their bowl bag as a mini trash can in your car.

Laundry

Laundry Detergent Strips—These Tru Earth laundry detergent strips are a great option for people who are trying to lower their laundry waste and also don’t have a ton of space. I live in a very small apartment with very little storage, so these are super convenient for me. Clean tip: Use the paper packaging as fire starter! We all love a bonfire.

Microwaste Laundry Washing Bag—When you throw unnatural fiber fabrics in the washing machine, microplastics escape into our water system. As the machine aggravates your clothes during the wash, fibers release and drain with the water after the cycle is finished. A way you can reduce the amount of synthetic fibers making their way into the environment, is by putting your synthetic items in this Microwaste Laundry Washing Bag. Wash bags like this can be a game changer. Microfibers create pollution. When plastic fibers are released, they cannot be filtered out of the water by waste water treatment facilities, so they make their way to our oceans and into the food chain. Clean tip: This bag can be recycled, just make sure you remove the zipper.