What are Soap Nuts?
Eco Nuts Soap Nuts are a berry that grows in the Himalayas that naturally produces a soap. This soap is called saponin which is a natural cleaner that works as a surfactant, breaking the surface tension of the water to penetrate the fibers of your clothing and lifting stains from the fabric while leaving dirt suspended int he water that is then rinsed away.
Eco Nuts are gentle on both clothing and skin, they are ideal for those with sensitive skin, eczema, allergies and psoriasis. Due to them being so milk, they are perfect for baby clothes and cloth diapers. They are All-Natural making them great for septic and grey water systems. Don't expect these shells to foam up like your commercial soaps that have artificial foaming agents. Foam simply does not represent cleaning power!
Eco Nuts are gathered from wild trees grown without any kind of chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides. The saponin actually tastes bad to the insects so no pesticides are needed. The trees naturally love poor uncultivated soil, they are organically grown by mother earth and certified USDA Organic by Oregon Tilth. Eco Nuts Soap Nuts are both de-seeded and sterilized, they are the only soap nuts on the market that are.
What if you have a nut allergy?
If you remember from the above section, Eco Nuts Soap Nuts are actually berries. Don't let the name throw you off or intimidate you from using them. As some of my readers may remember, my 3 year old, Cade has a tree nut allergy.
If they are not nuts then how did they gain their name you may be wondering as I was as well. They have been named "nuts" because they dry into hard shells like a nut shell.
Our Eco Nuts Experience!
Eco Nuts are an Organic Laundry Soap, but with out the mess and spillages of powders and liquids. Although Eco Nuts does offer a liquid form as well. Eco Nuts are fragrance free, hypoallergenic, biodegradable (no waste to be left behind), non-toxic and kills odors making them great for those stinky cloth diapers.
They look strange for something I was about to toss into my washer to clean probably the dirtiest things I've ever had to wash, my cloth diapers from two stinky toddler boys! I received a 100 load box of Eco Nuts, it also included two small bag with drawstring for you to put your Eco Nuts in and then toss that into the washer.
I read the box, which are the directions for when washing laundry with Eco Nuts, so I put 5 Eco Nuts into the bag, closed it up and tossed it in my washer with my load of cloth diapers. What I should have done was read a bit more about using Eco Nuts to wash cloth diapers, but it was time to wash some diapers and I was way too excited! After reading a bit more however, I did find out that you only need 2-4 Eco Nuts in the cloth bag when doing cloth diaper laundry, also, if your washing machines gets really hot you need even less Eco Nuts! My washing machine does not have a hot setting, the hottest setting is hot/cold and I'm almost certain the water I wash my dishes with is at least twice as hot as the washing machine.
There's nuts in my washer and balls in my dryer!! What is going on here?! Oh yea that's right, something that is awesome, better for the environment and for my little monkeys' bodies!
You can even leave the cloth bag with the Eco Nuts in it through the entire wash cycle, including the rinse cycle! How so? Because the rinse cycle has much cooler water causing less saponin to be released. Very little of it is released during the rinse cycle. If you accidentally toss the bag of Eco Nuts into the dryer and dry them, no problem, they are still usable and not ruined! You can even use Eco Nuts in a front loader and HE machines.
After two loads of diapers I opened up my cloth bag with the soap nuts inside and above is what I found. Not a huge difference then what I put in to the bag, the nuts that were whole have just separated into two pieces. You can continue to use your soap nuts that are in your cloth bag for approximately 10 loads or until they begin to disintegrate, please see the chart below for a better idea of what they may look like.
It's like a bad habit, I always have to sniff my cloth diapers and other laundry as well when I pull it out of the washer. I do so to make sure the diapers and laundry are clean smelling, especially the diapers. When I pulled out my first load I wasn't sure how they would smell, kind of thought they would smell a bit "weird" because they were washed with nuts that are actually berries and while the nuts in the box do not smell bad or weird, I still just wasn't sure. Anyhow, when I sniffed my first load of diapers that were washed with soap nuts I was in AW! I could not believe how clean they looked, felt and smelled clean!! I'm either going crazy or they were actually cleaner as well, dingy, old and well pre-loved before our use of some diapers looked brighter!
This is ONLY the second thing I have found that is okay on my boys' skin!! As some of you may know or remember from previous post both of our boys have sensitive skin and eczema. We have tried at least 7 other cloth diaper safe detergents and they all caused horrible rashes/burns of some sort or they caused bad build up, etc. I also love that Eco Nuts really do eliminate odors and do not just cover up the odors with the strong scents of the detergents. We've tried many different CD safe detergents with scents and with out, but nothing like Eco Nuts! Other detergents with out scents left our diapers smelling like dirty water. I truly am in love if you haven't been able to tell by now.
In additional to washing our cloth diapers with Eco Nuts, tomorrow I will begin washing the boys' clothes with Eco Nuts as well. Eventually I'd like to also wash all laundry with Eco Nuts, but for now I want to preserve them for cloth diapers.
So how do you store Eco Nuts? That's simple! Just keep them in a cool and dry place!
Eco Nuts is a 2-in-1 Natural Fabric Softener, contains no optical brighteners, no dyes, is fragrance and SLS free. SLS is sodium lauryl sulfate, a hormone disruptor.
Eco Nuts medium 100 load box is only $11.99 that's just $0.11 per load! The large 360 load box is $34.95 at just $0.09 per load and the liquid Eco Nuts detergent 60/120HE loads is only $18.99 making it $0.31 per load in a standard washer or $0.15 per load in an HE machine. More amazing bang for your buck with Eco Nuts!
Are you hooked yet? Connect with Eco Nuts and try them for yourself!
Twitter @EcoNuts
Giveaway!
Enter to win a 100 load box of Eco Nuts Soap Nuts! Open to US residents whom are at least 18 years of age. This giveaway will end on July 11th at 11:59p.m. Simply enter through the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win! Good luck!
Disclosure: I received a box of Eco Nuts in exchange for my honest review. I received no monetary compensation for this post, please note all opinions and experiences are my own and may differ from those of your own.
Set Of 4 Plain Wool Dryer Balls is what I would choose. I have seen things about these lately.
ReplyDeletelearned it is actually called a drupe
ReplyDeleteI didn't know they made all-purpose cleaners, or that they were on Shark Tank... I love that show!
ReplyDeleteI liked that they're natural organic and not a buncha chemicals
ReplyDeletewell, the price for the nuts are not bad, it's fragrance free which is what i hate about detergents & fabric softeners. also liquid soap which looks to be more expensive for HE wash machines
ReplyDeletewon best green product
ReplyDeleteGreat natural, organic products! I'd also like to try their cleaning products and bath products.
ReplyDeleteI would like to try the Certified Organic Glass Cleaner Spray
ReplyDeleteit can be used for everything! why havent i tried these?!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you can reuse them up to 10 times!
ReplyDeleteDesiree Dunbar
desireedunbar@hotmail.com
Love that it is, of course, GREEN! :D
ReplyDeleteI would love to try the Natural All-Purpose Cleaning Trio
ReplyDeleteI like that it's fragrance-free, hypoallergenic, biodegradable, non-toxic, and kills odors! :-)
ReplyDeleteI learned that all of the EcoNuts products would be great for my grandson's psoriasis problem skin.
ReplyDeleteThe Eco Nuts cloth diaper detergent naturally keeps your diapers clean, soft, and buildup-free, and helps diapers last longer.
ReplyDeleteI love that they can remove residue from diapers that was left by other detergents.
ReplyDeleteI learned that they also have household cleaning products & bath soap!
ReplyDeleteI learned you can use them to strip buildup in your washer.
ReplyDeleteI learned that, "Eco Nuts are actually a berry fruit related to the lychee and are not nuts at all. They are completely nut allergy safe and have been used successfully with no reactions by people with nut allergies. They earned the name “nuts” because they dry into hard shells like nuts instead of squishy fruit."
ReplyDeleteThey work well for people with keratosis pilaris as well. Our entire family has sensitive skin and we have used these with no reaction!
ReplyDeleteI liked that they're natural organic and not a buncha chemicals
ReplyDeleteI like that they have a wide variety of cleaners, not just the eco nuts!
ReplyDeleteThe soap also acts as a fabric softener
ReplyDeleteThat it is a softener in addition! These things blow my mind, so cool.
ReplyDeleteI love that econuts are cloth diaper friendly!
ReplyDeleteI learned that they are natural and organic.
ReplyDeleteI learned that I can use this natural detergent and still save money.
ReplyDeleteI like that these are natural and that they are ok to use in a HE front loader, which is what I have! I also like that I can use them for both regular laundry and cloth diapers.
ReplyDeleteI learned that econuts work in front-loading washers. Awesome
ReplyDeleteMichelle Tucker
Yay, they will work in my front-loader!
ReplyDeleteI learned that the soap nuts are safe to use in my HE front loader washing machine!
ReplyDeleteEco nuts are the only soap nuts that go through a sterilization process for consumer protection
ReplyDeleteI just saw an ad for this yesterday and had never heard of them before. I was glad to read that your boys had no skin problems. I've had so many problems finding a product that was gentle enough for my skin and strong enough for my Hubby's work clothes - and wet dog stinky towels! Sounds like this is just what I need.
ReplyDeleteI learned that they will work in Front Load washing machines .. awesome :)
ReplyDeletethat they are from the Himalayas! how cool
ReplyDeleteI learned its a natural cleaner :)
ReplyDeleteI learned that it actually is a berry that grows! I thought it was just the name! Awesome :)
ReplyDelete