Giveaway: Eco Store USA for eco friendly cleaners, bath & body and baby care products

It is getting easier and easier to make green, eco-friendly choices in our lives. One of the biggest trends I’ve noticed has been in the world of cleaning products and bath & body care. Everyone is jumping on board. One example of a great eco-friendly company is Eco Store USA which sells everything from soaps, shampoos, dishwasher detergent (or plain dish soap!), laundry detergent, baby bath products and even pet shampoos! Let every member of your family, pets included, and your home benefit from a good green cleaning.

I’ve recently had the pleasure of trying out Eco Store USA‘s vanilla shampoo and conditioner as well as their dishwasher powder and dish soap. Each of these products works well, smells good and integrates themselves seamlessly into our cleaning routines. The best thing about them, though, is what’s not in them – nasty chemicals. Eco Store USA founders Melanie and Malcolm Rands have worked hard to create household cleaning products using plant-based ingredients that would biodegrade safely and quickly, eliminating the need to use toxic chemicals. What started as a product for true ‘Greenies’ and organic gardeners quickly caught on with the rest of the world.

Eco Store USA offers more than 100 products, each one meeting stringent environmental and sustainability standards. And by using super-concentrated formulas, they’ve made their products budget-friendly and long lasting. A little goes a long way.

Want to try some Eco Store USA products yourself? We’re giving away a $25 gift certificate to one lucky reader which can be used at the Eco Store USA website. Here’s how you can enter to win.

1. Check out the Eco Store USA website and tell us which product you’d most like to try. This is mandatory, if not done all other entries are null and void.
2. For an extra entry, you can follow us on Twitter. Post a comment here with your Twitter username.
3. For a third entry you can tweet about this giveaway or post about it on your blog and leave a comment here with either the URL of your post or your twitter profile. “Win some green cleaning products from Eco Store USA @ http://www.mommasreview.com”
4. For a fourth subscribe to our RSS feed, leaving a link here to tell us you’ve done so. We’ll be posting more giveaways on Momma’s Review soon so subscribing will be a great way for you to stay informed about all the great things you can win in the days and weeks to come.
5. For a final entry visit Speedy @ Eighty MPH Mom and enter her Magellan GPS giveaway. Make sure to come back and leave a comment saying you have entered.

This giveaway is open to US and international readers!

The contest will close at 12:00 p.m. EST on Friday May 1st.

April is Earth Month at Eco Store USA – All Orders of $25 or more qualify for FREE Shipping!

Make Lunchtime Fun & Waste-Free w/ Laptop Lunches Bento-Boxes!

Have you heard about bento boxes? Wikipedia tells us that:

“Bentō (弁当 or べんとう ?) is a single-portion takeout or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. A traditional bento consists of rice, fish or meat, and one or more pickled or cooked vegetables as a side dish. Containers range from disposable mass produced to hand crafted lacquerware. Although bento is readily available in many places throughout Japan, including convenience stores, bento shops (弁当屋 ,bentō-ya?), train stations, and department stores, it is still common for Japanese homemakers to spend considerable time and energy producing an appealing boxed lunch.”

Along with a very cool Asian history that dates back to 1185, Bento boxes also have the benefit of creating a no-waste, creative lunch packing system that people all over the world are getting hooked on. You can get bento boxes from many retailers including Laptop Lunches Bento-Ware, owned by Tammy Pelstring and Amy Hemmert who met in a new mothers group in 1995, bonded over a shared interest in nutrition, fitness and the environment and created laptoplunches.com to allow parents to pack wholesome, low-waste lunches in a convenient system that was both economical AND appealing to kids.

The Laptop Lunches Bento-Ware System sells everything you need to get your waste-free lunches organized. These boxes work perfectly for anyone who packs meals – whether for their children’s school lunches, work lunches and more. As a constantly hungry pregnant mother with a constantly hungry almost three year old – I love being able to use my bento box to pack healthy snacks while we’re on the go – whether we’re at church, playdates or running errands. The waste reducing packaging eases my eco-friendly conscience and my son loves having his different foods in their own container – perfect for a picky eater and to separate his snacks from mine or be able to hand him one snack at a time – and it stores so neatly in one convenient box!

You can buy a complete bento box (box with containers and utensils) for $22.99 or a complete bento box system for $37.99 which includes a bento box, containers and utensils AND a water bottle and an insulated carrying case.You can also order the miscellaneous parts and accessories you want separately if you don’t need the whole system or if you just need to order spare or replacement parts. Both packages come with a Laptop Lunch User’s Guide. This guide offers nutritious lunch ideas that utilize the bento system perfectly as well as strategies for improving nutrition, tips for reducing waste, quick-reference shopping lists, tips for picky eaters, creative menus and quick, easy kid-friendly recipes. You can get more lunch ideas on their website, too.

The bento boxes are phthalate free, bisphenol-A (BPA) free, lead free and PVC free – making them very eco-friendly options. A bento box basic kit will include removable inner containers that accommodate a variety of food sizes – you can use all the containers or mix and match to suit your day’s meal. Some of the containers include lids so that you can seal wet foods and prevent them from leaking into your other foods. There are dip containers (probably my son’s favorite feature – he loves dipping his foods!) for sauces, salad dressings or dips that of course come with a sealable lid. There is a stainless steel fork and spoon that fit perfectly in the box and have stylish plastic handles that your kids will love. And the box is the perfect size to slip into your backpack and most lunchboxes (you can buy bags and carrying cases made just for the Laptop Lunches Bento-Ware on the website, too). The plastic containers (not the lids) are microwave safe and the containers and lids are dishwasher safe (in the top rack only).

They also come in a variety of colors so you can tailor the boxes to yours and your children’s personal style. Color options include:

• Primary: Blue outer container with inner containers in dark green, red, yellow, purple, and teal
• Whimsical: Purple outer container with inner containers in bright lime green, orange, periwinkle, magenta, and teal
• Periwinkle: Blue outer container with inner containers in periwinkle blue
• Pink: Light pink outer container with inner containers in magenta
• Black and Red: Black outer container with inner containers in red

Want to order a Bento Box of your own? To get 10% off your order enter the following code at checkout on the laptoplunches.com website: mommas

Purex Natural Elements – Review and Giveaway

When I do laundry I try to use specific brands due to my husbands allergy to certain ingredients in laundry detergent products. My favorite brand to use is Purex. He has never had an allergic reaction to this brand. Well, Purex has gotten better and “greener”! They recently released their new Natural Elements line.

The Natural Elements line from Purex comes in either Laundry Detergent or Fabric Softener. They come in a variety of fragrances. The laundry detergent comes in: Linen & Lilies^™, Cherry Blossoms & Vanilla, Apple & Melon and Lilac & White Lavender HE. The fabric softener comes in: Linen & Lilies and Apple and Melon.   The fragrance I tried was the Linen and Lilies, it was clean smelling and not overpowering.

Some more information from the Purex Saves Green Website:

The plant-based surfactants are sourced from nature’s renewable resources, including natural fragrance extracts and naturally softened water. Both the detergent and liquid fabric softener have biodegradable, concentrated formulas that requires 50 percent less liquid per dose and a recyclable bottle, and it is also hypoallergenic and dye-free.

This is the type of product I want to use when I’m trying to help in creating a better world for my children to grow up in. I brought the product to my mother in laws house and she informed me that she already uses it! No wonder her clothes smell so good. She says the price is right too, she purchases this product from Walmart and a lower if not the same price as most of the other brands out there.

We are giving away Purex Natural Elements Laundry Detergent and Fabric Softener in Linen and Lilacs fragrance to one lucky winner. Here’s how to enter:

1. Visit Purex Saves Green and create a tote with you own Eco-Friendly Slogan – You could win a car by doing this! Or tell us what your favorite fragrance would be for Purex Natural Elements.
2. For a second entry, follow us on twitter @mommasreview
3. For a third entry you can tweet the following on twitter:  “Purex Natural Elements Giveaway – Win detergent and fabric softener @ http://www.mommasreview.com“ – be sure to post a comment here telling us you’ve done so.
4. For a fourth entry you post about it on your blog and leave a comment here with the URL of your post.
5. For a fifth entry subscribe to our RSS feed, leaving a comment to tell us you’ve done so. We’ll be posting more giveaways on Momma’s Review soon so subscribing will be a great way for you to stay informed about all the great things you can win in the days and weeks to come.
6. As a final entry donate $1.00 (or more if you’d like) to the I Heart Tucker fund. This can be done through PayPal and your donation would be greatly appreciated. Just visit I Heart Tucker and click on the donate button on the right sidebar, you can also enter raffles on the I Heart Tucker site with donations you have made!  Make sure to come back and tell us you donated.

This giveaway is open to US readers only (sorry to our international readers)!

The contest will close at 12:00 p.m. EST on Monday April 6th, 2009