At first glance, I have to admit the cleaners don't look very impressive. I am certainly not a marketing or graphics design major, but the bottles do very little to attract my attention. The black and white photographs on the front of the Ecostore cleaners give me the impression that the labels were made one someone's home printer and then stuck on generic white bottles. I do however like the simple labeling of the contents. "LAUNDRY LIQUID" and "SPRAY CLEANER" are straight and to the point and don't try to sell you with 10 different sayings all over the cover claiming to take out a variety of stains or, "new and improved", all in flashy colors and fonts. It kind of lets the products speak for themselves. I realize I am speaking out of both sides of my mouth with the bottle design. I guess it is the black and white picture that really throws me. The rest of the packaging is appealing.
Now for the product testing. First, the LAUNDRY LIQUID.
The liquid is a yellowish clear color. The cleaner contains eucalyptus oil, and that gives a very distinct smell that you will notice right away. It doesn't smell like your typical laundry soap, which I found refreshing because those are very overpowering to me. It kind of smells like tea tree with a hint of menthol, like in Vick's vapor rub, but much less intense. The bottle says to use 3-5 tablespoons of liquid per load. Less if you have a front load washer. I didn't actually measure, but I think that is less that what the concentrated cleaners from Tide and All suggest to use. We washed a variety of clothes in a variety of water temperatures. Each load came out smelling very fresh and appeared to be clean, though I admit our clothes weren't exactly full of stains and dirt prior to washing. White clothes did not appear to yellow at all, but we only did a couple of loads. Ecostore does sell a oxygen whitener for tough stains.
On to the SPRAY CLEANER.
Again, the first thing you will notice with this cleaner is the smell, or lack thereof. The cleaner was very pleasant in the fact that when used it didn't smell like a hospital in our home. There was no strong chemical odor like you would find with bleach cleaners or Lysol. The cleaner leaves just a faint hint of citrus while at the same time removing any offensive smell of grease or food or whatever it is you are cleaning. We used it on a variety of surfaces (not wood) and it worked well. It also worked great on glass, not leaving any streaks. Another great feature, the cleaner is antibacterial.
The products should be coming to your local Meijer shortly. If you want more info, you can go to Ecostore's website at www.ecostore.co.nz
