Shaklee Review & Giveaway

I've heard so many nice things about Shaklee's Basic H2 from various blogger reviews, that I've been dying to try it myself. I've had mixed experiences with "natural" cleaners in the past, but I was really intrigued by what I had heard about this product... it sounded like it actually worked. Novel, right?

Lucky for me, Bonnie - a Shaklee distributor who blogs at House of Grace - offered up some samples recently to interested peeps like me. I jumped on it, and Bonnie agreed to mail me a sample.

Have you ever heard of Shaklee or Basic H2? I hadn't before I started blogging.

Let me give you a rundown on what I've learned about Shaklee:

• Shaklee is a direct sale nutrition company.
• They were the first company in the world to be certified Climate Neutral -- they offset their carbon dioxide emissions for net zero environmental impact. (Pretty cool, huh?)
• They're all about healthy living, and a healthy world.
• They've been featured in lots of magazines, news programs, and shows like Oprah.

They have an entire line of cleaning products, and Basic H is a concentrated all-purpose cleaner that boasts these credentials:

• Biodegradable
• Organic
• Non-polluting
• Phosphate free
• Non-toxic
• Non-irritating
• Non-flammable

Why did I just pull out the fancy bullet-point list for you? Because all those things are actually, honestly important to me. I am a fan of Mother Earth, with sensitive skin and a son with asthma.  If you recall from my recent post about decorating with plants, indoor air can be more polluted than outdoor air, and cleaners are one of the contributing factors. So tracking down a reliable, safe, effective cleaner is something that matters in my world, and I'm sure a lot of other women and moms feel the same way.

Anyhoosies. Bonnie sent me a sample of this fancy concentrated Basic H2 cleaner -- a teensy vial that was enough for two 16-oz spray bottles. One bottle (with two drops of cleaner) for windows, and one bottle (with the rest) for all-purpose cleaning.

I'm totally in a shame spiral about sharing these 'before' photos, but here we go... onto the review!

De-greasing.

 I think the Basic H2 did a fantastic job with grease, and apparently you can just add a little more of the Basic H2 for situations where the grease is worse.

My husband had left a ring of melted/solidified butter on my ceramic stovetop from when he made popcorn (his secret addiction) and without thinking (or even taking a photo, oops) I sprayed the Basic H and wiped. One wipe, no residue... color me impressed. This is one of those areas where I feel like Basic H might be even been better than my regular cleaner.

Here's the shiny after photo:

Window/Mirror Cleaning
My boys are horrible to mirrors -- they sit in front of the bathroom mirror, brush their teeth, tell jokes, laugh and spew toothpaste. Our mirror gets dirty... every. single. day. I let this one go a few days without cleaning for effect, and then used the Basic H. It even made the squeaky noise I love so much when I was wiping it -- and zero streaks. Just as good as my usual blue window cleaner.

Shameful Accumulations of Old Dirt

My fridge is another place that gets dirty. Little jam covered hands going for milk, you know the story. The texture on it also accumulates dirt (like vinyl flooring) and after many years of use, it looked pretty bad -- even with my weekly wipe downs, the years of dirt was still stuck into the texture.

I didn't actually realize HOW bad my fridge was until I saw the crazy 'before' photo (seriously, this camera... not taking any close up shots of my face anytime, I think it would crush my tender spirit.)

I did one handle with the Basic H2 and one handle with a magic eraser -- I had to scrub with both... maybe a teensy bit more with the Basic H2, but the result was the same -- much better than regular all-purpose cleaner.

I'm actually glad I didn't know about this when I was pregnant with my younger son and nesting -- I remember sitting on the floor of my bathroom and scrubbing grout lines with Oxiclean and a toothbrush.

Regular Cleaning

It was time for the spring garage door hosedown, so I let Basic H2 do the honors. I sprayed the door, hosed it down, and then went back to the windows with the window/glass cleaner bottle. Love. If only Shaklee would come out with a cleaner that would fix old paint jobs...

My overall impression of Basic H2? It's great! It does everything a regular all-purpose cleaner does, but it saves money and packaging because it's concentrated, and it's better for my family and the planet. Also, I really believe that it beat my regular cleaner in the de-greasing department. Win-win-win.

I'd be really interested in trying some of Shaklee's other cleaners... I'd love to introduce my oven to the Scour Off paste. Regular oven cleaners are SO toxic.

Here's the good news:

First, if you want to pick some of this great cleaner up, Shaklee is having an Earth Day Special -- membership is free with a $30 order, plus Bonnie has her own little special running on top of that for new members.

Second, Bonnie has also offered to give away 5 samples of Basic H2 to Take the Side Street readers! Remember, each sample makes 2 bottles -- one for regular cleaning, one for glass.

Here's how to enter to win a sample of your own (one entry for each item):

1. Comment on this post!

Bonus points if you tell me how brave I was to post the before photo of my fridge handle.

2. Follow my blog -- come on, you know you want to!

 If you already do, let me know in a separate comment.

3. Follow Bonnie's blog, House of Grace then comment again, letting me know.

4. Follow House of Grace on Facebook and comment so I know!

This giveaway is now closed.