NaturOli Soap Nuts Review and Giveaway!

Back from my refreshing little computer hiatus and ready for another giveaway!

Yes, this August is Detergent Giveaway Month here in Jem's Room. We started the month with an Eco Sprout detergent giveaway, which gave me the opportunity to try and review a great cloth diaper-specific detergent. Now I've been informed that the good folks at NaturOli Soap Nuts, a wonderful product I recently bought for my regular (non-diaper) laundry, have agreed to give away one 40 load bag of their product to my readers! Plus a little added bonus prize!

After I bought some of these little gems last month on Amazon and tried them to clean our clothes and cleaning rags, I was hooked, and promptly contacted NaturOli (pronounced "naturally") to see if they'd be interested in doing a giveaway. I was so excited when they agreed, because I really would love for one of you guys to get to try them! For those of you who don't know what a soap nut (also called a soap berry) is, they are actually little "nuts" that grow on the sapindus tree, and produce a cleansing resin called saponin, which literally is a soap: the most natural soap on earth! NaturOli soap nuts are specifically of the Sapindus Mukorossi variety that grow in India and Nepal. They are USDA certified organic by EcoCert! I was very skeptical about how they would work on my laundry, but they actually work amazingly well!

How to use soap nuts: Place a few soap nuts (about 4-6...I've been using five) in the little muslin bag included with your order. If doing a hot or warm wash, throw the bag in the washer before your laundry. If doing a cold wash, first soak the bag in a few ounces of warm water for several minutes, then throw the bag with the water in the washer before your laundry. (I find it helps to place the bag in a zippered mesh lingerie bag, particularly if you are doing a load of whites, so it's easier to find the bag when the wash is done...otherwise it might get lost in a pant leg or pocket somewhere!) The bag can be reused about 4-6 times before changing the soap nuts, making this an incredibly economical choice for laundry! Even more economical is the fact that soap nuts are very lightweight, so shipping costs, no matter where you order from, tend to be very low.

You don't have to pull the bag out of the wash before the rinse cycle. Saponin cleans very well but, unlike most commercial detergents, is not so soapy or gummy that it will leave residue on your clothes.  In fact, if you leave it in for the rinse cycle it acts as a natural, non-irritating fabric softener (though some garments may still develop static cling in the dryer...I recommend using dryer balls for this problem)! My clothes have been coming out incredibly soft and clean, and smelling like, well, absolutely nothing!

As with most natural detergents, it's highly recommended that you pre-treat any tough stains. You can do this by soaking a few soap nuts in a tiny amount of hot water and rubbing the liquid into the stains, or you can do what I do, which is sprinkle the stain with baking soda and then spray it with vinegar. Usually works like a charm. :-)

Included with my order of NaturOli Soap Nuts from Amazon was a small sample bottle of their Extreme18X "award-winning, eco-friendly, ultra-concentrated extract," which is basically a really effective liquid version of soap nuts with some other added, natural ingredients. I used this on my whites and yes, even on my cloth diapers a couple of times when I was in a pinch, and I was incredibly pleased with how well it worked! Just one teaspoon cleans a full load of laundry! It left no residue on my diapers or irritation on Jem's bum. I also used tiny amounts of it to clean my dishes a few times, which worked as well as any dish detergent! I am very pleased that in addition to the 40 load bag of soap nuts that NaturOli is providing for this giveaway, they are also including one of these sample bottles of Extreme 18X!

(A note about using soap nuts on cloth diapers: though they can be used for cotton diapers and other natural fibers, like prefolds or fitteds, they are not generally recommended for synthetic fabrics like microfleece and microfiber, since the saponin may clog the diapers over time and cause repelling. Since the Extreme 18X washes out in the rinse cycle I felt comfortable using it on my pockets a few times, but I would not recommend the soap nuts themselves for use on pockets, particularly not for long-term use).


Please visit the NaturOli website for complete washing instructions, other uses (there are many!) and additional product information.


The Giveaway - How to Enter


To enter to win one 40 load bag of soap nuts and a sample bottle of 18X Extreme liquid concentrate, please use at least one of the mandatory entries below (use more than one for additional entries). You may also use one or all of the optional additional entries, but none of these entries will count if you do not include a mandatory entry! PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WITH EACH ENTRY. I will never use your email address for any purpose other than to contact you if you are the winner.


MANDATORY ENTRIES (pick one or do them all!):
~ Follow Jem's Room on Google Friend Connect (by clicking the "follow" link at the top of this blog page or going to the GFC box in the righthand column). Leave a comment here that you have done so (if you already do, it counts!)
~ Follow Jem's Room on Facebook. Leave a comment here that you have done so (with your Facebook name).
~ Follow Jem's Room on Networked Blogs. Leave a comment here that you have done so.
~ Follow Jem's Room by email by entering your email address in the box in the right hand column of this blog page. Leave a comment here that you have done so.


Additional optional entries:
~ Visit the Naturoli website, then come back to this blog post and leave a comment to tell me one other product of theirs which you might like to try (or have me review!), or any of the other uses for soap nuts that you might try if you won!
~ Like NaturOli on Facebook. Come back to this blog post and comment that you have done so (with your Facebook name, please!)
~ Leave a link to this contest page anywhere on Facebook or your own blog or website. Leave a comment here that you have done so (and tell me where to find the link!)
~ Grab my button and post it on your blog (on the main page or other permanent page, not in a blog entry). Leave a comment here that you have done so (and tell me where to find it!) You may use this for 4 separate entries.
~ Add Jem's Room to your blogroll. Leave a comment here that you have done so. You may use this for 2 separate entries.

The contest will end Friday, August 26th. Winner will be picked by a random number generator. Good luck to all!


**Note: I purchased this item myself and received no compensation for this review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.**