Biokleen: A Soap With Many Uses and How It Rates

You try to be "green" and use the right products, but it's so frustrating when you spend all that money only to discover that they don't really work or are too weak to really do a good job. I have tried many different brands of green cleaners.

Sometimes I make my own products, but it's nice to support a green company and not have to always make my own products, especially when I'm short on time.

I came across this great product in the health foods store the other day: Biokleen. I promise I'm not promoting their product because they're paying me or anything like that - they're not. In fact, I couldn't care less if their name was Bio-banana, Bio-splat or Super-biodegradable Stuff.

I just want a product that actually does what it says it's going to do, but not infuse my skin with a bunch of bad-for-you chemicals that I can't pronounce.

When I do find a good product, I'll tell my friends about it.

Why on earth would I rave about a cleaning product? Who cares, right?

Read on: you just might care.

Use in the Kitchen

This product is sold as dish soap. As I said above, I've been frustrated trying to find a biodegradable soap that actually works and you don't feel like you have to pour half the bottle in the sink for it to work.

With Biokleen, that doesn't have to happen. Now, if you just squirt some on your dishrag, and try to wash dishes, you won't get very far and you won't get very many suds. However, if you follow the directions and fill the sink with warm water and add one cap-full of this soap, you will find plenty of suds.

The orange scent reminds you of those powerful citrus cleaners; you won't be disappointed in its ability to get your dishes clean. I actually found myself wanting to do the dishes the other day when I purchased this dish soap. I volunteered to do dishes three different times that day so I could smell the yummy orange-scent and see how well this stuff worked. A wee-bit neurotic, I know, but I like how this soap works.

If you look on the bottle, you'll see suggestions for other uses. If you squirt just a little bit into a spray bottle and fill up with water, you have instant hand-sanitizer and hand soap. The great thing is, the ingredients in this soap are earth-friendly, so you know it's not going to hurt you or the planet.

Another use for Biokleen is a bubble bath! How many dish soaps out there have you read that are safe enough for a bubble bath? This stuff does do a good job of bubbling up. Plus, its ingredients are known for helping to moisturize the skin. (More on that in a minute.)

If you're ever itching to take a nice, warm bubble bath and you've either run out of your favorite bubble bath solution or you want to go the green route where you know that what's inside this product you can use this soap to "take you away". (Remember those Calgon commercials?)

Don't forget: you can use it as a pet shampoo! Who knew? It's safe to use on dogs or cats. Get rid of those pesky fleas and have your dog smell like oranges, too? Yes!

Surfactants - conditioners from coconut and corn

• These are vegetable-based. What they do is help to reduce the surface tension of water, allowing the surface of the dish and its dirt/grime to get wet more quickly and aid in washing.

Orange peel extract

• Orange peel is known the world over to be good for skin. I've heard that people who work with oranges in the orange juice industry have incredible skin, especially their hands. Plus, it's a great cleaner, too.

Grapefruit seed and pulp extract

• Though scientifically unproven, nutritionists and holistic practitioners often cite the anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral properties of grapefruit seed extract. Even if it's not scientifically proven, I'd rather go with the natural stuff and find out for myself than use products that I know to be harmful for skin and health.

Aloe

• Who among us hasn't heard of the wonderful healing and skin-conditioning properties of aloe?

Vitamin E

• This is another ingredient that is kind to the skin and helps to moisturize and heal.

Linear Sulfonate

• This is a blend of vegetable-based surfactants to help further condition the water.

Filtered Water

• Ah, good old filtered water.

While using this product, I would say that the only thing I would change is the amount of suds - I would love even more suds. The reason is that I can tell more easily what surfaces I have thoroughly washed.

I have yet to try caked-on food (I've been volunteering to do dishes too much, so food hasn't had time to dry), but I imagine that since it's so concentrated, it will clean off caked-on food if you let the food soak in a solution of Biokleen for a spell. There are instructions on the bottle on how to clean odorous plastic food containers. Basically, you use it full-strength and let sit for 10 minutes before rinsing.

My favorite part of this is how I can see that the ingredients are familiar (and the one that wasn't - the linear sulfonate, was easy to find and read about on Biokleen's website).

I try not to put anything on my skin that I wouldn't eat. For years I've heard this piece of advice because your skin is the largest organ in the body. It absorbs everything you put on it and doesn't have the benefit of the liver to filter out toxins. Many bad chemicals in regular creams, lotions and other things that you put on your skin can make it to the bloodstream if you're not careful.

Some other perks about this company:

• It's based in the USA (it's always nice to support your own country)
• It's a good bet for those who have chemical sensitivities or other allergies
• The bottle itself is #1 plastic, and is made from recycled materials (as much as possible).

I'm sure there are other great companies out there (I've also heard good things about Ecover, for example), but it's nice to see when someone has personally tried a product and can offer a real review of it.