Mix Clean Green: Toilet Mix

At The Amazing Blog, when it comes to cleaning we to love finding eco-friendly and sustainable products. Meet Mix Clean Green, they care about what goes into their products and has super-concentrated waterless formulas. This, in turn, allows for the products to be sold in small containers, reducing the carbon footprint. This is something a little bit different for us to review, and we couldn’t wait to try out this award-winning Toilet Mix - as they’re the only company in the U.K. to produce a water-free, mix at home toilet cleaner!

Mix Clean Green is an innovative company looking to find eco-friendly ways to create sustainable cleaning products. It is a female-run British business, with Kate Deacon at the helm. Kate has children, and they were her inspiration for starting this company. Worried about plastic consumption, climate change and more, Kate wanted to create the most eco-friendly household products that she could. In an interview with MicroBizMag, she noted that “the overwhelming sense of greenwashing that you start to uncover when looking into ingredients in what we think of as eco-products…” This led to her passion for creating a truly eco-friendly and green brand of cleaning products. For those new to the term ‘greenwashing’ it is a concept defined as the “process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are more environmentally sound.” Thus many brands today understand that consumers want green and eco-friendly products, so they create labels that seem like their products are planet-friendly without the ingredients to back them up. Kate found that beyond the ingredients in these greenwashed products, the process in “how they’re made or derived, and the damage they do” is also overlooked. Beyond the plastic-free products, Mix Clean Green has created palm-free, waterless, vegan-friendly, and non-toxic products. Mix’s clean, green and eco-friendly vision has definitely paid off, with the company winning multiple Green Home, Safe Home awards for the Beauty Shortlist Awards in 2021. With their evident passion for the environment and planet, we applaud Mix Clean Green for donating 5% of profits from sales of bottles and jars to Project Seagrass, which is an environmental charity that is devoted to advancing the conservation of seagrass through education, influence, research and action.” 

The Mix Clean Green’s Toilet Mix comes in a reusable tin, which contains the super-concentrate. This brilliant toilet cleaner just needs the addition of water to clean your loo. Mix Clean Green’s Toilet Mix “uses a cutting edge bio-surfactant” to help clean. These bio-surfactants are compounds that are synthesised from plants and microorganisms. These compounds are an excellent alternative to standard cleaning chemicals due to their “high biodegradability, low toxicity, multi-functionality, environmental capability and the availability of resources.” The Toilet Mix contains four simple ingredients of citric acid, bio-surfactant, organic lavender oil and organic lemon oil. This toilet cleaner utilises citric acid, which kills bacteria, mould and mildew while disinfecting and cleaning the surface. It’s also a great addition here because it is a naturally occurring raw material that makes it biodegradable and non-toxic. With these few ingredients, it uses makes it a no-brainer choice to choose over standard house-hold cleaners, like bleach. Bleach has been known to cause health-related problems as well as having negative impacts on the environment. We heard about the Mix Clean Green’s Toilet Mix, as it won the 2021 Beauty Shortlist Award for Best Loo Cleaner! It’s super-easy to use, inside each tin, is a paper funnel (it was a bit crumpled so we did show it in our photo) where we positioned the funnel over our own glass litre bottle filled with lukewarm water, then poured in the entire contents of 50ml tin (BTW you can also dilute it one teaspoon to 100ml). As advised, we left it for 30-60 mins occasionally shaking, before use. We blitzed three loos all in one go - giving them a quick pre-scrub before leaving the Toilet Mix overnight to do its work. The litre bottle of the mix lasted us about two/three weeks with regular use. The result? Well, let’s just say Mrs Hinch would be proud! It’s an impressive cleaner and even smells fragrant to boot. Available in two different container options, the starter tin or the refill zero-waste option. The zero-waste option comes in a “home-compostable pouch with a recyclable paper label.” The starter Toilet Mix in a 50ml tin is available for £6.50 here; or the zero-waste option is available for £3.50 here.  

2022 Beauty Shortlist & Wellbeing Awards - Are Now Open for Entry!

Good to grow: 2022 Beauty Shortlist & Wellbeing Awards open for entries with new blue beauty and plantable beauty categories and fresh faces on the judging panel.

Entries have opened for the upcoming Beauty Shortlist Awards which will celebrate the highest-scoring brands and products that celebrate NATURE on Wednesday 2 March 2022.

Honouring the most-loved earth-safe and ocean-safe beauty and wellness products – all tested by experts – the ethical, natural and organic showcase returns with over 40 new categories embracing blue and green beauty, more age-specific skincare and self-care categories, eco-packaging, holistic health, eco innovation, nutrition, aromatherapy, CBD and more.

2022 BEAUTY SHORTLIST & WELLBEING AWARDS ENTRY FORM (ENTRIES CLOSE 29 OCTOBER)

ENTRY FORM

If you had to pick the most stellar month of the year for beauty and the planet, September would be up there: Organic September, a new season with lots of new launches, the Great British Beach Clean, World Car Free Day - and it’s FSC week soon, celebrating & raising awareness of responsible forestry 🌳

Never have we lived through a time when comforts and joys have been more important to our wellbeing - and it’s exactly those that are celebrated every year at the Beauty Shortlist Awards:

You are warmly invited to celebrate the top-scoring beauty, grooming and wellness of the year with the 2022 Beauty Shortlist Awards on Wednesday 2 March.

These independent and 100% sponsor-free global Awards celebrate the highest-scoring ethical brands and products of the year, evaluated by beauty and wellness industry experts:

• natural + organic beauty, personal care

• nutrition, wellness, health supplements, CBD & eco cleaning

• men’s hair, skincare, self-care, body & shower products

Happy September!

Toucan Eco: eSpray

Because of the pandemic, cleaning has become more important than ever. That’s why at The Amazing Blog  we were excited to discover the Toucan Eco eSpray which cleans effectively and is also very eco-friendly! What we love the most about this product is that it kills coronavirus; and no, it isn’t just a single-use plastic bottle. Keep reading on….

Toucan Eco, a British company under the Robert Scott brand, who create eco-friendly cleaning products. The company’s products use one of the safest and most effective disinfectant and cleaning solutions — with JUST water, salt, and electricity. Toucan Eco’s technology was inspired by our body’s immune system, which can produce hypochlorous acid, a potent and naturally occurring disinfectant. Following the same idea, the technology in this product recombines the naturally occurring elements of hydrogen, oxygen, and chlorine into hypochlorous acid, which makes an effective disinfectant, a sodium hypochlorite, and a mild pH level cleaning agent. Hypochlorous acid is used to disinfect ambulance cabins, clean health care workers’ clothing after testing people for COVID-19, and is used as a cleaning product in other businesses. The idea of using water, salt, and electricity has been around since 1834, and Toucan Eco is now bringing it to the home or workplace. The company’s products include the Toucan Eco eSpray, the Toucan Eco Worktop, the Toucan Eco Active, the Toucan Eco Active Plus, and the Toucan Eco Flow. Toucan Eco is the first hypochlorous disinfectant to receive double certification against viruses, including the EN 14476 and EN 16777 certifications. EN 14476 tests the solution’s efficacy, and EN 16777 tests if this efficacy can be applied to the real world of cleaning. Since Toucan Eco is the first hypochlorous disinfectant to have both these certifications, it is the most effective hypochlorous solution on the market. The EN 14476 and EN 16777 certification tests target viruses, including coronavirus, and many chemical disinfectants do not have these certifications. In addition to these certifications, the solution is EN 1276 and EN 13697 certified (which test for bacterial efficacy) and registered as an EU Biocide. The company won  the British Toilet Association 2011 Innovation Award for the Best New Product and the Innovation Award for Best Eco/Green Product at The Cleaning Show. Steve Courtney, the Business Development Manager at Toucan Eco, recently said in a conference, “This year has been a different year, and so it’s worth emphasising that this solution when it’s made is a very, very powerful sanitiser and disinfectant but totally harmless, non-hazardous, can’t harm anybody.”

The Toucan Eco eSpray lets you create a disinfectant, cleaner, and deodoriser from ONLY water, salt, and electricity. Although it may not sound like much, it kills more than 99.99% of germs, including coronavirus. The product is used to clean and disinfect any surface (kitchens, bathrooms, fabrics, glass, etc.) it’ll deodorise and kill the germs that create odours, sanitise hands, sterilise children’s toys and clothes. You can even spray fresh fruit and vegetables to remove dirt and pesticides. They also suggest using it to remove trainer odour by soaking overnight, and even spray pets’ paws and coats!. The list is endless….Making this eSpray much more versatile than any other standard chemical cleaning product. We think that this makes this eSpray the easier, greener, safer, proven and money-saving option. The product is easy, because you only have to add two ingredients, greener because it doesn’t contain chemicals, and isn’t a single-use plastic bottle. Plus it’s safe because it is hypoallergenic, 100% natural and proven because it has been tested by EU accredited independent laboratories and university research departments. It’s money-saving because it costs less than the average household spends on home cleaning products each year. This eSpray makes 350ml of disinfectant cleaner, and all you have to do is add 3g of table salt, fill with tap water, and then activate, which will take five minutes and last seven days before the solution is just salty water again. When activated the eSpray goes through a colourful array of red, blue and green light settings, and when completed the solution is ready to be sprayed onto any surface and left to dry or wiped away — you can also apply it as a mist to disinfect larger areas.  As mentioned earlier, with this eSpray, you kill 99% of bacteria and viruses and it’s not only safe but hypoallergenic and practically free to make! This is one of our most exciting #amazingfinds for 2021, and something that we wish we’d discovered sooner! We highly recommend this eSpray it comes with a one-year guarantee, and if like us, you’re interested in what this Toucan Eco eSpray has to offer, you can find it here for £59.99. 

Avani Skin: Hydrating & Illuminating New Skin Serum

If you are an avid reader of  The Amazing Blog, then you'll know that on super-hot days, like today, we keep our skincare to a minimum. It's always with a light hyaluronic-based serum and an SPF. This is why we are excited to introduce you to a new brand Avani Skin with their all-natural Hydrating & Illuminating New Skin Serum.

Avani Skin  is a natural British skincare brand founded in 2020 by Hannah Wilson. She began this journey by living a more natural plant-based lifestyle. Hannah realised that many of the products she used daily contained unnecessary animal-derived ingredients or harmful chemicals. It was then that Hannah decided to begin researching natural, vegan and cruelty-free ingredients to create products for herself, family and friends. After some trial and error and deciding whether to turn the hobby into a business, Avani Skin was born. The name Avani comes from the Indian origin meaning Earth, and represents what the brand revolves around - naturally sourced ingredients. They are an artisan brand committed to making vegan and cruelty-free products that are gentle yet effective on the skin. They take pride in their high-quality ingredients without the use of mineral oils, parabens or sulphates. Although they only have two products in the range, they wish to highlight their status as a sustainable and all-natural brand. As a part of their sustainability effort, Avani Skin offers a reduced price of thirty per cent off for refills using returned skincare bottles. Another aspect of their mission is to create custom-made products that suit all your needs in one bottle. They offer a personalised skincare service to add specific ingredients for an individual skin type and all of the main active ingredients found in their natural skin serum.

The Hydrating & Illuminating New Skin Serum is a gel serum that works to replenish the skin's natural glow by fading scars, boosting collagen levels, and locking in moisture. This serum is specifically designed to help rejuvenate dry, dull skin and promote skin elasticity, making it an excellent choice for individuals with sensitive, dry, or ageing skin. One of the main active ingredients in the serum is hyaluronic acid, or as Avani calls it, "The Fountain of Youth." Hyaluronic acid is one of our 'must-haves' in a serum as it seemingly slows down the ageing process by plumping and rejuvenating the skin, reducing the appearance of fine lines. This ingredient also helps lock in moisture and lock out pollutants or other harmful substances that the skin can absorb. As always, what we find most astonishing about this natural ingredient is its ability to hold 1000x its own weight in water, meaning just a drop of hyaluronic acid contains an incredible amount of moisture - goodbye dry skin! Another natural ingredient that fights against wrinkles and fine lines are the lupine proteins. These proteins stimulate collagen and elastin production, which help to keep the skin smooth and youthful-looking. The serum also focuses on brightening the appearance of tired skin through its use of Chinese Wu Zhu fruit (see photo above) extract and vitamin B3. Wu Zhu extract is an all-natural ingredient derived from the evodia rutaecarpa fruit, which helps with circulation, increases elasticity, and improves skin texture. Vitamin B3 (niacin) acts as a toner by helping to reduce pigmentation and creating an illuminating glow that can only be the sign of healthy skin. All of these active ingredients together make for a quick-acting and multi-purpose skin serum. We used it during the day, first thing in the morning, on damp skin after the shower, as it helps activate the hyaluronic acid and kept skin looking dewy and refreshed. Best of all, it absorbs fast (even in the heat), which made it quick and easy to layer up and apply our SPF. It is a clear and viscous liquid (the HA) with a pleasant and subtle floral fragrance. For the best results, Avani advises applying a pea-sized amount twice daily on damp skin. They also recommend following up with a hydrating cream and nourishing oil blend to lock in the moisture of the gel-serum ). If you are experiencing dull, dry skin or looking to attain a youthful glow, this serum will make a good addition to your skincare routine. To purchase this 50ml Hydrating & Illuminating New Skin Serum for £18.99 see here.

Corpo Sancto: Salt & Thyme Reed Diffuser

Are you a diehard candle person? Or do you love the look of reed diffusers? After all, who doesn’t love to have a beautifully scented room? At The Amazing Blog, we have a weakness for reed diffusers, as we can enjoy the benefits of their fragrance and essential oils even while we sleep! And today, the Corpo Sancto’s Salt and Thyme Reed Diffuser, takes us on a trip down memory lane, with its scent that reminds us of weekends-away, with the rush of briny fresh sea air blown in from the shore.

Corpo Sancto is a Brighton-based candle and fragrance company. It is run by a husband and wife duo who make artisan, eco-friendly candles and other products, like reed diffusers and perfumes. Annelie Bystrom-Turner and her husband, Chris, understand that finding the perfect scent can be a challenge, which is why they have created this diverse selection of fragrance combinations. In addition to being co-owners of Corpo Sancto, Chris is the drummer in Orange Goblin, and Annelie is a well-known makeup artist. They offer a wide variety of scent offerings for their candles, perfumes and home fragrance options. Corpo Sancto prides itself on creating hand-poured candles in small batches. The rapeseed wax used in their candles is a plant-based alternative to other waxes typically used in candles. Corpo Sancto has gone through numerous testing phases with rapeseed wax, which is wax that comes from the oil from pressed rapeseed plants. These are widely and sustainably grown across Europe, with the excess oil from the plant being used for animal feed and fertiliser. The suppliers for their wax and other products are UK or EU based since Corpo Sancto does not believe in shipping things halfway across the planet for something that can be found in their locale. They utilise packaging made from recycled materials whenever possible, and Corpo Sancto’s mission is to be as eco-friendly as possible, carbon-neutral, with biodegradable products that are paraben-free and all without compromising on style or quality.

We were drawn to the Salt & Thyme Reed Diffuser as they describe it as “the fresh smell of seaweed, sea breeze and minerals with notes of thyme and grapefruit”. This scent also includes hints of bergamot, sage and base notes of musk, amber and cedarwood, creating a light and summery scent - and yes, it really does smell ‘sea fresh’. All their reed diffusers are alcohol-free and made up of 20-25% botanicals mixed in a long-lasting plant oil base. With regular turning, these reed diffusers will last over three months, depending on room temperature, season, and oil blend. The slick black reeds are very in-keeping with the brand’s image and are made of natural fibres, which offer optimal scent distribution. We also like Corpo Sancto’s sustainability and zero waste credentials – this is something they’ve thought long and hard about. When this Reed Diffuser is finished, we’ll be using the reeds to scent a drawer, and the metal cone top tin with screw cap will be repurposed as a new pen holder! Are you missing the seaside? Then we recommend purchasing this 200ml Salt & Thyme Reed Diffuser for £35 here to reminisce about roaring waves, breezy sea winds and building sandcastles!