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Thursday, July 15, 2010

Lulu's in the Fluff Review & Giveaway

**Look for a 25% off coupon code with ordering details at the bottom of the post**

I haven’t met Lulu, a fellow cloth diapering mama, in person, but her energetic and enthusiastic personality is evident even through her emails. This is a lady I know I could share a pot of coffee with and chat the day away! Although, I’m sure she’d be too busy for that since she is churning out batches of Lulu’s In the Fluff Glamour Wash.

She switched to cloth because her son, who’s now 3, had extremely sensitive skin and was a nighttime super soaker! In Lulu’s words, “Disposables were no match for our son!!” As most of us do, she used cloth diaper detergent as well. With the first brand, her son kept getting horrible rashes that required prescription cream for treatment. So, she switched brands. This one had issues with rinsing clean and Lulu became concerned about the ingredients when a bag exploded across her laundry room as she was opening it! This is when she started researching and developing the formula for her own detergent.

She ended up with a product that was gentle enough for some of the most sensitive-skinned babies but had enough power to pull the nasties out of cloth diapers. It wasn’t long before people started requesting Lulu’s formula for their own use. Thus, Lulu’s In The Fluff Glamour Wash was born. The Glamour Wash is now available in Regular and Hard Water Formulas.

I was lucky enough to review the Glamour Wash Hard Water formula and I was floored! We’ve been battling the stinkies almost since day one. We tried at least 3 different brands of detergents. I added Calgon with the detergent. I added vinegar. I added baking soda. I put the diapers in the sun. Nothing worked! I would strip my diapers until the water was clear and I could still smell ammonia when they were done! Ugh!!! Honestly, I was starting to get fed up. I knew cloth was the best thing for my son, but that ammonia couldn’t be good for him!

Then, along came Lulu and her amazing Glamour Wash! I did strip the diapers before I started using the Glamour Wash, but I could still faintly smell ammonia. So what I did was fill the washer with hot water, added double the amount of Glamour Wash, and let the (clean) diapers soak overnight.


Yeah, these were CLEAN diapers!!!

The next morning, I finished the wash cycle and ran the diapers through a couple more hot wash cycles until the water was clear. When the diapers were clean and dry, guess what?? They smelled like…nothing! Exactly how fresh, clean diapers are supposed to smell. No ammonia or other stinkies!

I was so amazed by this, that I started my own little trial and used it on our towels, clothes, and hubby’s work jeans (he’s a farmer so you can imagine how dirty he can get). I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves…


Bath Mat and Towels...Yuck!


A load of whites that had already been washed AND bleached...


Hubby's grease & oil covered work jeans. I had already washed these twice with our regular detergent and stain remover before this wash in Lulu's!!!

I also conducted a little experiment using Lulu’s and one of the diaper detergents we had been using before. We have a bunch of leftover homemade baby food in the freezer, so I took out some pureed peas, blueberries, and squash and spread each onto some gray PUL, suede cloth, and bamboo velour (3 fabrics commonly used in cloth diapers).


I let the fabric sit overnight so the stains would have a chance to get a good hold onto the fabric. The next day, I rinsed the fabric (found out squash really doesn’t stain), and then mixed together two separate pastes of each of the detergents.


After rinsing in cold water.


Lulu's is on the left side of the fabric, other detergent on the right.

The first thing that I really noticed was the chemical smell of the other detergent, while Lulu’s Glamour Wash has no smell at all.

I spread the paste on the fabric and let it sit for 10 minutes. I noticed that Lulu’s started working almost right away. I cut the fabric in half and soaked the other detergent half in that detergent for 5 minutes and Lulu’s in the Glamour Wash for 5 minutes. I only added 2 teaspoons of each detergent into a sink full of water. Look at the difference:


Other detergent. Hmm...no wonder it's so hard to rinse it all out.


Lulu's

I rinsed each piece of fabric until the water ran clear and then let them dry. Just looking at the fabric, there’s not really a noticeable difference between them.


PUL Fabric. Lulu's is on the left.


Suede Cloth Fabric. Lulu's on the left.


Bamboo Velour Fabric. Lulu's on the left.

There’s still a little bit of a stain from the peas, hardly noticeable, on the fabrics from both detergents. But…the smell is the big difference. Even though I rinsed all the fabric until the water was clear, the fabric that I used the other detergent on still smells like that detergent. So, I know that not all of it was rinsed out. The fabric that I used the Glamour Wash on smells like nothing though.

So, I'm convinced!! I’ve already ordered two more bags of the Hard Water Glamour Wash. Since I hate wasting things, I’m still trying to use up the rest of the detergents in our Laundry room on our clothes. Nothing but Lulu’s will be touching our diapers though.






Lulu is graciously offering a bag of your choice of Glamour Wash to one of our lucky I Heart Fluff fans on Facebook. It’s super easy to enter. Just make sure you are already a fan of I Heart Fluff. Then become a fan of Lulu’s In The Fluff and comment on the post here (http://www.facebook.com/iheartfluff?v=wall&story_fbid=143691298977578).
The giveaway is open through July 21st and I will announce the winner on July 22nd.


One more surprise!! Lulu's is giving The Cloth Chonicles readers and I Heart Fluff fans an opportunity for 25% off your order! Just use the coupon code SWEETDEAL. To place your order, go to Lulu's In The Fluff and contact Lulu with your order and the coupon code and she will send you an invoice through paypal.

3 comments:

  1. I really want to try Lulu's. Have you tried Crunchy Clean before? I would like to support a smaller WAHM than I do with RnG. They have enough customers!! *ducks for cover*

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  2. I would love to win! I'm a fan on facebook! Thanks!

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  3. OH! I have been wanting to try this! I am a FB fan of both! tracyhgb at hotmail dot com

    ReplyDelete