I first heard of Blueland through Kristy’s review of their dish soap and bathroom cleaner. And since I happened to be out of hand soap and my multi-surface cleaner, I thought it would be a great time to try out their products. So what did I think?
Blueland Foaming Hand Soap Refill
As I mentioned in my Tangie Hand Soap Paste Bar review, I like to use the SimpleHuman automatic foam soap dispenser and have been refilling it with Tangie’s soap paste bar, which is more like a bar of soap. Well I was out of hand soap so I decided to give Blueland’s Foaming Hand Soap a try. First off I love that Blueland’s foaming hand soap comes with variety of smells (Tangie’s only comes in 3) so it’s a fun way to celebrate the seasons. Blueland’s summer pack looks especially tempting (too bad it wasn’t available when I ordered). And overall Blueland’s foaming soap works well with my SimpleHuman foaming soap dispensers. Since I didn’t buy the bottle (just the refills) I dissolved the tablet first in a clean glass jar, measuring out 1 cup of water (it’s one tablet for about 9oz of water). I then used that to refill my automatic dispensers (1 cup is a tad too much for it so I had some left for the next refill).
And as much as I like the smell of the Blueland hand soap I still might stick with Tangie bar based on the ingredient list. Blueland’s soap contains citric acid, sodium coco-sulfate, sodium carbonate, sodium benzoate, algin, polyethylene glycol, sorbitol, potassium sorbate, fragrance, capric triglyceride. Many of these synthetic ingredients have to do with making the tablet stable and giving it shelf-life. Meanwhile the Tangie soap bar contains coconut oil, olive oil pomace, jojoba oil, almond oil, glycerin, aloe vera, rosemary oleoresin. And since my toddler doesn’t rinse off all the soap as well as she should, I feel safer knowing that she might still have natural oil residue on her hands over synthetic chemicals. I’ll most likely be using Blueland soap refills in our primary bathroom and not hers.
Oh and price wise, Tangie’s bar soap cost $20 and makes 12 cups of foaming hand soap while the equivalent for Blueland’s tablets is about $24 for 12 cups. So not a huge price difference but Tangie’s is slightly cheaper.
I think the Blueland refill system for hand soap is great for those families without small children and if you buy the Blueland plastic bottles plus refills from the beginning. Since I’m refilling my own soap dispensers it’s a tad more annoying since I have to dissolve everything in a separate jar first.
{September 2022 Update: So after running out of Tangie’s, I’ve found that I really like the Blueland tablets. They’re easier to use and if you take into account the shipping, then Blueland’s is actually cheaper. I also have found that the tablets fit my dispensers so I don’t need to dissolve is separately. So I guess you can say I’ve come around to Blueland and will be planning to repurchase in the future.}
Blueland Multi-Surface Refill Pack
Since Tangie doesn’t make multi-surface cleaners, I had been using Dazz all purpose cleaner tablets which I originally purchased at Target (but it doesn’t look like they stock it anymore). And the Dazz tablets work well but unfortunately they come packaged in plastic. So I decided to give Blueland’s Multi-Surface Refill a try. It works well and gives a nice lemony smell. The website said it’s “made without parabens, phosphates, ammonia, VOCs, chlorine bleach, or phthalates.” Ingredient-wise it’s the same as the Dazz tablets (which still contain things like sodium lauryl sulfate, a cleansing agent).
Again because I was using my own reusable bottle the large tablet didn’t fit into the bottle. This time I used a mallet and brushed the tablet into powder and then poured it into the bottle with water. It worked with minimal mess!
Price-wise the Dazz is about $1.50 per tablet and Blueland is $2. Overall I think it’s a great cleaner and whether you choose to go with Blueland or Dazz, at least you’re not buying anymore plastic bottles.
Overall I like Blueland products and their effort to spread zero-waste habits to more people. I’m also glad to see some representation in that it’s an Asian-American woman-owned company. I do have to say I was a little disappointed in the shipping time. They’re shipping from Southern California (and I live in Northern California), and it took 10 days to arrive. And since I only purchased refill tablets, if they had sent it via regular USPS (I think it went though some kind of DHL/USPS shipping arrangement) I would have gotten my package in 2 days. At most I was expecting a 5 days delivery but since it took so long I had to make an emergency purchase of Whole Food’s foaming soap. Ah well just minor inconveniences but wanted to give you a heads-up that shipping takes awhile.