From Deseret News archives:
High price doesn't assure quality of cleaning products
There's an all-purpose cleaner that smells like pink grapefruit, a tub-and-tile scrub that reminds you of freshly mown grass, and a toilet polish in green-tea patchouli that you might easily mistake for an expensive talcum powder. Apparently, the drudgery of housework has become an opportunity for a little aromatherapy.
The question is, can these new-age cleaning products do more than evoke images of seaweed wraps and shiatsu massages? To find out, I plunged headlong into a world of plant-derived "surfactants" (which simply means a surface-active substance), essential oils and aromatheraputic scents.
My cleaning aide de camp Ed and I could have used a spa treatment after several scrubbing sessions where we tried out these products in a variety of scents, shapes and styles. That's because, in general, no matter which new-age product we used, none matched the cleaning power of a dose of Pine-Sol.
Several smaller manufacturers, such as Method Products Inc., the Caldrea Co. and Good Home Co., lead the market and are increasing their customer bases quickly. This has caused big cleaning-products companies, like the makers of the popular Simple Green, to get into the act with competing cleaners. This movement has even affected the giants of the cleaning-products industry, who have been trying to add less-antiseptic fragrances to their product line.
To whit: The Pine-Sol in my broom closet touts its "Orange Energy!" while my Palmolive lavender Aroma Therapy dish liquid declares that it is "anti-stress." (It is not.)
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