Product Review: Ella's Botanicals Lavender Bubblemania

Bubblemania

Ella's Botanicals has been one of my favourite Toronto companies for a few years. It all started when I became addicted to the chai latte soap...but that's another story. I thought it couldn't get better, but then Ella announced that she was refocusing her line because she had found that in order to continue with the large distribution channels she was working with, the quality had gone down from the original product. In a very bold move, she decided to get away from distributors and force retailers to buy directly from her. This raised the cost of the product, but also the quality of the ingredients. You can read more about this here.

I was looking for a bubble bath with no SLS and other nasties. Problem is, those nasties are what make soap foam. This bubble bath produces a soft, fine foam when you run it in the bath. I find I can get quite a few uses from this bottle, though I didn't exactly count last time. I'd say at least 10 adult baths, which is good considering it retails for $18 on the Ella's Botanicals website. If you follow the company on facebook or twitter though, you'll find there are regular sales. It is also a little less expensive where I got mine at the Big Carrot for around $15. It's from the baby line, so if you're using it for a baby (and it can be used as a body wash and shampoo as well) then it would probably last even longer. I do intend on using it with my baby, but let's not pretend the adults in this house don't like bubbles.

The scent is a pretty strong lavender smell that comes from using lavender essential oil. The only thing I would change about this product is that I would like to see an unscented version available. It's not going to foam up like the bubbles I had as a kid, but my baby won't know what Johnson and Johnson even is, so it likely won't matter.

Green Baby

One of the ideas for this blog is to create inspiration for ways to incorporate low impact solutions without being overwhelmed. I do plan to cloth diaper, but I have a stash of disposables to start. After all, if I expect myself to perfectly be able to use cloth diapers on an infant when I've never even changed a diaper, aren't I a little crazy? No new mom needs that pressure. I try to live as green as possible but I draw the line when it causes me a great amount of stress. I am one person trying to use less, this does not make me perfect.

When we are stressed, we tend to revert to what we know, and I grew up with a typical north american diet and attitude. This makes Kraft Dinner comforting to me, and that will probably never stop. My goal is to make myself get used to more sustainable foods, products, and practices over time so that they go from making a stressful situation worse to calming my mind with routine during stressful times. My ultimate goal is to raise my child with more of these sustainable and healthy habits so that as they grow up, their default behaviours are less destructive to their bodies and the planet.

So I occasionally will use a lip product that has lead and parabins in it, but most of my makeup collection is free from those kind of chemicals. It's okay to not be perfect, it just means you're human.