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Dear Dot,
I would love to find great, gentle, and good-smelling cleaning and beauty products that are also high-concentration and low-volume, but I’m totally overwhelmed by the vast amount of marketing from many different companies telling me why their product is so great and so much better than everyone else’s. Do you have any fave cleaning products or bar shampoo recommendations?
–Jennifer
My dear Jennifer,
Many, many years ago, I left my job as a magazine editor to become a freelance writer, and my days were filled with writing books and magazine stories. It was a glorious time. And then Mr. Dot and I decided to have a baby. I birthed this baby on a Friday morning with the sky a perfect blue outside the hospital window. She was magnificent, this baby Dot. The next day, we took her home, where, having little to no experience with babies, I imagined she would doze in a basket while I finished my regular magazine column that was due on Monday.
It might surprise no one to discover that my column was submitted late and no doubt required extensive editing. This baby, this perfect creature that I expected would snooze often, coo occasionally, and charm us all, instead wailed and screamed and was single-handedly responsible for a path worn into the hall carpet as I paced with her day and night like some sort of postpartum Lady Macbeth.
Babies, as it turned out, were a lot of work, and this baby in particular. And so, Mr. Dot and I scrounged in our sofa cushions to find the money to hire someone to clean our apartment — one less chore for us stressed out parents. As I navigated new motherhood, Max (our cleaning gentleman) imposed order on literal chaos, cleanliness on filth, and assured me, as only a childless 24-year-old young man could, that I was mothering just swell.
Max moved on, and we hired Lindsey, a lovely woman with three young children and a commitment to Earth-friendly products born of her concern about the indoor air pollution from cleaning products, which Dot shares.
What does Lindsey use? (Hint: it’s cheap!) And what are some great eco-friendly brands for beauty? Keep reading. And if you’ve found “green” cleaning or beauty products you love, please tell Dot about them. And don’t miss Bluedot’s Guide to Clean Beauty.
