Blueland is an innovative brand that makes (mostly) plastic-free personal care products like soap and detergent. The brand’s core value is its eco-friendliness, because most personal care products contain significant amounts of plastic between the products and the packaging.
But is Blueland really more eco-friendly than commercial personal care products or is this just "greenwashing"? Are Blueland products healthier than their drugstore alternatives? Do they contain any questionable additive ingredients? And how do real users rate them?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more as we review the ingredients in Blueland Hand Soap, Blueland Laundry, Blueland Dish Soap and Blueland Blueland Home Cleaners. We'll share real, unsponsored reviews of their products and give our take on whether they're worth your money.
Blueland Hand Soap Review
Blueland’s hand soap starter set comes with a reusable plastic bottle and their soap tablets (ingredients shown above), which are mixed with water to create the soap. We find it strange that a company with such strong claims about environmentalism uses plastic soap bottles.
It’s true that it’s better for the environment to use a reusable plastic soap bottle than the single-use bottles available from some brands, but there are also plenty of soap products that are entirely plastic-free which is better for the environment.
Dr. Bronner’s sells bar soaps packed in paper (more on that later).
The soap tablet ingredients are decent in our opinion, using mostly natural cleansing ingredients like coconut acid and sodium coco-sulfate.
However, they do contain fragrance which we recommend avoiding, because this ingredient has been shown in medical research to be potentially harmful to human health, as well as potentially skin sensitizing.
Blueland soap also contains the preservative sodium benzoate, which while being one of the most non-toxic preservatives does appear to induce skin allergy in around 2% of patients based on medical research.
Overall we are somewhat unimpressed by Blueland's hand soap. We do consider it to be a healthier alternative to most commercial soaps, but we don't recommend it overall due to the inclusion of fragrance and a synthetic preservative ingredient. We also hope that in the future the brand removes plastic entirely from their hand soap packaging.
Real, Unsponsored Blueland User Review
One of the most popular reviews of Blueland on YouTube is published by a creator named Tiffany McNerlin. She shares product demos, reviews each of the brand's most popular products, and even provides a visual comparison of how long the laundry tablets take to dissolve in water at different temperatures.
This is a really informative review that appears unsponsored, and would likely be a valuable resource for consumers considering Blueland:
Our Non-Toxic Soap Recommendation
The soap brand we recommend is Dr. Bronner's Hemp Citrus Pure Castile Bar Soap.
Like Blueland, this soap is primarily made from safe botanical ingredients like organic coconut oil, organic olive oil and organic jojoba oil (which is proven in clinical research to hydrate skin and improve skin elasticity).
The main difference from a health perspective is that Dr. Bronner's soap is fragrance-free, using organic lemon oil and organic orange oil as natural fragrance compounds. We personally have used these soaps and they smell amazing.
This is also a more environmentally-friendly option than Blueland hand soap, because it's packaged in paper while Blueland soap has a plastic bottle.
Interested consumers can check out Dr. Bronner's Hemp Citrus Pure Castile Bar Soap at this link to its Amazon listing.
Blueland Laundry Review
Blueland’s laundry offerings are where the brand really shines over their competitors in terms of improved health and reduced waste.
Medical research has shown that commercial laundry detergent negatively affects natural ecosystems and wastewater treatment processes due to the toxic chemicals often included.
Blueland has the best laundry product formulation we’ve reviewed, with entirely non-toxic and effective ingredients. The brand utilizes sodium carbonate as a natural cleaning agent.
The enzyme subtilisin was highlighted in a medical research review of enzymes with potential for the laundry industry, and it’s included in Blueland to help break down protein stains.
Blueland's laundry detergent tablet contains another interesting enzyme called amylase, which is effective for catalyzing (breaking down) starch, and was shown in a 2014 meta-study to be an effective and non-toxic laundry detergent ingredient.
The laundry starter set comes with a tin (rather than plastic), and refill tablets are packaged in paper pouches, so this is the most environmentally-friendly laundry product that we’ve reviewed on Illuminate Health.
Blueland also sells 100% wool dryer balls, which are much more environmentally friendly than dryer sheets which are typically made from plastic, and which are single-use.
We recommend all Blueland laundry products for their eco-friendliness and non-toxic nature. Interested consumers can check out Blueland Laundry Tablets at this link to the brand's Laundry Starter Set Amazon listing.
Blueland Real Customer Reviews
Blueland products are sold on Amazon, which is a more objective resource for customer reviews than a brand's website in our opinion.
The brand's most popular product on Amazon is their multi-surface all-purpose cleaner which has been reviewed over 500 times and has an average review rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. The product only has a "D" grade on Fakespot, which is a software tool that detects potentially fake Amazon reviews. Fakespot's "Adjusted Grade" for this product is only 2.5 out of 5 stars.
The top positive review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named "Sue Swan" who claims to be a buyer for life:
"Our kids told us about this product and we’ll be using it forever— it cleans everything beautifully and is good for the environment"
The top negative review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named "Cheeba" who claims that the plastic spray bottle is ineffective:
"This is my second item I've bought from this company and am extremely disappointed. I first purchased their hand soap dispenser with the tablets. That quickly stopped. I gave them the benefit of the doubt thinking it was a fluke so I purchased the cleaning spray bottle and that too now doesn't work properly. They say their mission is to create less waste by creating reusable bottles but they are garbage and end up in the landfill anyways."
Blueland Dish Soap Review
Blueland also sells dish soap products, and these are better-formulated from a health perspective than their hand soap. Blueland dish soap ingredients are all non-toxic and naturally derived.
The dish soap contains similar active ingredients to the hand soap, but is fragrance-free and preservative-free.
Another benefit of their dish soap is the container (called the "Forever Shaker" is made of silicone, rather than plastic, which is a much better environmental choice.
We recommend Blueland dish soap, and find it to be a much safer, healthier and environmentally-friendly option than commercial dish soap like Dawn.
Blueland Home Cleaners Review
There are three categories of home cleaners sold by Blueland: multi-surface cleaner, bathroom cleaner, and glass + mirror cleaner.
Unfortunately, all three formulations contain fragrance and synthetic colorants, so we don't recommend them. As we documented in our Native deodorant ingredients review article, there are toxicity risks with artificial dyes.
All three home cleaners also contain the preservative sodium benzoate that we've discussed previously.
All of Blueland’s home cleaners come with a plastic bottle, so again not as eco-friendly as their dish soap and laundry offerings.
We find Dr. Bronner’s Sal Suds Biodegradable Cleaner to be a superior option from a health perspective as a multi-purpose natural home cleaning product. It contains natural non-toxic oils (Siberian Fir Needle Oil, Spruce Leaf Oil) for fragrance and antibacterial effect, and is free of synthetic fragrance, coloring agents and preservatives.
Interested consumers can check out Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds Biodegradable Cleaner at this link to the product's Amazon listing.
Blueland Pros and Cons
Here are the pros and cons of Blueland as a brand in our opinion.
Pros:
- Non-toxic, effective dish soap
- Non-toxic, effective laundry tablets
- Beautiful branding
- Positive customer reviews
- More eco-friendly than average brand
Cons:
- Use of synthetic preservatives in some products
- Use of fragrance in some products
- Many products use plastic
