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 and describe their effects?
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 Home Cleaners to give our take on their healthiness and eco-friendliness.
We'll feature unsponsored customer reviews of the brand, and document which products are entirely plastic-free.
Hand Soap Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in Blueland soap tablets are shown above.
Blueland soap bottles are made of glass, and the tablets are plastic-free, so this is a great environmental choice.
This product contains some research-backed natural cleansing agents.
Coconut acid and sodium coco-sulfate are derived from coconut and can help to remove dirt and grime.
Sodium benzoate and potasisum sorbate are synthetic preservatives.
While we consider these to be two of the mildest synthetic preservatives used in cosmetics, all things being equal we'd prefer a formulation without preservatives.
Fragrance has been shown in clinical studies to be potentially harmful to human health, and so we'd strongly recommend choosing the "Fragrance-Free" version of this product.
Overall, we consider Blueland's hand soap likely to be effective for cleansing the hands, and to be a healthier and more environmentally-friendly option than most commercial soaps.
Real People Try Blueland
A YouTube creator named Tiffany McNerlin has an extremely thorough review of Blueland products that even includes a visual comparison of how long the laundry tablets take to dissolve in water at different temperatures:
A YouTube creator named Tyanna Bui reviewed Blueland in a video that has each different section timestamped:
Detergent Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in Blueland laundry detergent are shown above.
Medical research has shown that commercial laundry detergent negatively affects natural ecosystems and wastewater treatment processes due to the toxic chemicals often included.
Blueland's laundry tablets contain a number of research-backed ingredients, and seem to be a much healthier option.
Subtilisin is an enzyme that was highlighted in a research review published in the Microbial Biotechnology journal on enzymes with potential for the laundry industry.
This enzyme helps to break down protein stains.
Amylase is an enzyme 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.
Sodium carbonate is a natural cleansing agent.
Most importantly, these laundry tablets are entirely free of unhealthy additives like fragrance. There are no ingredients in this formulation that we consider to be unhealthy.
Blueland's laundry starter set comes with a tin (rather than plastic) container, and refill tablets are packaged in paper pouches, so this is the most environmentally-friendly laundry product that we’ve reviewed to date 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.
Real Customers Review Blueland
Amazon is a better resource for honest customer reviews than a brand's website in our opinion.
Hand soap is currently the brand's most-reviewed product on Amazon, with over 1,300 total reviews and an average review rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.
The top positive review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named "Kathryn Whitten" who gives the product a 5/5 star rating, and likes both the environmental and functional effects:
"We used the bottles and tablets as Christmas gifts this year and they are well-loved by all! We feel good about less plastic bottles in the world and the foam soap is a great product. It does an amazing job of cleaning hands and glasses!!"
The top negative review from a verified purchaser is written by a user named "ElleBee" who gives the product a 1/5 star rating, and dislikes its consistency:
"Feels like water. I had to use 2 tablets, and half a bottle of water (half the amount the instructions call for), for it to even feel sort of like soap. And even still, there is no way it would wash off sunscreen, or argan oil, etc. Shame on them for even claiming to be soap."
Blueland Laundry Tablets currently have an average review rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars on Google.
Blueland currently has an average review rating of 1.75 out of 5 stars on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, but it's a small sample size of reviews.
The company responds to all customer complaints on the BBB website at the time of updating this article, which is a sign of a quality brand.
Dish Soap Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in Blueland Dish Soap are shown above.
This is a simpler formulation than the hand soap.
Sodium bicarbonate, better known as baking soda, is clinically shown to have antibacterial effects.
Sodium lauryl sulfate impairs skin barrier function according to a clinical trial published in the Pharmaceutical Research journal.
Since dish soap is meant to be used with gloves, this is less of a potential health issue issue than if this ingredient was included in hand soap.
Glycerin is a stain remover that's also clinically shown to improve scent, as we documented in our Clean People Laundry Detergent reviews article.
The container for Blueland Dish Soap (called the Forever Shaker) is made of silicone, which is another plastic alternative that's better for the environment.
Overall, we consider Blueland Dish Soap likely to be effective for cleaning dishes, and consider it to be a healthier and more environmentally-friendly option than most commercial dish soaps.
Home Cleaners Ingredient Analysis
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 currently recommend them.
As we documented in our Native deodorant ingredients review article, there are toxicity risks associated with use of artificial dyes.
All of Blueland’s home cleaners come with a plastic bottle, so we don't consider this product line to be as eco-friendly as their dish soap, hand soap or laundry offerings.
Pros and Cons of Blueland
Here are the pros and cons of Blueland in our opinion:
Pros:
- Non-toxic, effective dish soap
- Non-toxic, effective laundry tablets
- Healthy hand soap formulation
- Beautiful branding
- Mostly positive online customer reviews
- Much more eco-friendly than commercial alternatives
Cons:
- Use of synthetic preservatives in some products
- Use of fragrance in some products
- Some products contain plastic (including home cleaners)
