Product Review: Thieves Essential Oil-Infused Laundry Soap

Theives Essential Oil-Infused Laundry Soap

Created and Distributed by: Young Living Essential Oils, LC

About the Product: Thieves Laundry Soap is produced by a fairly well-known essential oil company called "Young Living." Their laundry soap is said tobe a plant-based formula that includes essential oils, and is free from: SLS, Dyes, Petrochemicals, Formaldehyde, Phosphates, Synthetic Perfume, and Optical Brighteners. I'll be honest and say that I don't know what every single one of those things are. When looking into this product, I found it quite interesting that the Thieves is labeled as "soap," and other laundry washing products are "detergent." I looked up the definition of "detergent" on dictionary.com, and detergent is any cleaning agent that is not made from fats and oils, along with some other factors that sets it apart from soap. Another interesting discovery was that the Thieves Laundry Soap had a list of ingredients, but the other two liquid laundry detergents that I currently have do not. So I tried to look up ingredients for one of the other detergents and got a generic ingredient listing for that laundry detergent brand. I started to compare the lists: Thieves has 19 ingredients (7 of which are various plant oils), the other brand has 32. A few things I noticed are that the other brand of detergent has several different kinds of salt, hydrogenated castor oil (isn't that a fat or oil?), dye, fluorescent brightener, borax, and a plethora of other things I have no idea what they are. While trying to compare the two ingredient lists, I did not see any of the same ingredients in both products. The Thieves Laundry Soap claims to be 6X Ultra Concentrated, HE safe, and can wash 64 loads of laundry with 32 ounces of soap.

Why I chose this product: I know people that are Independent Consultants for Young Living, and have used a few of their other products. A few years ago, I decided to try, their laundry soap. I purchased the bottle and then never actually tried it for some reason. So this Thieves Laundry Soap is around 3 years old, I think. It has been sitting, taped up from being packed for moving, on top of my washer for over a year now. The other week, I decided I should either use it or toss it. So I started using it.

Cost: $38.82 for 32 fl. oz., Retail (Young Living members receive a discounted price.)

Use: Since the bottle was a bit aged and I wasn't sure how it would work, I only began using it when washing towels. I do have a high efficiency washer, and I typically wash my towels on warm. As I put the towels from the washer into the dryer, I smelled them. And after they dried, I smelled them. And every wash since then, using Thieves Laundry Soap, I continue smelling them. Some of my sisters, after using a more natural laundry soap, have had issues with the laundry starting to smell sour, or having a residue of sorts on it. So I've been checking to see if that is happening. I believe I did use the Thieves Laundry Soap for our "home" clothes just this week. Stain treatment/removal is the one thing I have not experimented with on the Thieves Laundry Soap.

Conclusion: After the first wash, I noticed that the towels didn't have the fragrance of my other laundry detergent which is programmed into my brain as the "clean laundry" smell. The towels didn't stink, but I thought they had maybe an "earthy" clean smell. After putting them through the dryer, they really didn't have any scent at all. After using it for a few weeks now, I still have not noticed any adverse fragrances, souring, residues, etc. on the towels. And, I didn't notice any adverse effects when I used this Soap for our regular clothes. I do have to wonder if the lack of scent is due to the Soap's age, as the Thieves Laundry Soap has Jade Lemon, Bergamot, Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon, Eucalyptus, and Rosemary oils. If I had used the Soap when I first received it, I wonder if it would have more "smell" to it?

Would I recommend this product to others? At this point, yes, I would recommend this product to others. If you are trying to be more eco-friendly with your laundry washing, I think this would be a viable laundry soap option. It is a bit on the expensive side, but I do use less soap with the Thieves than I do with my other detergents. The cap on the bottle is much smaller so to use the same amount of Thieves as you do in other detergents, you would have to fill the cap two or more times. If anyone is interested in this Young Living product, two of my sisters would be able to answer questions and help you with that. You can also check it out on the Young Living website at www.youngliving.com/en_US.

Feedback: Have you tried natural, or eco-friendly, laundry soaps or detergents? What has been your experience with that type of product?

*I, nor A Journey Thru Pictures Blog, was not reimbursed, paid, sponsored, or given free products for doing this review.*