Review PlayMais

We were sent a medium box of PlayMais to try and review, which is like coloured recycling chips, but is made from cornstarch and water and coloured with food colouring.

PlayMais can be reshaped, squeezed and cut.  If you damp the little chips they stick together, but they also stick to lots of different surfaces too ie paper, glass and card, which makes them a great item to keep in the craft cupboard, but at £7.99 for a medium box it is quite expensive considering once its gone its gone.

Normally we would test a product over at least a week (sometimes much longer) before I would review it, but since this has been played with since the moment the minimads came home from school and preschool on Friday, I thought I would get the review done.  Also I think that the pictures speak louder than the words in this case too.

What we liked.

I loved the fact that they are en eco friendly toy and help use the children's imagination.  They foster creative and individual play.

They appealed to both boys, including MaxiMads analytical side, he loved making patterns with them, counting them, using them for adding and taking away.  He even sorted them with chopsticks in to small pots.

I loved the fact that any pictures of models made could be added to paper or a greetings card as 3D art and reused.  This is a fantastic way of displaying the children's art and also of making birthday and Christmas cards using the things they have made, rather than just popping it in the recycling or compost bin (which you could do too).

I liked the fact that they are very light, so would make an excellent present for any child you have to post to.  You could also double up in their usage and include them in a box for family at Christmas as packaging chips.

What we didn't like

They are pretty expensive for what they are £7.99 for the medium box.

The box says they come with all you  need, but there was nothing included for cutting them and we had to use scissors and they are quite difficult for small hands to cut.

We also found the box to be quite flimsy and not suitable to store the mais in, so we transferred it to a container we already had.

It can be quite hard to replicated the models on the box and in the booklet provided, which just upset MaxiMad - he was a little frustrated. 

Overview

A super product, we all liked with many uses and I am sure we will get hours of use out of.  A must for any arty/crafty children.  A fantastic unisex product, I am sure my niece will adore playing with this and the minimads next time she visits too.  They are suitable for a wide range of ages and abilities and there is no right or wrong things to do with them.  So a big thumbs up from TheMadHouse

Ecover Reivew

I hate cleaning, I am not a natural cleaner, so I use the Fly system.  So when the people at Ecover were looking for people to test their new range of hard surface cleaners, you would think that I wouldn't be keen, well you would be wrong, as here in TheMadHouse, we try very hard to be green, so thought it would be a good idea to test our options.

Now before we start, I was given some products to do this review and a green trug,fair trade rubber gloves (I hate rubber groves, so didn't use them) and a pack of vileda cloths.

Right let start with the science bit......

Ecover have brought out a revolutionary new ecological cleaning range, which features Eco-surfactants.  Now I don't have a huge understanding of this, but it is to do with yeast and bees and you can find out lots more information on the Ecover website.

Now I don't have any before and after pictures, but I did religiously test all of them over a number of weeks, which is why I haven't blogged about it before now.

Initially I tried Ecovers Power Cleaner , which is powerful degrease for ovens, hobs, pots, pans and BBQ's  I really liked this product, it has an unassuming smell, worked really well on my oven door, far better than I imagined a green cleaner would (this is the one area that I still use a chemical cleaner usually) and I will definitely buy again in the future.  MadDad also tried this on the BBQ as he was cleaning it before putting it away for winter and he too was pretty impressed, he is much more of a green sceptic than me, so this was a major achievement considering his lack of enthusiasm for the product.  I really liked that this product foamed, so stayed on the surface longer.

We had to compare it to Cilit BANG Power Degreaser, which the minimads loved saying, but I hated spraying.  I found the spell really off putting and also the thought of all those chemicals in my home on my oven, near my food especially as this was the second product we tested.  I was not very impressed, it left marks on my hob and I needed to leave it on quite a long time to get any results, needless to say this has been given to the mother in law, who firmly believes the more chemicals the better cleaning power.

Secondly we tested the Multi-Surface Cleaner.  Again this was a winner for us, kind on my hands, as good as our Method naked cleaner that we use.  It has a really nice mild lemon scent and its cleaner powers were put to the test over a week in TheMadHouse.  It was used for spills on laminate floors, as a general kitchen cleaner and also as a cleaner in the bathrooms.  This is fantastic and will be replacing our normal products as soon as I run out.

We tested this against Flash one for all, which was a good cleaner too, in fact the only faults I could find were the overpowering artificial lemon scent and the fact that it made my hands very dry.  So in my opinion if faced with the choice I would choice the green option every time.

Then we tested  the all purpose lemon cleaner, which I diluted as instructed on the package.  I used this to clean all the wood work and skirting in the house (don't tell anyone the amount of grime I got off).  The water in the bucket was a very nasty colour by the end.  Again I liked this product, although found the water needed to be a reasonable temperature to do a good job, but all in all a good alternative cleaner for people who like to have a bucket and cloth clean (which is not something I normally do very often). 

The alternative product for this was the flash one for all, which again can be diluted in a bucket and does a good job on grime and muck even when cold, but has that very artificial overpowering lemon scent again and left me with very dry hands.

Finally we tested the Window and Glass Cleaner, which any mum with children can tell you is a highly used cleaner in any house with patio or french doors.  Now we have 2 sets of French doors, in addition to a wall of retro mirrored wardrobe sliding doors, which are forever covered in hand prints.  We use microfiber cloths which do make a difference when cleaning windows, but it is still sometimes hard to get a streak free shine.  Not with this, it was a breeze, so easy to use, in fact I gave MiniMad the bottle and got him to clean some mucky finger prints he had left on the dinning room doors, which I would never do with a chemical product.

The Mr Muscle Window and Glass Cleaner that we were testing against did a great job too, in fact there was no discernible difference apart from the big one this was much more environmentally friendly.

Overview

So overall we loved the Ecover stuff, but I do have one very large gripe with them.  Why oh why do they not have closers on the bottles to stop children spraying them.  The doorbell went when I was cleaning the kitchen and I popped the multi surface cleaner on the top, when I got back I found MaxiMad had gone a little overboard with the spraying.  I liked that the tops were colour co-ordinated, so you know which bottle you have in your cupboard. 

I didn't use either the rubber gloves of the vileda all purpose cloths (they are made from renewable resources), but I prefer to use micro fibre cloths around the house, as I can pop them in the washing machine and re-use them.  It is even greener to use old clothes as clothes, which we do for the car.

I would also like to ask the manufacturers or flash and Mr Muscle why do they insist on the powerful smells and also the very vivid liquid colours.

Going green is not hard to do when the products are as good as Ecovers new ones, let hope that supermarkets price them in the same bracket as the chemical ones, which in my humble opinion is a major stumbling block to ecological purchases, especially in these more frugal times.