Product Review: Seventh Generation Laundry Detergent

**I was given free samples from Seventh Generation in exchange for my open and honest review. All opinions, adorable baby pictures, and messy laundry pile photos are my own. 

Since I was little I've struggled with sensitive skin. If you ask Mark he might say I struggle with sensitive everything, but I digress. Since no one thinks a rash is sexy, for as long as I can remember I've used "Free and Clear" detergents when doing my laundry. I usually grab All or Purex, I'm allergic to Tide in all forms. On average I do seven loads of laundry per week for Mark, Fitz, Alex, the dogs and myself. That amounts to a lot of laundry!!

Since we don't have a money tree in the backyard, and I do care about the chemicals in our detergent, I try to shop sales and use coupons. Typically, I grab Purex Free or All Free and Clear at Publix, Winn Dixie or CVS on sale, which helps cut down on the added costs of being without added chemicals.

When Fitz and Alex were born, I would buy the jumbo containers of Dreft—I wasn't sure about their possible allergies and the last thing I wanted to deal with was a baby with a skin rash. The more I can do to cut down on baby fussiness on the front end, the better.

When I was approached, through Generation Good, to sample Seventh Generation's Free and Clear detergent, I jumped at the chance. I already knew that I loved their diapers, so I was curious about their detergent. Not being a stranger to the "free and clear" game, I went in prepared to rewash my clothes.

With some other brands I've tried, that don't have the added chemicals, I've noticed they just don't get clothes clean enough. Taking that into account, I was obviously concerned that a plant-based product without artificial brighteners might not be tough enough on stains.

Because let's face it, twin toddlers mean stains.

Generation Good sent me three packets of detergent. I used one on a load of my clothes; one on a load of baby clothes and I gave one to a friend.

I was pleasantly surprised on how well the detergent handled both loads of my clothes. On stains that were pretreated, you couldn't tell at all. On stains that I missed pretreating, they were mostly gone, with the exception of a chocolate chip smear on a white onesie—which let's be real, that sucker probably wasn't coming out no matter what I had put on it.

Overall, I thought the detergent performed better than some brands and as well if not better than my go-tos of All Free and Clear and Purex Free.

The friend I gave the third sample to reported similar findings.

Will we change over to Seventh Generation all the time? Probably not. Will I add it to my arsenal of brands I buy when on sale? Absolutely.