Norwex Laundry Powder Review

Update:  Having realised Norwex are not able to confirm their cruelty free stance I am no longer using this powder but the review is still an honest one on how it worked.  I am now using Fill laundry powder which is also eco friendly and cheaper – the review is here.

In an effort to reduce the chemicals in our home and to continue to reduce my eco footprint when it comes to clothing I purchased the Norwex Laundry Detergent powder.   (You can read about No New Clothes 2019 which is my other challenge to reduce my eco footprint when it comes to clothing)

The product costs £22.99 for 1 kg which seems mental when a generic laundry powder costs around £4 – £5 for a 2.4kg box.  However Norwex claims this powder will do 66 to 100 loads of washing vs the 40 loads a generic powder offers.  When my powder arrived and I opened it I was honestly shocked at how little powder it was telling me to use!

As you can see the dose of Norwex is a fraction of the size of my last dose of Surf (Please note, I did also use less of the Surf than recommended as I hate product residue).  If I do the math, Surf expect me to use 65g of washing powder per wash while Norwex only expect me to use as little at 10g per wash!

Having seen that if you clear out the gunk from your washing machine drawer (you know the gunk I mean!) your drawer should stay clean as Norwex leaves zero residue, I gave my drawer a good soak.  I used some sodium bicarbonate, white vinegar and warm water to clean it up before using the powder.  The gunk in your drawer is made up of the fillers in our washing powder and softeners – as Norwex don’t use fillers, the idea is your washer will stay sparkly clean.

My first load was a typical one filled with loads of the kids clothes and some tea towels.  I whacked them in and added the minuscule amount of powder and put my washer on for a daily wash cycle at 40 degrees.  When it came out it all smelt very plain, there was as they said no smell.  A bit of a head bender to get used to but I moved everything into the dryer and an hour later inspected everything as I folded the items away.

Honestly, I was expecting it not to be quite as good as my old one and I would have been happy if it was good but not quite as good at the old one.  The Norwex powder held it’s own and surprised me, everything was clean and ready to be put away.

I do pretty much a load a day and have been using it for about 2 weeks.  So far it has cleaned everything I have thrown at it as well as my previous laundry powder, winner!

I have seen that some people add essential oils into the powder if you desire a fragrance to your clothes.  I’m not sure I am that bothered about the lack of smell and as a family we are happy enough to continue using it as is.

If you like the science then here is a photo of the ingredients.  It makes for very quick reading with only 3 ingredients.

The info they give on the website are that it:

• Requires just a fraction of the amount of most typical store brands
• Using less means you save money—one compact bag washes up to 100 loads in an HE machine and up to 66 laundry loads in a conventional machine.
• Dissolves quickly and starts working immediately
• Works well in all water temperatures
• Effective in hard water
• Contains environmentally friendly water softeners
• Non-toxic, with biodegradable ingredients
• Suitable for septic tanks

I’m not sure it saves me any money tbh, at the maximum suggestion of 100 washes a bag that would mean each wash costs me 22.9p while a store bought one at £5 offering a maximum of 40 washes costs me 12.5p per wash (or half that for me as I never used the full recommended measure).  It is however cheaper than other environmentally kind products like Ecover which works out around 28p per wash.  I would estimate using Norwex is probably costing me double, however as I REALLY want to do the right thing when it comes to being kinder to the environment and minimising the use of harsh chemicals in the home I will likely stick with this and repurchase in a few months when I have used this bag up.

My order also came with a sample of the Laundry Liquid.  This tiny little 4ml sample is the amount required for a load of washing!  Nuts right? I mean it’s not even a full teaspoon but I don’t doubt it will work amazingly!  Also if you’re wondering about my gunk free drawer… it’s still 100% sparkling!

I purchased my product from @TheHomelyHaven