Kissaluvs Antibacterial Wet Bag Review & Giveaway – 3 winners (CLOSED 5/27)

May 20,2011 / By Maria / 38 Comments

I already have (and love) a few Kissaluvs products, so naturally I was excited when I had the opportunity to review (and give away) three of their newest products. Two are still a mystery, you will find out about them in a few days!

First up is the antibacterial wet bag. It measures about 10 x 13 and retails for just $9.95. I received the “world” print, but it also comes in “spring circles” and “mocca swirl” (love that one!)

The outer of the bag is cotton, it has a zip closure, and the inner is PUL. The difference is that the PUL in this wet bag is treated with SILVERPLUS® for an antibacterial effect on the surface. The PUL does look more matte and less shiny than I’m used to. The bags are machine washable, made in the USA, and don’t need to be washed every time you use them.

Kissaluvs says the bag will hold 3-5 diapers.

I fit 6 in it!

I didn’t have any trouble closing it.

Kissaluvs also has antibacterial pail liners! Pretty cool if you ask me.

Giveaway: Kissaluvs is offering three of my readers each one wet bag! (ARV $9.95 each.)

Here’s how to enter: All entries go in the form below. I love comments (great way to remind yourself you entered) but comments do not count as entries.

Mandatory entries include your name, and email address.

I will accept entries until Friday, May 27th, 2011 at 9:00 P.M. Eastern. I will select a winner using random.org’s true random number generator and notify him/her by email. Winners have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is chosen. View my giveaway rules page for complete details. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.

# of entries received as of giveaway close: 246

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FTC compliance: I received the pictured item at no cost in order to review it. I was not otherwise compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.

Disclosure: This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, nor associated with Facebook. By entering, you release Facebook from any responsibility and understand that the information entered on this form will not be disclosed to Facebook.

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Turn a Snap Diaper into a Velcro Diaper – Adapt-a-Snap from GoGreen Pocket Diapers – Review

May 5,2011 / By Maria / 26 Comments

Last year, I wrote a 4 part post about my thoughts about the future of cloth diapering. In part 4 I mentioned that I’d love to see a diaper with snaps, that also had a Velcro strip and tabs that could snap on and off at a whim. I’d mentioned this to a few WAHMs, and as far as I know, no one had made such a thing. At least one WAHM had made a diaper with both snaps and Velcro, and you just affixed whichever you wanted, but I thought you really needed to be able to remove the Velcro.

Anyhoo, a little while ago, GoGreen Pocket Diapers posted on their Facebook page that they were coming out with a snap-to-aplix conversion kit that sounded exactly like what I was talking about! I’m a little embarrassed to say that I got pretty excited. I mean, really. Who gets all bouncy and squealy about a cloth diaper accessory? Well, me I guess. Largely because I was like OMG, YES! Someone else thinks this is a good idea! I’m not crazy!!

OK, so here’s how it works. You can get either white or black, and you can buy them with matching snaps (so you hardly notice them) or multicolor snaps (so they have the cool look of the GoGreen Champ, with the ease of Velcro.) It just snaps right on the front of the diaper.

The tabs snap on the same way.

I wasn’t sure how well the tabs would stick, since there are snap caps all along the Velcro strip, but it’s as if they aren’t even there, they stick just fine.

You can overlap the tabs since they have the loop texture on the reverse side.

You can also reverse the way the tab is snapped in to make it close up even smaller.

When you reverse both tabs, you can close it up just as small as when it’s snapped, or even smaller. (Only one tab is reversed in the pictures above & below.)

So obviously, I tested this with a Bumgenius diaper. The adapter will work with The Champ, or any other diaper with 1″ snap spacing, and two rows of 10 snaps. The obvious thing would be to test the adapter with the Champ, but when I received it, my Champ was dirty and I was anxious to try the adapter! This means I was extremely confused by what I thought of as “the mystery tab.”

It is slightly smaller than the closure tabs (closer to square) and has male snaps on one side (caps on the other) and loop (fuzzy Velcro) on both sides. I couldn’t figure out what it did. I contacted Leah at GoGreen, washed my Champ, and it all made sense. (LOL)

I totally forgot that the Champ has an additional set of female snaps on the wing, so you can overlap the tabs for tiny babies. I sound like such a dummy, but since I’ve never needed the overlap, it just totally slipped my mind.

This additional adapter snaps to the newborn overlap snaps and attaches to the hook of the other closure tab. There’s no hook on the underside of this adapter since it sits up against PUL (hook might snag it.)

Using this adapter on the newborn snap gets the diaper even tinier for really small babies. Since a baby that small isn’t going to be mobile, you shouldn’t have wing droop issues from the tabs attaching to each other vs. having them both attach to the front of the diaper.

You already know the adapter works on the Bumgenius, so obviously, it works on the Flip as well.

Rumparooz, check! I was trying to figure out what else I could try it on. I’m more of a Velcro gal myself, so I will choose that over snaps if it’s available. I was mentally inventorying my diapers and thought maybe it would work on the Oh Katy (especially since I remembered that had a newborn overlap snap!)

As it turns out, the snaps aren’t quite the right distance apart, and it only has 8 snaps!

Even so, I made it work! The adapter is pretty forgiving! The end of the Velcro strip might rub baby’s tummy this way though!

So, why would you want an adapt-a-snap? I’ve heard so many people say they started out with Velcro because it was simple (also an easy transition from sposies in my opinion), and it was great until their baby figured out just how easy it was to undo! So then they were stuck buying snap diapers, or trying to stop their streaker wannabe. With these adapters, you can buy snap diapers, but use them as Velcro until you need the snaps. Or, if you always love snaps, but want something easier for babysitters, this is it.

The other problem with Velcro is the longevity. The laundry tabs of many diapers aren’t exactly great, so you end up with curling closure tabs, snagged diapers etc. etc. It’s so easy to just pop the tabs off before you toss them in the wet bag, then snap them back on when they’re dry. Alternately, you could get a strip of fuzzy Velcro, cut rectangles, and slap ’em on the closure tabs before you wash.

At $6.99 each (edit: The price isn’t set in stone since this is still really a prototype. They may end up being less!), the adapters might be a little too pricey to buy one for each diaper in your stash, but it doesn’t take too long to attach them, so you could definitely get away with having just a few. I wouldn’t want to try to snap all 20 snaps on a new diaper with a wiggly, naked baby waiting. So you’d probably want to at least have enough to have one or two already on diapers, waiting in the wings so to speak!

Hooray for GoGreen reading my mind! What do you think? Could you use one of these?

FTC compliance: I received the adapt-a-snap at no charge in order to review it. I was not otherwise compensated for this post, and all opinions are my own.

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Video Demo of the Dunk & Swish (& Flush) Method

Feb 16,2011 / By Maria / 14 Comments

A few readers had asked for a video of my dunk and swish method. Since I love you guys, I obliged. I don’t like the sound of my voice, and I did my fair share of stammering since I was nervous! My New York friend says I have an accent, but I think she’s the one with the accent, hee hee!

If your baby is breastfed (or on very few solids) there is no need to rinse the diapers first, just throw them in the wash. I’ve heard that formula fed baby poop is the same, but I don’t have first hand experience with that.

When your baby is older, you can flip the solids into the toilet and flush; anything remaining is usually fine to go in the wash. However, in that in-between stage (or in my case, when baby has had a lot of fruit or juice!) diapers need a little extra help. If you don’t have a diaper sprayer, you can still dunk and swish without sticking your hands in gross water!

I almost forgot: I can’t take credit for this method, I am pretty sure it was one of my readers who suggested I try it, but I can’t for the life of me remember who!

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Yoreganics Laundry To Go Travel Trio Review & Giveaway (CLOSED 2/22)

Feb 15,2011 / By Maria / 5 Comments

Yoreganics sells USDA organic personal care and laundry products including shave gel, lip balm, foaming wash, soap nuts, stain remover and brightener/whitener.

I received the travel size laundry trio, which is enough for 25 loads, and retails for $14.99. The set is also available in sample, medium, large and extra-large sizes. The travel set included a generous helping of soap nuts, a muslin bag, .41 oz stain remover spray, and two small baggies (6 oz.) of brightens & whitens.

Kim included a handwritten note, which was a really nice touch. I realize she probably isn’t able to do that for every order, but as a reviewer, it was really nice to get!

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Diaper Cream Giveaway Review

Motherlove Herbal Diaper Rash & Thrush Salve Review & Giveaway – 2 Winners (CLOSED 12/21)

Dec 14,2010 / By Maria / 4 Comments

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Motherlove Herbal Company makes fantastic products for pregnant and breastfeeding moms, as well as for baby. They have everything from pregnant belly salve to sitz bath spray. I seriously wish I had known about the belly salve when I was pregnant! I was up half the night trying to claw my skin off to stop the itchiness during my pregnancies!

motherlove diaper rash and thrush ointment

Motherlove sent me a jar of their diaper rash and thrush salve to try.

It is cloth safe, and is rated zero (zero toxins) on EWG’s Skin Deep Database.

The simple ingredients are 96% certified organic.

The salve is fairly solid in the jar (I’d expect it to become softer in warmer weather, as a similar product I have does.) The 1 oz. jar seems fairly small, but a little goes a very, very long way.

Lightly rub your fingers on the surface, and the salve melts onto your skin. It doesn’t really have a smell. I practically stuck my nose in it, and it just smells very lightly of the ingredients.

I get terrible eczema in the winter, where my knuckles, the joints of my fingers and the backs of my hands crack and bleed. It’s not bad yet, since winter weather is really just beginning here. For giggles, I thought I’d try the Motherlove salve on one such spot.

It did not sting or burn, so I wouldn’t hesitate to apply it to a sore baby bottom.

The next day, there was a noticeable difference!

We’re lucky that we don’t deal much with rashes since switching to cloth. However, my son does get a bit red sometimes after he dirties a diaper. The other day he pulled what I call “the stealth poop maneuver.” He hates having his diaper changed, and sometimes he manages to hide all evidence that he needs to be changed. I didn’t see, hear or smell anything that made me think he needed a change, and I was surprised with a stealth poop the next time I changed him. I do change diapers about every two hours, but he might have been sitting in it for a while. I applied a thin layer of Motherlove salve, and by the next change, the redness was gone. You could also apply it at every change as a preventative barrier.

The 1 ounce jar Diaper Rash and Thrush salve retails for $9.50.

Motherlove also sent me a sample packet of nipple cream. Breastfeeding my first child was anything but sunshine and roses for sure. Fortunately, nursing my son was far easier (maybe because only one of us was a noob!) but I still had some soreness for a few days. Luckily, he’s a champion nurser now at 18 months old!

Motherlove nipple cream is made with 100% certified organic ingredients, contains no lanolin, and does not need to be washed off prior to nursing. Like the diaper salve, it’s also rated zero (zero toxins) in the EWG database.

Yep, you’re getting nipple cream action shots, tee hee! It has a nice texture, that melts easily into skin, and very little is needed.

Don’t worry, this is my wrist, LOL! A 1 ounce jar retails for $9.95, and would probably last a long time!

Be sure to check out the Motherlove Blog for great articles on herbs, breastfeeding and more.

Giveaway: Motherlove is offering a full size, 1 ounce jar of Diaper Rash & Thrush salve to two winners! I’m offering bonus entries, so in the unlikely event that I choose the same winner twice, I’ll choose again.

Here’s how to enter: All entries go in the form below. I love comments, but comments don’t count as entries. Mandatory entries are name, email address and what other ~~Motherlove~~ ~~product interests you. You may receive a bonus entry if you “like”~~ ~~Motherlove Herbal on Facebook. Receive another bonus entry if you follow~~ ~~Motherlove on Twitter~~.

I will accept entries until Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 at 9:00 P.M. Eastern. I will select a winner using random.org’s true random number generator and notify him/her by email. Winner has 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is chosen. View my giveaway rules page for complete details. This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.

# of entries received as of December 21st at giveaway close: 107

https://spreadsheets.google.com/embeddedform?formkey=dFNQVlAxOERkVUJIM3ZMU2JrNjluYVE6MQ

FTC compliance: The pictured products were received at no charge for review purposes. I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.

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