Today's post is an introduction to several products rather than a review of just one. We haven't personally experienced these, but think they're fun to share. In short, we've run across quite a number of wooden products on Amazon recently -- and not just items you'd expect to be made out of wood. If you like the natural look and feel of wood like we do, you might get a kick out of these and might find something you'd like to have.
​Browse through and then leave a comment about your favorite or what you think of products like this! Wooden Record Players
As you probably know, record players have become popular once again, and many of them are more versatile than their ancestors, especially in the sense of allowing you to play MP3 songs through them. And in some cases they offer features like vinyl to MP3 recording, in case you have a huge collection of old vinyls that you'd like to make digital. (Almost defeats the purpose for many people, but it could also be the sole reason some people might want to get a new record player!)
Here are a few whose wooden bodies really bring out the nostalgic feel of record players while blending in modern technology:
Wooden S'well Bottle
Bamboo Mouse and Keyboard
These definitely give a retro look to the most modern technology. Swap out your mouse and keyboard for these made of bamboo. The house here claims to be sweat-resistant and anti-radiation. At the time of writing, it has 4.5 stars; the keyboard alone has 4 stars; the combo (which comes with a stylus as well) has 3.5 stars. Note that the combination comes with a much smaller keyboard. Probably best to get the larger keyboard.
Wooden Essential Oils Diffuser
Wooden Watches
You could stick with leather and plastic for your watches, or you could check out these wooden options. All the watches here are well reviewed, with a slightly lower review (3.5 stars as we write this) for the ladies "bangle" watch (the broader wrist ornament).
Wooden Stools
It's not unusual for furniture to be made of wood, or course. But these stools offer an especially natural look without the usual human shaping of the wood. What do you think?
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Today we want to share with you a product category including one of our favorite solutions, called Earthpaste. Most people don't know that this category exists and don't know why it should. But we'll explain.
For the most part, folks may think that the purpose of toothpaste is to:
But there's a totally different way of looking at toothpaste that can dramatically change the products you're looking for. Consider the following:
So what we're introducing you to is the category of tooth products without glycerin. These are meant to allow your teeth to rebuild and stay strong. (This still relies on you having adequate minerals in your saliva, and that can involve other health choices.) Many (or all?) of these products have NO fluoride, many avoid damaging ingredients like silica, they don't include questionable ingredients like sodium laurel sulfate, and yes, they still freshen your breath. One of our favorites is Earthpaste. This is about as natural a product as you could hope to find, as it's basically a natural, mineral-rich clay used to clean the teeth. CLAY??? Yep. And mineral rich, which in theory should help with re-mineralizing the teeth. And while you might not want to eat it, clay is perfectly safe if consumed, so if you swallow some ... no need for a trip to the emergency room. Earthpaste has just a few ingredients: water (to soften the clay); clay; "Real" salt (for scrubbing the teeth, and again a mineral rich ingredient); xylitol (to sweeten it, and xylitol has many, many studies showing support of tooth health); and essential oils to flavor it. The peppermint flavor also has menthol. While we might prefer an even stronger flavor from the essential oils, Earthpaste tastes great and does help to freshen the breath. And once you get used to a brownish toothpaste, we bet you'll love the experience, knowing that you're truly supporting tooth health. There are other products in this category. We've tried Toothsoap, which didn't have a strong flavor and basically just uses oil to clean the teeth. We think this is a good product, but doesn't taste as good and is a pretty different experience from usual toothpaste. Dr. Bronner's has a version we haven't tried. There are some alcohol-free, glycerin-free mouthwash options too. Some that have a great flavor are oil based and we found them messy and less pleasant to use than our favorite, Essential Oxygen Brushing Rinse, which is based on hydrogen peroxide. (So-called because you can also use it on your toothbrush for brushing your teeth.) This is another one where we wish the flavor were stronger, but it still provides a clean, freshening experience. We hope you'll explore this category of glycerin-free oral care products and discover a better way of keeping a clean, fresh mouth! If you're an owner of a Sonicare toothbrush, you know what an amazing clean it gives your teeth. Probably there's a dentist out there somewhere that doesn't like Sonicare, but I've never met one. Dental hygienists too. They all seem to be fans. (If you don't use Sonicare yet ... we can't recommend it highly enough. It's such a low-cost option for addressing such an important part of your health. Just get through the first few brushes when it tickles the heck out of your gums; pretty soon that will feel normal. Find the base model here for $20 at the time of this writing -- includes your first brush head. That page also has a comparison chart with other Sonicare models.) But as a Sonicare owner, you know that there's just one thing painful about them: the cost of replacing brush heads. They're like $8 each (at the time of this writing), which isn't horrific given that the overall toothbrush takes care of your teeth so much better than your standard brush. But if you want to be responsible and replace your brush head every 3 months (and maybe after you've been sick as well), that might feel like it's adding up. Well here's some good news Sonicare fan: there are plenty of compatible brush heads that can be had for $2 and less a piece. Indeed. Of course we haven't been maniacs brushing our teeth with every brand available, but we did give this one a try by Demirdental because of its 4.5 star rating after hundreds of reviews on Amazon. Our experience? We wouldn't give it 5 stars because of some subtle things. For one, it didn't seem to fit as snugly against the body of the Sonicare as a Sonicare brush head; so far, this just seems cosmetic, and as we try out more in the future we'll update this if we find that it was a fluke. Second, when initially moving over from the Sonicare head, there was something about the shape of the new brush head we didn't like quite as well. Something about it being a touch more difficult to position properly for a good brush. But like many new things, with a little time it seems like it's becoming more natural and it definitely seems to be providing a great brush. We might grade it 4 stars on these points alone, but we'd be irked that we couldn't give it 4.5 stars, which is just where the Amazon rating is. Long story short, if you don't want to cough up the full price for the brand name brush head, you won't go wrong with these, and they don't cost any more than a standard toothbrush. After a bout with a cold, I'd hate to throw out a Philips brush head if it were still pretty new; with these, not such a big deal. (Ok ... environmental concerns aside. But that gets us into the topic of things like bamboo toothbrushes, and sadly there are so far no bamboo Sonicare replacement heads that we're aware of.) So with base models at $20 for Sonicare and replacement heads for $2 each ... there's really no reason (unless ... environment) not to brush this way. And we think you'll love the difference it makes on your teeth and at the dentist. |
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