My Melaleuca moment

My world is hyper-focused on wellness because I believe wellness leads us to rich, vibrant lives.  This paradigm extends FAR beyond diet and exercise to include the consumer products I use, especially those used to disinfect my apartment, clean my body, and strengthen my immune system.  A trip to any big box store presents aisle after aisle of “wellness” products (many full of harmful chemicals, btw). If you’re not careful, this plethora of products can either paralyze you from making a choice or confuse you into making the wrong choice.  Over the years, I’ve tried and tested a multitude of products from many companies in my quest to find eco-friendly wellness products with proven results that are produced by a socially-responsible company.  It’s a tall order, but recently I’ve become intrigued by the products made by a company named Melaleuca.

Melaleuca: The Wellness Company

I had never heard of Melaleuca until I visited a friend’s home, and I spotted a curious green bottle on the kitchen counter labeled “Sol-U-Guard Botanical.”  Now, anything with the word “botanical” captures my attention, so I asked her about it.   

She said that Sol-U-Guard Botanical is an environmentally friendly disinfectant made by an e-commerce company called Melaleuca. 

“Melawhata?” I asked.

The name sounded exotic, so I was a little surprised to learn the company’s headquarters are based in Idaho.

Melaleuca oil

Even though Melaleuca’s headquarters are found in the potato capital of the world, you may be surprised to learn its heritage is as Australian as the kangaroo. The Melaleuca Tree (Melaleuca Alternafolio), found in the Land Down Under, was the source of Melaleuca’s original product line in the 1980s, which incorporated Melaleuca oil as an essential ingredient.

I learned that its product lineup still features Melaleuca oil, but it’s only found in a few of its products today. Melaleuca has expanded to include a lot of other natural ingredients like citric acid and thyme as key ingredients in its household cleaners. The company has an array of eco-friendly cleaners, nutritional supplements, cosmetics, etc.  Some of their other products include healthy snacking options like microwave popcorn as well as bath and body soaps and lotions.

PURE essential oils

Still, Melaleuca oil holds a prominent role in the catalog, along with a large selection of other essential oils.  These “PURE Essential Oils” (as Melaleuca calls them) include staples like peppermint, lavender, lemon, frankincense, ginger, and many more. They also sell roll-on bottles so you can mix oils for your own custom blend and a diffuser (with colorful lights!), which smells wonderful.  Curiously, prices seem to be half the cost of what I pay at major suppliers for other oils. Not sure why, but hey, I’m always happy when I can save moolah (as long as I’m not sacrificing quality).

Cosmetics

Throughout my life, I’ve struggled with the moral dilemma of using cosmetics made in dirty factories that harm the environment, to make myself more “beautiful,” which is why I typically steer clear of “beautifying” cosmetics. Besides, beauty really is found within.

With that said, though, Melaleuca has a line of environmentally responsible cosmetics called Sei Bella. My friend raved about them, claiming their mineral foundation is the best finish she’s ever had for her oily skin.

But I’m not sure what to make of them because I’m not a make-up girl. However, I could see myself trying their hair care and skincare products to find the best solutions.

EcoSense

As mentioned earlier, the thing that started my Melaleuca kick in the first place was a green bottle of Sol-U-Guard Botanical. As it turns out, Sol-U-Guard is one of dozens of eco-friendly household cleaners that Melaleuca sells in what it calls “EcoSense” products. They include disinfecting and cleaning solutions for floors, counters, showers, tile, toilets,  and other surfaces. They even have laundry and dishwashing detergents.

If you use their EcoSense products, be prepared to don your Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle hat, because almost every Melaleuca cleaning product is intended for use with a reusable spray bottle or a reusable pump dispenser.

Their concentration story sets them apart. Instead of unnecessarily diluting its cleaners with water (which would waste bottle space and thereby cause more landfill garbage), Melaleuca sells cleaners in a super-concentrated form. I mean like 12x concentrated for some of their cleaners!

Walking the walk

Melaleuca’s product line seems impressive enough, but a large product line isn’t enough for me.

I continued to ask my friend questions about Melaleuca’s use of eco-friendly ingredients, their corporate social responsibility, and evidence of the effectiveness of their wellness products.  You know . . . it’s easy to talk-the-talk, but does the company walk-the-walk?

When I went home, I followed up by going to Melaleuca’s website, which echoed the claim that the company is eco-friendly and uses natural ingredients.

Melaleuca’s site also provided the company’s mission statement: “Enhance the lives of those we touch by helping people reach their goals.”

I also believe being a socially-responsible company includes being involved with sensitive current events.

In today’s world, it seems people don’t use 20/20 vision to see the social injustices around us. I was encouraged when I found a statement from Melaleuca’s CEO, who said: “I abhor the idea that anyone would disrespect another or treat them differently or even think of them differently simply because of the color of their skin.”

Melaleuca Foundation

As I looked through other Facebook posts, it was also nice to learn that Melaleuca seems to be very engaged in supporting charitable causes, which isn’t all that unique for a company. In fact, it would raise my suspicions if a company weren’t involved in giving back to the community. But I was particularly pleased to learn that The Melaleuca Foundation supports an orphanage in Ecuador and has for over a decade.

The Melaleuca Foundation was created as a charitable arm for Melaleuca to enhance the lives of those most in need. This foundation, inspired by their mission statement, was created to give back to families in need across the globe.

Can’t Believe My Luck

I may have stumbled upon an eco-friendly company that checks all the boxes.

But one criticism is that you have to enroll as a Melaleuca club member to purchase their products, which really isn’t that strange. After all, I do that with my Costco membership.

Like shopping on Amazon, you place an order online, and Melaleuca will deliver the products to your home. If you’re a click-it-and-forget-it person, you can set your order to auto-renew each month, similar in concept to other monthly subscription services like Stich Fix or Dollar Shave Club.

My Melaleuca FAQs

Here are some of the answers I found while researching Melawhata 🙂

Company Details:

Countries of operation: United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Poland, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand

Final Thought

Everyone’s body and soul is unique.  Although Melaleuca appeals to me, it might not be right for you. You’ll have to experiment and decide for yourself. Hopefully, though, this post about Melaleuca will help you familiarize yourself with the products this environmentally-friendly company offers.   

I love the Arabian proverb (adjusted ever so slightly)  “She who has health has hope, and she who has hope has everything.” I believe finding products that work well with your body is a significant part of finding health (and by extension, wellness).  And when you’ve discovered wellness, you’ve discovered hope that will lead you to a vibrant life.

Namaste