Hot or Not? Murchison-Hume Premium Cleaning Products

Granted, we pay a premium for our green cleaning products—just usually not this much. Murchison-Hume brands themselves as the world's first Premium Organic housecleaning product line based on colloidal technology. Wondering what that is and if it's worth the money? Check it out below the jump.

Murchison-Hume claims colloidal technology (the same technology used to clean up the ocean in the event of an oil spill) is superior to other eco-friendly housecleaning products in both efficacy and non-toxicity. We're not chemists, but it seems as though colloidal particles serve to suspend and transport your target "dirt" for easier cleaning.

Their philosophy ("Why does everything made to keep a house clean have to be so ugly?") seems to mirror that of other green cleaning product companies that have taken to creating more stylish packaging. According to their website, Murchison-Hume's packaging was inspired by old-fashioned, brown glass apothecary-style bottles and are available in two essential-oil based fragrances or naturally fragrance-free. They look really nice—premium at that—and quite elegant.

In defense of their price, their ingredients are all natural and thus claimed to be more expensive than widely used synthetic chemicals. They do aim to reduce their prices once they increase production with the end goal of being an affordable luxury household cleaner.

Their Classic Six boxed set consisting of 6 x 500ml spray bottles, one each of Glass Polish, Food Safe Surface Spray, Chrome and Stainless Steel Cleaner, Furniture Spritzer, Bathroom Cleaner and Floor Cleaner, retails for $74.00. Other products priced as follows:

500ml of the “Original” Garment Groom, designed as a fabric freshener and stain prevention retails for $14.95.

1 litre of the “Heirloom” Dishwashing Liquid + Amber Glass Pump retails for $32.00.

They also offer some great looking wood brushes at very reasonable prices (we own a wooden pot scrubber brush very similar to theirs, and love ours).

Available from Anthropologie or Murchison-Hume's website.

Comments (12)

Nay. Too over the top for me.

Unbearably pretentious.

Luxury product, through and through. Only worth purchasing if you are in the mood to indulge, not because you're maintaining your cleaning closet.

Colloidal? Sounds a bit like ... soap. Whee emulsifiers.

Doesn't Aveeno packaging say something about "colloidal oatmeal"? I always thought it had something to do with chicken pox...

Oh no!

We only just spotted this and are mortified by the way this was slated. Gosh, if I was taking this survey, I would say "No Thanks," too! But you have to try our products to feel the difference. It's like comparing freshly squeezed orange juice to "orange drink." Yes, both orange and wet, but a world apart!

We're not greedy. Those prices are not indicative of wide profit margins. We are trying to do it ourselves without selling out and using inferior ingredients! We are a small, family run company based in Sydney, Australia. We literally produced everything on the kitchen table for the first year from 2007 to 2008 so the shipping alone makes our products very expensive in the states.

We're trying very hard to make sure that our products are natural, effective AND affordable. To wit: We launch our own US production next month which will minimise costs significantly. Even so, it will be awhile before we can compete with the big brands like Mrs. Meyers and Method on price, especially because our products aren't made with inexpensive synthetics, Sodium-Laurel Sulphates and crazy artificial colours!

I just wanted you all to know we're committed to bringing you a genuinely earth friendly product (that actually works) at a fair price. And please keep in mind that 5 years ago Mrs. Meyers, 7th Generation, Method and Caldrea (Meyer's parent company) were all boutique brands and all more expensive then we are now. The more volume they produce, the lower their production costs.

We're just not there yet, but we're trying! We also wanted you to know that there's some serious grunt (and Genuine Green Credentials) behind those pretty labels!

Please read more at our website: murchison-hume.com

Sincerely,
Max Kater
Founder/Murchison-Hume

Max – quick question: Why are you claiming your products are “genuinely earth friendly”? Your products contain Palm oil. The environmental impacts of palm oil are undeniable. Forests in South East Asia, home to countless endangered species such as the Orangutan and Sumatran tiger, are felled at an alarming rate to make way for palm oil plantations. I’m not even touching on the effects to the world’s climate. Can you please clarify how exactly Murchison-Hume is earth friendly??

Sub-question:
Can you please verify which "Genuine Green Credentials" Murchison-Hume hold? I doubt I'd have much confidence in them if they are backing a company that uses palm oil!

Hi Greengoer,

Phew! You guys are a tough crowd! I'm going to let Peter Kater my MD (and husband) handle this one.

Thanks for your query about palm oil in your e-mail to Max. We are keenly aware of the environmental disaster that indiscriminate palm plantation farming causes, having lived in Singapore (which suffers annually from the "blower" effect from Indonesia) for 3 years when Max and I were first married.

That was a pure Rookie Mistake. We are still running out some older labels for the refill bottles (which sell through less rapidly as they carry twice the volume of the 500ml bottles) which were printed some time ago when we were still with our previous supplier. The supplier, being perhaps overly diligent advised us at the time that palm oil was an ingredient in the base product, which we duly included as an ingredient on the labels we printed at the time.

We subsequently learned that in fact palm oil was not an intended ingredient in our product but a possible contaminant IN TRACE AMOUNTS due to the fact that our product was produced on the same equipment that was also being used to produce palm-derived products for other customers!

We now have a new supplier in any case and we do still have some of the older labels for refills that we are running out until the old label stock is depleted.

I hope that this answers your question and that the mention of palm oil on the refill labels is not a serious issue for you. I apologise for any inconvenience or concerns that this may have caused.

Please feel free to email me: peterk@murchison-hume.com if you would like to discuss this in more detail.

Very Best Regards,
Peter

Peter – your detailed response is greatly appreciated. Thank you. We are indeed a tough crowd – but we have to be. There’s too much green washing going in the world.

One last question: Would you care to embellish upon the following ingredient “Tall oil fatty acids (vegetable)”? - This sounds a little ominous – please explain?
Thanks again!
Greengoer

Murchinson-Hume
i have been using their kitchen products for a year now and i love them. they clean,cut grease, and smell great.I like the Juniperberry. i also like that you can buy the large refills-very handy( i have the large "Heirloom"Dishwashing Liquid with a pump by the side of my kitchen sink with the small hand soap and they look great."
i reccomend them.