happy method holidays!

one man review - holiday 2011

Image via methodhome.com

Ho, ho, ho and a bottle of rum! Wait, what? That isn't a holiday song, but rather a pirates tune? And it starts out Yo, ho, ho? Really? Wow. I never knew that! Well, let me just say, some families would enjoy my version much better during the holiday season! (Hey, you know it's true.)

So anyway, enough about liquor and the holidays! How about some reviews! Believe it or not, it's been quite a while since I've done a one man review here on method lust! So in honor of the Christmas holiday season officially starting (hey, Thanksgiving is over buddy, get with the program! ) from here on out, this season is all about Santa Claus and ho-ho-ho, and mistletoe and presents to pret-ty girls! First up, method's 'tis the season' line of hand washes (only available online, and at Target stores with a grocery/fresh produce section:)

baked apple, toasted vanilla bean and winter oak hand washes

baked apple (gel and foaming hand wash) +  So I really didn't want to start off on a Scroogey note, but well, bah humbug! I had such high hopes for the baked apple. Another reader mentioned they thought it smelled a little like apple cider. That got me to thinking, could this be method's apple version of their spiced pear? All apples and cinnamon and clove and rich spices! That sounds like a baked apple to me! So the scent, well, I'll let my conversation with my boyfriend speak for itself:

me: "Here, smell this. Do you think it smells like baked apples? What does it smell like to you?"

the boyfriend: sniff - "Hmm, I don't know what it smells like, but it doesn't smell good, that's for sure."

me: "Yeah, unfortunately, I agree."

I couldn't even get an apple scent out of it. It was sorta some weird mish mash of vanilla and some kinda spice buried deep down and it was just... uninspiring. I couldn't even bring myself to buy and try a bottle, it was so disappointing. Sad face. The concept was great, the result was less than successful.

But, just to prove I'm not a total Scrooge, apparently there are baked apple lusters out there, via method's Facebook page:

"...I love love love the holiday edition baked apple hand wash! I just opened it and am totally in love with this scent."

1.5 out of 5 hard candy Christmases

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toasted vanilla bean (gel and foaming hand wash) +  Our second review, well, it's kinda like the first one. I know, I know. method is never gonna bring me no figgy pudding at this point! (wink!) So how about another boyfriend conversation moment:

me: "What do you think of this? It's called toasted vanilla bean."

the boyfriend: sniff - "Wow. Uh, why does their holiday hand wash smell like suntan lotion?"

Agreed, hon, agreed! Perhaps that's the "toasted" portion of the scent, but it sincerely smells like coconut suntan lotion. In fact, I love that scent (it's crazy, I know!) So I was tempted to pick it up simply for that reason (having nothing to do with the fact that it's supposed to be a fall/winter scent) but started thinking about the new coconut grove hand wash that will be out in the spring, and decided to wait. Plus, I'm uh, trying to find holiday scents here, ya know?

2.5 out of 5 hard candy Christmases

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winter oak (gel and foaming hand wash) +  Man, it looks like method's 'tis the season' line is a total bust! I mean, so far, nada. I should just pack my sleigh and move on, nothing to see here. Oh and whoa Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen (Rudolph was sick at home with a stuffy nose!) What do we have here? Why it's winter oak! Now, this is how method does it right! It's a very unique scent, kinda woodsy, kinda cologne/perfumey, kinda sweet, smoky, just nice! Perfect! Listen up method, these are the kind of scents we lusters expect from you! Something original, special, and oh so method! Perfect for the fall/winter months! Mmm. I snapped up a bottle quicker than you could say "dash away, dash away, dash away all!" (I know, I'm sorry. But trust me the holiday bits are far from over!)

PS - the boyfriend lusted winter oak, too, and even picked himself up a bottle!

4 out of 5 glasses of eggnog

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And now on to method's holiday line:

frosted fir and candy cane hand washes

frosted fir (gel hand wash) + There is nothing I can ever say bad about frosted fir. It's Christmas tree Heaven! Returning for only it's second time around (for shame!) it's just an amazing scent, I lust, lust, super über-lust it! It is the scent of the holidays to me! method fans praise the hollyberry scent, but I personally think frosted fir is the best of the two! And this year it's also in dish soap?! method, I could give you a kiss! Just go stand under the mistletoe, ok? Now close your eyes! And pucker up...

5 out of 5 glasses of eggnog

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candy cane (gel hand wash) + Wow! Just wow! I can't believe it, after years and years and years and well, you get the point of peppermint vanilla (which I think is just eh. Way too much vanilla, not enough peppermint!) method finally gives us a pure mint scent! I mean, it's called candy cane! How can it not be the peppermintiest! I can't wait! Yippee! To the sink I go, scrub scrub scrub my hands with new candy cane, mmm, mmm, mmm, it's so... wait. This smells exactly like peppermint vanilla. E to the x to the actly. What in the world is going on here? Why would method give us the exact same scent under the guise of a new name? This is so... cue Christmas crying face (you know, the face children give you when they don't get what they thought they were gonna get for Christmas!) So much potential. Down the drain.

Peppermint vanilla fans will lust it like crazy. The rest of us, not so much. Enough with the vanilla, method. Make 2012 vanilla free!

PS - Candy cane scent is also available in dish soap for the holiday season.

3 out of 5 hard candy Christmases + (1 out of 5 hard candy Christmases for giving us an old scent with a new name)

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And finally, foaming holiday hand wash:

cinnamon drop and spiced pear hand washes

cinnamon drop (foaming hand wash) + This is a very true cinnamon candy scent! If you lust cinnamon drops, you'll lust this foaming hand wash! It's not very creative, or unique, but it's nice! I wish it were available in gel, as well.

3.5 out of 5 glasses of eggnog

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spiced pear (foaming hand wash) + Oh man, why isn't this available in gel this year? Sniff. Spiced pear is a method classic. And unfortunately, I'm not sure method realizes this. It's a perfect fall/winter/holiday scent. But it comes around so rarely, and that's a shame. Pear mingled with all sorts of wintery spices. Seriously amazing. This should show up in stockings and on store shelves at least every other year, if I had my way (in gel, please! I just can't get my brain wrapped around foaming hand wash. I know, there are method fans for both sides! Fighting it out Snow Miser and Heat Miser style!) I just lust spiced pear scent to ribbon candy pieces! (Even the tiny candy shards that jab the roof of your mouth! Ouch! Whatever, I still lust you!)

5 out of 5 glasses of eggnog

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And there you have it! method lust's 2011 holiday hand wash one man review (with a little help from my wonderful boyfriend!)  I realize scents (and our lust + hate dislike (mama said you should never hate nothing) for them) are a very personal thing - so, have you sledrided (is that even a word? No, no, it's not. But we'll use it anyway, cause I love annoying my 8th grade English teacher) down to your local Target (or gone online) and purchased any of these method holiday goodies? If so, what do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my reviews? What are your holiday lusts?

And with that... I heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good method night!"

vote n' save!

UPDATE + method was the big winner in the soap.com Battle of the Brands! Use promo code SOAP30 to save 30%! And method luster Jamison let me know that if you're a new customer, they'll also give you an additional 20% off! Plus free shipping! Win, win, win!

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Do your part, and vote! Vote for your favorite household brand (and by favorite household brand, I mean method, of course!) And the winner will be 30% off at soap.com starting on Black Friday (should Black Friday be capitalized? Or is it lower case? Is Black Friday like, an official holiday now? Nah. Should I be putting this much brain power into this? Nah...) through Cyber Monday (which is the monday following Black Friday black friday. Wait, should Cyber Monday be... oh wait, never mind.)

ho ho ho bits 'n pieces!

method lust reader Jon (thanks, Jon!) was kind enough to snap a photo of the new holiday hand wash that has started to pop up in select stores (this one was in a Gelson's grocery store.) I'm so excited to pick these up this year - can't wait. I am just in shock that frosted fir is back, baby, back! I lust that scent so much!

Along with this, method has just posted about their new 'tis the season' line of hand washes over on their official blog!

The posts states that the three scents (baked apple, toasted vanilla bean, and winter oak) will be available in gel and foaming hand wash! (I know a lot of fans will be excited about that!) And they are available "at your local Target grocery (and online soon!) until the end of january."

Has anyone found any of these products (holiday or 'tis the season'?) What do you think of the scents? Let method lust know!

copycat? - hand wash

I wonder if method should get their copyright/trademark packaging police over to Trader Joe's, STAT? method luster Jon sent in this pic of some new Trader Joe's hand wash. Kinda looks familiar, now doesn't it? Just goes to show you how great method's package design is (everyone wants it!)

sneak peek - spring 2012!

The sneak peeks for next year keep on comin'! And after method gave editors and bloggers a special presentation of these new spring 2012 product assortments, online site Core77 revealed the following products and information. And excerpt from the article:

"The company has also continued to increase their use of the shrink-wrapped labels that first appeared on the detergent bottle. Shrink-wrapping enables graphic flexibility while keeping the plastic eminently recyclable. Method "Product Czar" Don Frey told us that coloring the plastic bottle itself would mean downcycling when it reached a recycling facility: it would become a lower grade plastic bench instead of being reconverted into a higher use plastic bottle. But if the graphic treatment is shrink-wrapped rather than integrated into the form, the bottle's plastic can be recycled at a higher grade and the materials used longer.

Using the shrink-wrap tactic also means that method can visually differentiate clear liquid soaps without resorting to the use of artificial dyes.

But in spite of all this awesomeness, method isn't getting lazy or relying on greenwashing, either. On their website, co-founder Adam Lowry writes:

At method, we want to be a sustainable business, but we recognize that no business is sustainable yet. That's why we've geared our company to be the best at getting better. Our sustainability philosophy starts with our mission to Inspire a Happy, Healthy Home Revolution, and centers around using innovation to create positive change. But mere sustainability is not our goal. We want to go much farther than that. We want to become restorative and enriching in everything we do so that the bigger we get, the more good we create. We are striving for sustainable abundance.

Amen. Lookout for method's new packaging for their toilet bowl cleaner set to come out this Spring!"

You can read the entire article here!

Awesome! I have to say, while I haven't seen any of the new hand washes in person (so far nothing has hit store shelves), I will say at first I wasn't too keen on the idea of shrinkwrap packaging. It can simply look sloppy. But if they can get away with making them look as amazing as the (hopefully soon to hit stores) Designed for Good line, and this new spring hand wash line look, I'm all for it. The designs on these bottles are absolutely gorgeous!

Starting at the top we have, in new spring scents: (first photo) watermelon patch, daffodil bouqet, and (second photo) coconut grove.) Below you see the updated wood for good polish bottle (left), and new wood for good oil soap! And of course, as the article states, they're also working on new packaging for their toilet bowl cleaner set. Notice the word set, there. Hmm... (I have to say, I like the toilet bowl bottle, so I'll be sad to see it go.) 

coming soon!

UPDATE +  In addition to the spray cleaner refills (see below), other items we'll be seeing early next year have been mentioned over on method's Facebook page:

travel bottle of method laundry detergent (sneak peek)

"Has method started making/selling travel packets of laundry detergent?" method's response: "Why yes it is! The eight load sample size will be available early spring."

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Also look for method to replace their daily granite bottle with a new larger size (same as their spray cleaners.) They've recently done something similar with their wood for good daily cleaner (which I've just now realized they should have called daily wood! Oh those that get that joke, shouldn't. Ha!) Though at the moment the daily wood cleaner and the smaller wood for good surface cleaner still both exist. But as of now method has provided daily granite refills in full size bottle packaging (minus the spray nozzle) so it looks like method is simply reducing all the packaging and making it one (larger) bottle. Whew, did you get all of that?

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And there is also a mention of improving their antibac spray cleaner scents (which many people complain about, primarily because the thyme oil, necessary for providing the natural antibacterial properties, also gives the products a very strong scent.)

"Love all of your stuff but just bought two of the lemon verbena products and the scent is awful!" method's response: "We're working on new scents for our antibac line that are much more nose-friendly. - stay tuned."

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Great news for refill fans! According to a couple of posts over on method's Facebook page, it looks like all-purpose spray refills will be in our future!

"Does method make a refill for the all purpose cleaner?" method's response: "We will have an all-purpose refill available at the beginning of February. - stay tuned!"

and if that wasn't enough, they also mentioned it a bit earlier:

"Hi, awesome method team!  I was just wondering if you were planning to release method all purpose cleaner in refills?" method's response: "We're actually working on it! We should have a refill for our all-purpose cleaner on shelves in February." 

Thoughts? (Share'em!)

sneak peek - 'for the season' hand washes

UPDATE +  Some people (including myself) seem to be having problems finding the new 'for the season' line of method hand washes. Well, method said yesterday on their Facebook page "...they will be available in most Target stores with expanded food selections (not necessarily 'Super' Targets). we'll have them online soon in case you can't find them in stores." Hmm... I don't know enough about how Target stores are set up, but I've always only noticed the regular stores (and we have three around me) and then the Super stores (with the really large grocery section.) Is there an "in-between" that might have an expanded food section? No clue. At any rate, I'm kinda disappointed with this, as these might be more difficult to find than I had thought. Good luck!

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You know, I've said it before (and probably before that, but hey, I enjoy repeating myself. Do people enjoy listening to me repeat myself? Well, that's a whole other story...) But the thing is, no matter how much snooping and scooping and hunting and pecking and bribing and begging I do, there's always something method is gonna sneak past me! And so, here's a perfect example. Apparently people have just started finding new 'for the season' hand washes popping up on store shelves, with not a mention of such things on method lust?! For shame, Nathan, for shame. But honestly, I had no clue! - For reals!

The new hand washes are interesting. They aren't holiday/Christmas. But they don't really say they're a limited edition line, either. They definitely look holiday to me - bottles in bright reds, iridescent purples, a little berry twig on the packaging. But they're not. So let's just call them fall/winter limited edition and be done with it! They come in baked apple (which I hear has a kind of cidery apple scent to it, that could be amazing!), winter oak (some people say it's wow! Others say it smells like men's cologne, but I'm really excited to check this one out!) and toasted vanilla bean (which probably smells like it sounds. Possibly the least exciting of the three, but hey, everyone has a black sheep in the family, right? Joking, toasted vanilla bean, joking of course. You're special, too!) They are gel hand washes, though from the photo below it also looks like the toasted vanilla bean comes in foaming!

method luster Gary was ever so nice enough to send along some pics of the new bottles sitting on his Target store shelves! (I haven't found them yet at any of the three Targets near me, therefore I hope they realize I'll be stalking Target for a couple weeks until they appear! :) He also sent along a shot of some of method's new in-store displays (see above.) Have you seen these near you? Picked any of them up? Thoughts? And be sure to look for method's holiday line of hand wash and dish soap hitting shelves near the end of November!