Review :: ATTITUDE Kitchen Cleaner (Citrus Zest)

ATTITUDE Kitchen Cleaner
Review Score
Ewg Rated	A
Ingredients	Water Caprylyl Myristyl Glucoside Lauryl Glucoside Alcohol Terpineol Decanal Allyl Heptanoate
ATTITUDE Kitchen Cleaner did the job I wanted it to do - clean the kitchen - and it did it very well. And it does this using ingredients that have been chosen with a great deal of thought and attention. Very few products receive an A+ from the Environmental Working Group. Those that do often don't perform at such a high level, because A+ products automatically exclude many of the more powerful cleaning ingredients. If you have a known allergy to one or more of these ingredients, or simply can't stand any scented products, then you will need to look elsewhere. For everyone else, including people who dislike strong scents but are fine with mild scents, this one is a winner! Absolutely outstanding.

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Our mission is to review and promote the safest and most performant of household cleaners.

We never review products fully disclosed ingredient lists displayed right on the package.

We check out the companies behind the products, test and describe the performance of the products, and look closely into the safety and environmental impact of each ingredient.

Right now there’s virtually no regulation mandating ingredient disclosure, but some manufacturers have caught onto growing customer demand for ingredient disclosure.

The bottom line is this: when we know the ingredients we make better decisions about what we put into our homes and our environment.

Today I’m reviewing Attitude Nature Technology Kitchen Cleaner, Citrus Zest scent.

According to the Attitude, 100% of their products are “powerful, natural, vegan, and sustainable,” cruelty-free, carbon-neutral, septic tank safe, and “made with worry-free ingredients.”

Like most of Attitude’s other products, this cleaner is ECOLOGO certified through UL, indicating reduced environmental impact.

We’ve reviewed a number of Attitude’s products before, love what these guys are about, and I was really looking forward to trying out their Kitchen Cleaner

About Attitude Nature Technology

Attitude is a brand owned by the company Bio Spectra.

With headquarters in both Montreal, Canada and Paris, France, the brand offers 200+ products in dozens of countries.

According to their website, all of Attitude’s products are:

• 100% hypoallergenic
• Made with worry-free ingredients
• Environmentally sound

We would never just go off of manufacturer claims alone. The word hypoallergenic doesn’t actually mean anything. It’s purely a marketing term. I’ve seen products with hypoallergenic claims contain ingredients that have been awarded allergen of the year.

That said, Attitude backs up their claims with some impressive credentials certifications for their products. Here is a list of every certification that applies to the Citrus Zest Kitchen Cleaner:

• UL ECOLOGO (“criteria including materials, energy, manufacturing and operations, health and environment, product performance and use, and product stewardship and innovation”)
• PETA’s “Beauty Without Bunnies” (cruelty-free and vegan)
• EWG VERIFIED (free of health concerns; A+ rating)
• CO2 Neutral (made with 100% renewable energy sources, and Attitude plants trees)

As these endorsements would suggest, Attitude tends to deliver an impressive product.

When the Kitchen Cleaner arrived, my expectations were already high.

My First Impressions

The Citrus Zest Kitchen Cleaner is packaged in a recyclable 27.1 fl. oz. (800 mL) bottle with a basic “on/off” sprayer top. The bottle sprays in a mist pattern.

Based on past experiences I expected a strong-smelling scent, but I actually found the Citrus Zest formulation yielded a pleasant and not-overwhelming grapefruit aroma.

The consistency of the product was what I like to see in a kitchen cleaner: sudsy but not so thick that it requires a lot of extra wiping. As the directions say, just spray and wipe it away.

Real World Performance Tests

I consider real-world performance at least the second most important element of any cleaning product review. It’s also one of the hardest things to guess at from manufacturer claims and packaging.

I dove right into the testing with a difficult job. I’ve been painting the kitchen and bathroom of my current home, and quite a bit of paint has ended up on the kitchen sink and counter. And dried.

I sprayed, I let the Kitchen Cleaner sit for an extra moment, and then I wiped with paper towels. I was pleasantly surprised at the results; it did ultimately take some extra sprays, elbow grease, and more paper towels, but I was able to get all the paint residue up.

Awesome!

The greasy glass stovetop: a great chore to determine the effectiveness of any kitchen cleaning product. If a cleaning spray requires multiple applications and multiple paper towels, or if it pushes the grease around without lifting it right away, I am not pleased.

In this case, I was very pleased. I used a single paper towel for the whole stovetop and the job was complete.

Next, I tested the spray on a bamboo kitchen cart. I found that the Kitchen Cleaner imparted a nice shine and also found myself enjoying the Citrus Zest scent.

Last, just because it needed cleaning, I sprayed and cleaned out the bathroom sink.

The performance was great, as I had now come to expect.

Ingredients and Analysis

An A+ rating from the Environmental Working Group is an impressive accomplishment, especially for a cleaning product that performs well.

Here are the highs and lows (mostly highs) of the formulation itself:

• Caprylyl glucoside and myristyl glucoside are gentle, biodegradable nonionic surfactants. For the most part, especially compared to common alternatives, skin irritation is very rare with these two glucosides. Lots of companies could take a hint from Attitude here: they work great and are quite easy on the body.
• Terpineol is a naturally occuring terpene derived from pine oil or other natural plant sources. In this formula, it’s probably acting as either a solvent or a fragrance component, or both. It’s also an anti-bacterial agent. Slight downside: it has been associated with asthma and other respiratory symptoms, and is also considered a contact allergen. I’d definitely recommend wearing gloves when using this product.
• Allyl heptanoate and ethylene brassylate are included for their fragrance and are safe enough in low quantities. If you’re sensitive to fragrances, you probably want to look elsewhere, although it has to be said, the irritant potential of these fragrances is very low.

There are just two well-chosen surfactants, and a few fragrance components with additional solvent action, in an alcohol solution.

Like so many good things in life, the formula is simple and crafted with real care and attention.

But Do I Recommend This Kitchen Cleaner?

Yes I do.

This is a cleaner that performs very well. It does the job I wanted it to do – clean the kitchen. And it does it using ingredients that have been chosen with a great deal of thought and attention.

Very few products receive an A+ from the Environmental Working Group. Those that do often don’t perform at such a high level, because A+ products automatically exclude many harsh ingredients.

If you have a known allergy to one or more of these ingredients, or simply can’t stand any scented products, then you will need to look elsewhere. For everyone else, including people who dislike strong scents but are fine with mild scents, this one is a winner!

Absolutely outstanding.

ATTITUDE Kitchen Cleaner Cleaner is on sale now