Product Review: J.R. Watkins All Purpose Cleaner, Lemon Scent

In my continued quest to have the perfect arsenal of organic cleaning supplies, I picked up this spray a few weeks ago. Since I'm a marketer's dream and will believe anything I'm told by a label, I liked the fact that this was an All Purpose Spray. I'm slowly realizing I could really use one product in many ways but I bought several, so here we go.

The first thing that attracted me to this product was, I'll be honest, the packaging. I'm a little bit of a steam punk girl and the olde tyme font and label seduced me.

This is what we're going for, right? Back to basics? Natural products with modern functionality?

The weight of the bottle was reasonable (24oz.); I could hold it with one hand and spray easily. Mind you, I do have large hands, it might be tough for someone petite. The piece that attaches the spray handle to the bottle was childproof-esque, ensuring the irritating drip from a loose connection wouldn't occur. The lemon scent was divine. Finally, it was $5.99. Done!

When I started using it, the first thing I noticed was the smell. It was different than expected. In the bottle, it was beautifully lemony and clean smelling. When I sprayed it, it was sour and not pleasant. It still smelled like lemon, but not in a good way.

I used it on my stovetop and it didn't cut through grease the way I would have liked. I had to scrub fairly hard and letting it sit for a while didn't seem to make a difference. On surfaces like my window sills, which are high-gloss black paint over metal it was fairly effective. No paint came off on the sponge and there was no streaking. Again, the smell...not so much. I am glad that the smell didn't linger, it disippated rapidly.

All in all, I wouldn't buy this again. I'm continuing to stand by my new love affair with Mrs. Meyers. Anyone else gotten on that bandwagon? Tell all.