Thirsties Fab Wipes and Booty Luster Review and Giveaway! CLOSED

When I started cloth diapering, using disposable wipes got real old, real fast.  I kept wanting to ball the wipe up inside the diaper like I did with sposies.  It was a pain to remember to pick them out and throw them away!

When I ran out of the disposable wipes I had, I cut up some burp cloths that were laying around.  I didn't like them as burp cloths because they were very thin and washcloth-like.  I doubled them over and zigzagged them.  Not easy since they were super stretchy!

Not only are they not pretty (LOL) but they're actually kind of scratchy compared to materials used in cloth wipes.  I also don't always have enough since I don't have to wash every day anymore.  I was finding myself using several for a diaper change and having to scrub a little bit, which isn't fun for my little guy.

I really wanted cloth wipes, but I was kind of scared to buy some and not like them.  I wanted to find a brand I liked, and buy a nice pretty stack of them, rather than have a mismatched collection!

I've heard Thirsties talked about in my cloth diaper groups.  Both the Duo Diapers and the Duo Wraps came up an awful lot when I was asking other cloth diapering mamas about night time diapering.  I haven't tried either of those yet, but Thirsties agreed to send me a 6-pack of their fab wipes and a 4 oz. (travel size) bottle of their booty luster wipe spray.  There's a giveaway too, so keep reading!

"Thirsties® is a small (but growing!) cloth diaper company committed to greener parenting and Eco Friendly solutions, not to mention 100% USA Made quality!  Erin, the owner of Thirsties, started this business with an old sewing machine and $100 5 years ago.  Through her hard work and diligence, her company is now one of the leaders in the cloth diaper industry.  Our diapers are now made by work at home mothers, and very close to our Canon City warehouse, reducing our carbon output. Erin and I are experienced cloth diapering moms, and offer our knowledge to our retailers and customers alike."

The wipes!  Oh my goodness, if you could feel these things.  Buttery soft is an understatement.  I feel bad for wiping my son's tush with those rough burp cloths.  :-(

The wipes are cotton velour on one side and microfleece on the other.  Both sides are super soft and the white side is nice to be sure you got the tushie clean.  They're 8 x 8 (after washing and drying) and will fit in a wipes warmer or empty wipes container.  The washing instructions say to dry on low, but I dried them on high with my diaper inserts and had no trouble.

It's been a while since I bought disposable wipes, but my rule of thumb was that I wouldn't buy them for more than 2.5 cents per wipe, and under two cents per wipe, I would stock up.  That was the "sensitive" brand.  (Add a scoffing "ha!" to that please.) 

I seemed to use a zillion wipes, but let's just say 15 per day for simplicity here.  That's a cost of about $9 for a month.  If you're buying smaller refill packs or tubs, not shopping sales and clipping coupons, your cost per wipe will be a lot higher.  For me, a 6 pack of thirsties wipes ($10.75 MSRP) would pay for itself in just over a month.  So even if I had bought three dozen wipes, they would have paid for themselves by now. 

I'll just skip right over the issue of ingredients in disposable wipes and impact on the environment and add that based on the reviews I've read, people continue to use these wipes long after their kids are out of diapers.  Wiping faces, cleaning the house.  Let's see you do that with a "used" disposable wipe!

The compulsive side of me feels the need to point out how nice and pretty they look stacked up all nice and neatly.

I had to run a quick load of diapers to avoid using those nasty burp cloth wipes on him!  I want to buy 3 more packs of these.  I think that would give me enough to have some upstairs and downstairs, not have to wash every day, and be able to ditch the burp cloth wipes!

The Booty Luster ended up being a whole lot nicer than I expected.  To be honest, I thought it was going to be a pre-mixed, overpriced version of every other wipes solution.  Sorry, I was wrong!

The ingredients are: Aloe Vera, Vitamin E, 100% Pure Coconut water, Organic White Honey, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Glycerin, Humectant Moisturizers, Avocado and other Organic Ingredients.

The "other organic ingredients" is a little bothersome to me.  Edit: Those "other organic ingredients" are just purified water, so no worries!  Anyone who has experience with food allergies will tell you how irritating listed ingredients like "natural flavoring" can be!  My son doesn't have any topical allergies that we know of, so I didn't pursue this.  I do like that it uses Grapefruit Seed Extract as the anti-fungal ingredient, rather than Tea Tree Oil.

I'm used to squirting away and wiping, squirting some more, wiping etc.  I had a hard time getting used to needing only 2 squirts of the booty luster.  My son's tush wiped clean easily, felt smooth and clean, no residue at all.  The spray came out with just the right mist, though we did have a few drips.  The scent was very light, but pleasant.  Like a very light, summery citrus.

The MSRP of the 4 oz travel size bottle is $6.25, and the 8 oz bottle, $11.00.  That's a little spendy for cough*cheap*cough, ahem, frugal me.  However, using the math I did earlier, this would most likely still be cheaper than disposable wipes and very convenient to boot.  I'm not sure how long a bottle will last, I'll have to update on that.  If I can get used to only needing two squirts, it will probably last a long time!

If you want to drool over all Thirsties has to offer (and maybe leave a not so subtle hint with some dog-eared pages), you can request a catalog on their website.  Just go to www.thirstiesbaby.com/catalog.htm.

Want it?  Find a retailer at thirstiesbaby.com.  Or, win it!

Thirsties is sending one lucky blog reader just what I got!  A 6 pack of fab wipes (your choice of boy or girl colors) and a 4 oz. bottle of booty luster!  U.S. Residents only.

Here's how to enter (the first entry is mandatory, you may do any, all or none of the rest as you choose!):

Please be sure to leave your email address in at least one of your comments if it's not visible in your profile.  If you win and I can't find contact info for you, I will choose another winner.

1. Visit http://www.thirstiesbaby.com/ and tell me what else you'd like to try. 

2. Follow my blog publicly.  Current followers count, comment saying you're a follower to get your entry.

3. "Like" me on Facebook.  Current, uh, "likers" (?) count.  Comment saying you "like" me on FB to get your entry.  (They like me, they really really like me!)

4. "Like" Thirsties on Facebook.  Same as above.  Current likers/fans count & leave your comment to get your entry.

5. Follow me on Twitter.  Current followers count, comment saying you follow to get your entry.

6. Tweet about this giveaway.  Please include @chgdiapers and link to this giveaway.  You may use this example if you like.  "@chgdiapers is giving away Thirsties wipes and Booty Luster until 5/14  http://bit.ly/dsSyLJ #clothdiapers #giveaway"  Limit one tweet per day, please comment with the permalink to your tweet for your entry.

7. Blog about this giveaway and link back to it.  Leave a comment with a link to your blog post for your entry.

Then do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around while patting your head and rubbing your tummy and...ok that one was just for fun!

I will accept entries until Friday, May 14th at 9 P.M.  I will use random.org's true random number generator to select a winner.  I'll notify the winner by email and s/he will have 48 hours to claim the prize!