Most commercial cleaning products today are laden with chemicals, these chemicals smell particularly strong so on top of that there are usually further chemicals added to provide the ‘clean’ and ‘fresh’ scents we’ve become accustomed to.
Toxic and synthetic cleaning products can certainly have a negative impact on our health
Owner of Mangle and Wringer, Vanessa Willes spent 20 years working as an architect and interior designer, but in 2004 was diagnosed with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome and was forced to stop her work.
At this time a lovely local lady called Bette Smith offered Vanessa help around the house and was keen to aid to Vanessa’s recovery.
Bette at the great age of 84 had many years’ experience with home cleaning and Vanessa soon realized that Bette was no ordinary housekeeper. Born in the 1920s, Bette went ‘into service’ in London’s Belgravia at the age of 14. She worked in some of the countries most beautiful homes for 15 years, progressing from kitchen and laundry maid to housemaid and eventually lady’s maid, before meeting her husband, Joe, and moving to Gloucestershire to get married and raise a family.
Bette then went on to set up her own thriving laundry business and began housekeeping for others. Her nickname in those days was ‘Mrs Mangle’ – hence the name, ‘Mangle and Wringer’.
Bette was raised on traditional values and prided herself on using only products that she had made herself and that were safe and effective. She learned how to make soap from her mother and over the course of her life, and long career she collected hundreds of tips and recipes that she used.
Bette’s laundry service used her own soap based washing powder and stain removers to great effect and this was the beginning of the relationship, inspiration and the creation of Mangle and Wringer.
They are proud of ingredients that are safe, non-toxic, effective and completely biodegradable. They also come in lovely stylish packaging. Mangle and Wringer products are made using the original recipes inherited from Bette and at the heart of each product is the cold- processed soap that Bette learned to make as a child from her mother, made by hand in exactly the same way, using only 100% pure coconut oil, or coconut and sunflower oil, before leaving it to cure for a month.
The complete collection from Mangle and Wringer:
Spray and Go – an all-purpose, multi-surface spray cleaner
Kitchen Cleanser – a cream cleaner safe for use on most surfaces
Bathroom Balm – a cream cleaner specific to bathroom use
Good for Glass – a spray cleaner for glass
Pure Laundry – for colours and whites, an all-purpose laundry powder
Natural Bleach – for removing stains in your washing and brightening whites