8 Best Cruelty-Free Bleach Brands
Ultimate List of Cruelty-Free Whiteners & Brighteners for Laundry
Do you know what’s annoying? Washing a load of laundry and the clothes coming out kinda blah. To fix that you use products like Clorox bleach or Oxi-Clean to get that dinginess out.
Unfortunately, both of those brands test on animals and now you need a cruelty-free bleach alternative. So I created this list of 8 cruelty-free bleach and whiteners that are just as powerful as your old go-to products.
All of the brands are vegan and certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny, Peta, or Choose Cruelty-Free.
Note: Brands marked with an asterisk (*) are owned by a parent company that is not cruelty-free
In a hurry? Here are our top picks!
1. Molly’s Suds Oxygen Whitener
Molly’s Suds Oxygen Whitener is safe for your clothes and the environment. It can be used to clean carpets, toilets, and hard water stains without harmful chemicals or bleach. As an added bonus it doesn’t contain ammonia or common bleaching agents so you don’t have to worry about those harsh smells in your home.
Molly’s Suds Oxygen Whitener will not only make all of your clothing white again but can also help fight stubborn toilet odors. It is a 100% vegan formula and made from natural products that are safely returned back to the earth when you’re finished using them.
2. Biokleen Oxy Bleach Plus
Biokleen Bleach Plus is a natural, color-safe bleach that brightens your clothes and whitens them. It also softens fabric while fighting tough stains like blood or dirt. The product has no harsh ingredients like chlorine, ammonia, petroleum solvents, or phosphate. What’s more? Biokleen Oxygen Bleach is Leaping Bunny certified as well as cruelty-free (meaning they don’t test on animals) so you can feel good about using it around the house for all of your cleaning needs.
3. Nellie’s Natural Oxygen Brightener
Nellie’s Oxygen Brightener is the go-to for all of your whites. It uses oxygen, which will help to get those pesky stains out and make them as bright as new. Plus, it doesn’t use any harsh chemicals so you can rest easy knowing that this product does not contain anything toxic or harmful.
4. Grab Green Bleach Alternative Pods
Grab Green is a non-toxic, hypoallergenic bleach alternative that’s safe for colors and can clean tough stains. Grab Green does not contain phosphates, optical brighteners, or chlorine. It is vegan and certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny. These pods are made of naturally derived ingredients with no fragrance so it won’t irritate your skin like other similar products might do if you have allergies to fragrances.
5. Ecover Non-Chlorine Bleach*
Ecover Non-Chlorine Bleach is a great alternative to chlorine bleach. It’s unscented, so your clothes won’t have that sanitized hospital smell and it’ll deodorize them too.
Ecover Non-Chlorine Bleach, an eco-friendly and cruelty-free product that is gentle on the earth. It has a fresh scent while still being powerful enough to clean your clothes without stripping them of their color or deodorizing ability. This bleach will leave you with soft laundry and happy skin.
6. Seventh Generation Oxy Booster*
Seventh Generation’s Oxy Booster not only whitens clothing but also gets rid of stubborn stains in one single use per load. This method will save you time compared to other stain removing products that require multiple treatments, it saves both water and energy as well. This safe bleach alternative does not contain any fragrances or dyes so people with allergies can still get their whites clean without worry.
7. ECOS Oxo Brite
ECOS Oxo-Brite is the perfect, multipurpose stain remover that provides brightening and whitening for your clothes. It removes mold and mildew stains as well. With a mineral-based solution, it also works on many different types of stains too – all without using harsh chemicals like chlorine bleach which can damage colorfast fabrics
8. Nature Clean Oxy Stain Remover
This product is a great way to brighten up your clothes and remove stains naturally. Nature Clean Oxy Stain Remover does not contain chlorine bleach, petroleum, phosphate, or dyes so it won’t affect the environment by harming septic tanks while being safe for greywater systems because of its biodegradable properties.
What is Bleach?
Bleach is basically a chemical that can be found in solid or liquid form. Its main purpose is to whiten, disinfect, or sanitize things. The majority of your good old-fashioned household bleach contains chlorine. Which by itself, is a seriously dangerous gas. So chemists do their thing and create a safer version of chlorine called sodium hypochlorite.
Next time you’re at the store look at the ingredient labels of a bottle of bleach. Normally, sodium hypochlorite is one of the first 3 ingredients.
What is Chlorine Bleach?
Chlorine bleach is made of chlorine mixed with water or another liquid. Liquid chlorine bleaches contain a higher concentration of chlorine than powder or liquid bleaches. They are more harmful to the environment and human health because they release toxic fumes when mixed with other chemicals.
Powder bleach consists of powdered calcium hypochlorite, which is less dangerous than liquid bleach because it does not release toxic fumes when mixed with other substances.
What is Non-Chlorine Bleach?
Non-chlorine bleach (or oxygen bleach) is the cruelty-free alternative to chlorine bleach. Non-chlorine bleaches are made with chemicals like sodium percarbonate, a compound that breaks down to produce hydrogen peroxide and soda ash. This combination helps remove stains and whiten fabrics without chlorine’s help.
Non-chlorine bleach has the same purpose of whitening, disinfecting, and sanitizing. But it’s not as powerful as chlorine bleach which is why it’s safe to use on colors. Hence the name, color-safe bleach.
Wrap Up: Cruelty-Free Bleach
Using any type of bleach product is really not a laundry necessity. You could just walk around with faded colors and yellowish-white shirts, right?
But who really wants to do that? I sure as heck don’t. So it’s nice to know that there are numerous cruelty-free bleach brands available to get the job done.
Now I’d like to hear from you. Have you tried any of the cruelty-free whiteners before? Please leave a comment below.
Looking for more cruelty-free cleaning products? Check out our cruelty-free cleaning series:
📌 Save these cruelty-free bleach products for later
Which of these can you buy at the grocery stores?
It really depends on where you live. But in Europe, I can easily find Ecover products in my local stores.