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‘Environmental awareness’ behind natural product sales
Lake Barrington resident Barbara Larkin has been using Shaklee all-natural cleaning and personal care products since she was a child. | Photos courtesy of Barbara Larkin
Updated: February 19, 2013 11:56AM
BARRINGTON — Lake Barrington resident Barbara Larkin has been using Shaklee all-natural cleaning and personal care products since she was a child.
Her father, then a traveling salesman in Minnesota, was introduced to the products through his job and soon replaced many items in their home with Shaklee products.
Years later, Larkin began selling the products she grew up with out of her home.
“I started using it because of environmental awareness,” said Larkin, explaining that increasing awareness of one’s natural environment has gained enormous momentum since she was a child.
Larkin said Shaklee carries all kinds of products that she would like to introduce to others.
“It’s anything from dish detergent to laundry detergent to vitamins,” she said, explaining that the main difference between Shaklee products and other cleaning and personal care products is that Shaklee guarantees its products are 100 percent natural.
“Shaklee just kind of sets the standards completely apart from the rest. Changing brands can change your life.”
In addition to cleaning products and vitamins, Shaklee also sells lines of skincare products, weight loss and baby care products. Based in Pleasanton, Calif., Shaklee was started by Dr. Forrest Shaklee in 1956.
“His vision was working in harmony with nature and being good to our planet,” Larkin said.
Shaklee products include an all-purpose cleaner, laundry detergent, skin care systems, teas, vitamins, weight loss shakes and a water filtration system.
Larkin also talked about the Shaklee 180 weight loss program, which includes shakes and supplements designed for users to keep muscle mass while burning fat.
“You want to hang onto the muscle and lose the fat,” said Larkin.
Basic H, a concentrated cleaning product that Larkin said she has always used, is an all-purpose cleaner that is non-allergenic.
“A lot of people are allergic to cleaners,” she explained.
Larkin said she believes since Basic H is so concentrated, it saves money because you use less. One 16-ounce box, she said, can last for years.
“It saves space, too,” she said.
Larkin, who has lived in Barrington since 2006, said she and her husband moved from Chicago because they liked the open land. The mother of two children, Larkin spent time as an American Airlines flight attendant and a hair stylist before deciding to sell Shaklee products.
“It’s really quite a fascinating company,” she said of Shaklee. “They definitely go outside the box.”
