Facebook Made Me Buy It – Purdy & Figg….

I’ve been seeing Purdy & Figg cleaning products popping up in my Facebook feed for months now and, despite being tempted more than once, I’d managed to resist buying them. Mainly because I couldn’t really justify spending that much money on cleaning products when the ones I already use do the job perfectly well.

But then they brought out a limited-edition William Morris collection and, well, that was the end of my resistance!

And before you think this is going to be a glowing review of some fancy cleaning products, it’s not. This is more a story of how Facebook finally wore me down after months of advertising, how William Morris tipped me over the edge and how I managed to cancel my subscription within a week of signing up.

What actually is Purdy & Figg?

If you’ve not come across Purdy & Figg before, they’re a cleaning brand that sells concentrated cleaning products made with essential oils. The idea is that you buy a reusable glass spray bottle and then make up your cleaning solution using a little bottle of concentrate mixed with water.

Their Counter Clean spray is designed to be used on lots of different surfaces around the house, which means you don’t need a cupboard full of different cleaning sprays. They also sell bathroom cleaners, floor cleaners and other cleaning products.

The scents are a big part of their appeal, along with the rather lovely glass bottles that look much nicer sitting on your kitchen worktop than your average supermarket cleaning spray.

It’s a clever concept and I can absolutely see why people like it, but it’s definitely a more expensive way to clean your home than buying a basic multipurpose cleaner.

How much does Purdy & Figg cost?

This was the thing that put me off ordering for so long, because the products aren’t cheap!

Their standard Counter Clean starter kit costs around £15 with a subscription offer, while the limited-edition William Morris autumn starter kit was £19.95 when I ordered. That included a reusable glass bottle, a microfibre cloth and three concentrated cleaning refills.

There was also a bigger William Morris set, which included bathroom cleaning products, for £35 on the subscription offer.

The refills are where the ongoing cost comes in. The William Morris autumn refill pack was £20.40 for three concentrates on the subscription offer, so that’s £6.80 per refill, which is quite a lot when you compare it to the cost of an ordinary bottle of cleaning spray.

The subscription deliveries were set up for every 90 days, although you could cancel or pause them, so that made the initial purchase a little easier to justify. I knew I wasn’t committing myself to anything long term if I decided it wasn’t for me.

I made the mistake of telling my partner how much I’d spent on my fancy new cleaning products and now he’s watching me like a hawk every time I get the spray bottle out. 😂

I know he’s only joking, but he keeps telling me that it’s costing me 20p every time I spray it, which it absolutely isn’t! I’m starting to feel like I need to justify every squirt, which isn’t quite the relaxing, perfect domestic lifestyle I thought I was buying into.

And I think he’s enjoying himself far too much with this one!

The William Morris collection that finally convinced me

Anyone who’s followed our house renovations will know that I’m a bit of a William Morris fan. We’ve already got William Morris curtains in our dining room and I love the patterns, particularly when they’re used on everyday things.

So when a Facebook advert popped up showing Purdy & Figg’s limited-edition William Morris collection, I was pretty much sold. I’d managed to scroll past all the other adverts for months, but all it took was a pretty bottle with a William Morris design on it to convince me to get my bank card out.

It’s essentially the same cleaning concept as their usual products, but with beautiful William Morris-inspired packaging and a special collection of autumn scents.

And yes, I do appreciate the irony of writing a money-saving blog and being persuaded to spend more money on cleaning products because I like the bottle!

Why did I fall for the Purdy & Figg hype?

I think I’ve worked out why I was so tempted by Purdy & Figg in the first place, and it’s not really about the cleaning products at all. I think I bought into the lifestyle they were selling rather than the actual sprays.

Everything in their adverts looks so lovely, doesn’t it? Beautiful homes, spotless kitchens, gorgeous bottles and everything looking very perfect and domestic. And I think somewhere in my head I convinced myself that having my own Purdy & Figg subscription would somehow make me feel a bit more perfect and domestic too.

It’s a bit like when an estate agent tells you to park your nicest car on the drive before they take the photos of your house. They’re not selling the car, they’re selling the lifestyle that someone might imagine they’ll have if they buy the house.

And that’s exactly what Purdy & Figg managed to do with me. They weren’t just selling me a cleaning spray, they were selling me the idea of being the sort of person who has a beautiful bottle of expensive cleaning spray sitting on her immaculate kitchen worktop.

The reality, of course, is that I’m exactly the same person whether I’m wiping my kitchen down with Purdy & Figg or a bottle of Zoflora. Except one version of me has a much more expensive cleaning cupboard!

What do the Purdy & Figg products actually smell like?

One of the big selling points of Purdy & Figg is how lovely the products are supposed to smell, and I had visions of my whole house smelling gorgeous every time I cleaned the kitchen worktops.

And to be fair, the smell is definitely noticeable when I wipe the kitchen surfaces down. It’s actually quite strong, which I wouldn’t mind at all if I liked the fragrance. The problem is that I don’t!

The first one I tried was Orange & Clove, which I thought sounded like a lovely cosy autumn scent, but it’s really not to my taste at all. I know fragrance is completely personal and I’m sure plenty of people absolutely love it, but this one just isn’t for me.

The set also came with Black Tea & Rose, which I’m not particularly keen on either, although I haven’t actually used that one yet. I’m hoping I’ll like it a bit more once it’s diluted and I’m using it to clean rather than just smelling the concentrate.

The one I’m looking forward to trying is Lavender, as I do actually like that scent, so fingers crossed that’s the one that wins me over!

And then there’s the radiator trick from the adverts. One of the things that caught my attention was the suggestion that you could wipe the cleaner over your radiators and enjoy a lovely scent when the heating came on. Naturally, I gave that a go because the idea of the house smelling lovely whenever the heating kicks in sounded brilliant.

Absolutely nothing! I couldn’t smell a thing when the radiator warmed up, which was a bit disappointing as that was one of the things I’d been most looking forward to trying.

I do want to say though that I know two other people who absolutely love Purdy & Figg, and I’ve actually commented on how lovely one of their houses smelled when I popped round for a cuppa. So I know the scents can be lovely and I’m not saying the products don’t live up to the hype for everyone.

The fragrances change with the seasons too, so I do wonder whether I just picked the wrong time of year to give them a try. Maybe the autumn scents just aren’t for me and I’d have been much happier with something from their spring or summer collection. I suppose I’ll never know unless Facebook manages to tempt me again!

And the funny thing is, I’ve been making my own DIY orange peel kitchen spray for years, which costs next to nothing and smells lovely. I even add a few drops of sweet orange essential oil sometimes because I love the citrus scent, so it’s quite funny that I’ve ended up spending all this money on a fancy Orange & Clove cleaner that I don’t actually like!

Was Purdy & Figg actually worth the money?

I absolutely LOVE the bottle and the microfibre cloth that came with my set, although I suspect that’s more because the snob inside me loves all things William Morris than anything else. They really are lovely and I can honestly see myself using both of them for a lot longer than I’ll be using the actual cleaning sprays.

As for the cleaning products themselves, I’m just not convinced they’re worth the extra money for me. I don’t have any complaints about how well they clean, but when so much of the appeal is about how amazing they’re supposed to smell, I’d need to absolutely love the fragrances to justify paying a premium for them.

I ended up cancelling my subscription within the first week, which was actually super easy to do, so no complaints there. I just couldn’t see myself paying that much for regular refills when I’m not even particularly keen on the scents I’ve tried so far.

And I won’t lie, once I’ve used up my fancy posh Purdy & Figg sprays, my trusty Zoflora will be getting diluted according to the instructions and decanted straight into that gorgeous William Morris bottle.

So I suppose Facebook did win in the end, but I’m not sure Purdy & Figg would be quite so pleased with how it’s worked out. I got my lovely William Morris bottle and cloth, they’ve got my first order, and my subscription is already cancelled!

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