Smol Review: Is It Worth Switching To Their Laundry Capsules?

Overall Rating:

3.5

Value For Money = 3.5

Ease of Use = 4.9

Sustainability = 1

Effectiveness = 4.9

Smol Review [UPDATED 2025] – In my search for more eco-friendly products I discovered smol. My smol review will answer the question, if it is worth switching to their laundry capsules.

I am on a mission to live a more sustainable life to reduce the impact I have on our planet. I have realised that doing the laundry can have quite a negative impact on our environment.

As part of creating a sustainable laundry routine, I am looking at switching to eco-friendly laundry detergents. Smol has received a lot of publicity, so I had to look at their eco-friendly laundry pods.

Because I know that many of you are looking to do the same, I will share with you what I have discovered in my smol review.

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Sustainability

The first thing I want to look at in my smol review is how seriously the company takes sustainability. After all, this is the reason why people like you are looking to buy their laundry pods.

According to smol’s website, their three key focus areas are product, planet and people.

Their aim is to reduce plastic waste and reduce harmful chemicals going down our drains. And they want to achieve this at an affordable price for their customers.

Smol is a UK-based company. However, according to their website they manufacture their laundry capsules in the EU. While in an ideal world, I would prefer my products to be produced in the UK, I understand this is not always possible.

What about packaging? They ship all their laundry capsules in cardboard boxes, which have been sourced from responsibly managed forests and can be 100% recycled. Even the ink on them is plant-based, so you can even add the boxes to your compost heap.

However, they use newly made cardboard, rather than using recycled cardboard. While cardboard is better than plastic, it still has to be produced, which means cutting down trees. That’s why I would like to see them using cardboard from 100% recycled materials.

While Smol uses fewer chemicals in their products than other brands, they still use many of the same toxic or harmful chemicals. We will talk about their ingredients a bit later in more detail.

What I do like, is that their laundry pods contain concentrated detergent. This is great, because it means less water is used, and less energy is needed to transport them, as they are smaller and lighter.

They also don’t use any ingredients derived from animals and their products are cruelty-free. This means you can have peace of mind, even if you are vegan.  

So I can say that they are trying to reduce their impact on the environment, but in my opinion, they still have a long way to go, especially in terms of their ingredients. However, using smol is still better for our environment than most of the conventional brands, albeit not by that much.

In Depth Smol Review

Because I want to make sure that you find my smol review as useful as possible, I will look at various aspects, including convenience, performance and value for money.

Convenience

When you want to swap your products for more eco-friendly versions, you don’t want to make your life more difficult.

Most of us buy their laundry products in the supermarket, which is very convenient.

And smol is making switching very easy indeed. Because they will send you a new pack regularly depending on how often you wash.

Don’t worry, you don’t have to guess how often you will need a new pack. You just need to tell them how many capsules you want to use per wash (one or two) and how often per week you wash.

They will then calculate a delivery schedule that meets your individual needs. 

But the schedule is not fixed, you can modify, cancel or pause the subscription at any time.

So if your circumstances change, your subscription does too. Very convenient.

The website is easy to navigate and once you have set up your subscription, you can just log into your account to make any changes to your delivery.

Smol also offers a free trial, where you get 9 laundry pods and only pay £1 postage. However, the only way to take advantage of this is by signing up to their subscription service. This means, if you forget to cancel in time, you get a 24 capsule pack and have to pay for it.

I don’t like it that they force you to subscribe if you just want to try out their products. Especially as it seems that the option to change or cancel your delivery is a bit hidden. You have to go to the “My Details” tab.

This feels a bit sneaky to me. In my opinion, it would be much more honest if you could just order the sample pack on its own, even if you have to pay for it more than just the postage.

What is great though is that you don’t have to be in for your delivery, because their boxes are small enough to fit through your letterbox. That’s definitely a big plus point for me when it comes to convenience.

Smol laundry capsules are also suitable for use with septic tanks. So if you live in a rural area and have a private sewage treatment plant, you can safely use smol.

Top-Rated Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergents:

Cleaning Products	Value For Money	Effectiveness	Sustainability	My Rating	Full Review	Official Website
	Excellent	Excellent	Outstanding	4.90/5	Read Review	Visit Website
	Outstanding	Excellent	Excellent	4.90/5	Read Review	Visit Website
	Great	Outstanding	Excellent	4.85/5	Read Review	Visit Website

Performance

As with convenience, you don’t want to compromise on performance. After all, if you have to wash your clothes twice because they didn’t get clean the first time, it’s not good for the planet.

That’s why this is a very important part of my smol review. However, I have not tried the smol pod myself, as I don’t want to use laundry detergent that contains toxic or harmful chemicals, even in small amounts.

Therefore, I am going by what the customers said, which is the next best thing to trying it myself.

Smol claims that the performance of their laundry capsules were tested against industry standards. The results showed that smol laundry capsules performed equal or better than other leading brands.

Not surprising, given that they use many of the same ingredients. The majority of their customers seem to agree. Clothes come out clean and smelling fresh.

And while the clothes smell fresh, it’s not an overpowering or chemical smell, according to smol customers. This could be a positive or negative, depending on your preference.

Ingredients

When it comes to eco-friendly laundry detergents, the ingredients are one of the key factors. We know that conventional detergents contain toxic chemicals that harm our environment and us.

Although smol present themselves as an eco-friendly brand, they still use many of the harmful chemicals that are used by many mainstream laundry detergents.

Admitedly, they use smaller amounts than their mainstream counterparts, but these chemicals can cause harm to our environment, even in small quantities.

I am no scientist, but through my research I have learned a lot about ingredients used in cleaning products, including laundry detergents. So I will explain why some of their ingredients are bad for the environment.

To start off with, smol uses Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS), which is a surfactant that is widely used. There is evidence that SLS is toxic to aquatic life and can influence environmental processes. It is made from oil, most commonly petroleum.

While it can be derived from plant-based sources, smol doesn’t say that the SLS they use is, so I have to assume that is fossil-fuel derived. Otherwise, I am sure they would state it proudly on their website.

This makes it a petrochemical, which is not a sustainable option. While smol doesn’t use this surfactant in their laundry pods, they use it in their dishwasher tablets. And using petrochemicals in any product isn’t sustainable.

Another ingredient I don’t want to see in any product are liquid polymer plastics. Smol put acrylic copolymer into their dishwasher tablets. While it’s not classed as microplastics due to its liquid state, that doesn’t mean acrylic copolymer is harmless.

It behaves in a similar way to plastic, as it is not biodegradable and can cause a lot of harm to aquatic life in the hundreds of years it takes to break down. It is also fossil fuel-derived, which means it’s not a sustainable ingredient. It’s used in smol’s dishwasher tablets, apparently to make glasses shinier.

In my opinion, it’s no good having plastic-free packaging, if you then put plastic in the product.

Fragrances are some of the worst chemicals for our environment, as they can cause a lot of harm. While smol does use sustainably sourced essential oils, their website also says they use some synthetic fragrances.

Because perfumes are a trade secret, we don’t know exactly what these synthetic fragrances are. The good news is they are not using phthalates, which are really nasty chemicals.

However, as they don’t give any information about these synthetic fragrances, it is likely that they are the same harmful fragrance chemicals that are used in conventional detergents. Because smol also doesn’t say that these are plant-based, it is highly likely that they are made from petroleum.

So another ingredient that is made from fossil fuels, and therefore not sustainable.

Smol’s laundry capsules contain Sodium Diethylenetriamine Pentamethylene Phosphonate. Phosphonates are a replacement for Phosphates, which are highly toxic to the environment and us humans.

However, while Phosphonate is said to be much less toxic, it is still not biodegradable and persists in the environment for a long time. This has led Ecolabel to restrict the amounts that can be used in detergents.

I was really disappointed to see that smol uses optiacl brighteners. These are known to be toxic to aquatic life and no eco-friendly brand should use them. The chemical they use is Disodium Distyrylbiphenyl Disulfonate.

Ecolabel classifies it as not anaerobically degradable, which means it won’t break down in water, and also as persistent in the environment.

There is also some concern about its toxicity. All this prompted the Environmental Working Group (EWG) to deem Disodium Distyrylbiphenyl Disulfonate as unacceptable for an EWG-certified product.

Finally, the film used for their laundry pods is made from Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA), which is plastic. However, it is said to be water-soluble, which means the polymer dissolves into monomers, which are biodegradable and non-toxic.

There isn’t really scientific consensus around PVA and its biodegradability though. The question is mainly whether it will mostly biodegrade before it reaches our waterways. So it seems that the jury on that one is still out.

But what is known is that PVA is made from petroleum, so another fossil fuel-derived ingredient. I’m not keen on that, however, if this would be the only one, I would say it can be accepted for now until something better is available.

It isn’t though. Smol uses a range of petrochemicals as well as liquid plastic in its products, which is far from sustainable.

For me personally, that isn’t an eco-friendly alternative to conventional laundry detergents.

Value For Money

Swapping products to live a more sustainable life should not be expensive. Trying to reduce your plastic waste should not cost the earth. Therefore, my smol review also looks at value for money. 

Smol claims that you can save up to 50% if you use their capsules compared to normal brands. But is that true?

Obviously, this depends on what brand you are using at the moment. While smol are not the cheapest brand on the market, they are also not the most expensive either.

Generally it is cheaper than the big brands such as Ariel, Bold or Persil, but more expensive than supermarket own brands.

[Note: this is correct at the time of writing and does not include any offers that supermarkets may have.]

But for me, value for money is much more than just a question of price. Swapping to an eco-friendly detergent means getting a product that works, but that doesn’t impact on the environment the same way as conventional ones do.

And when I look at smol, I have to say, that the value for money isn’t the best. Yes, you can reduce the amount of plastic waste from packaging, but you still use products with harmful chemicals, many of which are fossil fuel-derived.

So it all depends on what you want to achieve and how eco-friendly a laundry detergent you want. Smol are eco-friendly to a degree, and using their laundry capsules is better for the environment than using one of the big brands.

It’s a decision that everyone has to make for themselves.

Customer Reviews

Swapping to a new product can be a bit nerve racking. Because you don’t want to get disappointed and waste your money.

That’s why, I pay particular attention to what their customers are saying. The overwhelming majority of customers are happy with the products and the service.

Smol is rated ‘Great’ on Trustpilot, with a 4.2-star rating from close to 5,000 reviews. 91% of the reviewing customers have given a 4- or 5-star rating.

The positive comments all mention how well the products work and that they come in plastic-free packaging.

While the negative reviews mostly talk about difficulties in cancelling subscriptions and unresponsive customer support.

However, smol does reply to negative reviews trying to find a solution for unhappy customers, in fact, the reply to 99% of negative reviews in less than 2 days.

Seeing negative reviews can put you off a product. However, the vast majority of customers are happy and satisfied, which should give you confidence in swapping to this product.

Smol Reviews By Customers

smol products are great, I use them because they work with the added bonus of the lack of plastic and being posted through my door. The ordering system is very easy to use. All round good value.

5-Star Review by Sheila on feefo

Excellent value for money! Wash beautifully & no stains. ideal for me as non allergenic & smells lovely. Would not buy anything else now! Many Thanks.

5-Star Review by Carol Hill on Trustpilot

Conclusion

After looking at all aspects, my smol review concludes that smol isn’t as eco-friendly as they seem to be at first glance. While they have plastic-free packaging, which is great, not much else about their products is eco-friendly, in my opinion.

They use harmful and toxic chemicals that impact our environment, albeit they use lower amounts as conventional laundry pods. Many of the ingredients they use are also made from petroleum, which means fossil fuels and therefore isn’t sustainable.

If you want a laundry detergent that is free from harmful petrochemicals and plastic, then I would not recommend the smol laundry capsules. There are other eco-friendly brands out there that are a much better fit for you.

On the other hand, if you just want to reduce the amount of plastic packaging you purchase, then smol could be the product for you. As long as you are happy to continue to use toxic chemicals that harm our environment.

Top-Rated Eco-Friendly Laundry Detergents:

Cleaning Products	Value For Money	Effectiveness	Sustainability	My Rating	Full Review	Official Website
	Excellent	Excellent	Outstanding	4.90/5	Read Review	Visit Website
	Outstanding	Excellent	Excellent	4.90/5	Read Review	Visit Website
	Great	Outstanding	Excellent	4.85/5	Read Review	Visit Website