By Andrea McVeigh

In an ideal world, us green living types would make our own kitchen cleaners by mixing up a dash of lemon juice and some vinegar.

But frankly, who always has the time?

Especially when it's a whole lot easier to pop to Marks & Spencer and snap up the products in its Naturally Derived range, which are made without petrochemicals, artificial colours or preservatives.

In the name of research (and because Green Towers needs a damn good clean!) Green Living tried out a few of the items and was delighted with the results.

Naturally scented with South African limes and oriental lemongrass, it smells fresh and is free from artificially-based cleaning ingredients, colours and preservatives.

As with all the products in the range, it's great for those of us who worry about introducing a toxic mix of chemicals into our homes via household cleaners.

The Naturally Derived Window and Glass Cleanser Spray with vinegar and citronella (£1.94) worked brilliantly too, bringing a shine to the front of my cooker (now I'm starting to sound like a Stepford Wife, but it's true!)

The label states that the people at M&S went to 'amazing lengths to find ingredients that are really effective'. But don't for a minute think that because the products aren't filled with additives, that they're not going to be as good as chemically-filled brands.

If anything, these are better - because they work really well, and they don't carry the toxic load of some 'regular' cleaners.

The lime and ginger-scented Anti-Bacterial Kitchen Cleanser was another winner - tough on grease, tough on the causes of grease.

Filled with enthusiasm at how well the kitchen turned out, I tackled the bathroom, armed with the lemon balm scented Bathroom Cleaning Wipes (£1.99 for 30 wipes) and brought a sparkle to the bath and sink too.

The product range is all part of M&S's Plan A, its 100 point ‘eco-plan' that covers everything from selling Fairtrade certified cotton to switching over to recyclable food packaging.

All the Naturally Derived products, as well as several other ranges of household cleaning products, are all also officially Cruelty Free as approved by the BUAV (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection).

M&S household products are not tested on animals and none of the individual ingredients within each product have been tested on animals by M&S, or its suppliers (all M&S cosmetics are BUAV approved too).