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I was recently invited to participate in a project to test out Olympic Paint & Stain products for the Good Housekeeping Seal! There are thousands of products that carry this seal and I am excited to be part of the process for one of them. My #Behindtheseal trip started off with a tour of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute at the Hearst Tower in NY. You can’t be a home improvement blogger without appreciating the architecture of this building. I have such a love of old structures. There is nothing like them! So, for me, it was truly beautiful to see how the integrity of this old icon was kept in place while adding a modern tower to the original shell.
The Hearst Tower is located in Midtown Manhattan. It is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which has major interests in hundreds of publications; newspapers and magazines including Good Housekeeping and multiple television stations. If you are ever in Manhattan, I highly recommend a tour with Good Housekeeping! You can read more about the Hearst Tower here.
The stars must have been aligned for this trip & partnership from the get go. One of my good friends was going to be in NY at the same time for a business trip, so I got to hang out with her for a night and have lunch the next day with another great friend before heading home. I’ve been to NY a few times but I can truly say this was my favorite time there. I’ve had a few projects on my mind that I’ve wanted to tackle for a while now, so when I was contacted to partake in this partnership, I was thrilled, since this would allow me to take on these projects and who wouldn’t love to visit Good Housekeeping Magazine and work with Olympic Paint & Stain?
So what is #BehindTheSeal? Myself and a couple of other bloggers are going to test Olympic Paint and Stain and give our review on the product for The Good Houekeeping Seal! Amazing right? A home improvement bloggers dream come true if you ask me, since we live, eat and sleep this stuff!
The day of the tour started with breakfast and a meet and greet, where I got to meet the other bloggers, Rose, Laura and Joey from Racepoint Global along with Doreen and Sakinah of Good Housekeeping.
Inside the Hearst Tower.
Here is the entrance to The Good Housekeeping Lab.
As soon as you enter, this wall features The Good Housekeeping Seal timeline and some products that were tested.
Our first stop was at the cosmetics lab. This is where they test hair and skin products. It is here where you can see your average person, who signed up to test products, coming in to the lab for testing and you will even see employees walking around with mannequin heads wearing real hair wigs, testing products on the hair and taking them to the climate control room to test humidity!
Here is the Test Kitchen where they test recipes. A full kitchen! How much fun it must be to cook there!
Towels before washing and after washing with instruments to test the thread count!
The Lab for testing appliances!
Vacuums! Since I have terrible luck keeping a vacuum alive in my house for more then a year you bet I will be researching which vacuum Good Housekeeping gives their seal to!
The cleaning product lab! They have a lab for virtually everything and anything!
The VIP Wall for those companies who receive Good Housekeepings Seal for innovative products.
My favorite lab of all… The Home Improvement lab! They were working on making things with a 3-D printer when we were there!
The Good Housekeeping Seal was first introduced in 1909 as one of the first consumer emblems. I remember hearing my parents talk about it as I was growing up. My father would often times check for the Good Housekeeping Seal before making purchases! What’s great, is that the Seal is not only an endorsement, but it is also a two-year warranty to replace or refund defective products.
A product can only earn the Seal after evaluation and acceptance by the Good Housekeeping Research Institute. The products are evaluated on safety, efficiency and performance by Scientists, Engineers, and Technicians before it appears in Good Housekeeping’s editorial and advertizing pages. The standard evaluation period is 6-8 weeks from receipt of forms, samples and data. Their rigorous clearance standards set the benchmark for product integrity. It is easy to understand why while 77% of all consumers feel more comfortable buying a product with some seal or endorsement, over 89% of those same consumers would make the purchase of a product with the Good Housekeeping Seal. Furthermore, when choosing between two similar brands, 92% of consumers are more inclined to buy the product with this same seal.
Gorgeous view from the labs floor.
After taking this tour, I will be checking the Good Housekeeping website before I make any purchases. That’s for sure. They really do test these products in depth! You can find more information on The Good Housekeeping Seal here.
I hope you will follow along with me as I test out Olympic One Paint & Olympic Maximum Exterior Stain, where I will be engaged in three projects using their products. One project per month for three consecutive months, starting in June! I can’t wait to show you my first project. I’m so excited! Then, I will be giving my review of the products in September. You won’t want to miss these upcoming posts!
Don’t forget to follow along with my fellow bloggers to see their projects and reviews too!
The Ugly Duckling House
The DIY Villiage
Making a House a Home
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