I developed laundry detergents AMA

[LapinR0se]

For many years I was responsible for innovation for one of the biggest laundry brands in the UK.
Any questions you have on stains, wash cycles, laundry products etc you can ask me.

Love this thread

I was my pants and towels etc at 30/40 and my fanny hasn't fallen off yet. Is it likely to?

PLEASE advise how to get rid of yellow armpit stains!!

Thank you so much for this.

How can I get rid of suncream stains?

Laundry products are not tested on animals for whoever asked the question.

I'm in Australia. We tend to wash everything with cold water here, and dry in the sunshine. I'm guessing sunlight is a far more effective antimicrobial agent than any detergent. As far as I'm aware infections due to bacterial growth in cold-washed laundry are not endemic here!

I honestly think MN is obsessed with "laundry detergents" (which nobody in rl calls them). This must be the 3rd or 4h thread about them on my active list?

Is anyone else like me and just gets what's on offer and bungs it in the machine without a second thought?

I honestly think MN is obsessed with "laundry detergents" (which nobody in rl calls them). This must be the 3rd or 4h thread about them on my active list?

Is anyone else like me and just gets what's on offer and bungs it in the machine without a second thought?

Sorry about the double post. It keeps saying it's failed first time

Best AMA ever. Thanks op.

Sunshine is a great bleaching agent so if you have stains on white clothes that are not removed in the wash then hanging them in the sun to dry will help a lot.
Not always practical in the Uk but definitely an option this summer!

Another thing for people going on holidays and buying detergents in supermarkets.
Persil in the UK is called Skip in some European countries and Omo in others.
Persil is owned by Henkel as a brand name outside the Uk so if you buy Persil it will not be what you use at home (if that’s important to you).
Ariel is called Ariel everywhere

We’ve worked kn the same field then OP :)

I’m impressed at you being very neutral on the two major players!

Suncream stains are difficult to remove. Make sure you use a biological detergent.
What can also be very effective is putting some lemon juice on them just before washing as this intensifies the cleaning agents in the detergent (only for certain stains).
If they’re still there then hang in the sun to dry.

Hi Albus!! High five for laundry geeks

I have switched to using vinegar instead if conditioner as three of us kept getting rashes. Works brilliantly and rashes gone. Is vingear similar to an active ingredient in conditioner?

Vinegar is an efficient fabric softener but it is not great for any rubber hoses, seals etc in your machine

If you have something that is, for example, black and white what would you recommend using? If it's powder for whites and liquid for colours I don't know what to do!

Do you rate colour catcher sheets? I’ve just discovered them!

Does biological washing powder eat cotton clothes? I thought it broke down silk and wool (not washing much wool just now, and hardly have any silk) so don't buy it. I might buy some for cotton clothes if it's ok for them.

Thank you so much for this thread, @LapinR0se it's fascinating ! And you know I'm not being sarcastic because of my username

I'm switching to liquid detergent for my colours now, thank you.

'The British Isles is the only place in the world with a bio/non-bio split and it’s purely due to a manufacturer issue in the 1990s. '

I'd love to know more of the details of this please.

If any detergent damaged clothes it would be withdrawn from the market with immediate effect

Did your place of work have rows and rows of washing machines and microscopes and people with lab coats testing all manner of stains, as they show in the adverts?!

Yes the labs look quite like the adverts only with much less attractive people

Oh I bet they were always putting stuff in centrifuges weren't they? And using those pipettes with loads of nozzles. That's what people do in labs