Wisk and Persil detergents over the years...

[gelaundry4ever]

Hey guys, What were the highest offerings from Wish and Persil which was the successor? What were their highest end offerings over the years for the toughest dirt and stains? I'm currently using their advanced clean oxi+odor which I love. It has a nice crisp citrus scent with masculine notes. That's how I describe it. Maybe somebody has a better description. The Persil in the orange container reminds me of the old wisk smell.

 

[launderess]

Wisk has been around since 1950's (IIRC), while Persil (Dial/Henkel) only arrived rather recently. Any comparison of offerings wouldn't be fair due to former being on US shelves far longer than latter.

 

[gelaundry4ever]

Wisk has been around since 1950's (IIRC), while Persil (Dial/Henkel) only arrived rather recently. Any comparison of offerings wouldn't be fair due to former being on US shelves far longer than latter.

Well, I remember when the Persil website was launched, it stated you'd love Persil if you loved Wisk. That's why I am asking.

 

[soapdog86]

Here are photos of a vintage 1950s twenty (20) cent Wisk coupon.

 

[soapdog86]

Here are three photos of the vintage 1950s Wisk promotional circular.

 

[me]

Lever brothers launched Wisk liquid in the UK in the late 80s, but it was only sold here for a few years. It was the first liquid detergent I'd seen in our local supermarket, although that may just have been because they had a big chuck of shelf space loaded up with the orangey red bottles at launch.

 

[soapdog86]

Here's a vintage 1966 Wisk coupon

 

[soapdog86]

Here's a 1966 Wisk ad which features a housewife shoveling a mountain of powdered laundry detergent.

 

[soapdog86]

Lever Brothers had a crazy thing by adding ammonia to Wisk. Luckily, it was probably been test marketed and it was a failure.

 

[launderess]

Well, I remember when the Persil website was launched, it stated you'd love Persil if you loved Wisk. That's why I am asking.

That likely had much to do with Henkel/Dial discontinuing Wisk detergent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisk

Wisk had come along way since "ring around the collar" days, but it was no longer the only liquid detergent US shelves.











More to point despite having gone through various owners Wisk brand of laundry detergent still had a following. Not great as owners would like, but still. When Henkel/Dial got their mitts on Wisk and decided they didn't need two liquid detergents (Persil being the other), things had to be done to prevent whatever users of Wisk remaining from bolting to another rival product.

 

[launderess]

Lever Brothers had a crazy thing by adding ammonia to Wisk. Luckily, it was probably been test marketed and it was a failure.

Ammonia per se may have vanished, but as with hair coloring and other things ethanolamine in various forms is used as substitute.

For liquid laundry and dishwashing detergents triethanolamine is commonly used.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triethanolamine

https://www.kandelandson.com/msds/Wisk Laundry Detergent.pdf

https://www.fultondistributing.com/documents/b5822dc4.pdf