First things first, sorry I haven't posted for a while, been up to my eyeballs in work at the moment and have hardly had any time for the laundry side of things!
Had a spending spree in Asda the other day, bought Ariel Bio, Ariel Febreze and Daz Power liquids (all on offer for £3 each) and have to say that the load of colours I did this morning on a short minimum iron 30 wash came up brilliantly... on a par with other Ariel and Persil products. Even the bottoms of socks came clean which I can find difficult to remove with some detergents, and the Daz power liquid got the whites very white on a short 40*C wash. Doesn't smell too potent in the bottle or on the laundry - it doesn't cover the fabric softener whereas with Persil liquigel which I've also been using at the moment it does cover the fabric softener with a smell, although I do like the smell of that so it's not a problem.
Didn't catch the rinse cycles but the laundry felt well rinsed when I took them out... don't necessarily think P&G have got anything wrong here, up to the usual high standard of their products and at £3 a bottle it's mad not to at least try it bearing in mind 10 washes of powder or tabs cost not much less! It's also nice to have the dosing ball - one thing I don't like about Persil small & mighty is that you have to wait until the waters filling to add it to the dispenser otherwise it flows down prematurely, which can be a problem in our machine as it pumps out when you start it before it fills up.
Strange about the non-bleachy Persil smell, I've found the new Persil "just washed" powder (the bio one at least) leaves a slightly chlorine smell to the laundry, again quite pleasant and isn't as putrid as the former no need to pretreat formula. I don't like non bio products though so can't compare what that version is like compared to the last formula which I haven't used for about a year now (and don't plan to, biological detergents seem to be far more effective at the same job and haven't had a reaction with my sensitive skin).
It looks like the concentrated liquids are increasing in popularity - the shelves were almost empty in Asda and I've noticed they've also started doing Persil and Surf small & mighty in 1.5l bottles, same ones as the 1.5l Comforts.
Jon