New Persil launch "once in a decade break throuh"

[golittlesport]

Just read this on Google News...not a liquid, not a powder....lentil-shaped "power gems." Wonder if this will make it to the states?

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-unilever-persil-launch-idUSKBN19D2KL?il=0

 

[nmassman44]

Methinks that we won't see that here in the States since this is a Unilever Persil for the U.K. and not the Henkel Persil we have here in the States.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Yuck!

"... and new technology that allows fragrance molecules to cling to fabric throughout the wash."

I can imagine that the products will have an overpoweringly vile, cloying scent, which will linger to the point of distraction.

 

[toploader55]

I still buy Universal Powder.

The Liquid Stinks in my own opinion. The liquid Persil smells like Perfumey crap Laundry detergent which I don't care for. I like the detergent to do it's job and leave my Laundry with barely a scent which is Fresh and Clean. Not like Woolworths.

 

[launderess]

Just rubbished a few bottles of Tide liquid as could no longer abide the scents.

One was Tide with a "touch" of Downy in Clean Breeze scent. Did a load last week and noticed after line drying the scent still packed whiff. After folding noticed one's hands reeked of the same scent. Put on some clothing a few days later washed in same, and noticed later when changing that same scent was all over one's body skin. In short every thing that was touched by laundry washed in that Tide had scent rubbed off upon it.

That was it for me, so out the stuff went, along with bottle of "Colourguard" and something else which cannot recall. Happily these were gifted from trips to the laundromat so am not out good money.

 

[frigilux]

Interesting.  The 'power gems' look a bit like the Downy Unstoppables pellets. I used to use UK (Unilever) Persil bio powder.  It was a great cleaner and I liked the straightforward, fairly unobtrusive scent.  Eventually, the cost of importing it became prohibitive, considering Tide With Bleach Alternative was its match for cleaning at a fraction of the cost.  Tide, of course, doesn't rinse out as well in soft water.

 

Aside:  Bit the bullet and ordered a couple of jugs of Perwoll Dark Intensive from Amazon.  It's become very expensive, but it keeps blacks black through quite a few washes.  Had switched to the more economical/easily-found Woolite For Dark Colors, but found black clothes went dusty/grey quickly.

 

[rolls_rapide]

"washed in that Tide had scent rubbed off upon it"

I found the same with P&G's Ariel Powder, and Unilever's Comfort fabric conditioner.

The Ariel got passed onto my mum. I had noticed that Comfort clogged the conditioner dispenser, and I honestly couldn't stand the smell - it was even absorbed into the plastics of the machine. So it (a small bottle) got flushed down the sink with plenty of water. And then the the drain stank of the persistent stench! Plastic drainpipes, vile.

I am wondering why exactly the fragrances are SO strong. Is it an attempt to cover up horrible chemical smells of modern formulations?

Frankly, I despair.

 

[aquacycle]

I'm currently awaiting delivery of this - it's Unilever's zero scent brand.

http://https//m.neutralsensitiveski...-laundry-washing-powder-1.188kg/11313215.html

 

[rolls_rapide]

Unilever's "Neutral 0%"

Thanks for that!

Please do tell us how it performs.

Squinting at the enlarged pics on their website, the powder seems to have four enzymes: protease, lipase, amylase and mannanase. In other words, like Persil, but minus the stench.

 

[mrboilwash]

Ingredients list is out now and confirms what I expected those Power Gems to be, they are more or less what they look like - Megaperls run over by a truck ;-)

http://https//www.unilever.co.uk/wiop/products/persil/persil-powergems-bio.html

 

[gyrafoam]

Scented for what purpose?

I can understand the light scents of the detergents of old, however, in today's world clothing is rarely worn more than an hour or two before the kids throw it into the hamper---or floor. Adults just as bad. We all know people who use a towel only once. In the old days people wore clothing until it really did get dirty, and in those days a lot of people did not bathe more than a few times a week.

Adults work in offices now, not out in the fields and factories, for the most part. And under-arm deodorants are quite commonplace. Men commonly wear after-shave or cologne these days as much as women do (here in the US). And nearly everybody takes one shower a day (with their scented shampoo and soap).

Only thing I can think of is they are trying to mask the nasty odors coming from the front-load washers with the black algae and mold from chronic use of the "trailer" setting (Cold/Cold) or lack of ventilation, or both.

Kind of like the "washing-machine cleaner" they (detergent manufacturers) now market, making even more money off of their campaign of dumbing-down the public into buying their (so-called) "Cold-Water" Detergents. And, "helping" the manufacturers (they are in bed with), cope with the short-falls of their performance.

Nobody even needed, much less, thought of, a "washing-machine cleaner" back in the day, because most people had top-loaders, always used a HOT or Warm wash, regularly used Chlorine Bleach, and left the lid open so the machine could dry-out and not start to rust in between uses.

I think Laundress is right. All the heavy fragrances can be obnoxious.
The commercial phosphated detergent I buy has a nice light lemon fragrance much like the old FAB detergent did. It is easily rinsed out.
I completely understand why people are tired of all the heavy scents. I guess I won't be a new Persil customer.

 

[aamassther]

"Ingredients list is out now and confirms what I expected those Power Gems to be, they are more or less what they look like - Megaperls run over by a truck ;-) "

There's one key difference though, neither formula has any bleach. It looks chock full of OBA's, to me, precluding it from being useful on colours. Though it does have 4 enzymes. I'll probably still try to score some from Amazon if someone imports it, lol.

 

[mrboilwash]

How could I only miss there`s no bleach in it ? I hang my head in shame ;-)

But still it is just a powder that has gone through an extruder in the manufacturing process. Just like Megaperls. Nothing new or groundbreaking about it, but they look nice and I`d like to try those Power Gems.

 

[iej]

I would actually reckon European guys wear a LOT more fragrances than their US counterparts. They shower just as much too.

The reason for the scents is nothing to do with masking bad odours or cleaning. Rather, it seems like a large % of consumers like these scents. I'm not a huge fan myself but, clearly someone is.

 

[rolls_rapide]

No Oxygen Bleach...?!

Not much use for whites. And it's very likely that traditional powders will STILL perform better at cleaning.

It's almost as though they've repackaged a 'Colour' powder into those lentils, and called it 'Standard'.

I don't think they'll last long - they'll likely to be overpriced, and not seen to be good value.

Call me underwhelmed.

 

[rolls_rapide]

PowerGems Videos in link below...

Video 1: They need to get rid of that childish woman's voiceover. That alone puts me off.

Video 2: Dose it like you would a liquid. I wonder how it would perform dosed via the dispenser drawer?

http://https//www.persil.com/uk/laundry/detergent/Powergems.html

 

[launderess]

Daily Fail Says

Looks interesting enough one supposes:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4634564/Could-crystals-hold-key-whiter-whites.html

Thing is P&G, Henkel, Unilever, et al all are facing the same issues; the laundry detergent market is mature and quite saturated. Worse consumers are finding out they don't need to spend on top shelf brand names when many others products will do the job just as well for less.

Of course we've seen this before, and anyone who has studied marketing and sales knows the drill.

Mature products like toothpaste, toilet tissue, washing powder, and a host of other things have pretty much reached the state of the art when it comes to innovation. That is they all pretty much do what they are supposed more or less, though some do it better than others. Enter this or that "new" feature that is supposed to make one product stand above the others.

It is amazing to one that there are shelves upon shelves of say toothpaste on shop shelves. They all do basically same thing and leaving aside taste and some other personal preferences there isn't that much difference between. Yet some cost $$$, others, $$ and still more just $.

Same thing with laundry detergents. When consumer testing groups in all countries round them up it is surprising that often the so called "bargain brands" do a respectable enough to quite good job.

In the past decade or so we've had tablets, ultra concentrated, mega perls, concentrated liquids, gels, various pods, packs or whatever; now we've got detergent that looks like bits of candy.

As for Unilever's claim there new product uses less chemicals that is hard to credit. That little list from link above made the Doomsday book look like a raffle ticket.

 

[launderess]

No Bleach...

Think this new product may be Unilever's nod to the fact so much in terms of household textiles and personal apparel is colors and or cannot be routinely bleached with the activated systems of old found in most EU detergents.

Am not that worried as have no doubt that Unilever will release some sort of stain "booster" to go with this new detergent that is heavy on bleach.

 

[lordkenmore]

I have speculated that one reason for heavy scents is to cover up the fact that the "energy saving cold wash" has limited effectiveness.

 

In any case, I have come to a point of hating scents. I moved to using unscented in summer when I dry outside so the only scent would be the fresh outdoor scent. But I've come to a point of using unscented during dryer season simply because I've gotten tired of the often overly strong scents.

 

I used a bottle of Wisk during last winter. I got it because A) I was curious given that some here really like it, and B) it was cheap that day. It was OK as a detergent--although I don't think it was the greatest I've ever used--but I really didn't like the scent. I was able to stand it on clothes, but that was that. I had a small supply of unscented still that I used for some loads like sheets. 

 

[dixan]

"But still it is just a powder that has gone through an extruder in the manufacturing process. Just like Megaperls. Nothing new or groundbreaking about it, but they look nice and I`d like to try those Power Gems."

In fact, nothing like Megaperls. Completely different technology with minimum zeolite content. Megaperls are based on zeolites (about 40% or more) and this detergent contains less than 5%. Grounbreaking is the concentration: Powergems is more than two times more concentrated than the Megaperls.
Too bad Powergems doesn't contain oxygen bleach, but the price would be much higher.

 

[launderess]

While historically the use of strong scents/perfumes

Was used to cover up appalling B.O., this was mainly from other eras when personal hygiene meant bathing was something that occurred infrequently or not at all.

Europeans bathe as much as anyone else in the world, and that hold canard about French or others roaming around with a pong is getting old.

Being as this may what many do not subscribe to is the idea of dousing themselves with chemicals meant to prevent perspiration. Sweat is a perfectly normal biological function meant to rid the body of wastes in addition to cooling. You wouldn't want to stop the process of voiding liquid or solid waste would you?

Got on a NYC bus several days ago. At the back was sitting a group of several African young men. Could tell they were from that continent by the patios being spoken amongst themselves. They were all clean, well dressed and so forth; but the entire bus had a pong you wouldn't believe. Rather put on in mind of what the Black Stars locker room must smell like....

This was one of the newer NYC buses that are quite large vehicles, really two buses joined together, and had only a small number of passengers. Worse it being summer all windows were closed and the AC was running. So that pong was recycled inside that closed container of a bus...

Living in a place with a vast and growing homeless population am well acquainted with the scent of those who have not bathed in weeks (or years....) versus that of simple "sweat".

Upshot of all this palaver is that powerfully scented laundry or other products have nothing to do with covering up body odor, but simply are a result of makers following what marketing research tells them consumers want.

First time went to France on one's own and went shopping at Ed's was quite bowled over in the laundry product section. Shelf after shelf full of detergents and whatever that packed a powerful smell. This was some time ago now and things really have only gotten worse IMHO.

Many Americans who have moved and or otherwise living in France have noticed same:

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/the-notsosweet/

On this side of the pond the largest and fastest growing consumer demographic is Latino-Hispanic market. That group seems to prefer *very* strongly scented laundry and other cleaning products.

 

[mrboilwash]

Yes, right a larger quantity of the zeolithes seems to be replaced with EDTA (Tetrasodium Etidronate). That means less insoluble stuff is used which is probably very desirable for most consumers. Considering how toxic the stuff is for humans and the environment Henkel`s slogan "Quality and Responsibility" appears in a new light for me now.
Where did you find the dosing instructions and the data of ingredients in percent ?
Using less than half of the product (by volume?) compared to existing super concentrated powders is indeed groundbreaking.

When I was the first time of my life in Paris riding the Metro I was flabbergasted at the amount of perfume or cologne everybody has put on. Most Parisians could easily fill an entire cabin with scent. As a perfume lover I could even tell who is wearing what sometimes. Always put a big smile on my face. I think it`s an adorable twist in French culture and I hope it will stay as it is.

Americans seem to have a week spot for dryer sheets instead of perfume or cologne. At least that`s my impression as an outsider. I like that too.
I hope there won`t be such an intolerant witch hunt again as we`ve had against smokers.

 

[launderess]

Dryer sheets

Took off in the USA because top loading automatics were the dominate type of washing machine. Unless your machine had a fabric softener dispenser (many did not), one had to either rush to machine in order to catch the rinse, or reset the washer for another cycle in order to use liquid fabric softener.

When Cling Free and Bounce were introduced their main marketing ploy was about convenience. Now Madame (or anyone else doing the wash) didn't have to deal with her washer's rinse cycle.

Not to be out done; number one liquid fabric softener at that time (Downy by P&G) countered dryer sheets with advertising saying that unlike those products that "softened here and there" (meaning wherever the sheet landed during tumble drying), Downy softened the entire load; "Downy goes wherever water goes...".

P&G did introduce a Donwy dryer sheet (have some in my stash), but it didn't last long IIRC.

As for "weak spot" regarding dryer sheets, I don't know...

Have seen persons use a scented detergent, add those "unstoppables" and then toss one, two or more dryer sheets into machine with same load.

 

[aquarius1984]

I've spent 3 days washing varied loads in these.

I dislike the lack of bleach. Persil confirmed on the phone these variants are not suitable for whites.

Low water using machines can cause the gems to stick on the door boot which I have found will happen. They suds up on towels a lot despite containing no soap. However they rinse out well bar the door boot issue.

Not worth the money over regular powder by any means. I've tried but I won't buy again in a hurry.

The fragrance is very subtle on washed loads, just a light fresh scent. Nothing over powering at all.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Thanks for the consumer test.

Are they suitable to dose via the powder drawer?

 

[aquarius1984]

Yes I've done two loads via the drawer today and no issues though I'm not investigating further than the drawer cavity. I'm not prepared to start pulling apart a 12 month old TOL machine just yet lololol. I'd say they flushed thru ok.

 

[rolls_rapide]

Good testing!

It makes you wonder where exactly in the spectrum of detergents these PowerLentils are supposed to be positioned.

Not for Whites, because they have no bleach - yet the green (and blue, for that matter) packaging infers that they are a suitable replacement for standard powders.

You'd probably get out of these, equal performance to a liquid, or a Colour powder.

I'll wait until they have a rethink.

 

[dixan]

Tetrasodium EDTA is not toxic, mrboilwash. Anyway, zeolites are not much better for the environment either. They are removed from the waste waters, but they are very expensive to reactivate, so there are mountains of used zeolites. Phosphates were processed to fertilizers in the past; zeolites are just waste. The main problem with zeolites is that they are not good for the laundry - they are insoluble and very abrasive. That's why most of the companies decreased drastically zeolite content in their powders. Substituted them with sodium sulphate and sodium carbonate - not much better. Today's washing machines use very little water - the future is for the powders with very small doses (compacted) and minimum insoluble ingredients and fillers.
Don't get me wrong - Megaperls was and still is great detergent, especially regarding the bleaching action and surfactant content. When first launched it was revolutionary, however this formula is obsolete and need to be revised. Henkel will reformulate or discontinue them.

 

[launderess]

Previous comments not withstanding

Since this new product is designed to go into wash tub mayhaps lack of bleaching agents is a way to avoid possibility of textile damage.

Mega-Perls were meant to go into the dispenser and thus (hopefully) dissolve before coming into contact with wash. This new product that goes into tub/on top of washing combined with today's low to piddling water use machines could pose problems if they contained bleach.

 

[rolls_rapide]

"...avoid possibility of textile damage."

And by creating the product to be dispensed in that particular way, Unilever have perhaps made a rod for their own backs / painted themselves into a corner. They left out the bleach, but at what cost? Cleaning efficiency?

I for one, am not fond of some of the modern dosing devices with their sharp edges, clattering around in the drum. If I bought this product, I'd still dose via the drawer.

Maybe it is just me, but I fail to see what the problem is, that this product is the answer to. I see nothing revolutionary, like new enzymes, or cleaning 'accelerators', or fabric rejuvenators, or stain shields. Nothing stands out as new or inventive, that other products cannot already do.

Perhaps Persil PowerGems is just an exercise in design, in cahoots with University students? It really wouldn't surprise me.