Persil VS Skip-Similarities and differencies

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grwasher_expert

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 15, 2016
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Athens
I've noticed that british Persil packaging is very similar to our "Skip"(except bio/non bio distinction-almost all detergents are bio here).I searched it further and I found out that Unilever sells it's top of line detergent range with different names depending on the country(Skip/Persil/Omo/Via/Ala//Surf/Breeze),unlike P&G,where top of line laundry detergent is named Ariel in the whole europe.Unfortunately I've never came across a british Persil to check if it exactly the same with Skip or there are differences.Has anybody compared those 2 versions of unilever's top laundry product?Do they look and smell the same?Do they share the same formula?Or the only thing they have in common is the packaging and the logo design?

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It all has to do with both Unilever and Henkel both owning rights to the brand name "Persil".

Lever Bros acquired the rights to the Persil brand name in 1931 (Henkel rather than build new plants in the UK sold rights to Persil to a soap maker there, who in turn was purchased by Lever Brothers). Since then the world has been divided between "British" (Unilever) Persil and the German (Henkel).

For various marketing reasons neither company uses Persil exclusively around the world.

Persil means "parsley" in French so for that and other reasons Henkel uses "Le Chat" as the name of their TOL detergent which is for all intents and purposes Persil under the bonnet. Unilever having the rights to Persil in Europe outside of Germany positions that detergent in France as being "natural" and or for sensitive skin such as containing Savon de Marseille, Aloe Vera, etc... However Unilever also sells Skip which as noted in OP is "Persil".
 
Henkel Persil is sold also in Greece,but it has absolutely no connection to unilever's Skip(english Persil),or german Persil(Ηenkel's TOL detergent is named Dixan).It is a range of special liquid detergents for sensitive and fine clothing(woolens,silk,blacks etc).I think that it is named Perwoll in Germany and other EU countries.

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As far...

As I can remember, Unilever's Skip "Active Clean" Liquid smells exactly like our Persil "small and mighty biological" liquid.

I have only had 1 Skip product (had/have all the Persil ones), so I can only go off this one, but if the liquid smells the same, would assume the rest of the line does.
 
Small and mighty liquid is called "Skip πανίσχυρο μικρό" here.I assume that all Skip liquids and capsules are EXACTLY the same with Persil ones.They are maybe manufactured in the same manufacturing plant.I was wondering if Skip powder is the same with Persil powder too.As I remember,until early '00s, Skip powder was made in Greece(only the powder,liquids were always imported).In 2002 the greek Unilever detergent plant shut down,so since then the powder is imported from France.Where is UK Persil powder manufactured?Does Unilever have any detergent plant in the UK or Persil products are imported from another EU country?
 
Unilever's UK powders are manufactured at their factory in Warrington in the North West of England. This was the site of Crosfield's soap powder factory, the company that originally made UK Persil from 1909, until that part of their business was taken over by Unilever ten years later.

Liquids, capsules and fabric softeners are made at Port Sunlight (also in the North West and pretty much the birth place of Unilever) for most of Europe whether it's Persil, Skip, Omo, or whatever it may be called in other countries.
 
Internationally it's OMO

Unilever actually refers to its top of the line detergents internally as Omo. A brand that while British in origin was abandoned in its home market in favour of Persil.

https://www.unilever.com/brands/our-brands/omo.html

It's sold by various names : Persil, Skip, Breeze, Ala, Wisk, Surf and Rinso

Surf is their other global brand as a second tier, scent oriented detergent.

https://www.unilever.com/brands/our-brands/surf.html

That's sold by a few names and is oddly Omo in France.

Henkel owns the Persil brand in most markets, the UK, Republic of Ireland, France and NZ seem to be the only places that Unilever has rights to the name.

Henkel bought old, very established brands in France (Le Chat), Wipp Express in Spain and they basically use those as their top of the line brands in those markers but the product is identical to German Persil.
 
Here,OMO is also sold as a secondary brand,with the butterfly logo similar to british Surf,like in France,while the worldwide OMO star-like logo is used for Skip.

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They're likely to be identical products. They just play around with different brands because they're established in particular markets.

Surf is generally repositioned as a scent focused product. They don't really try to compete with price point driven store brands anymore.

Although, Surf seems to only have one enzyme where as the TOL "splodge logo" range has a far superior, sophisticated cocktail of enzymes and should clean better as a result.

Australian Drive is a very different looking brand, but I would strongly suspect that the Front Loader versions are probably the TOL Omo/Skip/Persil formulation.

It's very wasteful to carry out R&D multiple times for the same product, so they simply use the same one everywhere even if the branding is different. They could possibly use a familiar local market scent that's a bit different but from what I've smelt, the UK, Irish and French stuff is the same product. They look and smell identical.

They've a high suds top loader formulation that's not sold in Europe but it's sold in NZ as Persil and in Australia as Drive. It's probably just different surfactants that foam up a lot more.
 
I'm using Skip Active Clean at the moment. In many markets, Skip is Unilever's top detergent. The powder is nothing like our Persil though. It smells more like Persil did in the UK 20 years ago - I love it!
 
P&G

Proctor and Gamble do this too with their brands.

In USA - Tide is the top line detergent, Ariel is a lower priced detergent.

In Europe/ROW, in the markets where both Ariel and Tide appear, the reverse is true - Ariel is top line, and Tide the lower priced.

The same was true when the UK had Tide back in the 70's (Ariel TOL, Tide a budget detergent).

As PP said, it all comes down to the markets around the world, and what consumer segment a product is aimed at.

Pakistan P&G follow similar to UK - Ariel is TOL and their Tide is sold on the basis of achieving the whitest wash possible (like UK with the Daz brand, the Daz formulation is sold in Europe as Tide).

In USA, Dreft is aimed at mothers of babies (like our Fairy), whereas when the UK had Dreft it was aimed at washing delicates. Gain is sold on scent experience (like our Bold).

Linked an advert for UK Tide

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpZhJnCuu24
 
There isn't really a "Europe/ ROW" market. The brands and formulations are adapted fairly carefully to each market. In a lot of developing world countries the majority of the products, for example, still have a very strong focus on hand washing where as that would be confined to specialist travel products and maybe wool care stuff in the European and North American markets.

Tide is only retained as a brand in a couple of markets Europe. P&G's billion dollar / Euro European brand is Ariel.

In most markets there a second tier P&G which had various names : Daz, Ariel Basic, Gama etc

You've their 3-in-1 / scent oriented brand to : Bold, Dash, Bolt etc . These usually aren't price pony oriented and are actually increasingly pushed as more indulgent - they're available in umpteen fragrances but they seem to not want to merge that with Ariel.

Also oddly in Belgium Dash is the premium TOL brand isn't always 3-in-1

In general you mess with household favorites at your peril. That's why they've generally not standardised everything.
 
In greece Ariel is TOL,just like in the rest of europe.Lenor detergent is the secondary brand that focuses on scent.About 15 years ago we had Bold too,but it was discontinued in 2004 as I said on another thread about discontinued products.P&G here also produces Essex which is a sold as a budget oriented brand.Tide is sold only as a hand-washing detergent.
Henkel follows a similar scheme with different TOL/secondary brand combinations depending on the country.For example in Greece and Cyprus the TOL product is named Dixan and it is equivalent to german Persil or french Le Chat and the secondary brand is called Neo-mat.In other countries such as Spain,Dixan is the secondary budget-oriented brand while TOL brand is Wipp Express.

liamy1
Are you sure that the commercial is not american?Because the guy is using a top-loader while in the UK most washers are front-loaders.

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Tide advert

GRWasher_expert

It is definitely a UK advert.

The machine is a Top Loading twin-tub, which is what the UK had in the 70s. Would say by mid-80s a lot of people (but not everyone) would have made the switch to a front loader). My own parents and grandparents had Twin tub machines until 1990.

Also, the other thing is the colour theme, US Tide is an Orange/Red/Yellow colour scheme (known as "Day-Glo" colours) and always has been.

UK Tide was a white and blue colour scheme.
 
GRWasher_expert,
UK Persil and Greek Skip are absolutely the same powder in different package. I used them both - they smell the same, look the same, ingredients are the same.
Skip powder is manufactured in Unilever's plant in Timișoara, Romania. Liquids are manufactured in UK or Italy, capsules - in UK. The softener - Coccolino/Cajoline/Comfort - Italy or Hungary.

Here in Bulgaria we have OMO Ultimate (TOL brand) which is the same as the Greek Skip Ultimate Klinex system. (Kinex is brand of bleach, known in other countries as Domestos.)

What I find curious in Greece is that you don't have "colour" detergents.
 
Back to '90s we did have "color" detergents.Besides regular Skip which had a blue packaging,there was also Skip color which had a green packaging.It was discontinued in the early '00s,while the packaging design was revamped and new variants of Skip made their appearance such as Aloe vera.Now we only have some special detergents for black clothes.Both Skip and Ariel produce special "color" detergents,but they are sold in only few countries and Greece isn't one of them.I don't really know which is the difference between a regular and a "color" detergent.Maybe the color one doesn't contain bleaching agents and it maybe contains some color protecting substances which prevent color fading.Recently i have seen in supermarkets a new version of Ariel powder that says "Whites+colors" on the box,and i think that it is a new formula suitable for mix washes(whites and coloreds in the same load)

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No, in fact colour detergents are sold in most countries in Europe and only few don't have them - Greece, Spain, Portugal, France.
Colour powders don't contain oxygen bleach and some of them contain dye transfer inhibitors (since this year - only Henkel produce colour detergents with dye transfer inhibitors and only for certain markets).

This new Ariel doesn't contain bleach and it doesn't contain dye transfer inhibitors, but it contains photocatalytic bleach system (Zinc Phthalocyanine Sulphonate).
 
Actually,there is a new version of Skip color products that are sold in France but unfortunately not in Greece.What brands of color detergents are sold in Bulgaria?Does OMO have such a variant?
 
Every brand has a colour version. Multinational companies sell: TOL brands - Ariel, Persil (in Greece the brand is Dixan), OMO; middle - Tide; bottom (budget) - Bonux, Rex (in Greece it's Neomat with the fox mascot). We have may other brands, sold by smaller companies (Bingo, Tema, Savex) or retailers (Formil in Lidl, Denkmit in DM drugstores) and they all have colour detergents.

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Colour deteregents

We have them here in the UK.

Both P&G and Unilever TOL products (Ariel and Persil) have a standard and a colour version.

As do all the Supermarket own brands (whether it's Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda and Lidl/Aldi etc).

The "Mid" brands - Daz, Surf or the specific feature brands - Bold and Fairy don't have a specific colour version (they all did dabble with them in the early 90s but don't have a version labelled as colour specifically).

But the usual advice is to use a Powder with oxygen bleach for white loads and a liquid/capsule for colour loads as liquids don't contain oxygen bleach at all. (They are still available, but both Ariel and Persil have really scaled back their colour care POWDER products).
 
Lidl's Formil is available in Greece too,both in regular and color version.But as most people wash their coloreds at low temperatures with liquids or capsules,i don't find any reason for buying special bleachless powder for coloreds,powders are mostly used for whites or light coloreds.
 
"They are still available, but both Ariel and Persil have really scaled back their colour care POWDER products"
Thank Heavens, not the same case here. On the opposite, Unilever launched their colour powder this year after many years of only "universal" OMO on the market. All manufacturers offer colour powder and there is no sign of scaling back.

GRWasher_expert,
here the powders still have the largest market share even though the companies try very hard to push the liquids (because they are cheaper to manufacture, but are sold at the same price as the powders).
I refuse to use liquids - they are horrible for the washing machine. They contain substances called "thickeners". They form a film on the inside of the machine - great substratum for bacterial and mould growth, which leads to horrible smell. The same applies to the softeners but they are even worse because of other ingredients. No liquids in my machine, only powders.
 
Colour deteregents

Yes unfortunately, there is much push on the liquids, gels and the caspsules. BUT like you, Powder is still at the moment, our biggest selling format.

So there is now only one box size of colour care powder from Ariel and Persil (they used to have 3 or 4 different sizes).

Powder tablets look to be on the way out too.

Suppose with the colour detergents, I can understand it, as there is no difference between a colour care powder, and a colour care liquid - just the format.

With a standard powder vs liquid, there is a difference of the oxygen bleaches being in the powder, but not the liquid.

I don't mind liquids too much, but would NEVER use them exclusively, as you say, it would wreck the washing machine. Especially the Gels from P&G

So I tend to use liquids for colours and powder for whites, and I probably have as many white washes as colour washes.
 
Liquids work better at low temperatures because they dissolve immediately.Powders genetally clean better because they contain more enzymes than liquids,but they barely disolve at cold or tepid water,and undisolved powder leaves white stains on dark clothes.So powder rocks on warm/hot water but when you wash at 30ºC,liquids are the best option if you don't want your darks full of white marks.If you want to avoid using liquids,you should wash at minimum 40 ºC.
 
I told you - liquids are cheaper to produce and the sell them at the same price as the powder. That's why they push. The only thing liquids are better then powders is that they wash oily stains better. (Liquid detergents contain higher amount on nonionic surfactants; powders contain smaller amount because nonionics are liquid at room temperature and powders become sticky and hard to use.)

All the detergents here are for 3 or 4, 20, 40 and 60 washes with no exception. On special offer sometimes we have 30, 50, 80 etc. Most of the people prefer and buy 20 washes.

Tablets... Useless. Persil (Henkel) launched tablets several years ago and stopped the very fast - expensive and not as good as powder.
Capsules - expensive, but better then liquid, because they don't contain thickeners.
 
GRWasher_expert,
I wash my darks with colour powder at 30° and I have no white marks at all. Never.
Actually, nowadays powders dissolve pretty well even in cold water.
 
Speaking of...

Powders. I have just been to Lidl's and I had a look at the Formil; they have been proper compacted down in size - they're a 25 wash box and would dare say they are not much bigger than Ariel's etc 10 wash box size.

I did mention on another thread, I wonder if we would see a return to truly compact powders.
 
clean better because they contain more enzymes

That's not true. Powders clean better because they contain oxygen based bleaching agents, whereas liquids don't.

I very very rarely use liquid. When I do, I use Ecover Non Bio. High surfactant count but no OBA's - great for jeans or anything where the dye runs a lot. Indigo dye is a particular pain in the ass for this.

I've never found liquids to wash anywhere near as well as powder - why pay more for an inferior product?

I ditched colour powder years ago after it was leaving behind deodorant marks and underarms were rank! Switched to bio powder for 90% of my washing and not had any issues since.
 
"Speaking of...

Powders. I have just been to Lidl's and I had a look at the Formil; they have been proper compacted down in size - they're a 25 wash box and would dare say they are not much bigger than Ariel's etc 10 wash box size.

I did mention on another thread, I wonder if we would see a return to truly compact powders."

Yes, Dalli Werke, the manufacturer of Formil, shank the dose for medium hard water and normal soil from 75 g/115 ml to 65 g/85 ml (this was the dose of the most famous Persil megaperls).
On the opposite, P&G increased the dose from 102 ml to 115 ml.

Don't expect truly compact powder ever soon. Now it's absolutely possible for the big companies to release powder with dosage 5-7 grams per kilogram dry laundry, based on polymers, which lacks the inactive ingredients like sodium sulphate and heavy and bulky ingredients like zeolites, sodium carbonate, etc. Nowadays the washing machines use very small amounts of water, they need truly compact powders with no insolubles and I expected proper reaction earlier, but I don't know why they don't do anything about it. They only make cosmetic changes and nothing really innovative.
 
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