Puerto Rican Prizes

[dixieland]

I picked up a couple of different items last week while I was in San Juan. I visited a Pueblo Supermarcado.

The first: ARIEL COLOR. This product smells like the U.S. Cheer (and is quite possibly the same formula). This detergent contains no phosphates as it is produced in PR and falls under U.S. regulations.

 

[dixieland]

a blast from the past (at least for the U.S.)

Vel

 

[toggleswitch]

Classic BLUE cheer laundry powder of yester-year?

*THUD* faint.

 

[dixieland]

nope

Just the normal cheer of today.

 

[angus]

Yes, but was that dishwashing liquid Vel Rosita? I recall in the late 70's Rose Lotion Vel was still available. The scent wasn't too strong and it was quite good at dishwashing. I recall that Consumer Reports always rated it highly.

 

[dixieland]

YES

The scent is of faint roses and it does wash well. It is made by Colgate Palmolive.

 

[peterh770]

Vel Rosita is a gentle fabric wash, much like Woolite. Many mercados mexicanos unfortunately put the bottles in with the fabric softeners, leading to very sudsy last rinses!!!

 

[cvillewasherbo]

pink dishwashing liquid

I've always loved that pink liquid. When I was about five we had a neighbor who had a Norge solid tub with the standard black agitator. Anyway that lady used the pink liquid to wash clothes in and they smelled so good outside on the line when the breeze came over our fence. Too bad we can't get it in the US anymore, at least I haven't seen it anywhere I shop.
Courtney

 

[oxydolfan1]

Dixieland....did you happen to notice if Gain was sold there?

Was there a "non-color" Ariel formulation, as well?

 

[dixieland]

Gain....

I do not recall if Gain was sold there or not. I will be making several return trips so I will look at for it and see. This is also good because I can stock up on Ace and other brands we don't see here in the U.S. Proper.

Ariel has several versions. The biggest selection was in liquids where they had what I would call "normal" ariel which smelled very herb-like and then they had a lot of powdered ariel color and ariel with bleach.

 

[bongobro]

Vel rosado y los otros liquidos rosados para lavaplatos...

(that's "Rose Lotion Vel and the other pink dishwashing liquids")

I haven't seen Rose Lotion Vel--or for that matter, any brand-name pink liquid dishwashing detergent--since Dawn came out in the 1970s. At one time Colgate made Rose Lotion Vel (Vel Rosado?); Procter and Gamble had Thrill; and Lever Brothers had Pink Lotion Lux Liquid.

I don't know if Puerto Rican culture is less liberated than today's America, but it seems to me the pink liquids began disappearing about the time the Women's Lib movement started.

As I posted in another thread, Thrill went to a peach-colored, peach-scented formula about 1970, and was phased out right after the original blue Dawn formula came out ca. 1976.

Vel disappeared shortly afterward (after a really horrendous singing commercial featuring Ethel Merman singing the praises of Vel to the tune of, you guessed it, "Everything's Coming Up Roses").

Lux Liquid seemed to hang in there longest, but they had a really weird promotion in 1971 when they reformulated the product and claimed it was "so mild you could wash your face with it." I remember they had a sweepstakes promotion where the top prize was a brand-new, Lux Liquid-pink AMC Sportabout station wagon (like the ad campaign, that had to be "outrageous").

As the name brands phased out, pink liquids became progressively cheaper (and poorer in quality)...of course there may be some macho behind it, too, since what self-respecting dude would admit to washing dishes with pink, rose-scented dish soap???