what happened to the old fluorescent liquid Tide?

[whirlpolf]

hey guys,
back those days when there were a lot of Americans around in our neighborhood, I remember using this liquid Tide, getting it from friends through PX.
It hat an orange bottle, a blue cap and the stuff itself was clear, pinkish and would glow in the dark once subjected to UV light. It had an awsome smell and it could clean out any motorbike stains even in low temp cycles.

Later it was gone, substituted by white and opaque liquid Tide, same bottle, blue or orange cap and it had this ordinary laundry type of smell, not the typical Tide blend of floral + floor shine stuff + toughly etching away + soapy smell to it (hard to describe after all).

What happened to it? I had it in the 80s, are there leftovers to be had?
I just loved it to pieces, reminded my of ... (not for you to know).
Seriously: Can it still be had? Such a great smell, such a rich and toughly working formula! (Not talking about powder Tide, I do mean the liquid stuff).

Thanks for helping.
Joe

 

[tomturbomatic]

Fascinating

We were never told to subject it to UV light so we did not know about that aspect of it. It almost sounds like the test for porphyria. How did you come to know about making it glow? I remember the forumla and the bottle, but I don't think I appreciated the smell. The blue cap made it difficult to measure.

 

[peterh770]

floral + floor shine stuff

Try the Tide with bleach. It has a different, more serious scent and seemed to "glow" a bit more than regular Tide.

 

[whirlpolf]

thanks all ;-)))

Seriously, it's really not about the glow but about that typical smell.

How we came to UVing it? Quite simple: From all detergents we had, the Tide-washed items would SHIIIIIINE in the disco like a superbowl floodlight.
So I guessed there must be tons of brightening stuff in it. I took a money proofer (battery UV light) et voilà! The stuff had a faint pinkish/purple glow.

But yet, I MISS that smell! Sample strips? Odorama-cards like in those old trash movies?

(trying to find a pic of the VERY old squarish bottle meanwhile)

 

[kenmoreguy64]

You might want to try YouTube - I think I've seen some old 1980s commercials there that have the old bottle you mentioned.

Gordon