If you wear your clothes enough, they will eventually get stained. Whether its from the pen that exploded at work, the unintentional food stain, or marks from your sweat and skin oil that comes with continual use, your clothes won’t look brand new forever. That’s where The Laundress wash and stain bars come in. These little guys are quickly becoming my alternative to the bleach pens you see which usually tell you to stick the garment in the washing machine after use. The Laundress wash and stain bars allow you to skip the washing machine and use plain water and this specialized soap to get stains out.
In order to demonstrate the effects of these bars, I thought that I’d make a before and after comparison. To do this, I sacrificed one of my white oxford shirts by not washing it after continual use over multiple months. Over time, my collar become stained with my skin oils and sweat, leaving a dark grimy look on the inside of my collar. Well, I decided it was time to go all David Hasselhoff for this poor shirt and throw it a life preserver by using one of these wash and stain bars on the collar. The results are below.
Overall, the results are pretty great. After a simple spot cleaning the grime on the collar is basically entirely gone. I didn’t need too much elbow grease to scrub it out, but it certainly took more effort than blotting a bleach pen. However, that’s not entirely a bad thing, as hand washing your clothes gives you a certain respect for them, as opposed to tossing it in a machine.
I’m not sure how well the bar performs with heavy stains like grease or red wine, and my poor shirt has seen enough battle for one lifetime. I’m going to venture a guess and say you need something stronger than soap on those stains, though.
The best part is these bars will only run you about $6 a piece, and as far as I can tell they have pretty great longevity. If you’re interested in learning more, check out their website for a description of the bar and a video demonstration.
