Take it for a Spin (Fairy Non-Bio)

Member Name: aefra

Product:	Fairy Non-Bio
Date:	25/07/02 (991 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cleans effectively, Leaves clothes softer, Pleasant smell

Disadvantages: ?

For all of us different senses or words can be evocative of times gone by. Despite being a smoker, I am sensitive to smell. A perfume drifting by can recreate a moment from the past, and I can actually conjure up a scent from memory.

Names also have a power of their own. How many of us cannot gravitate towards a person with a certain name; just because of a personality clash with a classmate, whose face we can't even bring to mind? I like the Mazda car, but wouldn't choose a a vehicle which sounds like a light bulb.

So it is with soap powders. I see, from way back, a Rinso packet on a kitchen window sill in all it's cardboardy and startling colour. But the surroundings are monochrome because I was not a particularly happy child. There was Oxydol and Tide, and then the more modern Omo from my first married days. Memories of them remind me unaccountably of the cigarettes we smoked then. Senior Service, Churchmans No.1 and de Reske. All part of the ambience of those times. If these old detergents still exist I haven't noticed them on the supermarket shelves for a long time. They seem to have just faded from view, like the cigarettes. Other products commit the sin of changing their name. I have never felt the same about Jif since it became something which sounds like an old-fashioned nasty disease.

I don't know how old Fairy is, only that when Proctor and Gamble bought out Thomas Hedley in 1930, it was already in existence. Fairy Soap has endured as part of my life and sort of travelled along beside me, and I like the fact that the baby logo is still wearing a terry towelling nappy. Despite the passing of time, the name Fairy seems as fresh as ever and there is continuity, as the name is still to be seen on ever-expanding soap products. Unlike the long-gone, or reduced to a few inches at the end of the shelf products, this is of today. Still running neck and neck with the glamorous new names. So, when
I graduated to soap tablets for my washing machine, it was a foregone conclusion that I would choose my old friend. I use biological tablets for the harder washes, and swop around according to price as long as the job is well done,although I have been a fan of Surf for many years. Fairy is always my choice for non-biological washes. In fact I am using this for almost all washes and I had better start to tell you why.

The cost for the convenient blue box I choose is £3.59 for 32 square tablets packed in 2's and this is supposed to provide 16 washes. At present Sainsbury's have them on offer at buy one get one half price. My new washing machine has a low water level and I wouldn't dare use more than one thick square tablet. This is a detergent which lathers all too easily, as I found when the washing disappeared behind a white, sudsy, liquid marshmallow pressing against the door; and I had to reset the machine on Rinse after the cycle was completed. Thus my washes are economical. The tablet(s) is made to be placed in the machine dispenser, dissolves very quickly and I have never been left with any of the residue which other products can leave stuck to the tray. I have had my machine for over 2 months now and have not, to date, needed to clean the dispenser. It has no soap left in it at all.

I wash almost daily because the novelty of the new machine hasn't worn off yet and I just love pushing those digital buttons. The Fairy tablets seem to have a threefold action. My laundry comes out of the machine as clean as I would wish, and leaves a pleasant and lasting scent, in addition to the lovely outdoor smell as the washing dries on the line. Added to this is the softness of my clothes and linen. I discovered this having run out of softener and I now don't bother to buy any. The packet stresses that this is not suitable for handwash or wool and silk. However, I hadn't noticed this before I used it for
a wool wash in the machine. All was well, although I shall probably now think twice about putting a valued woolly in. But then I should handwash anything that delicate anyway.

The box tells me that Fairy non-biological tablets are an automatic washing machine detergent, and may be used up to 95 degrees, but I still think of it as a soap powder - a gentler term than detergent. Fairy has always used the fact that it is dermatologically-tested for kindness to skin as a selling point. I wouldn't bathe in it, but I am happy to accept their word.

Summary: