Breezily The Best (Febreze Classic)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Febreze Classic
Date:	25/06/09 (137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Works on everything from curtains to, erm, sheets

Disadvantages: Doesn't travel well

Mexico City is a rather dirty and smelly place a lot of the time, especially when you're walking around or taking the metro, things I do on a daily basis. Additionally, an extortionate number of people, including most of my friends here, smoke. A third factor in the writing of this review? Most people in the city, myself included, do not have washing machines, and instead drop their laundry off at a laundrette for servicing, where they charge by the kilo not by the number of loads. The result is that I'm often left with clothes that are not too fresh after one wearing, but I'm loathe to have them washed immediately since ever extra item adds a few pesos to my bill. Enter Febreze.

Febreze is a product I discovered while working in a restaurant during 6th form. I would come home stinking of the fried, meaty smells of the kitchen, and as a non-fried food eating vegetarian from a totally vegetarian household, this was not something I was used to, nor something that I liked. Febreze followed me through university where in addition to my clothes, I discovered I could use it on sheets too to refresh them and make them last another week. Those skanky student days are long gone, and I had little need for the product for a few years, thanks to having my own washing machine, and smoking in bars being banned, but a move to Mexico had me searching the shelves for it again. Unfortunately, it is not a product stocked here, and after thoroughly checking all supermarkets and homeware stores, it jumped straight to the top of my list of 'Things I need' for people coming to visit me.

Febreze is a fabric refresher and odour remover. Various scents are available in this fabric range, but interestingly the website tells me that the products were designed for "fabrics that won't go in the washing machine, like sofa coverings, curtains and carpets". I have always used it on things that WILL go in the washing machine, if only I could be bothered to wash them and/or pay for them to be cleaned. Perhaps the marketing people chose this definition on the basis that some people might be put off by the idea of disgustingtons febrezing instead of washing.

My sister, coming to visit last October, arrived with the original version for me. It comes in a plastic bottle with a spray gun top, and the 500ml bottle should have lasted me a long time. As it happened, we both discovered something we had previously not known: Febreze does not travel well in the slightest. When she unpacked in the USA (a business trip to Texas coinciding with a trip to see me) she realised half of the bottle had leaked out, leaving her clothes damp, if fresh-smelling. During the second flight, another sizable amount escaped, so when she arrived here I was left with just a tiny amount at the bottom of the bottle. This was despite the bottle being brand new, still sealed, and with the 'lock' on the cap. It's something to bear in mind should you ever be in the position to transport this much needed product to a loved one abroad.

Febreze now comes with the scent of Lenor Spring Awakening, and though I've not had a British spring in some time, nor any proper spring for that matter, when I sniff it 'springtime' is the definitely something it makes me think of. The idea of the product is that you spray it on fabric and it neutralises the odours in it, leaving it fresh smelling for more time to come.

Something I really like about febreze is that, beyond the 'fresh' smell it gives fabrics, it is not scented. I don't like artificial scents (like air fresheners), nor do I wear perfume, so I don't want a product like this to have a strong smell that is noticeable when I re-wear / continue to sleep on a fabric I've used it on.

The smells I use it on most are smoke and fried foods, both of which permeate into my clothing in seconds. I also use it on pillows the morning after a night when I've been out to a place where people have been smoking, since I have long hair and it attracts smoke like there's no tomorrow. As I'm never going to have a hair-washing shower when I get in after a night out, Febreze is a godsend because while I can change my clothes I clearly can't change my hair before I hit the sack.

I have found Febreze to be an extremely effective product, hence my disappointment when it failed to survive a transatlantic flight in one piece. That said, the amount I had left lasted a lot longer than I would have imagined, since the newest version is very powerful, and a few tiny sprays will get rid of odours from most fabrics. Sometimes heavier materials, such as denim, need a bit more, but on the whole two or three sprays will do the job most of the time, as it seems to spread out beyond the area specifically sprayed. Afterwards, the clothes smell freshly washed and good enough for another outing.

I also febreze my gym stuff when I want to wear it another day but think (perhaps unnecessarily) that it would be smelly to wear the same stuff again. I've made two sports bras go a whole week using this method... Febreze seems to work as well neutralising natural body scents as it does on food and/or tobacco ones.

One downside is that the product only gets rid of smells, and not visible stains. I am a passionate but messy ice cream eater, and therefore most of my premature clothes washing now comes when I drop a big blob down my front while scurrying to a class, something unfortunately this product cannot help with. On the plus side, Febreze itself dries clear, so you cannot tell it has been used. While multiple frebezing of clothes might not work after a while, I've found you can often use it to refresh things 2 or 3 times before they finally get washed.

Febreze is readily available where most of you lucky readers live, and costs about £2.50 for a bottle which can last a good length of time. For me this is excellent value for money since I generally pay more than £3 a shot for my washing to be done for me, and this has definitely kept the cost down by reducing the weight of my load. It is a product I do not like to live without, and something I will never take for granted again.

Summary: A must have product