Itchy Skin From Surf (Surf Tablets)

Member Name: CheekyCharlie08

Product:	Surf Tablets
Date:	03/10/09 (21 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Smells nice; Removed all the dirt and stains off my clothes

Disadvantages: Caused an allergic reaction on me and my 2 year old sister that required medical treatment

I only used these washing tablets because I was sent 2 boxes to trial for a survey site and the survey went back with very poor marks because they irritated my skin and also my 2 year old sisters.

I've used Surf before but only the liquid or powder and it's been ok but there's something about the tablets that doesn't agree with me. They smell nice and fresh, these ones were tropical and I wouldn't say they smelled tropical but it's a nice flowery smell that is a bit more exotic than other washing powder.

I put them in the net and then on top of my washing in the machine and set it to a normal 40 degree wash as I usually do. About 20 minutes into the wash cycle I found something else that should have gone in and because it only needed a light wash I decided to pause the cycle and chuck it in for the last 30 minutes. I was surprised to see that the tablet weren't even half dissolved in this time and that the suds in the machine were proper chalky and even elft a bit of residue on my hands.

I left it though and when I shook the washing to hang it on the line there was no powder left on it so I didn't think anything else about it because it had cleaned all the clothes good and even my little sisters grubby trakkie bottoms had come up clean.

A few days later I was wearing my fave top and suddenly I got itchy all over my shoulders and across my stomach and I had to go home because my skin felt so weird. When I got home my mum was just going out because my little sister was covered in spots and she'd got her an emergency doctors appointment because she thought it was chicken pox. I told her I was itchy and when I checked I'd come out in spots as well so I went with them.

After the doc checked us she said it wasn't chicken pox and was some sort of allergic reaction and because it was the 2 of us she said to look around the house for a cause. First of all my mum blamed my uncles dog because we'd been looking after him for a few days but when we were sat in the cafe talking about it I realised that my top and my sisters top and trousers had all been in the same load with the tablets that hadn't dissolved properly.

It made sense because the jeans I was wearing had been washed ages ago in another powder and the only spots I had was where my top was touching my skin. My poor sister had them all over her legs, body and arms and I'm not surprised my mum thought she'd got chicken pox because it looked proper red and sore.

We went home and rewashed everything in Persil Non-Bio and within 24 hours all our spots had gone and the only thing left was a scratch on my 2 year old sisters chest where she'd itched herself too hard.

I know these tablet probably are ok for most people but I'm writing this to tell you that they don't suit everyone but I suppose this is the same for all washing powders. I'm not a scientist but I reckon that because they are so slow to dissolve they must leave a minisculle residue on the clothes because judging on how much was left of them after 20 minutes the rinse cycle must have been well underway by the time they completely dissolved.

Summary: Not Good!