Ultra smart people get Ultra smart dishes (Tesco Washing Up Liquid)

Member Name: Gwenick

Product:	Tesco Washing Up Liquid
Date:	10/08/00 (40 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see op

Disadvantages: see op

I like to think of myself as quite adventurous so when I went shopping on Saturday and had to buy washing up liquid I decided to try something new. I usually use the regular Tesco wash-up liquid (the one that comes in a rather plain and boring bottle and is very cheap…..no not the value one) but I happened to see that the Tesco Ultra washing up liquid was on special offer. It was on offer for 54p (for 375ml) instead of the usual 68p – a 20% saving.

To make it even more attractive there were a reasonable range of scents available – to but it bluntly I was rather fed up with the extremely boring ‘Citrus’ (or so it said) of the normal washing up liquid and I was ready for something different. I had four scents available to me: Citrus (though it smelled nicer than the normal liquid), Lemon, Spring and Tea Tree. Each of the liquids was in a clear, shapely bottle – which if you half close your eyes looks a little like a shapely woman wearing a long dress! They were all different colours – Blue, Yellow, Orange and Green (I think) - and I actually picked by colour rather than scent.

Now those of you that know me are probably thinking that I chose the green………well you’re wrong. I chose blue – firstly because it was a rather nice blue and secondly because I rather liked the idea of washing up liquid that smelled of Tea Tree. On arriving home I was rather disappointed that I had to wait a few days before trying it out………we still had some left in the old bottle.

Tonight, however, was the night. I filled the sink up and put a small amount of the liquid in the water. My first impressions were that it was very watery, but had a lovely smell. I was very dubious about how many bubbles I would get with a small squirt but I wanted to make sure I tested it thoroughly. As I continued to fill the sink up I was met with a very pleasant surprise – bubbles, and lots of
them (if you read my last opinion on bubble bath you’ll know how much I like my bubbles). It had earned two lots of points and I’d hadn’t washed a dish – points for the smell which was heavenly and points for the amount of bubbles when only a small amount was used.

Now I had to test out the claims on the back of the bottle carefully. It claims that during independent laboratory testing this washing liquid (which incidentally contains anti-bacterial agents) had the following attributes:

- Best ever performance
- Best ever cleaning ability
- Best ever grease removal
- With anti-bacterial sponge cleaning action

Well I had the perfect test for it tonight. I’d cooked burgers on the grill pan (lots of lovely fat and grease), used a baking tray to cook chips on, Nick had tomato sauce on his chips and my son had managed to cover his tray with margarine. So how would it perform under pressure? Very well is that answer that I can happily give. With the small amount of liquid that I had put in the water it cleaned my greasy pots, plates and trays with very little effort. I didn’t have to scrub or rinse to get the fat out of the grill pan and Tafara’s tray came up a treat. I have just nipped downstairs to check on the results after the dishes have dried (we just leave our things to dry on the rack) and have found everything sparkling and clean. Yet more points to add to the total.

So how should you use this liquid? Well it actually very simply – if you’re using it diluted add it to hot water. If you’re using it neat use a damp cloth or sponge. After you’ve finished using it you should make sure that you’ve rinsed your hands and dried them carefully – this is a detergent after all. If you’ve got damaged or sensitive skin its not recommended to use this liquid for a prolonged time (and even if you’ve haven’t got the latter problems IR
17;ve found that prolonged use of ANY liquid leaves me looking like a prune). Yet another excellent point about this product is that it has not been tested on animals – as indicated by both the writing and the little picture of the rabbit (although you have you look carefully to see the latter).

Like many products of this kind the packaging doesn’t really give much information about what’s actually in it - all it says is the following:

Contains amongst other ingredients:

Anionic Surfactants, 15-30%
Non-ionic Surfactants, 5-15%
Amphoteric Surfactants, less than 5%
Preservative.

I guess they must be very scared that someone is going to run off with their ‘magic formula’. Actually I don’t really think any washing up liquid has a ‘magic formula’ even the slightly cheaper ‘normal’ washing up liquid washed dished with exactly the same effectiveness as this one does. What’s more – I don’t believe that spending lots of money on a simple washing up liquid will help clean your dishes any better – I’ve seen people using products such as Fairy ending up with dishes that need a second wash, and people using Tesco Value type products getting sparkling dishes. Basically if you don’t know how to clean dishes properly you’re not going to find a washing up liquid that will make your dishes look marvellous (well that’s my opinion anyway).

I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I can definitely recommend using this washing up liquid. Its smells good, looks good and cleans dishes well…………….if you know how to do it that is.

For further information you can contact:

Tesco Stores Ltd,
Cheshunt,
EN8 9SL

Or you could go to their website at www.tesco.com and send them an email.

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