Tide: What’s in that stuff?

 

I was about to sit down and write a post about some unexpected take out food that I found to be abnormally healthy, when I got side tracked. I’m getting ready to take a trip to North Carolina so of course I’ve been busy doing laundry and packing. One shirt that I planned on packing needed to be hand washed. (Yes, for once in my life, I actually read the instructions and hand washed my shirt…Ya hear that honey?)

My typical detergent of choice is Liquid Tide original scent 2x concentrated laundry detergent and up until now the brand has been good to me. It makes my clothes smell great, keeps my whites white and doesn’t fade my colors (cue cheesy commercial.)  So I filled up my bathroom sink with water, poured in a teensy weensy drop of the Tide and started washing my shirt. Swish, swish, swish, twist, twist, twist…rinse, rinse, rinse and viola, clean! Well, at least I thought. After I hung my shirt up to dry I noticed that my hands still felt like they were covered in detergent, so I washed them and dried them. In disbelief, I felt like my hands still had a thick film on them. Okay, so I tried again… I turned on the water, rubbed my hands together, dried them off and I STILL I felt a film on my hands. The only option I had left was to take out a scotch brite sponge and scrub my hands with the rough side of the sponge. After nearly 2 straight minutes of scrubbing I was most residue free …but not completely. It just makes me wonder, what’s really in that stuff? Is it safe to be washing all of my clothes in? Does the residue stick to my clothes like it does to my skin? Perhaps I should’ve worn rubber gloves to wash my clothes.

After taking a look at the bottle, I discovered that the ingredients aren’t even on the label of the bottle.  The only language that referred to ingredients on the bottle read “Ingredients include biodegradable surfactants (anionic and nonionic) and enzymes.”  Hmmmmmmmm, that doesn’t tell me too much. It looks like my next trip to the store will include the search for a new laundry detergent. Perhaps another brand will include its ingredients on the label?  I’ll be sure to let you know.