Back in the day Fab powder had lemon freshened Borax.

Yeah I actually saw that detergent today as I was searching the web and was fascinated. I would've love to have tried it, if I was of age :-(

It's hard to explain without you having an actual memory of it. Words like fresh, clean (what is a clean scent anyways?), light. But really you need a firm association, like say, tires smell like this. You know what tires smell like. You know what a rose smells like. You know what an orange smells like. But these older detergents, they had created perfumes for their smells, so we don't really have good words for them because they don't really exist outside the detergent box. Herbal scent is used a lot. Some were sort of floral. Others were a bit acrid. Some were completely neutral, devoid of scent.

I remember reading on this forum from an old post that the Tide scent people miss so much was a perfume lease. I'm paraphrasing from what I remember. Iirc, it was a French perfumer who leased the scent to P&G and when the lease ran out, we got all these weird Tide scents. But MWJ, it did smell nice. Never overdone or bonkers like it can be now. Just fresh (sorry I keep coming back to that word as it doesn't actually help you). Subtle, yet present.

Hey SEA SEA! Happy New Year. As always I appreciate any and every insight you give. Thank you for your response 🙂

What sea sea is trying to say is correct, its the same here in the U.K. too, I'm only a little older than you, but in the 90s youd go to a detergent and it'd smell exactly what you'd expect a detergent to smell like, clean, fresh etc - a scent that was there but didn't bowl you over. Nowadays they seem to be coming up with ever stronger scents, trying to be smells like flowers, and even along the line of foods etc (sweet, sickly), it is indeed hard to describe. But apparently market research has told them time and time again that people value strong, long lasting scents, sometimes more so than a detergents capability to remove stains.

I was just looking at the names of the scents on detergents nowadays. Tropical sunrise, blissful breeze, moonlight breeze, island fresh, alpine clean, tropical passion, paradise fresh, etc. I cannot imagine any of these so called scents in real life smelling like the fake scents they put into detergents of today. Lemon fresh? Oh how I miss that scent!

Think "clean", "fresh" and sometimes "herbal" or "citrusy". Never sweet, "perfumey" or cloyingly floral. Fab with lemon freshened borax was on of my favorites.

krazynntreal, thank you so much for your comments. Very informative, and especially with you being from the UK. Thank you for your insight. Just curious, what is your current primary detergent?

elbits, when did you start noticing the change beginning to happen? I know things happen gradually so it can be tough to pin down, but generally speaking?

tideman_59, due to the modern scents that these manufacturers are coming out with now, do you think it creates more of a market for "Free and Clear" or "Scent Free" detergents? I know there have always been people with very sensitive skin, but do you think that these scents accelerated the need for more scent free detergents? I'm really curious.

MWJ'90, I think it's been about 20-25 years.

Interesting 🤔 thank you, elbits.

MWJ, no problems :). My current primary detergent is Ariel or Persil, these 2 are the best you can buy, the others are good but they're more targeted to specific groups (eg Bold is scent, Fairy is for sensitive skins/babies, and so on). I also have some US Tide, which is also very good.

krazynntreal, would you say Bold is probably the equivalent to what Gain would be for the US market? I only recently heard of Bold on another post. I understand it was a P&G product that used to be sold here in the US.

Yes it is. Although we don't have any of the brand names that P&G have in the states anymore, P&G are our biggest detergent manufacturer and they have the most brands on the U.K. market, and we have an equivalent for each of what is in the USA

Ariel - Tide

Bold - Gain

Fairy - Dreft

Daz - Cheer

Lenor - Downy

Brands come and go, we used to have Tide, Dreft and Downy etc, but they've all gone over the years.

This is SUPER informative. The things I learn on here just blows me away! Lol. Thank you so much for the info.

I've seen Ariel (I live in central Florida, we have a huge Hispanic population here, so Ariel is plentiful at my local Wal-Mart) I'm actually about to use it for the very first time, as soon as I run out of Foca Powder. I bought a small bag.

You're welcome, Have heard good things about the Mexican Ariel from around this forum and others. Would like to see how it compares to ours, I know its a different formulation and different colour scheme pack branding on Mexican Ariel (theirs is Blue and the powder comes in bags I think, where ours is Green and comes in the boxes Tide comes in).

Correct. But unfortunately, the pure Mexican formula has been altered a bit for the US market since the US has banned Phosphates.

Ah so it may not be too dissimilar to ours (we don't have phosphates either).

This is ours

I never really noticed until detergents started getting so loud. Like Persil Pearls (now gone in the US), Ariel (US version) and Gain, being the worst offenders.

I bought a box of Gain at a garage sale because it was cheap. Over the top tuttey fruity! I managed to use it all but almost had to hold my breath in the doing. Laundry is in the basement so I could mostly escape it. I tolerated Persil because it was an excellent detergent for white. And I tolerate Ariel because it cleans good & is moderately priced. I recently bought a bag of FOCA--this one has a nice light scent. Not a heavy duty cleaner but nice for lightly soiled loads.

FYI, I have an old school SQ top loader so I can experiment with non-HE detergents.

ci_lantro, I too have a top loader. I have a Whirlpool wtw4816fw2 model with the agitator. I so wish when I bought mine I would've known about the 2017 Speed Queen model...or I wish I could grab my Mom's 1996 Kenmore/Whirlpool Direct Drive model 😭 lol. But so far so good.

But yeah I'm currently using Foca Powder for my towels and Arm & Hammer Clean and Simple liquid for my clothes. I'm satisfied with them both, but I still want to discover more Powder detergents that won't break the bank but are effective.

MWJ'90, I went back to powders after I realized the liquids created a stench in my Speed Queen.

MWJ, when I am in Mexico, I spend an inordinate amount of time in the laundry detergent aisle. Lots of powders to choose from there but not enough suitcase room to bring back more than one.

I try not to use liquids but Method Beach Sage is the best scent around to my nose. I doan’ t think sage actually GROWS on the beach (LOL) but the smell is lovely. Also Forever New is just amazing, but of course too pricy for anything but extreme delicates.

Call me ancient. My all time favorite is the 1970's Tide powder. It was sweet and soapy smelling like a Grandmothers face soap.

I definitely feel that the new cloyingly sweet and perfumey smelling detergents have increased the sales of Free and Clear detergents. Added to that is the fact that these new fragrances are so STRONG and overwhelming.

elbits, I personally have never had a problem with liquids stinking up my machine. I've only used Top Loaders and have never had this issue. However, I would say that since I've switched to using Powder on my towels and sheets, I have noticed an improvement. So I do see the benefits of Powder and I'm disappointed that Powders aren't as prevalent here in the States anymore. However, liquids have never given me an issue.

Elizabeth, if you can recall how often has P&G changed the formula of Regular Tide through the years?

When I was a kid (70s-80s), we didn't smell laundry detergent on other people. They just smelled clean. Scents in detergents were there but were not overt. At all. Now? Holy cr@p you know somebody's coming because you can smell their detergent down the hall (or fabric softener or dryer sheets - or ALL OF IT). No thanks -- if I'm going to stink it's going to be because I was playing in the dirt or exercising or whatever, at least it'll be a true natural stench not some fake perfumery LOL!

littlegreeny, thank you for the insight. That's actually pretty helpful.

mxk3 what is your current choice of detergent?

I remember old soap scent too. Clothes just smelled clean, and lightly so. Many detergents now are very heavily scented, some as strong as body washes over in the self-care aisles. And with scents I don't really associate with laundry- again more like self-care products.

I don't know what mom used for detergent, but I know she used Bounce fabric softener. Whatever that combo was, everything smelled a lot like it was line dried. Mom line dried a lot too when it was warm out. I've found original Bounce still smells right, but whatever the soap was must be the missing thing to make it like I was a kid.

I found Persil pearls- and that was smell almost right, but strong. Only found it once, apparently is was a discontinued buy out, lol. I use regular Persil liquid now. Still strong, but closer to a regular laundry smell than a lot of other detergents.

beesneeds, thank you so much for sharing!

mamapinky0

5 years ago

Omg Larsi I feel the exact same way about lemon...lemon has a fresh clean smell, but no they have to make Hawaiian sand flowers, apple butter mango, lay me on the roof top nightbloom, cotton candy kisses, twilight night moves, and street walker special...NO LEMON anywhere. P&G would see sales skyrocket if only they would give me Love me Lemon......haha

I found this from Mamapinky and almost fell out of my chair! I had a good chuckle!

Oh I just miss her so much....

Man, I so wish I would've had the opportunity to speak with her. She seems like an amazing lady!

Tide liquid back in the late 1990s had a nice scent that I liked a lot. I loved the scent of Ivory powder when it was still a soap (not a detergent).

"...due to the modern scents that these manufacturers are coming out with now, do you think it creates more of a market for "Free and Clear" or "Scent Free" detergents?"

This is a very good question, and I don't have an answer. Sort of like "which came first - the chicken or the egg?" My guess is YES. I have to use more Free/Clear detergents and I assume it is my aging skin, which has become more sensitive to lots of products. However, lots of products today have ingredients they didn't have twenty years ago (looking at you, cocamidopropyl betaine).

Ooooohhhh man oh man. Haven't dropped in on this forum for a while - so sorry to hear of the passing of Mamapinky. From what I can tell, she was like the Albert Einstein (or should I say Rosalind Franklin!) of laundry. She seemed to know the formulations of all the major products. Amazing woman.

Funny to see another thread about how ridiculously out of control laundry detergents are these days. Complaining 'bout "Sensitive" Persil was what originally brought me here years ago in a thread that was already memorably humorous before I got there! I just find it astonishing that most people find it tolerable, or even more crazy, add "booster" pellets to amp up the scent even more. It does seem like there are more and more variations on "free and clear" in the detergent aisles, so apparently some people are getting fed up with it. All the same I am almost at the point of formulating my own laundry detergent. Some of the raw ingredients are so cheap if you know where to find them. Once for example, with clothes that got heavily oiled with transmission fluid, I used a horticultural surfactant/spreader based on alcohol ethoxylates mixed with fatty acid methyl esters, then I added some decyl glucoside, and some oxyclean. Maybe 15-20ml of each. I might have even cheated and added a pinch of TSP. Sorry, Chesapeake Bay - I hope you can forgive me and I more than make up for it by being super careful with my use of phosphate fertilizers in my large garden! Anyhoo you can buy a gallon of the decyl glucoside on the 'bay for $30...I bought it to experiment with as a less toxic spreader surfactant in the garden. (unfortunately until America has a comprehensive approach to dealing with invasives, like Australia does, I will have to spray herbicides to keep them out of my garden at least. I can't control the fact most of the other people in my neighborhood are horticultural morons who let them take over their yards) Clothes came out clean as a whistle and entirely odor free. (yeah the oxyclean has a touch of fragrance but it washes out)

Generally pro-environmental (house entirely solar powered) but so tired of the "water wise" nonsense. Got a Speed Queen TC5000 a few months ago and am totally happy with it. It replaced a 20 year old GE that was dying. It's a shame they had to do away with the direct water level control, etc. so it's still compromised compared to the old mechanical ones but I can deal with it. I so wish I'd had the foresight to buy the last ones back in 2016. I think a lot of the testing protocols for front loaders vs. top loaders are bunk. I personally have never washed an un-selveged fabric swatch or smeared a 1/2 cup of ketchup on a pure white t-shirt. 😉 As a single guy, I only wash a load about once or twice a week so I was worried about reports about front loaders smelling gross unless they are run once or more a day...unlike my brother who between him and his 2nd wife, sometimes have 6 kids in the household! They run everything at least once a day, usually a lot more. He said he has had to run his Bosch DW 5 or 6 times a day at times! So at least there still an option like the Speed Queen on the market.