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I have my favorite clothes. Clothes, that no matter how many other clothes are in the closet, I always end up wearing. So when it looks worn out in just a few washes or worst kapag natalsikan ng bleach, gusto ko umiyak.
Plus, I’m not sure kung Amazona ang laundry woman namin because numinipis ang damit. And lastly, when I check my grocery list, a huge chunk of the budget goes into laundry items. I have a detergent bar, laundry powder for washing machine, laundry powder for general cleaning, bleach for whites, bleach for colored, fabric softener and dinagdagan pa ng ironing spray. Sandamakmak!
So when Tin of MFO invited me to an open table laundry exchange hosted by Perla, I thought I could use some advice.
Sharing with you some of the new things I discovered:
- Bleach is not always necessary. Dahil may love-hate relationship ako with bleach, I am excited to trade it with a product that will make me reduce if not totally stop using it. It has already ruined too many clothes in our household. I learned that Perla is a very good whitening soap. Technical tests shows that Perla is twice better cleaning whites than the leading brands. But more than the technical tests, is my laundry woman’s testament that of all the soaps she has been using, Perla, surprise, surprise is the best product to remove stains. Eh bakit ngayon mo lang sinabi?!?
- Most detergents in the market are made of synthetic ingredients which can be harmful to our clothes. True, the chemicals are rougher and breaks down the dirt easily but it also breaks down the fiber of our clothes making it look worn out fast. Like my son just got a branded new street wear shirt tapos konting laba lang mukha ng 5 years old. Sobrang kasayangan! Perla, with 50% coconut oil, is gentler to the clothes. It cleans clothes while preserving it in its natural state. Technical studies show that Perla is significantly better at retaining the color of your clothes, while other brands cause fading.
- We can sometimes skip the fabric softener. Perla is a natural fabric softener. It contains glycerins , which are natural moisturizers that coats the fiber of our clothes. The high PH in Perla gives way to Mercerization, a natural phenomenon that fluffs up the fiber of your clothes making them feel softer. Some bed sheets nga states it pa in their packaging if the linen has been mercerized, mas mahal parang high thread count.
- Synthetic Detergents (syndets) which are basically most detergents in the market may contain ingredients that can be abrasive and harmful to the hands or when it comes in contact to the skin. That is why you would hear some pediatricians recommending Perla to wash the clothes of newborns instead of other detergents. My laundry woman is more than happy I made the switch. She said it so much gentler to her hands. And, remember the urban legend that Perla is so gentle some people use it for their faces? Well, let the urban legend rest. It is a fact. People use it on their faces because it is made of 50% coconut oil! To the people spending thousands on Castile soap, Perla lang ang katapat nyan.
- There is such a thing as too fragrant. I must admit one of my basis for clean clothes is the fragrance but recently my husband has been complaining our clothes are just too fragrant. Alam mo yon yung bothersome na sya and it overpowers your cologne already. Well, we want our clothes to smell good but not pungent. Frankly, the smell of Perla doesn’t have a good recall on me. I remember it to smell like vinegar. Now that I am using one, it now has a similar smell to Ivory soap. Clean and simple. It makes use of essential oils like Lavander.
- Perla, a 100% Filipino brand, is one of the largest supporters of the Philippine Coconut Oil industry. It makes me feel good that by using Perla I somehow help the coconut farmers.
Addressing my primary concern of keeping the clothes looking “new” despite washings and minimizing my laundry list, I have decided to make the switch to Perla. It has been just a week now, I’ll get back to you, if I’m sticking it through. For now, based on my laundry woman's feedback, it seems I will stick it through.
Hope this helps!
