Bold 2in1 Lavender & Camomile Powder > Reviews (4)

I am not loyal to any particular brand when it comes to buying soap powder detergent for my household, and regularly take advantage of any special offer buys or 'BOGOF' offers that may apply at the time of me doing my grocery shopping. This means that I buy a variety of detergent products and have tried out many brands over the years.

One product that I have been buying quite a lot of recently is the 'Bold 2in1' powder' mainly because a local (independent) grocery store that I regularly shop in has been running a promotional deal for a range of Bold 2in1 powder products for the last several months, so I have been taking advantage of this money-saving deal.

The Bold 2in1 detergent powder that I have been buying recently is in the "Lavender & Camomile" fragrance. I have been buying this powder for the past couple of months and have found it performs excellently at washing the laundry for my household.

Packaged in a lilac-coloured cardboard box with pretty flowers detailing the front of the box, you could be forgiven for assuming this product was a very girly or feminine one. The overall 'image' of the product seems to be a flowery fragranced detergent and I can't help but wonder if this would put some people off from trying the product out for themselves, or certainly some male consumers!

The box that I have been buying of late is the small 800g size which suits me perfectly as there is only myself and my husband at home, so I would imagine I have considerably less laundry than other households. The box informs me that this is enough for ten loads of washing, but I have to stress that I get more than that from it as I do quite a lot of 'half-loads' thanks to a handy setting on my washing machine. Also, the smaller-sized box fits perfectly into the small space allocated for it in my kitchen cupboards - I am very short of space in this room, so this is certainly an issue for me.

Pouring the detergent powder from the box is simple and easy to do thanks to the metal 'spout' that is neatly incorporated into the side of the box. I am not required to tear or rip the cardboard, so the addition of the metal spout, and it's ease of use, means that little or no powder is wasted when I pour it into my machine.

The appearance of the Bold Lavender & Camomile looks to me to be quite similar - if not identical - to most other brands that I buy regularly including Surf and Supermarket-own branded detergents. Suffice to say, the powder is a white colour and has a fairly fine texture to it.

The smell of this particular detergent powder is evident as soon as I pour the powder into the drawer on my machine. The smell is not at all over-powering or at all sickly, which is something I had been slightly wary of when first choosing this powder over any other. In actual fact, the flowery fragrance is quite sweet and slightly fruity, and I find it quite pleasant.

When it comes to laundry products and detergents like the Bold 2in1, I am not a consumer who is particularly bothered by how long the product's fragrance will last on my clothes.

I am completely indifferent to such matters, truth be told. However, for the purposes of this review, and in case it is of relevance to fellow consumers, I am going to comment on my findings on this occasion.

Firstly, I found that the fragrance was very evident as I removed the wet washing from my machine and proceeded to hang it up. I noticed the rather gentle flowery scent easily whilst the laundry was drying, and it is true to say that the fragrance seemed quite strong although I liked it and thought it was pleasant. When it came to ironing my laundry or indeed wearing it, I found little or no traces of the flowery fragrance was evident, which is probably just as well, as I can't really imagine my husband being particularly comfortable with his work shirts smelling of flowers and lavender somehow! If the latter had been the case then the Bold 2in1 powder probably wouldn't have been such a regular purchase in my household as I know for a fact my husband hates flowery smells and fragrances, especially on his own person, and for the most part so do I.

The detergent itself seems to me to be of a fairly high quality as I have found all of my clothes are crisp and clean when they have been washed with the Bold 2in1. Furthermore, I find that the product is effective at removing small stains and marks from my clothing, and I was pleased with the cleaning abilities of the product overall. However, with 'stronger' stains such as coffee and ink, I found that I had to use a separate stain-removing product, but this is normal practice with any brand of laundry detergent as far as I am concerned, so I won't be deducting any marks from the product rating for this.

In terms of the claims made on the packaging that the product will give me "12 hours of wear - clean and fresh feeling" well, I can't help but feel this is a bit untrue. Not only does the fragrance of the detergent not last that long (whether I want it to or not is irrelevant), but I don't feel that my clothes stay any cleaner, or for any longer, than when I use any other laundry detergent product that I buy regularly, so I am gong to deduct one star for the rather misleading claims made.

As the Bold 2in1 Lavender & Camomile is a detergent with added fabric softener, my laundry is unsurprisingly pleasantly soft when I have washed it using the Bold 2in1, and my bedding and linen such as towels feel soft and comfortable. I cannot comment on how the results from the Bold 2in1 compare to that of a separate detergent and fabric softener product as it is a long time since I have done my laundry using this method and don't want to give misleading comments.

I have experienced no ill-effects from using the Bold 2in1 in terms of any aggravation to my sensitive skin or my eczema

Overall, I am very happy with the results achieved from using the Bold 2in1 with Lavender and Camomile and will continue to buy it. It does everything I am looking for from my laundry detergent and I really like the sweet flowery fragrance, and I think the powder is a fairly high quality product.

The Bold 2in1 Lavender & Camomile laundry detergent powder is available to buy in all good supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda. The 800g box that I have is currently on special offer in Asda (as @ October 2011) and is available for the price of £2.50. There are larger sizes of the product available.