We recommend laundry perfume for environmentally friendly washing, as environmentally friendly detergents such as soap nuts or washing soda do not add fragrance to clothes. Laundry perfume is a perfume mixture that contains a solubilising agent, giving clothes a long-lasting pleasant fragrance. We also recommend using laundry perfume for scenting, for example in mop water or (diluted) when ironing, by spraying it on the clothes. Zöldbolt laundry perfumes are manufactured in Hungary and labelled by people with reduced working capacity. What do traditional fabric softeners contain? In her book The Chemistry of Our Household, Zsuzsanna Nyíri describes how factory-made fabric softeners contain cationic surfactants (positively charged ions) that are designed to remove the anionic (negatively charged) surfactants in detergents. However, these synthetic substances do not break down completely in the environment. Surfactants accumulate on textile fibres, making the fabric feel softer and reducing static charge, but they can cause skin irritation, are slow to break down and pollute waterways. Fabric softener brands mainly compete with each other in terms of fragrance: which is more delicate, which is more lasting. To achieve this, they use various fixing agents to make the synthetic fragrances last longer. However, the longer they evaporate, the greater the chance of causing irritation and allergies. Some fabric softeners reduce the absorbency of textiles because they coat the textile fibres and prevent water absorption. For this reason, washable nappies, towels and sportswear should never be washed with them! What do we recommend? The environmentally friendly solution for neutralising detergent and dissolving limescale deposits: vinegar! It is completely harmless to living waters, as it is a natural, biologically fermented, rapidly degradable substance. Vinegar also descales the washing machine and stabilises and brightens the colours of clothes. Limescale stuck to textile fibres makes colours dull and the fabric stiff, and vinegar helps to remove this. It can be used as a complete replacement for fabric softener! There is no need to worry about clothes smelling of vinegar, as the smell disappears immediately after washing. If you really want to avoid using vinegar, you can replace it with 1-2 tablespoons of citric acid, which has the same effect. Citric acid and vinegar also remove slimy stains from the drum! If you insist on using fragrances, you can choose an essential oil you like or a laundry perfume with a longer-lasting scent. You only need to use a few drops of these for washing, as they contain a concentrated fragrance. As you need to use less of them, they are lighter and smaller in volume and require less packaging, which is also a great advantage when it comes to transport. Some essential oils, such as tea tree and lavender oil, have antimicrobial properties, so they even disinfect clothes. However, as their name suggests, they evaporate quickly. For those who want a longer-lasting scent, we recommend laundry perfume, which stays in clothes much longer. Laundry perfume makes clothes smell nice with natural essential oils and nature-identical fragrances. These are made water-soluble with a non-ionic, plant-based emulsifier, so the effect is longer-lasting than with a simple essential oil.
