Dora Black / 12 July 2025 / Categories: Product and Brands, Non Branded Product, Corporate Brands

Waitrose Essential White Fabric Stain Remover Powder does work and all round better than Vanish

Undisclosed fragrances are probably the most harmful of all

My friends and family consider me a bit of a Mrs Hinch or Martha Stewart when it comes to doing the washing or top tips on stain removal and cleaning in general. I keep and use old teabags, give them a try when it comes to cleaning the oven and a bottle of Coca Cola left in your loo over night will probably stop you drinking it when you see what it can do to bring your toilet bowl back to like new condition.

I always check to see what’s in a cleaning product before I buy it. In the case of Waitrose essential whitening powder, its 30% Oxygen-based bleaching agents; 5% Non-ionic surfactants, Anionic surfactants, Zeolites; Enzymes, Optical brighteners, Perfumes.

Surfactants you are going to find in all laundry detergents to be fair, non ionic are better than anionic. They are the grease fighting chemicals that dissolve stains and allow them to drain away. Most companies don’t disclose what they are using and many are petrochemical based. I like this Waitrose product because it doesn’t contain any chlorine bleach, it’s vegan, check your bleach if you buy it, scarily chlorine bleach is still tested on animals, I know, hideous, why I avoid it all costs. But don’t be led down the garden path either by big brands like Ecover, owned by SC Johnson a corporate giant. They may be plant based but many cleaning and laundry products could be greenwashing as the alternative to animal testing is land grabbing for palm oil. Again palm oil in the ingredients list is rarely disclosed.

Bad for the environment stuff is hard to avoid as a consumer so I try to use as little as possible of these kind of products. I can’t do without laundry detergent but I pass on all other cleaning products. I find hot water the solution for most issues, baking soda, white vinegar are all an eco cleaner’s best friend. Like I

mentioned you’ll be surprised what an old teabag can do on your oven or even your windows.

When it comes to white towels, white sheets, and getting yellow sweat marks, the most stubborn of stains from white fabric the Waitrose white fabric stain remover comes out on top to me. And it’s pretty cheap to at £2.95 for a tub.

You don’t need much. I only use half a scoop for a full laundry load and it’ll deal with fake tan and foundation make up stains, two notoriously difficult stains to lift.

A quarter of a scoop in a dirty sock soak, grass stains, blood, tea, coffee or wine in a bucket over night and your clothes linen will be returned to white and the best thing of all the optical brightened used don’t leave the horrible blue hue you find left by other competing cleaning and laundry detergent products.