A plant- and mineral-based liquid laundry detergent from ATTITUDE, the Canadian household brand. Vegan, biodegradable, and formulated without optical brighteners, dyes, phosphates or phthalates.
Liquid or powder — a genuine difference, not a preference. Powder detergents almost always contain an oxygen bleach, usually sodium percarbonate, which is what removes tea, coffee, wine and grass stains and keeps whites white. Liquids generally do not, because bleach and liquid formulations are chemically difficult to keep stable together. What liquids do better is grease and body oils, and they dissolve fully in cold water, where powder can leave undissolved residue. The practical answer for most households is that a liquid is the better everyday detergent and a scoop of oxygen bleach added separately handles whites and stains. Neither format is simply better.
The two facts that matter more than which bottle you buy.
Temperature. Roughly 80 to 90% of the energy a wash consumes goes into heating water. Dropping from 60 °C to 30 °C more than halves the energy of that cycle, and modern enzyme detergents are built to work at 30. Save hot washes for genuine contamination or illness.
Dose. Nearly everyone uses too much. Excess surfactant does not rinse away; it stays in the fabric, attracts dirt, turns whites grey over months, and accumulates in the machine, where it feeds the bacteria responsible for the smell people blame on the machine itself.
On “plant- and mineral-based”. The phrase has no legal definition, and plant-derived does not mean non-irritant. What it means in practice is a formula without petroleum-derived surfactants or optical brighteners — those being fluorescent dyes that clean nothing and simply make fabric reflect blue light so it appears whiter. ATTITUDE is EWG VERIFIED: a transparency standard set by a US advocacy organisation, not a regulator.
Note: the shop lists three ATTITUDE laundry detergents. Check the bottle for scent and size, or ask us.
Available at Só Verde, an organic concept store in Foz, Porto.