Stephen Steinberg | September 12, 2018

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Mountain Fresh. Cool Breeze. Lemon Lime.

These are some of the scented laundry detergents you’ll see as you shop for laundry detergent, and they all sound nice and innocent. But there are a number of reasons you may choose to avoid fragrances in your laundry detergent altogether and opt for a “free & clear” detergent instead.

Here’s a list of reasons we decided against putting fragrances in our  Vapor Fresh® Laundry Detergents, and why you should consider avoiding laundry detergents with added fragrances:

They Can Irritate Skin Of People With Allergies

Fragrances are supposed to remain on your clothing even after the wash is complete. This is by design. If they washed away in the washing machine, they wouldn’t stick around to provide a scent to your clothes. This can be a problem for people with any sort of allergy because your clothes, and therefore these fragrances, come in direct and long-term contact with your skin where they can cause rashes, irritations and other allergic reactions to people who don’t tolerate them well.

They Can Irritate A Baby’s Skin

A baby’s skin is notoriously sensitive. For many babies, direct and long-term exposure to fragrances can be irritating to their skin. For this exact reason you’ll want to avoid using a laundry detergent with fragrances when washing any clothing that will be worn by a baby, especially cloth diapers.

They Can Disguise A Weak Laundry Detergent

Many other laundry detergent brands use fragrances to hide their lack of cleaning power. They use fragrances to cover-up odors because they cannot eliminate them effectively. If you’re soaking your laundry in fragrances, how do you know your laundry is actually getting cleaned properly?

They Can Ruin Your Workout Clothes

As we mentioned previously, fragrances are deposited onto the surface of your clothes and remain there as you wear them, which is why they can cause problems when they come in direct contact with sensitive skin. Aside from sensitive skin, this isn’t good for your workout apparel either. When laundry additives remain on the surface of your gym clothes and athleisure apparel, they lock in the germs and odor within the crevices of the wicking fabric. This is why these sorts of items sometimes get a rough and uncomfortable feeling and develop lingering odors. This isn’t the natural life-cycle of gym clothes- this happens because the wrong laundry detergent is being used to wash them!

Next Time You Purchase Laundry Detergent, Choose Vapor Fresh

So if you have sensitive skin, wash baby clothes or own a lot of workout apparel, you should be avoiding laundry detergents with added fragrances. The easiest way to do this is to look for “Free & Clear” laundry detergents, which means they’re free of fragrances, dyes, brighteners and softeners.

Usually when purchasing free & clear detergents you have to sacrifice cleaning power to get the added safety. Not anymore. With Vapor Fresh® Laundry Detergent you can have the best of both worlds because it’s the only high-performance free & clear laundry detergent. Available as a laundry detergent powder and as laundry detergent pods.