Product Review: Soak Wash

As fun as shopping is, what good is finding that Holy Grail item if you don't take good care of it post-purchase? I'm a huge proponent of following label instructions on clothes and giving your wardrobe a regular once-over and some TLC if needed: shaving the pills off knitwear, brushing lint off a winter coat, spraying stain repellant on a pair of leather boots before their first outing of the season on slushy, salted sidewalks. In keeping with this outlook, today's Product Review veers off the beaten path of beauty products and focuses on a clothing care item, Soak.

When a publicist first contacted me about Soak, I became curious. This gentle detergent promises to be a convenient, easy handwash solution for your delicates without requiring you to scrub or mangle them. Simply put a spoonful of the gentle formula wash in cool water and let your delicates soak for 15 minutes, then pull them out and squeeze the water out gently. No rinsing is required and your clothes dry residue-free. Does this sound too good to be true? It did to me, which is why I wrote back requesting product samples--I had to see this product working with my own eyes.

A parcel arrived in the mail a month later which included sample sizes in Soak's four scents--flora, aquae, citrus, and unscented--and a 130 mL bottle of Soak in the aquae scent. I conducted my product test with the unscented sample, although I sniffed the other scents to see what they were like. The aquae formula has the least obtrusive scent after the unscented formula. The flora scent is very light, and the citrus scent is the strongest of the four but still pleasant.

Let's see how this went down in photos, shall we?

I used the unscented sample to wash my Malene Grotrian bustier, a piece that had delicate fabrics, intricate stays I didn't want to undo, and wire boning I didn't want to bend--all in all, the perfect candidate for a date with Soak.

Following the instructions as closely as possible, I filled the sink with cool water and squeezed all the unscented Soak out of the packet. Suds formed and I dropped the bustier in, then decided on the spur of the moment to drop in a garment that had a small stain on it.

After 15 minutes, the suds all but disappeared. I pulled the bustier out; the water and the fabric didn't have that slippery, soapy feel that I get when I handwash things with normal detergent, thereby living up to the "no rinsing required" claim.

The sink full of dirty water is proof enough for me--this product works! However, I was disappointed to find that the stain in the other garment remained. Obviously a bit more elbow grease than hands-off soaking was required.

Final verdict: Soak is a handy product to have for gently soiled delicates, especially if you're strapped for time and can't be bothered to handwash items individually. However, extra effort is required in some cases to get your garments truly clean.