The Scent: Okay, I know I mentioned this before, but let’s dive in a little deeper. They have an unscented version, but to me, it’s all about their signature magnolia, bergamot, and cedar version. The cedar adds a delicious woodsiness that is cut by the clean, fresh scents of citrus and floral. It’s subtle, but has staying power. As I mentioned before, it smells as high quality, special, and nuanced as a Le Labo scent. As a girl who lives in L.A., where that’s essentially the perfume brand of choice, trust me when I say it’s comparable. In other words, if Le Labo were to put out a new scent of their laundry detergent, and it was this, I’d say yep, that checks out.
Clean Ingredients: Honestly the scent matters the most to me, but it’s also a big bonus that the formulation is clean. If you’re trying to use more clean products, I’ve heard that laundry detergent is one of the best categories to start in, in terms of impact, because you’re wearing your clothes washed in the detergent all day. Conventional detergents have a lot of toxic chemicals, and this has nontoxic, biobased ingredients that are safe for sensitive skin, babies, and pets. It also happens to be cruelty-free, vegan, and hypoallergenic.
It Works: I know laundry detergent is also supposed to clean your clothes, not just make them smell good, and for me, Dirty Labs delivers in this category too. It cleans my clothes just as well as the detergents I’ve used before.
Environmentally Friendly: The formula is super concentrated, unlike more traditional detergents, so you can get the same amount of loads out of a much smaller bottle. Smaller packages equal a lower carbon footprint, and the aluminum bottles can be infinitely recycled too. As someone who is suspicious of using only a small (concentrated) amount of detergent—Will my clothes be clean enough? Will they smell nice?—I can confirm the answer is yes and yes, with about a third the volume of detergent I would use with other brands.
The cost of a medium size of Tide at Target right now is 25 cents a load. If you use the subscribe and save option on Amazon, the cost of Dirty Labs also works out to exactly 25 cents a load. If you want to test out the product first before subscribing, it’s just a few cents more per load at 28 cents. Le Labo experience at Tide price? I will be a forever fan.