New Press

Check out our NEW Redecker Brushes featured in House Beautiful and Elle Decor!

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Freshen up the sofa. Stiff boar bristles are great for removing lint, fuzz, and pet hair. Clothing & Upholstery Brush, $60. THE LAUNDRESS NEW YORK: thelaundress.com.

[click to buy]

Eco-friendly home-cleaning and laundry brand the Laundress, in collaboration with German company Redecker, has debuted a handsome line of handmade cleaning brushes, including this goat-hair duster wand and boar-bristle upholstery brush. Each sports a pear-wood handle and is priced at $60.

212-209-0074

thelaundress.com

Washing Winter Outerwear...

Spring has sprung and although we love our winter accessories, it’s time for them to go back into hibernation!

Gwen’s coats and jackets consist of several materials - wool, synthetics, even fur collars and cuffs…but she was willing to risk it rather than have her items dry cleaned.
 

When needed, pre-treat any stained areas with Stain Solution and a Stain Brush.

Don’t forget to empty your pockets before washing. Some of your items may need a quick brushing to help remove some of that lint and hair as well.

Be sure to turn your items inside out and when possible put them into a mesh washing bag. Always separate colors and wash according to fabric content.
 

For Gwen’s wool coats, capes and fur, we laundered with Wool & Cashmere Shampoo.

Here are the settings…

Now we’re ready for synthetics…

Synthetic material can be difficult to remove stains from so always pre-treat with our Stain Solution and a Scrub Brush.

Jackets with hardware should always be placed in a mesh washing bag to protect the belts, cuffs, etc.

Note: The lining in this jacket contains white polyester and we were totally prepared for the black dye to run…but it didn’t!

All synthetics should be laundered with Delicate Wash with these settings:

All of Gwen’s coats and jackets were promptly removed from the washer, turned right side out and steamed while damp to help prevent and remove creasing.

Note: It’s ok to be nervous about your fur when it first comes out of the wash...
 

Gwen’s fur collar looked exactly like Bella after Auntie Gwen let her run through the water fountain in Washington Square Park…FYI that’s illegal….OOOPS!!!

 

Brush your items again right after steaming to carefully remove any lint or hair that was left over pre-wash.

 Allow all of your items to thoroughly dry, some may require additional steaming once completely dry.

With the coats, capes and jackets drying, we could now start on scarves, hats and gloves.

Always place smaller knit items i.e. hats and gloves in a mesh washing bag for protection.

We laundered these items with Wool & Cashmere Shampoo on a woolen cycle.

Always remove your items from the wash immediately and allow to flat or hang dry, never put wool items in the dryer. Be sure to steam scarves when damp to help reduce creasing.

Now that all of my winter items are washed and ready for storing, I can continue to impatiently await the warmer weather!

Introducing...

Out, Out, Pesky Sweat Stains

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 11, 2011
Shirt and Antiperspirant Makers Hate Them, Too; Women Aren't Immune
By Ray A. Smith
 
Coming soon, heat, haze, humidity—and underarm stains.

With summer a little more than a month away, count on sweating ruining at least one shirt with a yellow armpit stain. It's often a bigger problem for men: Remove the sport coat and there's that embarrassing reveal of twin sweat circles, dashing the whole power suit image.

Underarm sweat may bother you, but it fuels an industry of deodorant, stain remover and absorbent shield makers. Many admit they're still struggling to discover a true cure for this common sweat zone and its resulting shirt stains.

Deodorant makers, detergent manufacturers, stain-removal companies, doctors and textile professors disagree on what exactly causes the pesky underarm yellow stains. One factor may be the critical ingredients in the antiperspirants themselves.

"The biggest culprit is the antiperspirant, the aluminum-based products in them that stop the body from perspiring are virtually impossible to get rid of," says Brian Johnson, director of training at the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute.

Toby Gubitz, vice president of marketing for the antiperspirant and deodorant business for Henkel Consumer Goods Inc., which makes Dry Idea and Right Guard deodorant products, says there are a number of factors to take into consideration, making it "hard to figure out even for us what causes the staining and what's the main driver."

The company updated its products to create Dry Idea AdvancedDry for men and women, and introduced another Right Guard series, Right Guard Total Defense 5 for men last year. Both claim additional levels of wetness reduction—40%—by boosting the amount of aluminum.

"We want to protect against wetness, that means using ingredients that might lead to yellow staining," says Mr. Gubitz. Reducing those ingredients would mean "you will ultimately have to sacrifice performance," he says. "That's what we're still struggling with."

Speed Stick launched a line last year called Speed Stick Stainguard with technology the brand says is formulated to help fight against the stains. Speed Stick goes further than other antiperspirants by claiming on its label and in marketing that it prevents yellow stains on shirts. A spokeswoman for Colgate-Palmolive Co., which owns Speed Stick, would only say the patent-pending formula works "by staying on your skin and by containing low-stain causing ingredients."

Hanes is researching the "yellowing phenomenon," a spokesman says. The company sold one million packages of undershirts containing Speed Stick Stainguard samples last year. Its share of the market for white crewneck undershirts rose 15 points to 75% during the peak of its three-month promotion at Target, says Mark Noyes, senior marketing manager of male underwear at Hanesbrands Inc.

PitStop, a stain remover product launched late last year by Pharmworks LLC, a small Palm Beach, Fla.-based company, is aimed specifically at treating yellow underarm stains. "We're not going to take out your blueberry stain or your coffee stain," says Hillary Enselberg, a company spokeswoman, whose father, a hematologist-oncologist and chemistry enthusiast, developed PitStop. The product sells online, where 4,000 bottles of PitStop have been sold since its November launch, Ms. Enselberg says.

Sweat shields, also known as dress shields or garment shields, were first made in 1869 by I.B. Kleinert Rubber Co. In an attempt to modernize them, Niche Brands Inc., of Grimsby, Ontario, last year launched cotton-blend underarm liners to protect garments from perspiration and stains. The adhesive liners, branded "beconfident," attach to clothing and are mostly aimed at women, says company president Jason Jacobs. They are only sold in Canada. The company has been approaching U.S. retailers. On the Internet and infomercials there are an expanding number of brands with names like Garment Guard and Advadri selling sweat shields.

Consumers in the U.S. spent $2.7 billion on deodorants and antiperspirants last year, up from $2.6 billion in 2009, according to market-research firm Euromonitor International. Deodorants mask the odor produced by apocrine glands in the armpits but generally don't fight underarm sweating. Antiperspirants generally include aluminum to block the ducts of eccrine glands, which produce sweat.

The underarm perspires when hot, but sweating can also be triggered when a person is stressed, in a state of fear, in pain or even while eating something spicy, says Dee Anna Glaser, a professor of dermatology at Saint Louis University and president of the International Hyperhidrosis Society, which addresses the estimated 3% of the population who suffer from excessive sweating.

Researchers measured the amounts of underarm perspiration in 30 men and 30 women with hyperhidrosis and 30 men and 30 women without the condition. Men in the first group produced twice the perspiration of female subjects. Men in the latter group also produced more sweat than women. The study, published in the April 2002 issue of the journal Archives of Dermatology, suggested one reason is due to a larger area of close-set sweat glands in men's armpits. Genetics, weight and age can factor in why some people sweat more than others, says William P. Coleman III, a clinical professor of dermatology at Tulane University.

An antiperspirant doesn't guarantee completely dry underarms. Rather, they'll be less wet than they would with no antiperspirant. The Food & Drug Administration requires that antiperspirants provide at least 20% sweat reduction to carry labels such as "lasts all day" and "24-hour protection." At 30%, products can be labeled "extra-effective protection." Some deodorant manufacturers seek to exceed that, usually by boosting their products' aluminum salt content. (The FDA ruled in 2003 that theories about breast cancer and the use of aluminum "lack sufficient evidence." It did not find "evidence sufficient to conclude that aluminum from antiperspirant use results in Alzheimer's disease.")

Church & Dwight Co.'s OxiClean claims on its website that its products can get rid of yellow underarm stains, a rare stain-removal product to make such an explicit claim. The company has tested its products on stains composed of synthetic perspiration and an active ingredient in an antiperspirant, a spokesman says.

The University of Illinois Extension Stain Solutions department recommends a daunting regimen to treat a yellow underarm stain. It urges scraping off any excess material with a blunt kitchen knife, soaking the garment for 15 minutes in a quart of lukewarm water, half a teaspoon of dishwashing detergent and one tablespoon ammonia, gently rubbing from the back to loosen the stain, soaking another 15 minutes, then rinsing.

If it doesn't go away, soak the stain in a laundry detergent that contains enzymes for at least half an hour, then put in the washing machine. An older stain should be soaked for several hours. Then launder. If the stain remains stubborn, use chlorine beach, if safe, on white shirts and oxygen bleach on colors.

Underarm sweat is a nuisance for people—and for the antiperspirant manufacturers, detergent sellers and undershirt makers, too.

SWEAT More people are seeking prescription antiperspirants, Botox injections, laser procedures and surgery to remove sweat glands, doctors say.
  
Adults who use antiperspirant/ deodorant use it about 8.6 times a week on average. People age 18 to 24 average 9.2 uses per week, according to Mintel International.
 
Apply antiperspirant at bedtime when there's less sweat, says Dee Anna Glaser, professor of dermatology at Saint Louis University. It won't wash off in the morning shower as the sweat ducts have absorbed the active ingredient.
 
STAINS
Wash rather than dry-clean shirts with yellow underarm stains. 'The stains are water based, so you need water to get them out,' says Brian Johnson, of the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute.
 
Wash an item as soon as possible after perspiring. Use detergent or stain remover with oxygen bleach, says Kay Obendorf, professor of fiber science at Cornell University.
   
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Summer is just around the corner and we definitely agree with Kay Obendorf...
  
Follow our easy Pit Stain Removal recipe which uses our Bleach Alternative & Stain Solution.  Those pesky yellow pit stains will be gone forever!
 
We're now offering our 16 oz. Stain Solution & 32 oz. All-Purpose Bleach Alternative together for 10% of the normal retail value of $33.00.  Get it here today for $29.70!
 
Happy laundering!
-Gwen & Lindsey

Save on www.polarnopyretusa.com until May 7th!