Textile Care Guide

Skip washing - refresh and treat stains. Textile Care by Pure Effect helps you to extend the life of your textiles. The basic idea is to freshen up (remove odours and stains) instead of washing. And voilà, we save fibres, impregnation, prints and extend the life of both washable and non-washable items. AND it saves water, energy, even reduces our overall carbon footprint. What´s not to like? The future demands new ways of thinking and behaving, lets do it!

TEXTILE CARE BY PURE EFFECT
The core of the concept is our refreshing sprays. Spray directly onto textiles to remove odours and many stains. Use a cloth for bathing to absorb the liquid and stain. (If you don't have a cloth handy, a towel or sturdier paper, which doesn't leave paper residue behind, will work.)

Clothing & Shoe Mist 75 ml - handy size for smaller surfaces like clothes, shoes and when travelling.

Textile Mist 500 ml - for heavy users and larger surfaces like carpets, furniture and upholstery.

And when laundry feels like a must, we suggest our new laundry detergent:

Laundry Wash 500 ml - a detergent for ALL textiles, even delicate materials like wool. Cleans most effectively at low temperatures (30-40°C). By the way, did you know that washing at 40 degrees uses about half as much energy as washing at 60 degrees?

STAINS AND ODOURS - OUR BEST LIFE HACKS

• Tackle the stain as early as possible. The less time a stain has to penetrate and discolour the fibre, the easier it will be to remove.
• Start by gently wiping off any dirt you can (organic dirt/food residue etc). Then the formula has a chance to break down the rest.
• Spray generously to cover the stain. Keep in mind that a stain should be dissolved, not rubbed off.
• Then blot the stain (but never rub) with a clean (wet or dry) light cloth or a paper towel that does not stain or leave paper residue. Do not rub, as the stain may be pressed into the fibres of the fabric and become more difficult to remove, and rubbing may create nubs in the fabric.
• Give it time. Think of the process as "slow cleaning" and the bacterial culture needs a little more time to break down the stain. Repeat as necessary, from time to time. Improvements can be seen several weeks after treatment has begun. Read more about the logic of the Siners Circle below.

Spot removal next level: see tips further down the page.

If unsuccessful: wash what can be washed in the washing machine (clothes, covers). Or, if washing is not possible - mix Laundry Wash with water (dosage 1:200) in a spray bottle and treat the stain in the same way as above. Or why not have someone embroider something beautiful over the stain, as in the Japanese art form kintsugi: the beauty of "golden scars".

WHEN YOU'RE WASHING - OUR BEST LIFE HACKS

• We believe in simplicity, Laundry Simplified, which is why you only need ONE detergent for all your laundry in everyday life. (If you then want to make special efforts with regreasing and impregnating, for example, you can add other products).
• Don't mix white and coloured textiles in the same machine, to avoid the coloured textiles 'bleeding' over to the light ones.
• Close zippers to avoid holes and other damage to textiles.
• Treat stains as soon as possible to avoid them affecting the fibre for too long.
• Wash at a low temperature as often as possible to save energy, water, fibre and reduce wear and tear on your textiles. 40°C uses about half as much energy as washing at 60°C.
• Hang up your laundry as soon as possible when the machine is finished. Never leave laundry in the washing machine longer than necessary, as it can easily create a bad smell.
• Skip the fabric softener. Most of it goes down the drain and affects our waterways, and towels, for example, become less absorbent of fabric softener.
• Skip drying. Using heat to remove moisture is very energy-intensive. And it destroys the fibres, just look in the lint tray and you'll see what's coming off :)
• Prevent bad smells, residue and biofilm in the machine by running an empty machine at high temperature (75-95 degrees) from time to time. Leave the hatch and detergent compartment open for ventilation.
• Forget the myth that all enzyme detergents damage wool and silk. Laundry Wash formula does not contain the enzyme protease, which would cause problems for silk and wool. We mainly use a lipase enzyme, and the properties of the formula make it suitable even for sensitive wool and silk.

MICROBIAL CLEANING - HOW DOES IT WORK?
Microbes take care of the biodegradation in nature by producing enzymes and other substances that break down organic matter. Imagine a compost, or the smell of leaves shredding in the forest in autumn. Microorganisms were the first life on Earth when it was formed 4-5 billion years ago. And they do all the actual cleaning, because they're actually the ones who break down everything we leave behind (and ourselves when we die). However, it's a matter of time - much of what we leave behind takes an extremely long time to break down. But you may have read about microorganisms that break down oil spills at sea, and those that clean the water in our water treatment plants, for example.

Cleaning - hydrolysis and bacterial culture
Much of what we want to remove when cleaning, both textile and hard surfaces, is grease. The fermentation extract in the formula breaks down fat molecules into smaller parts (hydrolysis), making the residue easier to break down and soak up in a cloth. Organic residues from our lives, what we call dirt, can also be broken down by the bacterial culture in the products, and this process continues deep in the pores of the materials and even after we have finished cleaning or tidying. It really contributes to the great result, even over time. On the other hand, the microbial formula cannot attack nail polish and graffiti, for example, as you'll understand once you've read a bit about how it works.

Odour removal - in three steps
1. First you smell the perfume, an "instant reward" that doesn't clean and we can never ever just perfume over a bad smell. But it does give us a feeling that we're doing something lovely. That's how many of us work anyway, but not all. (Is it possible to get the mists unscented, some wonder? Yes, technically, but the formula itself doesn't smell very good, so we've decided to wait a bit on that.)

2. Next, an enzyme acts in the formula, putting a sort of lid over the smell. This gives the direct effect.

3. In addition, the bacterial culture starts to act and break down the source of the smell. But this process takes longer and would not alone give us the quick effect that we humans expect. The bacterial culture gives us the long-lasting effect.

In addition, microorganisms play an important role in human health and our ecosystem. That's why we have developed cleaning products based on our respect and understanding of the microbial worlds we live in. If you want to read more, see About us on this site.


SINNERS CIRCLE - THE FOUNDATION OF ALL CLEANSING
Four factors determine the effectiveness of your cleaning: time, mechanical power, chemistry and temperature. The circle always remains closed - if one or two of the four factors are increased, the other factors can be decreased. If one factor is reduced, the other factors must be increased. Yes, you see. And when you understand the relationship between the four factors, even the most challenging cleaning and laundry issues become more logical and easier to handle.

So the conclusion is that if you start with less harsh chemistry and lower temperature, you will probably have to give the cleaning process more time and/or mechanical power. If you don't have the time, you will probably have to choose warmer temperatures or harsher chemicals. And each choice has its consequences - on the fabric, the environment, health and so on. Cleaning is a craft and the result is beautiful when you care about the conditions. Sorry to say, there is no standard solution or super agent that solves everything, without impact on the material, health or the environment.

STAIN REMOVAL - next level
Always try to remove the stain with one of our mister. But sometimes you need to kick it up a notch. If the stain is tough and won't budge - or if you can tell from the start that it's not organic and it won't work - here are some tips from our textile experts and friends Ane and Karin at @textilklok:

Stains with egg white substances, such as blood, meat, eggs and milk: use cold water first.
Blood: soak in cold water. Enzyme detergent should be used to dissolve the remaining stain, i.e. a regular machine detergent. Be careful not to wash entire silk or wool garments in any enzyme detergent, as protease enzymes damage wool and silk fibres.
Flower pollen: T-red
Grease: Soap or detergent left on for a while.
Fruit stains: soak in boiling water. Bathe with ½ teaspoon of citric acid dissolved in 1 dl of water.
Grass: T-red. Then bathe with ammonia soapy water.
Yellow stains and stripes on cotton and linen that appear over time: rinse with very cold water in batches.
Coffee: soap, ammonia and warm water.
Coffee with milk: cold water first.
Ballpoint and fountain pen: T-red, then ammonia soapy water.
Lipstick: T-red
Foundation and other make-up: Something grease-dissolving such as bile soap, dishwashing detergent.
Mould stains: Difficult! Leave for 24 hours in a light file is an old trick that we haven't tried. Treat with ammonia solution. If the stains don't come out, try an eco-labelled bleach, NOT chlorine, it should never be used.
Oil: varnish naphtha, then ammonia soapy water.
Rust: Concentrated citric acid or tartaric acid.
Candles: Mechanical and then ammonia soapy water (for pure candles). Otherwise iron and soda paper.
Sweat stains: the stains are soaked and treated with ammonia. If the stain does not disappear, treat with acetic acid. Sweat can be either acidic or alkaline.
Wine: for absorption potato flour (not salt). For stain removal, hot water, warm milk, bile soap or other stain soap. Lukewarm ammonia soapy water.

Rinse in lukewarm water after each stain removal with one of the substances in the list.


THANK YOU FOR CARING!
This was our quick textile care guide on how to take care of your clothes, furniture and other textile gadgets so they live longer. Because you love them, and because the solution to many of our climate and energy challenges today is circularity and making stuff last longer. We hope you got a helpful nudge where you want to go and learned a bit more about microbial cleaning. Please get in touch with us with your specific odour and stain challenges and we'll see how we can solve them together.

Happy Cleaning!