Palmolive Soft Touch dish washing liquids are "mild formulas with a touch of Vitamin E, Aloe, or Coconut Butter. Designed to be soft on hands while still providing powerful grease cutting action, leaving your dishes sparkling clean."
I was really excited to receive the Aloe and the Vitamin E versions of this new Palmolive formula. Washing dishes is very hard on the hands the hot water necessary to clean the dishes and the harsh detergents in dish soaps are extremely drying to the skin and hard on the nails. Washing dishes can cause nails to peel, become brittle, and break. So I was thrilled with the prospect of having a dish liquid that wouldn't damage my nails.
As I said I received the Aloe and the Vitamin E versions. Have a look at my
unboxing video.
Now I already have a dish liquid that I am brand faithful to, so when I got these I decided right away that I would do a side by side Battle of the Dish Soaps. I chose the Vitamin E formula (the Pink one) because that is the one I was most intrigued by. The Aloe formula was clear and looked like my regular dish soap but the Vitamin E had a creamy, milky, slightly thick consistency more like you get in a body wash than a dish soap so that is the one I wanted to try immediately.
THE THROW DOWN
I used both my regular dish liquid and the Palmolive Soft Touch Vitamin E on day old breakfast dishes. They were each crusted with dry egg yolk and ketchup. Plus I smeared some bacon fat from the griddle's grease catcher to test the grease cutting power.
1st: The Bubble Test
I love a sudsy dish soap. I don't know if it effects the cleaning power but it doesn't matter I MUST have bubbles. Both soaps were equally bubbly delightful.
2nd: The Smell
I like my dish liquid to have a bit of scent but nothing very strong. My regular one comes in a variety of citrus scents (lemon, lime, and my favorite grapefruit) which I think is perfect. It is light and clean smelling and the smell of citrus seems natural in the kitchen. Plus it seems like a sensible combination in that citrus would help cut grease anyway.
In contrast the smell of the Palmolive soft touch was for me extremely off putting. The Vitamin E oil formula had an extremely strong, heavy, smell reminiscent of body lotion. I know it is designed to keep your hands moisturized but that doesn't mean I want to wash my dishes in hand lotion either.
The smell of the Aloe formula is a little better in that it doesn't smell like body lotion. It is still very heavily perfumed, so much so that it actually gave me a headache (I am very sensitive to scents) but at least it is a smell that seems normal in the kitchen.
3rd: The Grease Cutting Power
First up my regular dish liquid. It got the plate clean but the egg yolk didn't come off immediately I had to leave the dish stand in the water a bit to soften it. After I was done with the breakfast plate I washed a bowl in the same water to see if there would be any greasy residue left from the bacon fat on the first plate. Nothing. The bowl was as clean as the plate. So a little extra time was needed for soaking but otherwise it was a job well done.
Next up, I rinsed out my dish basin and washed the second breakfast plate in the Vitamin E oil Palmolive. The Palmolive went to work immediately on the egg yolk, no soaking necessary. It also easily dealt with the bacon fat on the original plate and didn't deposit any residual fat on the bowl. It did good job in that aspect. HOWEVER...
The lotion aspect of the Vitamin E oil formula was problematic for me. The Palmolive left my hands feeling soft and moisturized as if I had put on lotion. This got me thinking that if the Palmolive had left a coating of moisturizer on my hand would it have left the same coating on my dishes? The answer is YES. Once dry the plate and bowl I had washed in the Palmolive had a strange slick feel that was I my husband and I found so gross I ended up rewashing them. We didn't like the idea of eating hand lotion. When I did the rewash I used the Aloe formula that one was much better. It had the same great cleaning power but didn't leave the slick lotion like residue.
Finally My Hands
So these new formulas are specifically designed to leave your hands feeling soft and moisturized, do they work? Yes. After washing dishes in my normal dish liquid I always have to apply a good hand lotion to stop them from feeling rough and dry, or I use gloves to help protect my hands and nails from soaking in the harsh detergents. When testing the Palmolive I purposefully didn't use gloves and I didn't apply a moisturizer after so I could see how the dish liquid left my skin. It was really nice my hands were soft and not dry at all.
The Outcome
I will definitely NOT be purchasing the Vitamin E Oil formula in the future. I really dislike the lotion quality of it, I would rather wear gloves and apply hand lotion after doing dishes than deal with the scent and slick residue of this dish liquid. I will definitely be giving this bottle away. The Aloe is better and I will use this bottle but again I found the scent way too heavy and will not be stopping use of my old faithful anytime soon.
No need to take my word for it, if you want to try out Palmolive soft touch for yourself check out my FaceBook page for a chance to receive a $1.00 coupon.
*Disclosure: I was given both bottles of Palmolive soft touch by Palmolive and Inflenster free of charge for the purpose of review.
