I’m all for advances in technology and science — especially when it comes to laundry — but I’m also very happy to lean on tried-and-true methods for stain removal. So when I learned on Apartment Therapy about a very old-school product that has been getting thousands of rave reviews on Amazon, it was a no-brainer to click “add to cart.”
Now, I’ve heard of laundry soap before, but shame on me for not knowing about the Fels-Naptha Laundry Soap Bar in particular. Why? Oh, it’s only been around since 1894. But I will give myself a pass — because with a brand that has that kind of longevity, who needs to take out a multimillion-dollar commercial spot during the big game?
You might be thinking, A bar of soap to do laundry? Sure, detergent comes in many convenient forms, including liquid, powder, and even sheets. But I promise you that Fels-Naptha couldn’t be any easier to use.
How to Use Fels-Naptha for Your Laundry
I latched onto this as a stain remover rather than a detergent additive. I rubbed a bit on some weird oily stain on a top and it worked like magic. However, my favorite use for it is to clean my makeup brushes. I once saw a celebrity makeup artist use a bar of laundry soap (she used Zote, which is similar) to clean her brushes, so I finally decided to give it a try. What a game changer! All I did was wet the brush, and then rub the bristles over and over on the soap to clean it.
I do find that it’s easier to wet the bar itself, but I didn’t want to cause the whole thing to disintegrate faster — it is soap, after all. Rather than grate or peel it, I sliced the bar into smaller chunks. Pro tip: It cuts less like a stick of butter and more like a block of Parmigiano Reggiano, so if you go this route, use a sharp knife and keep those shards of soap from any pets that might mistake it for cheese.
In addition to keeping a chunk of this in a plastic baggie with my makeup so I remember to clean my brushes regularly, I keep the rest of the bar on a shelf in my laundry room. There’s still some other liquid stain remover on the shelf that I will probably finish — but now that Fels-Naptha is a part of my life, I don’t see the need to buy liquid stain remover again.
