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( Washing powder)
Laundry detergent, or washing powder, is a substance which is a type of detergent that is added when one is washing laundry to help get the laundry cleaner. It is often colloquially called laundry soap or simply detergent or soap but because detergents lack glycerin, they are not true "soaps". It helps wash the fabric in a manner rather analogous to the way soap helps wash hands, other parts of the body, or other things cleaner than washing with water alone.[citation needed] Laundry detergent has traditionally been a powdered or granular solid, but the use of liquid laundry detergents has gradually increased over the years, and the popularity of liquid detergent now rivals that of solid detergent. Some brands also manufacture laundry soap in tablets and dissolvable packets, so as to eliminate the need to measure soap for each load of laundry. In some countries where washing clothes by hand is more popular, detergent bars are more popular. Recently, environmentally friendly detergents have enjoyed a surge in popularity. Laundry detergent is used by almost every household in the developed world, so its production and sale has become an important industry. One can find many different brands of laundry detergent in the shops, and each one may claim to have any number of special qualities. Each brand has its own instructions on how it should be used and what amount to use written on the container it comes in. Some brands of laundry detergent purport to be more concentrated and can be added in smaller amounts. The detergent can be added onto the laundry or to the wash water at the start of the wash, or it can be added beforehand or soon after starting the wash into a special compartment in a washing machine made for that purpose, to be flushed into the wash by the wash water. Often bleach is a separate additive to the wash, but there are laundry detergents which have bleach already blended in with them. All laundry detergents are soluble in water so as to make the water more effective at cleaning the laundry. The detergent does its work and is needed during the initial "Wash" cycle to separate the dirt or soil out from the fabric. The purpose of the rinses which follow is to rinse the washer with the detergent residue from the laundry as well as to remove the dirt suspended in the wash water by replacing the initial wash water with fresh water. Separate stain pre-treatment products are sometimes available to be added directly to stained areas of fabrics. However, undiluted liquid laundry detergent or a paste of solid detergent made by mixing in a little water may be used to pre-treat heavily soiled or stained areas of the fabric by scrubbing in the detergent prior to the wash. Special oxidizer washing products have become available in liquid or solid granular form. Such solid products often contain sodium percarbonate or sodium perborate and the liquid products often contain hydrogen peroxide. They are often marketed as containing "active oxygen". Some laundry detergent is specially sold for delicate woolen articles.
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