Soap Flakes - Forgotten How Good They Taste?

With the help of the nice people at Regatta, we've finally found out what happened to Lux soap flakes.

Pure soap flakes are an ideal way of caring for waterproof shells and any other outdoors garment which uses a DWR - Durable Water Repellant - treatment. The wetting agents in most commercial detergents are designed to help water penetrate fabrics and strip away the DWR effect - not a good thing. Soap flakes leaves it intact and helps the shell fabric to bead and shed water. They also avoid depositing detergent nasties that could have similarly negative effects.

Turns out that Lux was withdrawn from the market by Lever Brothers last year, but Dri Pak, who produced the product, now sell their own brand called, erm, Soap Flakes. Not only that, but to highlight the relevance of Soap Flakes to outdoor clothing care, Regatta are running a competition with Dri Pak to kit out five families in head-to-foot Regatta gear up to a value of £500.

The special packets should be widely available in good soap flake stores including Sainsburys, Waitrose, Morrisons and Wilkinsons from this month onwards, so not only will you be doing your waterproofs a power of good, you might also win a load more.

For more information on Dri Pak see their web site. For Regatta information, including care hints see www.regatta.com. For an in depth article on restoring DWR to your waterproof shell clothing see the links below.