Review and Giveaway – Cheer brightClean (CLOSED)

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Cheer.

I think I’ve mentioned before on this site that I tend to be fairly brand loyal when it comes to household products. That is, once I find something that works well and I like – I tend to stick with it unless I have an overwhelming reason to do otherwise. Now I am 38 years old, and have lived on my own, doing my own laundry on a regular basis since I was about 20 or so. So I guess you could say that for almost half of my life, I’ve used Cheer to wash my clothes with.

Over the years I’ve used several different kinds of Cheer^® laundry detergent – from powder to liquid, and most currently the ‘Free & Gentle’ variety ever since my skin issues with blisters began. But no matter what, there’s one thing that’s remained constant – my clothes (and now my family’s) are consistently clean, the whites are white and the colors bright. And that makes me – well, cheery.  LOL 

What it is:

According to the manufacturer, Cheer’s new brightClean™ is “formulated to give you brighter whites and colors in just 1 wash (vs. dingy)”. Some of the ways that it does so are to include brighteners in the new formula – which also works to neutralize chlorine, and Cheer liquid helps prevent the pills and fuzz that make your clothes look worn and faded. The detergent comes in liquid, powder and high-efficiency varieties, and in several scents including Fresh Clean, Free & Gentle, For Darks, Bleach Alternative, and Bounce Linen Fresh Scent.

Cheer^® helps protect your clothes because:

• Cheer cleans in any water temperature, which means you can wash your fabrics in cold water.
• Cheer liquid helps prevent naturally occurring chlorine from reacting with your clothes, a process that makes your clothes look worn and faded.
• Cheer neutralizes the chlorine in tap water to reduce the fading it causes.
• Some dyes bleed in the wash because of their type of dye or the way the dye was applied. While Cheer liquid detergent can’t prevent these dyes from bleeding, it can help prevent them from settling back on other garments in the wash load. Following fabric care tag instructions also helps prevent this type of dye transfer. Remember, to help protect your favorite colors, follow fabric care tag instructions and wash with Cheer liquid laundry detergent.

Which laundry detergent should I use, liquid or powder?

Choose the one that best fits your lifestyle, but you may want to keep both on hand. Liquid laundry detergents tend to be better at removing oily and greasy stains and are excellent for pretreating stains. Powder detergents tend to work better on mud and clay.

Courtesy of Cheer^® and BlogHer, we received a 50 fl. oz. bottle of Cheer brightClean™ in the Fresh Clean scent to try out and review.

Here’s my take on it:

To be honest, I hadn’t even realized that Cheer had come out with the new brightClean™ formula. Mainly because I’m so used to buying it that I don’t always pay a whole lot of attention to what the actual bottle looks like or says – but also because in the past year or so I’ve begun using other laundry detergent brands along with my usual Cheer. In part to other review opportunities which have come up, and also because for some reason our local stores don’t like to put Cheer on sale very often (or I do an amazingly good job of shopping at the wrong times), and I had convinced myself that we could use something cheaper else just as well. And while I do like some of the other detergents that we’ve tried – for various reasons, I had forgotten what had brought me to being a Cheer user to begin with. Which is just how well Cheer cleans clothes – especially colors, washed in cold water. And since my ‘quick-and-easy’ form of doing laundry entails putting loads together based on whose clothes they are, rather than separating out whites and colors, this becomes a rather important concern.

So, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to try out the new Cheer brightClean, even though I was slightly anxious about using something other than the Free & Gentle variety. But so far I’ve had no skin reactions or adverse results from the Fresh Clean liquid whatsoever, and I do like the scent – it’s not overpowering but just enough to make our clothes smell and seem fresh, even after they’ve sat in the drawer for a few days. I’ve discovered recently too that using scented detergent really helps with keeping my husband’s grubby work clothes fresher longer.

A lot of my girls’ clothes are hand-me-downs – either that their sisters have previously worn, or that we’ve gotten from friends, garage sales or secondhand stores. While I do distinctly avoid clothes that look grubby or too faded, there’s definitely a ‘worn’ look and feel to many of them. And what I’m now realizing is that using the right detergent does help them maintain bright colors and a better appearance for longer. And Cheer is the best option that I’ve now tried for doing so.

The bottom line:

Cheer brightClean™ is formulated to keep clothes brighter, fresher and lasting longer, no matter what kind of washer or temperature of water you are using. Your brights and whites come out looking better – even in just one wash.

Where can you find it?:

Cheer brightClean™ is available wherever laundry detergents are normally sold. You can find out more information as well at the Official Cheer Detergent site, where you can also check out Cheer’s fun instant win game.

Would you like to try it?:

I have the opportunity to give away a bottle of Cheer brightClean detergent to a lucky reader! The theme of this contest is ‘How do you brighten the lives of others?’. I would have to say that in my case, I do so by trying to be helpful and a good friend whenever possible. At least I try to do so.    Leave your answer to this question in the comments below for a chance to win. Here are the giveaway rules:

1. Enter by leaving a comment here to let me know your answer to the question, “How do you brighten the lives of others?”. Please don’t just say ‘choose me’, or your entry will be discarded.  No duplicate comments permitted.
2. The contest will run until Thursday, November 5th at 8:00 pm EST. The winner will be selected through random drawing, contacted by e-mail, listed on this post and also submitted to PRIZEY. US entries only, please.
3. Please leave a valid e-mail address or other way to contact you! If the winner hasn’t responded within 3 days, an alternate winner will be chosen by random drawing.
4. Please see the official rules here: Official Rules
5. If you’d like extra entries, you can:

• Subscribe to my RSS feed (click on the orange icon in the upper right sidebar) or subscribe via e-mail – leave me a separate comment to let me know.
• Mention this contest on your blog with a link back to this post, and leave a separate comment with the link to your post so I can find it.
• Either Twitter about, ‘Digg’ or ‘Kirtsy’ this post – leave me a separate comment with your username at whichever site(s) you chose (one extra entry per method).
• Become a ‘fan’ of this site on Facebook – there’s a link in the sidebar or you can click here.

So that’s a total of 7 comments/entries if you do all of the extra entry options. And don’t forget to see the BlogHer Roundup Page for more chances to win!

Good luck! 

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #6 as the winner:

Congratulations to Alicia Webster, whose extra entry as a Facebook fan has won for her! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.

Although this is a paid post, all opinions expressed are my own, and I have tried my best to give a fair, balanced and honest review of this product.