I can vouch for the Woolite for dark clothes..it works well. Also, when I was worried about a label on a pair of new jeans that warned about the blue potentially coming off, a few people mentioned pre-treating with a vinegar soak to sort of 'set' the dye. That reminded me that I had some fancy, locally-made laundry soap - it contains vinegar. I tried it on the new jeans and it was fabulous. I have had no fading whatsoever of these jeans...and continue to use it for all clothes that seem to need extra-special 'treatment'.
Thing is? It's a regional product, and not really available in mass-market stores. Here it is, just in case you're interested in it anyway:
http://www.scrubnaturally.com/.....ndry-soap/
I have the lavender one, and I love it.
Also - I've recently fallen in love with Mrs. Meyers household cleaning products, and have noticed that their all-purpose concentrated cleaner (you add your own water to it) in the Lemon Verbena scent is just fabulous on my floors - so am suggesting this brand to try for laundry soap too, even though I haven't actually tried it yet. I *love* Mrs. Meyers brand liquid dishwashing soap, countertop spray cleaner and the concentrate cleaner that you can use to mix with water for floors or refill your counter-top spray cleaner with (add water). Just for the record, my recently used the Mrs. Meyers concentrated all-purpose cleaner mixed with water to clean off my giant front porch - it was all dusty and grimy...it worked beautifully, even for a heavy-duty job such as this, and yet it doesn't seem "harsh" if that makes sense. So, based on this, I would recommend the laundry soap too.
http://www.mrsmeyers.com/Produ.....-_68_Loads
Just for the record, I recently tried those silly-looking Tide "pods" and I don't recommend them, even if they are convenient. They don't always dissolve quite right, and I ended up with some melted-on goop of some kind on a knit top. I re-washed the top with the "Nothing But Soap" detergent (regional product) and all was well, but I don't think I'd buy the Tide 'pods' again, as convenient as they are. I will use them up (on towels and such) but wouldn't buy again.
The Woolite for darks is excellent. Other than that - try "Nothing But Soap" if you don't mind ordering from a new-ish soap maker - it's excellent stuff. But, like I said, it's a regional product and it's not as easy to find. Personally, I would recommend ordering one little bag of "Nothing But Soap" laundry detergent and using it on clothes that you're concerned about, in terms of maintaining colour (ie. no fading) and so on.
Or, try the Mrs.Meyers - I know (from experience) that their household cleaning products are very good.
Oh, and before I forget - Dryel is still a pretty good thing for items that want to be dry-cleaned. Does a good job, imo.
In the end, I don't have a good mass-market laundry detergent to recommend other than Woolite for Darks or Dryel for things that you might want to try cleaning at home without sending to the cleaners:
http://www.woolite.us/products_dark.php
http://dryel.com/dryel-products/
Good luck and please let us know what you think of anything new that you try - because I am also interested in good laundry detergents as well.
