As I recently confessed, I do not like doing laundry. I don’t even like to talk about it, which is why I’m surprised to find myself writing about it, again, in the same month, never mind the same year.

During BlogHer, Erin and I were invited to attend a luncheon hosted by Tide and Gymboree, at which Tide was introducing a new product, Tide Stain Release In-wash Booster. Very long story short (and that’s probably my biggest complaint about the lunch, I could have done with less details about how the product worked, and heard more from their guest speaker about how to save money) the little packet of powder and goo is designed to give your detergent a “boost” to get out tough stains.

During the lunch we even did a demo where I, the victim for our table, swirled a grass stained white cloth in water with a boost packet and… “ta-da” the stain came out. It was a neat demonstration but certainly nothing different from any info-mercials I’ve watched on TV for Oxiclean.

I didn’t think about the product, or the demo, again until I came home and remembered that my favorite white pants – the ones I had recently saved – were badly stained with blood. I’m not going to tell you how they got stained, suffice to say that it was the type of stain that is familiar to many women, and in my case, always dooms the clothing I was wearing because I don’t do bleach and never pre-treat.

This time, the stain had been allowed to set over two days, so I didn’t have much hope of saving my pants another time. But I threw the pants in with the booster pack I received in my BlogHer gift bag, and my normal detergent, and crossed my fingers.

Taking the pants out later that day, I was a bit stunned when I realized… it worked and my pants had been saved, again, from the rag bin.

Given all the controversy/discussion/arguments about bloggers writing about products they’ve received for free, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to write this post. But the fact is, if I hadn’t received the sample for free, I’m also not sure I would have thought to try the product if I saw it in the store. And, considering how many times I’ve bought something that should have worked, and didn’t, I thought I’d share one product with our readers that seems to live up to the hype.

Anyway, now that I’ve tried it, you can be certain I’ll be picking up a bag of the miracle packets next time I’m at Target. I may throw them into every load “just in case” because I need all the laundry help I can get!

UPDATE: I just went to Target to buy the packets, and after comparing the price ($6.99 for 18 packets or a 68 oz bottle of liquid), I decided to go for the liquid to save money. We’ll see how it compares.