Wash & Stain Bar

When a costume designer mentioned to us her love of the Wash & Stain Bar ($6) by the Laundress, we figured it was basically a bourgeois pre-treater. We'd seen them at J.Crew, but never paid them much mind. But she swore the long-lasting bar (a mix of vegetable soap, borax and other non-toxic ingredients) rids shirts of ring-around-the-collar and cuff stains in one wash. We tried it on an old beloved banker's collar.

At first, we simply swiped the soap around the collar and threw it in with the wash. That yielded good results, but there was still some trace of more stubborn stains. For our second test, we ran the cuffs and collar under water, applied the soap to the stains and then rubbed the fabric together against itself, which created a lather that, we hoped, would loosen the grime.

Lathering the areas you want to clean seems to be the key. The two-year-old soiled collar and cuffs came out remarkably clean. Like infomercial "before and after" clean. Sure, it's a little more work than we're used to, but you don't need to do it everytime you wash. Plus, it's a lot easier than taking your chances with dry cleaning or worse—taking a favorite shirt out of commission because of a dingy collar.