Grimy, smelly laundry has met its match. We put a new viral hack to the test, and here's what happened.
Most of us assume that if our laundry looks clean, it is clean. But is it? Faint stains, lingering smells and fabrics that just look dull drive many of us to the latest laundry craze.
Enter Reddit user Kismai, whose detailed approach to laundry has earned him something of a cult following. He’s not a professional spokesperson or a detergent-brand insider—just someone who spills a lot and has spent years refining a laundry system that fans say completely transformed the way their clothes look and feel.
At the center of his method is an often overlooked ingredient that most of us never think about adding to laundry, if we’ve even heard of it at all. I took a closer look at how it works with Jennifer Ahoni, a principal scientist at Tide, and put it to the test myself. Here’s what to know, including easy steps to use this method yourself.
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What detergent ingredient is an absolute must for cleaner laundry?
Lipase is what people are chasing when they want their laundry to actually be clean, not just look the part. At the risk of making your laundry sound like a biology lab, let’s cover the basics. For starters, lipase is part of a broader class of detergent ingredients called enzymes.
“Enzymes, which are biological catalysts, are a class of ingredients in detergents used to break down complex stains into smaller, water-soluble pieces that can be more easily washed away,” Ahoni says. Lipase, in particular, accelerates the breakdown of greasy substances, so she says it’s especially useful for tackling body-oil buildup on clothes, as well as cooking fats like oils and butter.
She adds that removing these types of stains is particularly important for “modern synthetic fabrics, which tend to trap these body soils and greases more than natural fabrics.” (If you’ve ever had workout gear that seems clean but soon starts to stink again—yeah, lipase can help.)
Is lipase a common detergent ingredient?
Nope, lipase isn’t in every detergent, and it’s not always easy to find. That’s because in the United States, we tend to use liquid detergent, and enzymes are more stable in powder form. (That said, you can find lipase in select liquids and pods, as well as powders.)
“The most common detergent form [in the U.S.] is liquid, where manufacturers historically have leveraged advanced surfactants for grease and oil cleaning,” Ahoni says. “These surfactants work by lowering the surface tension of water and surrounding grease molecules, allowing them to be more easily lifted and suspended in water.”
If you’re not using lipase now, don’t despair. “A robust system of anionic and nonionic surfactants is also highly effective at removing greasy soils,” Ahoni says, referring to detergents with negatively charged ions (anionic) and uncharged ions (nonionic). “However, we are indeed seeing a growing inclusion of lipase in detergent formulas, likely driven by a consumer demand for a deeper clean and for odor removal,” she says.
Where can you find lipase-based detergents?
You don’t need to go to a special store to find lipase-based ingredients, but you can’t just grab any old product off the shelf. Because the U.S. market heavily favors products that are less likely to contain lipase, Kismai created what he calls the “Lipase List,” a public Google sheet of detergents, pretreaters and boosters sold in North America that contain lipase.
A few popular detergents on the list include:
- Tide + Ultra Oxi (and other Tide powders)
- Ariel (2X, Ultra Oxi)
- Gain (powder formulas)
- ECOS Laundry Detergent with Enzymes
- Everspring Ultra Concentrated
- Dropps (Odor + Stain or 4-in-1 Plus Oxi)
- 365 by Whole Foods Concentrated Detergent
How do you use lipase-based detergent in the wash?
You use lipase detergent like you would any other, but Kismai’s method is really about stacking the odds in your favor to get the best results.
It’s not complicated, but it’s not the “stuff my clothes in the machine and hope for the best” laundry routine. If you want to follow in the footsteps of the internet’s laundry folk hero, here’s what Kismai does:
- Separate your laundry. Cotton sheets, towels and regular, everyday clothing (even synthetics) must be washed separately from delicates like wool and silk. Separate lights and darks for best results.
- Group items based on soil level. Kismai says this gives you more control over how each load gets washed.
- Treat visible stains. Use an enzyme-based pretreater before washing. Kismai calls this his “not-so-secret weapon,” especially for food and body soils, and recommends letting it sit for at least 30 minutes so it has time to work.
- Treat heavier, greasy messes. Pretreat spills like motor oil or thick, waxy buildups with a liquid detergent rich in surfactants, as Ahoni suggests. (Enzymes alone may not cut it.) Work it into the fabric before tossing it into the wash.
- Don’t overload the machine. Clothes need room to move so the detergent can actually do its job. Aim for a full but not crammed load—something I am very guilty of!
- Wash in warm water. Kismai leans toward warm water, using a normal cycle and longer agitation, along with extra rinses to help fully remove detergent and any loosened grime.
- Dry on a gentle cycle. Kismai recommends gentler settings for most clothing, saving higher heat for sturdier items like towels.
So what happened when I put this seemingly magical ingredient to the test?
Guess what: Lipase works!
I used the Kismai-approved 365 by Whole Foods Concentrated Detergent, which comes in a liquid form. I ran multiple loads throughout the week, and I found it especially effective on gross and greasy food stains, as well as my workout gear, just as Ahoni and Kismai said.
Here’s what I tested lipase detergent on, and what I found:
Stained kitchen towels
I like to think I’m a sustainable girlie, so in my kitchen, I use reusable “paper towels,” which are really just a pile of neatly folded, aesthetically colored rags. Sometimes one of those little cloths can last me all day long. But when I’m cleaning counters or cooking dinner (I’m a messy cook!), I’m running through five or more of those suckers in an hour. So there is usually a fat stack of greasy, grody towels piling up in my sink—and they all need a deep clean.
The verdict: I washed my reusable towels using Kismai’s method, and the food stains—from a blob of oil to the remnants of a puddle of sauce—lifted noticeably, no lingering crunchy spots or shadowy discoloration.
Workout clothes
After my grimy towels, I tackled my grubby workout clothes (I am, unfortunately, a heavy sweater). So I had plenty to test this method on! Fellow athletes, you probably know that even if you immediately toss your gear into the wash after a strenuous session, it’s really difficult to get body-oil-based grime out of synthetic materials. And workout clothes can sometimes hold onto that faint, baked-in sweat smell, no matter how quickly you get them into the wash.
The verdict: My workout gear came out smelling neutral and clean, with no lingering odor. And since I went for an unscented detergent, there wasn’t any perfumy scent either.
Any bad news?
There was one clear drawback: Finding a lipase-based detergent wasn’t exactly easy. The 365 detergent was one of the more accessible options near me (thanks, Whole Foods down the street), but depending on where you live, you may have to order online or hunt around a bit.
Will I keep using lipase detergent?
Yes! Lipase detergent is officially being added to my laundry rotation.
At around $12 for 100 fluid ounces, it was a bit more expensive than the detergents I usually go for. But if it continues to keep my kitchen rags from getting permanently gross and my workout clothes from holding onto the scent of sweat, I’m willing to pay a little extra.
It’s not a miracle cure, though. As Ahoni points out, no single ingredient can tackle every type of stain, so a well-rounded routine still matters. But for greasy buildup and body oils, which often stick around no matter how many times I wash, lipase made a noticeable difference.
So if your biggest laundry frustrations involve oil, odor or that “why doesn’t this feel clean?” problem, it’s absolutely worth a shot. Just be prepared to do a little digging to find the right formula—and don’t expect it to solve every laundry problem overnight.
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Sources:
- Jennifer Ahoni, principal scientist at Tide; interviewed, March 2026
- Vox: “The mysterious Redditor who’s changing the way we do laundry”
- Dirty Laundry: “Laundry 101 With Kismai”
- AAPS PharSciTech: “Stability Improvement of a Liquid Enzyme Product”
