Tester Tuesday - Dryel (At Home Dry Cleaning)

You know what irks me?? Having to pay for dry cleaning. I mean...I know it is a necessity but really...dry cleaning a dress can be anywhere from $6 - $12. All depending, of course, on if there are special directions, a liner, etc., etc. Then if you take in multiple dresses....good grief, what a dent to the purse strings. By the time I've left the dry cleaners, I could have bought myself some new shoes! I hate that feeling.

So, I decided to give Dryel a shot. I bought the at home starter kit at Walmart for $6.97. This starter kit comes with a booster spray, 1 bag and 2 cloths (which are damp). Says it cleans up to 2 loads - each load can contain up to 10 garments. Timing says it will take 15 minutes.

First, let me say that I will wear a dress multiple times before taking it to the dry cleaner. I have an office job and it doesn't really get dirty while sitting behind a desk. There have been times, however, that I've spilled something, played with a pup or just by living in Vegas and being in sweltering heat and I have no choice but to sweat while wearing my pretty dresses.

I chose to test a "no name" dress. I wore this to Thanksgiving at a friends house who had an adorable dog that I couldn't keep my hands off of. Needless to say I was covered in fur and smelled a bit like dog. Here are the before pictures:

With intentions of taking this dress to the dry cleaners, it was bunched up in a corner for a couple of weeks. The large blue-ish spot is lighting from the window in our bathroom...didn't notice until I just uploaded them :)

The directions say to put your clothing items into the bag and one of the cloths that they provide. It also states to put in the dryer on medium heat for 15 minutes. Problem for me....I have high heat and low heat...womp womp womp.

I ended up doing low heat for 30 minutes as an alternative. However, I did check on my dress after 15 minutes. Since the cloth was still damp, I decided that the additional 15 minutes would be necessary. Once the dryer finished, this is what I was left with:

Are you amazed?! Yeah, me either. Minus the fact that it is slightly less wrinkled, the dog fur is still in tact. Balls. Did I just waste my money?? Well...the good news is, it past the sniff test. Woo hoo...small victories. I ended up taking a lint roller to the dress and ironing it. At least the smell of dog was gone.

However, the starter kit also comes with a booster spray. Needed to test this out too. Seeing that dress #1 wasn't ruined, I decided I would test out another dress. This time I tested a P.U.G. dress. Having a fluffy swing dress while doing the side shuffle between two cars in a garage isn't ideal for the hem line of any of my dresses. I'm constantly getting my hem line dirty from the dirt off of our cars. Grrrr. Here are the before:

Not sure if you can see the dirt...but it's there.

I repeated the process, keeping to just the one dress in the bag with the second provided cloth. However, this time I added the booster spray to the hem line of the dress where I seem to gather dirt. Won't lie...I was scared to put this dress through the process. I mean....it's P.U.G. But, happy to say...IT SURVIVED!!

Velvet-y bow not harmed.

Not sure if you could tell..but it's still there.

Welp, while I hoped with all my might that the dirt would lift...alas, it did not. I'm going to go ahead and say that this didn't live up to my hopes and dreams. That being said....if you are just looking to freshen up your garments - this works great! Still have to do trips to the dry cleaner though....but maybe not as frequently.

Hope this helps!

Essentially,

Evie xoxo