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Best fabric conditioners: six compared, and most people do not need one
Fabric conditioner works by leaving a thin layer of fat on your clothes. That is not a criticism, it is the mechanism. Once you know it, the towels question and the sportswear question and the children’s pyjamas question all answer themselves.
By Mrs House · Updated 12 August 2026 · 10 min read
Mrs House is independent. Nobody pays for a place in a ranking here, and no brand saw this page before it went live.
The short answer
The honest answer for most households is to use none at all. If you want one, buy Bio-D Fragrance Free at about 11p a wash.
- Best overall: Bio-D Fragrance Free, 11p a wash. Two ingredients, no perfume, no preservative, Allergy UK certified.
- Cheapest: Comfort Pure, under 6p a wash. The least perfumed of the supermarket bottles.
- Skip: Lenor, 7p a wash. Eight named allergens and no published preservative.
Never use it on towels, on anything technical or sporty, or on children’s nightwear, and Fairy prints that last one on its own bottle.
How we assessed these
Six conditioners, one method, applied to all of them equally. We read every ingredient declaration published under the Detergents Regulation and worked out a price per wash from the stated pack size and wash count rather than comparing bottle prices, because the bottles are different sizes and different concentrations.
Then we asked the same four questions of each. Which cationic surfactant does the work, and does the brand name it. Is there perfume, and are any of the 26 declarable EU fragrance allergens listed on the pack. What preserves it. And does the brand publish a wash count at all, because without one you cannot compare anything.
We also went after the questions the category avoids: whether conditioner really does reduce towel absorbency, why activewear and flame retardant nightwear manufacturers tell you not to use it, and whether the residue builds up in the machine. Those answers came from appliance manufacturers, from UK nightwear safety guidance and from the industry’s own trade body rather than from laundry blogs.
Every product is scored on the same five parts: does it work (35 per cent), what it is made of (25 per cent), value (15 per cent), everyday use (15 per cent) and honesty of the claims (10 per cent). Where a brand would not publish something we asked for, we say so and we mark it down for it.
The ranking, at a glance
| Conditioner | Price | Per wash | Fragrance | Allergens named | Preservative | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bio-D Fragrance Free | £3.74 / 1L | 11p | None | Not applicable | None listed | 3.8 |
| 2 | Ecover Apple Blossom | £6.00 / 1.43L | Not stated | Yes | Three named | None listed | 3.3 |
| 3 | Comfort Pure | £4.75 / 2.49L | 6p | Yes | None named | Sodium benzoate | 3.2 |
| 4 | Fairy Sensitive Skin | £6.00 / 2.64L | 7p | Yes | None named | Not published | 3.0 |
| 5 | Lenor | £5.97 / 2.64L | 7p | Yes | Eight named | Not published | 2.7 |
| 6 | Almat So Soft (Aldi) | £1.79 / 1.05L | Not stated | Yes | Not published | Not published | 2.3 |
Naming fragrance allergens is a legal requirement above a threshold, so Lenor listing eight is compliance rather than carelessness. It does tell you how much perfume is in there.
The two we would actually buy
Best overall
And the clean pick
1. Bio-D Fragrance Free Fabric Conditioner
★★★★☆ 3.8 / 5
£3.74 for a litre, 33 washes, about 11p a wash. The declaration is two lines long: 5 to 15 per cent cationic surfactant, under 5 per cent citric acid, pH 2.75. No perfume, no preservative, nothing else. On a shelf where the competition adds fragrance, allergens and a preservative, that is a different kind of product.
The low pH is doing double duty. It is what makes the cationic surfactant deposit properly on the fibre, and at 2.75 it also inhibits microbial growth, which is why there is no preservative to declare. That is a neater piece of formulating than anything else here manages.
It is Allergy UK certified, Vegan Society, Leaping Bunny and a B Corp, and made in Hull. One caveat we would rather flag than leave: Allergy UK’s own page for Bio-D names the laundry liquid, the washing powder and the nappy fresh, and does not name the fabric conditioner specifically. The claim may well be fine. We could not confirm it for this exact product.
Pros
- Two declared ingredients, no perfume, no preservative, no allergens
- The pH does the preserving, so nothing has to be added to do it
- Allergy UK, Vegan Society, Leaping Bunny and B Corp, and refillable in 5 litres
- Publishes a wash count, which two products on this page do not
Cons
- 11p a wash, roughly double Comfort Pure
- Allergy UK’s own product list does not name the fabric conditioner specifically
- The cationic surfactant is declared by category only, so you still do not learn which one
- Not in supermarkets, so you have to order it
Buy it if you want one and you want the shortest declaration on the shelf. Skip it if you were buying conditioner for the scent, because this has none by design.
Runner up
Names its allergens
2. Ecover Fabric Softener, Apple Blossom and Almond
★★★☆☆ 3.3 / 5
£6.00 for 1.43 litres, and it publishes a proper list rather than the banded minimum: cationic surfactants, lactic acid, parfum with limonene, geraniol and geranyl acetate named, water, propylene glycol, lecithin and magnesium chloride. Naming the allergens is a legal duty above a threshold, but plenty of brands on this page have fragrance and name nothing, which tells you their perfume load sits under it.
Like Bio-D it uses an acid rather than a preservative, lactic in this case, and it has moved its cationic surfactant to a rapeseed oil base to get off palm. Leaping Bunny certified.
What stops it scoring higher is the arithmetic. The Tesco listing does not state a wash count, and different sources give different numbers for the same bottle, so we cannot tell you what a wash costs. On a 1.43 litre bottle at £6 that is somewhere between 13p and 17p, which would make it the most expensive here, and we are not going to publish an estimate as though it were a figure.
Pros
- Publishes a real ingredient list rather than the banded minimum
- Names its fragrance allergens, so anyone reactive can check
- Lactic acid rather than an added preservative
- Widely stocked in supermarkets
Cons
- No wash count on the retailer listing, so a price per wash cannot be worked out
- Sources disagree on how many washes the same bottle gives
- Between 13p and 17p a wash on any reading, the dearest here
- Contains perfume, which is the ingredient class most associated with reactions
Buy it if you want the transparency and you are not counting pennies per wash. Skip it if you need to compare cost, because Ecover will not let you.
The two supermarket sensitive skin bottles
Best value
Under 6p a wash
3. Comfort Pure Sensitive Skin
★★★☆☆ 3.2 / 5
£4.75 for 2.49 litres and 83 washes, which is 5.7p a wash and the best value on this page by a distance. The declaration is 5 to 15 per cent cationic surfactants, and under 5 per cent perfume, lactic acid and sodium benzoate.
It does contain perfume, and it names no allergens, which means the perfume load sits below the threshold at which they have to be listed. That is a meaningful difference from Lenor, which names eight. If somebody in the house reacts to laundry and you are not ready to give up conditioner entirely, this is the sensible supermarket choice.
What it will not tell you is what the cationic surfactant is. Nobody on this page will, but the claims stack up higher here than most: hypoallergenic, dermatologically tested, an association with the British Skin Foundation and a Mumsnet rating, and not one certificate or reference number behind any of it. Hypoallergenic in particular is not a defined term in UK law. It means the formulator aimed to reduce the chance of a reaction. It is not a test anybody passed.
Pros
- 5.7p a wash, the cheapest per wash here with a published wash count
- Perfume present but below the allergen naming threshold, unlike Lenor
- Sodium benzoate rather than an isothiazolinone preservative
- 4.8 from 213 reviews on Tesco
Cons
- Hypoallergenic and dermatologically tested are unregulated terms with no number behind them
- Contains perfume, in a product sold on sensitive skin
- The cationic surfactant is not named
- British Skin Foundation association cited with no reference
Buy it if you want a conditioner, you shop in a supermarket and you want the least perfumed one there. Skip it if you expected hypoallergenic to mean something had been certified.
Prints the warning
7p a wash
4. Fairy Fabric Conditioner for Sensitive Skin
★★★☆☆ 3.0 / 5
£6.00 for the 2.635 litre pack and 85 washes, about 7p a wash, 5 out of 5 from 1,949 reviews on Waitrose, and endorsed by the Skin Health Alliance. It is the bottle most people reach for when a baby arrives.
It earns a mark from us for something the others do not do. Printed on its own pack: do not use on children’s sleepwear or flame resistant garments, as it may reduce flame resistance. That is the manufacturer telling you the fatty layer it deposits is itself flammable and can interfere with a flame retardant treatment. UK children’s nightwear sold under the Nightwear Safety Regulations 1985 carries a label telling you to check the suitability of your washing agent, and this is what that label means. Fairy says it out loud. Most do not.
The declaration is thinner than the warning. Five to 15 per cent cationic surfactants and perfumes, no allergens named, no preservative named at all. And as with Comfort, the sensitive skin positioning rests on a product that contains fragrance.
Pros
- Prints the children’s nightwear and flame resistant warning on the pack, which most brands leave off
- About 7p a wash
- 5 out of 5 from 1,949 reviews, the largest review pool on this page
- Skin Health Alliance endorsement
Cons
- Contains perfume, in a product sold for sensitive skin
- No fragrance allergens named and no preservative named at all
- The cationic surfactant is not named
- Also warns against fleece and chenille, which is a lot of what people buy it for
Buy it if you want a big brand and you will heed the nightwear warning. Skip it if you are washing a lot of sportswear or children’s pyjamas, because it says not to.
The two we would not buy
Eight allergens
7p a wash
5. Lenor Fabric Conditioner
★★★☆☆ 2.7 / 5
£5.97 for 2.64 litres and 85 washes, about 7p a wash, and it is the most heavily perfumed thing on this page by its own declaration. Under 5 per cent cationic surfactants, then perfumes, then amyl salicylate, citronellol, coumarin, dimethyl phenethyl acetate, eugenol, geraniol, hexyl cinnamal, linalool, patchouli oil and a synthetic musk.
Naming those is compliance rather than carelessness. Above 0.01 per cent in a rinse off product they have to be listed, so a brand naming eight of the 26 declarable allergens is being straight with you about a perfume load that is genuinely high. Comfort names none, which tells you its load sits under the line.
That is the whole verdict really. If the scent is the reason you buy conditioner then Lenor is doing the job you are paying for and doing it well. If anybody in the house has reactive skin or eczema, this is the bottle on the page most likely to be the cause, and fragrance rather than anything else is the ingredient class dermatology associates with contact reactions from laundry.
Pros
- Names eight declarable fragrance allergens, which is honest labelling
- About 7p a wash
- The scent is what most people buy conditioner for, and it delivers it
Cons
- The highest declared fragrance allergen load on this page
- No preservative named
- The cationic surfactant is not named
- Nothing published on the wash count discrepancies between pack sizes
- Exactly the product to avoid if somebody reacts to laundry
Buy it if the smell is the entire point and nobody in the house reacts to anything. Skip it if anybody in the house has eczema or reactive skin.
Last place
Publishes nothing
6. Almat So Soft Premium (Aldi)
★★½☆☆ 2.3 / 5
£1.79 for 1.05 litres, and it is last for one reason. Aldi publishes no ingredient information for it online at all. The product page says to read the label in store. There is no wash count either, so we cannot work out a price per wash, and the community ingredient databases have the barcode with the list left blank.
We are not marking it down for being cheap. The Aldi laundry range has taken Which? awards and their non bio liquid is the best value thing on our detergents page. We are marking it down because a shopper who wants to know what is in a product they put on their bedding and their children’s clothes cannot find out without standing in the aisle with the bottle in their hand.
It may well be a perfectly good conditioner with an unremarkable declaration. We have no way of telling you, and neither has anybody else, and on a site whose whole basis is reading what is in things, that has to come last.
Pros
- £1.79, comfortably the cheapest bottle here
- Aldi’s wider laundry range has genuine Which? recognition
Cons
- No ingredient declaration published online anywhere we could find
- No wash count published, so a price per wash cannot be worked out
- No fragrance allergen information, no preservative information, nothing
- Only one review we could find anywhere
Buy it if you are in Aldi, you are price led, and you will read the bottle in the aisle. Skip it if you want to know what you are buying before you leave the house.
Prices checked 12 August 2026 and may have changed since. Price per wash is worked out from the published pack size and wash count.
The clean pick, and the honest catch
Our clean pick
Bio-D Fragrance Free
Two ingredients, and no perfume
Why it wins on materials
✓
Two declared ingredients
Cationic surfactant and citric acid. No perfume, no allergens, no preservative, nothing else on the label at all.
✓
The acidity does the preserving
At pH 2.75 the bottle preserves itself, which is why there is no preservative to declare. Neat formulating rather than a marketing claim.
✓
It removes the ingredient that matters
Fragrance is the ingredient class dermatology associates with contact reactions from laundry products. This has none, which is a real difference from every other bottle here.
✓
Certified, and refillable
Allergy UK, Vegan Society, Leaping Bunny and a certified B Corporation, made in the UK and sold in 5 litre refills.
What you give up
✕
11p a wash
Roughly double Comfort Pure. Over five washes a week that is about £29 a year against £15, which is not nothing.
✕
No smell at all
The scent is what most people are actually buying. This has none by design, and if that is your reason for using conditioner then this is not the product for you.
✕
One claim we could not confirm
Allergy UK’s own page for Bio-D names the laundry liquid, the powder and the nappy fresh, and does not name the fabric conditioner. Probably an omission on their side. We could not verify it.
The catch, said plainly. The clean pick wins this page and the honest recommendation is still to use nothing at all. Fabric conditioner is the only product category on this site where the best answer for most households is to stop buying it.
Here is what it actually does. The cationic surfactant, almost always an esterquat, carries a positive charge. Cotton and wool carry a slight negative one. The molecule sticks to the fibre, neutralises the static, and leaves its fatty tails pointing outwards, which is the softness you feel. That layer is hydrophobic, which is precisely why towels stop absorbing, and it is the reason both activewear manufacturers and children’s nightwear regulations tell you to keep it away from certain fabrics: it clogs the wicking channels in technical fabric, and on flame retardant nightwear it adds a flammable coating over the treatment. Fairy prints that warning on its own bottle.
It also does not disappear. Appliance manufacturers, Miele among them, document conditioner residue building up in the dispenser drawer and the siphon and causing smells in the machine. So the things to avoid using it on are towels, sportswear, waterproofs, microfibre cloths and children’s pyjamas, which between them are quite a lot of a normal wash. Sheets, jumpers and general clothing are the honest use case, and even there half a dose does what a full one does.
What to look for when you buy one
Work out whether you need it at all. Conditioner softens by coating fibres in a thin fatty layer. If what you want is softer towels, it is the wrong product, because that coating is what stops them absorbing. Softer towels come from a lower dose of detergent, a proper rinse and not overloading the drum.
Never on towels, sportswear or children’s nightwear. Towels for absorbency. Technical and sports fabric because the coating clogs the wicking. Children’s nightwear because it can reduce flame resistance, which is why UK nightwear carries a label telling you to check your washing agent, and why Fairy prints the warning on its own bottle.
Fragrance free is the claim that does the work. If somebody in the house reacts to laundry, this is the change to make, and it works whether the bottle says sensitive skin or not. The 26 declarable EU allergens have to be named above a threshold, so a bottle naming eight has a lot of perfume in it and a bottle naming none has comparatively little.
Hypoallergenic and dermatologically tested mean less than they sound. Neither is defined in UK law. The first means the formulator aimed to reduce reactions. The second means some dermatological test happened, not that a defined bar was passed. Ask for a certificate number and you will usually find there is not one.
Work out the price per wash. Divide the price by the stated wash count. On this page that runs from under 6p to about 17p, a threefold spread that is invisible from the shelf edge, and two of the six will not publish a wash count at all.
Use half. Dosing instructions assume a full, heavily soiled load in hard water. On an ordinary wash, half a cap does the same job, halves the cost and halves the residue building up in the machine.
Final verdict
Bio-D, or nothing
This is the only category on this site where our honest recommendation is to buy nothing. The softness is a fatty coating, and the list of fabrics it should not go near is long enough that most of a normal wash is on it. Nobody selling it will put that on the front of the bottle, and one of them, to its credit, does put it on the back.
If you want one, Bio-D Fragrance Free at about 11p a wash is the cleanest thing here by a distance and the only one with nothing added for scent. If price is what matters, Comfort Pure at under 6p a wash is the least perfumed of the supermarket bottles and is a reasonable buy. If the scent is the whole point, Lenor is doing exactly what you are paying it for and doing it well, and you should know it carries the heaviest allergen load on the page.
The bottle we would leave on the shelf is the Aldi, not because it is cheap but because Aldi will not tell you what is in it.