Which is the best travel wash?

Nobody wants to bother with laundry while they’re on holiday, but if you’re away for a while, don't want to take a huge amount of clothes out with you or have messy youngsters in tow, then it’s impossible to avoid a bit of hand washing in the hotel bathroom.

The question is - do travel washes actually work or just take up valuable space in your holiday luggage? Would shower gel work just as well in an emergency?

To find out, we tried a selection of travel washes against some typical holiday stains - such as olive oil, foundation, pasta sauce and sun cream on identical white t-shirts. We found that - unsurprisingly - all travel washes worked better than shower gel but not one of them managed to remove the notoriously difficult foundation or pasta sauce stain (so take extra care putting on your make-up or eating Italian food when you're away!).

But as a way of rescuing stained clothes in an emergency or making sure you get to wear used clothes more than once on a longer break, they were certainly up to the task.