I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Cascade. I received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

I’ve mentioned before on my site that Cascade is the dishwashing detergent brand that I consistently find to be the one to beat. It cuts through grease and grime unlike anything else out there, in my opinion. So when I heard about a new product on the market called Cascade Platinum, I was really curious to see how Cascade, already the top dishwashing detergent performer, had improved even more.

First and foremost, I noticed that these pacs included Dawn, a brand known for its ability to cut through grease when you are hand washing. We always keep a bottle of blue Dawn on hand in our home. But we try to avoid hand washing dishes as much as possible simply because we don’t have time for all of that!

We also, unfortunately, don’t seem to even have time to get our dishes in the dishwasher. The sight of dirty dishes that have been sitting out for 24 hours with food stuck to them is not uncommon in my house. That’s embarrassing to say, but it is just the truth! Cascade Platinum, however, is designed for those of us who don’t like washing dishes by hand AND who don’t even seem to like to load the dishwasher in a timely fashion. It can scrub through that 24 hour stuck-on food, eliminating the need to pre-wash dishes (because let’s be real, people like me who don’t like to load the dishwasher also don’t like to clean their dishes before they clean their dishes!).

But there’s yet another great feature of Cascade Platinum: it also is designed to clean your dishwasher, in addition to your dishes. That’s SO awesome, because just a few weeks ago I was realizing that my dishwasher was due for its own cleaning, a chore I was NOT looking forward to doing. No need, now! Cascade Platinum is working hard for me now, keeping that water film build-up from happening on the interior walls of the dishwasher.

And it probably goes without saying that my dishes are sparkling clean, too! But to prove my point, allow me to show you my most recent load of dishes:

Let’s take a closer look at that bowl. It has inside of it 48 hour old baby food mixed with grains that is beyond crusty. Let’s take a closer look!

Honestly, when I put this in the dishwasher, I knew that I was going too far. This is the type of dish that needs to soak in the sink for a few hours in order for the food to dislodge. But I thought I’d put Cascade Platinum to the ultimate test, knowing it would ultimately fail, but curious to see just how much of the gunk it could get off before admitting its defeat.

This is what I saw when I opened my dishwasher:

Um….WHAT?!?! How about a closer look?

I was rendered speechless. And that’s really saying something since I’m a blogger!

My dishes have never looked better, and the only time my dishwasher looked this nice was on the day it was installed. Cascade Platinum is an amazing find, offering all the power of Cascade Complete with the added benefit of film prevention for the dishwasher, itself. I plan to use this product interchangeably with Cascade Complete in order to keep my dishes AND my dishwasher looking their best.

Cascade Platinum is more expensive than most other detergents, but after seeing what it could do to the most disgusting of dishes (which are a common sight in my house) I’m convinced that it is worth every penny. I hate to pre-wash, I’m bad about loading the dishwasher immediately after meals, and I never clean my dishwasher. I need the kind of help that Cascade Platinum can provide! Cascade Platinum is particularly nice to use when I’m photographing food, as I sometimes do for the blog. Even Top Chef judge and editor of Food+Wine magazine, Gail Simmons, sees the power of Cascade Platinum and has partnered with Cascade to discuss why presentation is just as critical as preparation when it comes to food.

If you are on Instagram, then you don’t want to miss the opportunity to show how sparkly your food presentations can be with the My Platinum Instagram contest. For four weeks, you can upload photos related to a weekly contest theme and be entered to win a brand new Whirlpool dishwasher (two winners each week!). One lucky grand prize winner will get a Platinum kitchen makeover! EEEE!!!! Just be sure to check out all the rules, and use the #MyPlatinum hashtag and tag @MyCascade on your uploads. Here is a rundown of the weekly themes (note that week 1 ends today, so be sure to get your entry in!).

Week 1: (6/3-6/9) My Platinum Plate. Show us your best dish styled from the sparkling plate up!

Week 2: (6/10-6/16) My Platinum Bite. Show us your best bite and most creative use of sparkling silverware!

Week 3: (6/17-6/23) My Platinum Clink. Show us how you serve up creative concoctions in sparkling glasses. Cheers!

Week 4: (6/24-6/30) My Platinum Table. Show us your sparkling tablescape for your most special celebrations!

Good luck! Please let me know if you win one of the prizes!!!