Abigail Novak, Senior editor

I'm the senior editor here, and most of my job is saying no. No to the spray that only made a list because it was on sale that week. No to a "safe on all fabrics" claim when the directions on the same bottle say to keep it away from wool and silk. No to a ranking nobody has opened since the prices moved.

My starting point is the care label, not the stain. The little washtub, triangle and circle tell you more about what a remover is allowed to do than any product page, so I read them next to the directions and the ingredient list. Then I read the owner reviews, the angry ones first, because "it left a pale patch on my navy shirt" is the sentence that matters on a stain site.

I write the guides on care labels, delicates and dry-clean-only pieces, ink and makeup, and set-in stains, and I edit Luis's and Monica's.

We don't run a laundry room full of stained shirts, and I'd rather say so plainly than dress it up. We read, we compare, and we keep the lists current.