Light-duty liquid or gel dishwashing detergent compositions which are micro emulsions and which have desirable greasy food soil removal and sudsing characteristics

Disclosed are light-duty liquid or gel dishwashing detergent compositions that are especially useful for the manual washing of heavily soiled dishware. Such compositions are in the form of oil-in-water or bicontinuous microemulsions. They essentially contain an alkyl ether sulfate-based anionic surfactant, a polyhydroxy fatty acid amide-based nonionic surfactant component, a suds booster which is preferably an amine oxide, an aqueous liquid carrier, a liquid hydrocarbon such as isoparaffin and an glycol ether microemulsion-forming solvent.