The present invention provides a shear thinning, transparent, gel laundry detergent composition, comprising a surfactant system containing surfactant material selected from an anionic surfactant, a nonionic surfactant or a mixture thereof, and from 1 to 8% by weight of a fatty alcohol gelling agent having the formula ##STR1##

wherein R1, R2 and R3 are independently selected from hydrogen and saturated or unsaturated, linear or branched C₁-C₁₆ alkyl groups, whereby the total number of carbon atoms in the gelling agent is between 8 and 17. It has been found that this gel laundry composition can stable suspend particles or capsules either for improving visual appearance or for practical reasons.