Today's rant...

[spudtater]

...is about soap.

Or rather, it is about the absence of soap. You walk into a chemist these days and pick up the average squeezy-bottle of what appears to be liquid soap. You read the label:

Gentle moisturising hand-rinse with vanilla scent.

Excuse me? Hand rinse?! I don't want my hands rinsed, I want them clean! The above description makes absolutely no claim that this will occur; am I actually buying soap or some sort of beauty product that's been placed in the wrong aisle?

It may be a shock to find out, Mr. Advertising Executive, but when the average man goes to clean his hands his main concerns are not:

1. That the cleaning process will go easy on his poor delicate hands.
2. That his hands will continue to be moist even after vigourously drying them off with a towel.
3. That they smell as if he has been raiding the freezer for ice-creamy goodness.

Believe it or not, the main concern of anybody — even women! — after they have been to the bathroom is getting the nasty stuff off.
Which means they want SOAP, dammit, SOAP! Just because it has four letters does not make it a dirty word!

I mean, honestly! In the end I picked up a pack of Imperial Leather bars, because it had the word "ORIGINAL" on it, which implies that it is in fact the same product as it was when it was advertised as 'soap'.
It is in fact soap — I discover this just now — because it has 'Toilet Soap' in very small, shameful letters on the back in the mandatory goods description section. Oh, that and listing its main ingredient as 'Sodium Tallowate'.   8^)

Comments

[nicholaw.livejournal.com]

And for those of us who *do* have sensitive skin, the fancy arsed products are often crap in any case, since it usually seems to be the scent which causes irritation.

Saying that, I prefer the liquid soap-like dispensing thingies to a bar of soap because you don't end up with a grotty bar of soap when you actually have to clean dirty hands.

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

Yep, my hands go really dry when I use soap and I have to put moisturiser on my face every time I have a shower.

Really don't care about smelling of vanilla, but it could be worse.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Well, fair point, but nobody's helped by poorly-labelled products.

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

But most of the liquid "soaps" are a weak solution of some random detergent. That's accurate labelling, as far as I can see - and they'll still get you clean.

Incidentally, bacteria will quite happily grow in wet soap, so you might want to make sure you have a good soap dish / rack to keep it dry.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

> But most of the liquid "soaps" are a weak solution of some random detergent. That's accurate labelling, as far as I can see - and they'll still get you clean.

But how do I know they'll get me clean? I have no knowledge of random detergents. Thus I buy the closest thing I can find to soap.

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

Fairy nuff. Just trying to suggest that the packaging is marginally less culpable, since there is no generic term - soaps are not detergents, and vice-versa. Marketers are still evil scum, mind you.

Now I feel like making my own soap, in order to prove something-or-other. That I can successfully blind myself with sodium hydroxide, probably.

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

The only soap type product I can use is "Pears Transparent SOAP" which makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is soap. Anything else brings me out in a rash. It's such a pain.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Yay, SOAP.

[galaxy-girl00.livejournal.com]

I don't use soap at all as it is too harsh for my skin. I have never used soap to wash my face! I have to use a very expensive clenser and toner (or those boots things you have seen me use).

Other than that I have to use Molten brown body wash that smells like eucolyptus. Makes me feel like a Koala Bear!

hugs Suzi