Soap is an essential item in everyday life but we don’t often look closely at its story. It has been around for thousands of years having first been used by the Babylonians and Sumerians. Soap has been important to us for many hundreds of years but not for cleanliness and hygiene; it was an essential part of the textile making process and was used to remove grease from wool and cloth ready for dyeing. By Victorian times, there was an increased awareness of the role of soap in the prevention of disease. Working class families used bars of carbolic soap for washing floors, clothes and bodies. In the late 1800s, branded soaps were arriving on the scene.
Unbranded carbolic soap.
Lifebuoy soap.
Lifebuoy soap was one of the first, invented in 1894. By the 1930s it was sold in two sizes – the larger bar was known as Household Lifebuoy and was for cleaning homes and clothes. The smaller bar was for personal use.
By the 1950s, when I was a child, soap powder was available so clothes were no longer washed with bars of soap. My mum favoured Daz. There were milder, sweeter smelling toilet soaps available which were advertised as being good for the complexion. Compared to using carbolic soap on the face, Palmolive, Camay or Pears must have felt luxurious. The ads would have had us believe that in order to achieve a perfect complexion all that was needed was the right soap! We always had Lux in our house.
I still love the smell of Pears soap.
This is quite a claim!
It all seemed to be about looking like a movie star and pleasing your man.
There is now a bewildering amount of skincare products available. There are cleansers, toners, serums, night creams, rejuvenating creams, etc etc. The adverts still lead us to believe in the amazing properties of these products – but advertising laws are stricter now and the cosmetics companies can no longer make the claims that were made in the 50s and 60s.
Since this post has turned into a potted history of soap, I’m including a few advertisements from before the 1950s to entertain you.
1911 – the earliest days of motoring.
1931
1933
Childhood Memories of growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. 
Now I will no longer take my soap for granted… 😀I love this post very interesting and informative. I will like to reblog this on my page. Can I?
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Of course! I’m flattered that you want to do that. I’ve never reblogged a post even though I follow some fantastic blogs – yours being one of them. I will find out about reblogging. I am still learning!
Meryl
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i don’t remember Peals, but Lux and Palmolive I recall. And of course Ivory. We washed dishes and our bodies with Ivory soap.
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I remember Ivory too now! When I read your comment a memory of the smell of ivory soap came to me. Thanks, Meryl
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I always had a soft spot for the Pears soap ads. We used yellow Sunlight Soap for household cleaning, and my grandmother had a metal ‘soap shaker’ with a piece of Sunlight in it that she used to shake in the warm water in the sink before washing the dishes.
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A soap shaker! That’s a new one on me. The precursor to washing up liquid. Thanks, Meryl
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I still use Pears soap. My mother used to love Camay and there was always some in our house when I was a child. Do you remember the little sheets of … I don’t know what they were called, a sort of paper soap, to take on holiday or on ones travels? The ones my mm used smelled of lavender.
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Yes! I remember the sheets of papery soap! Thanks for sharing your memories.
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Such vivid memories of soap from my childhood. I am craving Carbolic as we speak.
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I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
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