Years ago I read a review in Consumer Reports about shampoos. I don't remember who won, but I do remember them saying the two following things:
1) Shampoos, they said, are chemically identical to dishwashing soap, but with the addition of fragrances. This is no longer true, I don't think, since my dishwashing soap smells like apples.
2) No matter which shampoo you use, you should use another one every so often. Evidentally, each shampoo leaves part of itself as a residue, and that can only be removed by using a competing product.
I was thinking about those things when I recently used, for the first time ever!, some deep pore cleanser product. As soon as I spread it on my skin, I wondered how the less deep pores would feel about being neglected, and felt bad for them. The stuff is gritty, and it felt identical to Lava, a soap I used quite a bit earlier in life, and which I now see is owned by the WD-40 people.
I don't know how much this deep cleaning potion costs, but I have a hunch it's more than either Lava or the more masterly Boraxo. I once had a job, one in an office, where the men's room had Boraxo, and I always considered that to be a nod toward our gonads. No women's room, ever, has Boraxo!
I have another hunch. Marketeers may have learned that people will pay more for any product that's described as a "body wash" or cleanser, much more than they would for a soap. This is the kind of thinking that not only keeps our country great, but profitable as well.
Cleanliness
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2 comments:
I think that one of the reasons they call it "body wash" is because there's a specific definition for soap and liquid soaps don't usually qualify. That said, I find body wash to be quite enticing and compelling, but liquid soap sounds like something you find at the bottom of the soap dish.
(BTW - my grandfather used Lava soap. He was quite manly. But I never thought about using pumice soap on my face. Not a bad idea!)
Back when I was in school, I learned all cleaning products boiled down to one of three things, bleach, ammonia, and soap.
Bleach ... bleaches and ammonia shines and sparkles. Soap is the stuff that's "wetter" than water and that breaks the surface tension or something like that.
There *is* some legal requirement for calling something "soap," though. I have no idea what it is, but for years Fels Naptha and Ivory Snow were about the only things with that as actually part of their names. You're right, I was wrong in my post and I guess I should have said "detergent." Most of the harder things are "cleansing bars," not soap.
And Ivory Snow is no longer soap, either!
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