Here Here Get Your Soap! Take a bath. Part2

[cleanfresh]

For those of you in search of soaps from the past THE VERMONT COUNTRY STORE website carries CAMAY, LUX, PALMOLIVE, and LIFEBOUY. They also have a groovy hippy vegan soap, a vaseline soap, pine, pine tar, and coal tar soaps. Click on the apothecary department. Then click on soaps. Before you leave this thread please sing my fun song that I wrote the lyrics too, well kind of. It's to be sung to the tune of "What's love got to do with it".

What's soap got to do got to do with it?
What's soap but a cleaning agent
What's soap got to do got to do with it?
Who needs soap when there's body wash?

It's bubbly
Simply soo clean
You must try to ignore that it means more than that

Ooh what's soap got to do got to do with it?
What's soap but a cleaning agent?
What's soap got to do got to do with it?
Who needs soap when there's bodywash?

 

[angus]

Yes, the Vermont Country Store carries those soaps, but they charge quite a lot for them. I used to like the Vermont Country Store, but their prices have gotten way ahead of them. Yankee value indeed!

 

[neptunebob]

I had to ask somewhere....

A few days ago I came on and read a thread about Lysol Laundry Sanitizer from the 80's. I remember the product and now I know it wasnt' a figment of my imagination!. I tried to find the original thread but cannot. The commercial had a woman using a White-Westinghouse front loader built under a counter. When she opened the door, a ghost came out and shouted: "GERMS!". Later, they show the ghost "disappearing" in the oval window. I remember it smelled nice but was expensive and probalby did not sell. Anyone remember this?

 

[cleanfresh]

Hey, Neptunebob

I don't remember that one. But, maybe the reason that product didn't stay on the market long is because of price and the fact that a lot of people resent having to buy so many laundry products. For example, you have detergent, liquid bleach, color-safe bleach, prewash spray, bluing, special stain removers, fabric softeners, etc. And, some people get tired of a list that keeps growing.

 

[tlee618]

Yes Bob, I do remember it and did buy it a few times myself. As I recall it did give the laundry and the washer itself a nice clean smell. I remember the ad too, in fact that is what made me buy the product in the first place as I had just gotten my White Westinghouse space mates. I too was surprised when I could no longer find it. Terry

 

[oxydolfan]

Yes, I do!

The box was a metallic blue color, with one of those metal pull-out spouts on the side. A piece of resealable yellow tape was over that-you resealed it after using, so it wouldn't clump up.

I wonder what happened to that, and La France?

 

[launderess]

IIRC the Lysol Sanitiser box was white with silver and or maybe blue lettering. Not sure what was in the product, nor if it was an EPA registered disenfectant.

The company that made La France was bought by the Dial company, though it still produced the product for distribution/sale by Dial Corp. One day, the company just up and went out of business (according to what I've been told by Dial customer service), leaving no time for Dial to even stock pile La France, thus the shortage. No one ever knew it was going to stop production, so no one thought to order extra (I'm speaking of shops and so forth).

La France was one of the first "bluings" to use OBAs, called "Luminess". OBAs work better on nylons and man made fibers than traditional bluings, and they also did not streak/stain the way bluings can. Final advantage was La France could be added to the wash cycle instead of waiting for the final rise, a time savings to Mrs. American Housewife.

Over time the need for bluing/separate OBAs was less as most all TOL and MOL detergents contained tons of optical brightening agents, especially the king of detergents, Tide. So the main market for all bluings declined. La France tried to reposition itself as "out whitens bleach", but cannot remember if final incarnations included any type of oxygen bleach.

One can find NOS boxes of La France at estate sales, thrifts, and of course eBay. Though IHMO prices are pretty dear for what one gets.

L.

 

[neptunebob]

As for the "growing list" of laundry products - Around here, that's part of the fun!

 

[gmmcnair]

La France

Final incarnations contained no bleach at all and were essentially worthless as a booster, IMHO. The final product was a sad shadow of what was made by Purex in the 70's and early 80's, with some surfactants and that was it.

I stocked up at Grocery Outlet when it showed up there (thinking it was like the old stuff), and while it whitened stuff adequately, it wasn't any great loss when I ran out of it. I would be sadder if Mrs. Stewart's went out of business.

 

[peterh770]

Isn't there a bluing in the NYC area called Bluette that is supposed to be added to the wash cycle?

 

[launderess]

Yes, Bluette is easily found in NYC and other areas of the East cost/Northeast.

My bluing stash contains the following

Reckitt's Paris Blue (old fashioned bluing cubes, one puts into muslin).

Bluette Bluing

Vintage Mrs. Stewart's Bluing

Of the three, prefer "bag bluing" as it is easy to remove any stains,streaks or over bluing. The vintage Mrs. Stewart's is next because it gives a nice clear blue (though slighly green IMHO), but does not have the "rotten egg" scent Bluette and even bag blues can have,especially when one has used vinegar as laundry sour before bluing.

The rotten egg smell comes from a reaction between the iron content of prussian blue (what all solid bluings are made of, including Bluette which is merely solid bluing in solution form).

Also if one is laundering with soap, all traces of soap must be removed before using prussian blue, otherwise it will make nasty stains upon ironing.

Vintage Mrs. Stewart's bluing could also be used as ink, as could other types of bluing in the same class. This is why one must take great care not to get undiluted Mrs. Stewart's on laundry.

Never liked "bluing in the wash" as bluing really only requires a few minutes. Items left too long in a bluing bath will turn gray. Also it is vital items in a bluing bath keep moving, otherwise streaks and or stains will result.

L.