Help! 80-90 year old soap. Please Read!

[RalphTheMastiff]

I am staying with my grandmother while my mother is away for the week end and we were just talking about soap.

She remembers when she was a kid, (she turns 90 in a few days) they used to get a big bar of soap that was yellow. By big she means big, said the bar was at least twice as big as my 5.5oz bar that I make. She said in her family they called it the "Yellow Soap"

She used to get "Strawberry rash" that at the time the Dr. thought to be a rash from picking strawberry's (what she did as a child for extra $ for the family) but later on was discovered to be just poison ivy that she reacts heavy to.

The Dr would prescribe this brand of soap to clean the sores with. Every night Her mother would poke them and remove the scabs and wash with this soap.

Her mother would also shave parts off to clean around the house and use on clothing.

Major memories for her and I'd love to find out what the name of the soap was and see if i could recreate (even if it has paraffin) it or find an old bar on eBay or something.

Any help identifying this would be fantastic!

Help me let my grandmother relive the past!

 

[ibct1969]

I'm not doing much this morning, so I decided to google this... maybe it was Lava soap?

Also, I found this interesting 'article' online:http://www.humblebeeandme.com/wp-content/uploads/Old-FashionedSoapRecipes.pdf If nothing else, it's an interesting read.

Or, was it Cashmere Bouquet? From this picture, it looked like it was yellow http://www.brandlandusa.com/2008/12/10/history-of-colgates-cashmere-bouquet/

Yeah, I know, I have too much time on my hands this morning!

 

[Millie]

Fels Naptha soap? My mom is very allergic to poison ivy so we always had a bar on hand. It is sold as a laundry soap. It probably will be smaller than in the old days. I don't think it is recommended as a regular body soap though.

 

[Obsidian]

Fels Naptha soap

That was the first thing I thought of too.

 

[KristaY]

Vote #3 for Fels Naptha! I knew it had been around a long time so went to explore it. Wikipedia says this:

"Fels-Naptha is an American brand of bar laundry soap used for pre-treating stains on clothing and as a home remedy for exposure to poison ivy and other skin irritants. Fels-Naptha is manufactured by and is a trademark of the Dial Corporation, a subsidiary of Henkel. The soap was originally created around 1893 by Fels and Co. and was the first soap to include naphtha. The inclusion of naphtha made the soap very effective for cleaning laundry, but it was not generally safe for personal use."

I think it would be worth it to pick up a bar and see if your grandma thinks it's the same soap. I find it at Walmart in the laundry soap section for about a dollar. I hope it's the right soap for her!

 

[Bamagirl]

I have to agree with the Fels Naptha. I have also read somewhere that it would get the oils from poison ivy out of clothes so that fits as well. Like was stated above, I find it in the laundry aisle.

 

[TeresaT]

I'm voting for Fels Naphtha soap, too. They still make it, although the bars are significantly smaller than they used to be. We used it for all kinds of stuff when I was a kid from scrubbing floors to scrubbing the ground-in dirt off of our feet in the summer.

 

[RalphTheMastiff]

It was OCTAGON LAUNDRY SOAP! She came up with at lunch that she thought it started with an O!

From a web site

"The original primary purpose of Octagon Soap was for washing laundry. In the old days, before the advent of liquid or even powdered detergents, folks kept a bar of laundry soap on hand alongside an old-fashioned grater, and they hand-grated up just the right amount of soap for each load of laundry. Laundry soaps are strong, never hard-milled like complexion soaps and beauty bars such as Black and White Skin Soap.

Laundry soaps contain a higher proportion of lye than fine soaps do, which makes them well-suited to getting rid of germs, dirt, and foul odors. To cover their tough, "soapy" scent, they may be (but are not always) strongly perfumed. Octagon comes out of this old-fashioned tradition of soap-making, and the scent used to perfume it is a Lemongrass and lemon fragrance, very similar to that found in Fan Laundry Soap from China and that other commercial spiritual cleanser, liquid Chinese Wash, which is also the basis for one of the most famous spiritual jinx-killers, Van Van spiritual supplies.

In hoodoo magical practices Lemongrass is an herb that is believed to clear away all evil messes and to provide personal protection from magical attacks. Therefore you can wash yourself -- or your clothes -- with Octagon Laundry Soap as a form of spiritual work."


Now would anyone by chance know how it was made of made of? And how high is a high lye ratio?

 

[Zany_in_CO]

What a hoot! I love reading about old fashioned soaps. If it isn't too much trouble, could you please post the link?

TIA

 

[RalphTheMastiff]

What a hoot! I love reading about old fashioned soaps. If it isn't too much trouble, could you please post the link?

TIA

ehhh I'm trying to find it! it was off a site on voodoo i think haha because of the lemongrass is supposed to do something If i can find it again I'll post it.

I'd love to try and find an ingredient list

 

[earlene]

I'm I'm on my phone right now, so I can't copy and paste very well. But I found some links so I will tell you how to find them yourself. That's soap was made by Colgate in 1928. It was discontinued in approximately the 1950s I think is what I read. So Google the name of the soap and Colgate and discontinued and you can read up on it. also if you use the word patent in your Google search you may be able to find the US Patent for the soap which may list the ingredients.

 

[Susie]

The Dr would prescribe this brand of soap to clean the sores with. Every night Her mother would poke them and remove the scabs and wash with this soap.

This is treatment for impetigo (staph infection of wounds, usually from children's dirty fingernails scratching anything that itches). I had many a scrubbing with a brush and soap to remove impetigo scabs.

 

[DeeAnna]

"... I had many a scrubbing with a brush and soap to remove impetigo scabs. ..."

Ow!!! Susie -- that sounds really painful!

As far as Octagon soap goes, it was what I was guessing from the name "yellow soap" -- it was originally a rosin-based general household and laundry soap. Both rosin and and silicate increase the detergency (cleaning ability) of the soap as well as acting as a cheap filler (cheap back in the day that is) to reduce the cost. Here's some info:

"...Octagon Products: The octagon shape was the trademark of a light yellow Octagon Laundry Soap with rosin, first marketed in 1887 [by the Colgate and Company]. It was sold for general household purposes. Later, a white version containing silicate was introduced. Other Octagons brands followed: White Floating Soap, Naphtha White, Soap Chips, Soap Flakes, Soap Powder, Scouring Cleanser, and a toilet soap.

"Octagon Coupons: From its early days, and lasting for many decades, each Octagon wrapper featured an octagon-shaped redeemable coupon. Beautifully designed “Octagon Soap Premium List” catalogs listed many premiums. A 32-page catalog from 1901 lists premiums redeemable for different quantities of coupons, from a very few to many: children's picture books, a collection of patriotic songs for 10 wrapper coupons, and for 1600 wrappers, a gentlemen's or a ladies' solid silver watch...."

 

[Zany_in_CO]

"... "...Octagon Products: The octagon shape was the trademark of a light yellow Octagon Laundry Soap with rosin, first marketed in 1887 [by the Colgate and Company]. It was sold for general household purposes. Later, a white version containing silicate was introduced."

I can help with adding the rosin -- I've used it in both CP bars & liquid soap. I gleaned a few more bits of info from this site:

http://elizabethprata.blogspot.com/2012/01/thrill-of-finding-octagon-soap.html

Scroll down to

Elizabeth Prata said...
Colgate's Octagon Soap contains a mixture of coconut oil, olive oil, lye, and other natural cleansing agents, Colgate's Octagon Soap also contains large amounts of anti-bacterial ingredients.

 

[randycoxclemson]

I thought Octagon soap was white. I purchased some a few years ago because someone said it would get the smell out of a car (turned out a dead mouse was in the air filter). Bought it at a Mast General Store, but it was white.

 

[DeeAnna]

Post 13 -- "...Later, a white version containing silicate was introduced...."