Oh my, how insensitive!

I confess, I'm a history nerd! If you've been following me for a bit, well, hopefully you've figured it out by now. I love to learn about the origins of things and recently I've been enjoying researching about cosmetics that where launched ages ago and are still around today. Staples, mythical, legendary products. The ones that have barely changed since their often humble beginnings and that so many of us still use today.

I was looking into soaps, yes the kind we all use every day. Society requires good smelling people and primarily our health requires it. Good hygiene is a must and we learn this practically at birth.

With the scare in recent years about germs proliferation, many of us carry a little bottle of antibacterial gel in our purse or pocket. No need to be a germaphobic, we know the importance of clean hands. A whole industry developed around our fear of getting sick and it seems that somehow we forgot about the good old bar of soap. I know, some prefer the liquid form but you get my point.

Sorry, I'm getting away from the subject, again. My point, soap has been around forever! I'm not kidding! The first evidence of it's existence, 2800 BC and a formula for soap was written in 2200 BC on a Babylonian clay tablet. Ok, maybe almost forever. 

We buy soap to get clean period! It comes in all shapes and sized, fragranced or not, some claim to be more moisturizing than others etc. You can get them for pennies or for a down payment on your car! No really, ever heard of Cor? This soap comes up at about $473.50 per pound! Now you can get a trial size, 10 gr for $15.00, a steal. This goes beyond good hygiene, it's a miracle in solid form! Umm, well...

Seeing a child saying "I'll always enjoy young fresh skin" is one thing.

The following add from the 50's simply suggests that using Palmolive you will keep fresh, young looking skin. At least that's  what the fortune teller wants the young lady to believe

Looking into vintage adds, I stumbled upon some published mostly in the 30's that would make most of us flip with anger. So insensitive and sexist I just lost my breath for a few seconds. 

DRY LIFELESS "MIDDLE-AGE" SKIN??? Considering that culturally women married at around 20 if not younger, this one looks quite venerable at what? 30?

Schoolgirl complexion??? 

Now don't get me started about the one that follows, not about soap but it deserves 1st prize for making a woman feel great about herself!

Indelicate women? I'm glad I wasn't around in 1929!

To think that a bar of soap could make one feel this way is just beyond me! Good thing advertisers have changed thought the years. A bar of soap is a bar of soap, period!

You can view more similar adds here, the source of inspiration for today's ramblings. :D