# How pure (natural ) is Ivory bar soap?



## wantingagirl2b#4 (Jul 4, 2006)

Anyone know how (Pure) natural Ivory bar soap is? I have been using it for years but now I am looking for more natural approaches in daily living and wondered just why does this soap float??? Is it very bad for our skins and I don't know it?? Any input from others would be great. Thanks everyone!


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## naturals (Aug 15, 2007)

HI

I have been using this website for products www.cosmeticdatabase.com and here is the search link for Ivory soap.
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/pro...nd_id%3D710%26
It has a rating of 3 which is moderate. You can search this site for safer options.

Initially when P&G started making ivory it didnt float. A defect( excessive air pumped into the soap mixture) in one of the batches of production caused the soaps to float. P& G didnt know this at that time. So people used this soap to wash clothes etc in the rivers/ streams and noticed that the soap were floating. This was accidentally discovered and was really liked by everyone and then P&G started making this soap using the new formula.
This is the story I had read long back in a book about P& G.

-Priya


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## Robert Goodman (Mar 13, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *wantingagirl2b#4* 
Anyone know how (Pure) natural Ivory bar soap is?

I was a little disappointed to learn it has TiO2 to whiten it. For years I'd thought they were one of few soaps that didn't, and that they just used a very high grade of fats, as soaps go. But the TiO2 makes it more opaque too.

Other than that it's just what they've always said it is. Some people think it's fragrance free, because they know it so well they think that's what pure soap smells like! A chief component of its fragrance is lemongrass.

Quote:

I have been using it for years but now I am looking for more natural approaches in daily living and wondered just why does this soap float???
Air. It's whipped. And now they seem to be reneging on their old story that it was an accident, suggesting it may have been intentional all along. They don't know themselves how it started.

Quote:

Is it very bad for our skins and I don't know it??
If you've been using it for years, how could something like that be the case? As your skin ages, eventually it might be too drying (defatting) for it.

The above is not to say that Ivory soap is dangerous. Titanium dioxide is a safe material and like zinc oxide is used in sunscreens and also in mineral face make-up. It's just that using it to whiten soap that advertises its purity seems to me a kind of cheating, allowing use of more oxidized fats than would otherwise be apparent. With all the air whipped into Ivory soap, you'd think it'd be white & opaque enough, as if it came already lathered.

I like millions of Americans have used more of it than any other soap, since I had it used on me as a baby, and it has all the benefits & drawbacks of soap per se. It's a middle of the road formula, not so weak, not so strong, as soaps go with their trade-offs, though some people will tell you it's very mild and others that it's very strong. Other than the air incorporation, it's made like most mass market soaps, no glycerol and AFAIK no unsaponifiables as one might get in cold kettle soaps. Its fragrance is calculated to be inoffensive, although if I get a strong enough whiff it'll make me sneeze, and some people can't stand it; it does seem to stink when mixed with some kinds of dirt I've gotten on my hands. Over my lifetime it has tended to be bargain priced, although now I tend to see other bargains from various imported soaps, which helps clear the market as currencies fluctuate. Although I just bought some Ivory today, lately I've used a lot of Silk brand from the United Arab Emirates.

I find it interesting and a little funny (sorry, I can't help myself) that someone who's been using Ivory soap for many years would wonder whether that particular brand was doing some hidden damage. I suppose there could always be something that comes up like all the contamination stories from China-made goods & components, but if something like that comes out, you'll know when I do and when everyone else does. (OK, maybe some inside knowledge could clue you in a little sooner. I'm glad I didn't get my foaming formula made in China as one friend in the vitamin business suggested a couple of years ago, when someone in another forum told me their quality control was bad.)

Are there less irritating soaps you could use? Sure, but they're also less sudsy. There are also more strongly grease cutting, sudsier, and more irritating soaps you could use, Kirk's all-coconut being an extreme example. Other than that, any "problems" it has are from its being soap qua soap. For example, some people get vulvar, vaginal, or urethral irritation from washing with soap. It stings eyes. You could slip on it, fall and break your neck. It leaves a ring around the bathtub with water minerals. But these are not problems with the brand per se.

Maybe it's reverse psychology, and people think that any product advertised as so pure & safe must be covering for some deficiency in that regard, the way everybody suspects Dunkin' Donuts to be stale because they advertise their freshness so much.

And now its wrappers come with fortunes, which are as bland & boring (in English & French where I am, NY) as the soap they wrap. I should write for them:

"While you're in the shower, you can't hear screaming or smell smoke."
"Can't blow bubbles from your ear? Good, your eardrum isn't punctured."
"The soap floats because you're bathing in chloroform. Nighty-night!"
"Save 120 wrappers and you can paper your bathroom with them."
"Jimmy Hoffa inquired about the other 0.56%."
"Removal of wrapper voids warranty."
"For use instructions, http://ivory.com and input user code embossed on end of soap."

Robert


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