I love trivia!  

Over the years as we've made soap and researched soap 
we've come across lots of interesting facts about soap.  
We thought we would share some of them with you.  
Who knows, if you're ever on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" 
or find yourself in "Cash Cab" one of these bits of 
information could come in very handy! 

Around the turn of the century (1900's) Palmolive
 was the best selling soap in the world. 
 It was made exclusively of 
Palm and Olive oil, hence the name Palmolive. 
 This sounds self evident, but my mother
 had to explain it to me!

In 1688 King Louis XIV of France signed
 a document known as
 Colbert's Edict which established laws for soapmakers. 
 Some of the laws said that: 
Soap could only be made from pure olive oil, 
only perfect soap could be produced, 
but my favorite was that all soap manufacturers
 had to cease production for June, July and August.
 Yay!! Summer vacation!!

The first patent issued in the United States was for a soapmaking ingredient.  In 1790, Samuel Hopkins was issued a patent for "making pot(ash) and pearlashes".  Potash and pearlash were combined with lard or tallow to make soap in those early days.  The patent was signed by George Washington.

The washcloth was invented by Cannon in 1900. 

Bathing has not always been looked upon as a 
positive thing.  Queen Isabella of Spain, in the 15th century 
bragged that she had 
only bathed twice in her entire life: once at birth and 
once before her wedding.

A traditional Moroccan building technique called 
"tadelakt" uses olive oil soap on lime plaster to achieve it's unique finish and water resistance.  This definitely sounds like a "Balderdash" word!

"Soap" is not found in the Bible. 
 What would Jesus do?  
He would not have bathed with soap!
There were some natural plant products that could have been used for cleansing, or rubbing the skin with a little olive oil and fine sand was an alternative, but soap as we know it today was unknown at the time.

The term "B.O."  (Bad Odor) was originally coined in 
1895 as a marketing term by Lever Brothers, as a way to 
sell more of their Lifebouy Health Soap.