.. faithful readers with good memories will remember my devotion to Pears Transparent Soap.
I love the stuff, used it from when I was wee, and snitched a bar from my mother's pantry/store cupboard upon finally leaving home. I've been using it ever since. I introduced it to our co-habitable/matrimonial home.
You take the last wafer-thin bit of soap, mold it into the dip of the new bar and carry on. If you believe in the theory behind Bach Flower Remedies, I don't by the way, but if you did, you could argue that we are still using the same soap I took from home over 20 years ago. It's a lovely thought.
Anyway, just the other week Mr Brown opened a new box, slipped out a new bar, popped the old snippet of soap on top, to find it didn't have that concave space (created, apparently, not by deliberate, careful molding, but by shrinkage asthe soap dries). Hmmmmm.
I was next in the bathroom. It smelled wrong, strong, overpowering and wrong. It was the soap. "This isn't Pears" I declared to Mr Brown, "we've been sold dud soap, fucking Coles is selling counterfeit Pears! The Fuckers." (Not an unfair charge I contend, they've been sneaky before.) I was accused of overreacting, possible defamation, and told to hurry up we were going to be late for work.
Some judicious Googling proved me right ... and wrong. It wasn't counterfeit soap, Pears had changed the ingredients and the formula. The ingredients list for the soap I love is - Sodium Palmitate, Natural Rosin, Glycerin, Water, Sodium Cocoate, Rosemary and Thyme Extract and Pears Fragrance, a nice, short relatively natural and safe list.
The new list is Sorbitol, Aqua, Sodium Palmate/stearate, Sodium Palmkernelate, Sodium Rosinate, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (nasty) PEG-4, Alcohol, Glycerin, Perfume, Sodium Chloride, Sodium Meta Bisulfite, Etidronic acid, Tetra Sodium EDTA, BHT, CL 12490, CL 47005, Benzyl Benzoate, Benzyl Salicylate, Cinnamal, Eugenol Limonene, Linalool. A nasty list of toxicity.
I DO NOT WANT.
Turns out a shit load of other people did not want either. Pears has apparently stated it will abandon the new forumla and use one "much closer to the original".
Now I dealt with the packaging change, the disappointing, dull box and cellophane replacing the lovely proper paper individually enclosing each individual tablet. But I won't deal with the new smell, the funny "feel" (it's sort of softish, creepy) and the horrid shape. "Much closer to the original" just isn't good enough Pears, you've lost a customer of some 40-odd years.
Goodbye Pears, hello Dr Bronner's Magic Soaps! The ingredient list for the bar soap isn't quite as comforting as old Pears, but it's a shit load better than what Pears became.
Here endith my rant.
Saturday, March 20
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9 comments:
yay! I mean - oh that is terrible.
Don't be mean missy!
So disappointing when favorite products are "improved." Usually, it's not better, it's just cheaper for the manufacturers. I always wish they'd offer the old kind at a higher price, if necessary, or two kinds so you can still get the one you've always used. Guess I'm a stick in the mud. So what?
Aaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
I was never a huge fan of Pears soap, but I vow to hate them on your behalf!
You know we are the kiss of death: if we love a product and come to rely upon said product it will be discontinued.
But sometimes it feels much worse to have them tinker and change the beloved product. They did it a few years ago with Noxzema Original in the pump bottle. The smell was quite different, even though the texture and label remained the same. I called and called and they denied any change. I suspect they began buying some ingredient from a different source to save a few bucks.
You have my sympathy...
- Lee
So sad! I had not yet discovered Pears on my own (though you had mentioned it).
The take on Dr. Bronner's, at least back in the '70s, was that the ingredients are so pure, you could eat it. Brush your teeth with it. I'd bet on that baby-mild bar.
(Aren't you glad I didn't buy the new Pears and hate it, and not know how to tell you?)
Zoomie, I'm with you, I'd have paid $$ more just to have my soap, as I like it, they could have put an "artisan" spin on it - stupid, short-sighted and cheap. (Also, it turn out to be the fault of the new owners, bastards!)
Lee, your kind words are appreciated, so much nicer than horrible S who has mocked me!
Cookie, never mind. I'd not have minded if you didn't like Pears, my sister hates the stuff, says the most terrible things about it, and I still speak to her ;)
Cookie, I'm not going to test Bronner as a toothpaste, not even though we got the peppermint bar and it smells quite toothpastey.
Mouse, I couldn't find it in Woolies today, either, and vowed to try Coles, but you have warned me. I'll have to try your new one, but after 70-odd years of Pears I am devastated!
themother
I know mumski, I know, it's a bad thing they have done. Try Coles, pop your glasses on and check the ingredients, if there's only 7 ingredients it's ok to buy. We found some the other day but there were EIGHT ingredients, must be the new, new formula and I refuse to buy. Bastards.
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