Is Fels-Naptha Soap Glamorous?

I’ve been on a personal basis with Fels-Naptha soap lately, using it to concoct the homemade powdered laundry detergent and liquid laundry detergent recipes.  Shredding that golden bar with a cheese grater is not for the faint of heart!  But it is rather fun to do, and the resultant homemade detergents are so worth it.

I must admit that I’ve always had a real workaday image of Fels-Naptha; like something my grandmother used on the farm while scrubbing dirty overalls in the washtub.  Decidedly nothing glamorous about it to me, in this day and age.

But homemakers in the 1940s must have had a different view of it.  They make that homely bar of Fels-Naptha soap seem almost glamorous.  Take this vintage 1946 ad which shows a lovely lady primping at her nightstand, not ‘worn to a frazzle’ because Fels-Naptha soap made washday almost a pleasure.  And it Banishes “Tattle-Tale Gray”….which must have been a big problem back then? 🙂

In the ad they also show a box of Fels-Naptha Soap Chips!  What?  You mean to tell me that they offered it already shredded back then?  No wonder the lady looks so refreshed, she didn’t have to shred it herself with a cheese grater!  So I say, BRING BACK THE FELS-NAPTHA SOAP CHIPS!  This is one vintage product that needs to make a comeback.  Until then, I shall continue shredding…

~Marilyn Huttunen