Ivory Soap: Vintage Clean and Summer Pure

It was a long time coming, but summertime in Seattle is finally in full swing!  I finally put away my jeans, wool socks, and cashmere sweaters that I’d been wearing all spring, and dug through my closet for some summer togs.  It feels good to be warm, show some skin, and not get rained on for awhile.

I like to switch up my beauty supplies in summer, opting for simpler, fresher soaps and lotions.  I got almost a yearning for Ivory Soap, because I love the ultra clean smell and fluffy fresh whiteness of it.  I used it during childhood and it seems to evoke poignant memories.  Anyway, it’s still cheap, I bought 3 bars for $1.69, and have been happily showering with it each morning.  It really refreshes, and the smell just sends me.  🙂

I love vintage Ivory Soap advertising, and here’s a great one from the Ladies Home Journal, August 1946.  It features “Cover Girl, Actress, Bride’, Margaret Young, who used Ivory Soap as a baby.  She joined a USO show during WWII, entertained war-weary soldiers in Europe, and “practically haunted the PX’s for Ivory Soap.”  Back home, she still used Ivory, owing her lovely, alluring, radiant complexion to the soap.  The grand advertising promises for a simple bar of soap seem pretty far-fetched these days.  But Ivory’s 99 44/100% purity and the fact that it floats (and smells fabulous) will always ring true for me.

~Marilyn Huttunen