
At one time, soap was soap. You had your choice of deodorant soap or moisturizing soap, and maybe a few different scents. Today, there is no limit to the creativity put into a simple bar of soap.

They look good, they smell good, but don’t eat these Soapsicles! They won’t melt until they come in contact with bathwater. The four flavors are Nilla Sammi (chocolate scented), Rainbow (fruit scented), Lemonade, and Pink-Confetti Cupcake (strawberry scented).

You can now wash with your favorite internet aggregator site, as long as it’s Reddit. The best part is that you can choose from two flavors, orange and bacon!

A little soap pig, embedded in a mud bath of soap. It’s called Hog Wash, and it does NOT smell like bacon.

Your natural grip comes into play even in the shower with the Xbox controller bar of soap. From Digital Soaps, where you’ll find other geeky soap designs.

This hand-milled tomato soap contains tomato powder, with natural acid to help exfoliate the skin. It may also help to attract the opposite sex by making you smell like a pizza. If you prefer, you can make your own.
Dawnella Sutton makes and sells Mothers Moon Breastmilk Soap, which contains her own milk along with olive oil, glycerin, and honey. Your can buy this soap with lavender and/or oatmeal added. If you’d rather use your own breast milk, she has a recipe for you.

Coal Face is a black bar of soap. The company made a limited edition of the soap for a promotion of the movie Annie Hall because the title character used black soap, and it was so popular it is now a part of their regular lineup. It contains powdered charcoal, licorice root, and glitter in addition to more common soap ingredients.

Wash your hands with Hand Soap. Soap shaped like little hands! Each hand is hand made. Isn’t that handy?
I don’t know about anyone else, but my dad used soap as a weapon against my young, dirty mouth. If I ever uttered an obsenity, I took a lick to “clean my mouth out.” Other than the fact that at the time, my language was respectful and clean, I knew it was soap by it’s overall appearance when justice was served. Now, it’s just too deceiving! Imagine if you were a kid in my shoes, and you blurted F%*# in front of my dad. You think you’re in trouble, but then he hands you a popsicle?! You’ll never accept another tasty treat from him again, thinking it will taste like S%#@.
posted by Steven on 9-3-2009 at 9:06 am
What if he just held you down and washed your mouth out with a baby hand? That’s a mortifying thought.
posted by nikki on 9-3-2009 at 9:35 am
I remember from my childhood a soap called Fuzzy Wuzzy. It was shaped like a little bear. Once the soap was wet, you left it out somewhere and it started to ‘grow’ fuzz, or ‘fur’.
There is a fuzzy wuzzy site where you can check it out.
posted by Steve C on 9-3-2009 at 9:37 am
“Lifebuoy, on the other hand… Blecch!”
posted by Sandy Wood on 9-3-2009 at 9:59 am
My family and I went to a crafts fair 15 years ago. There was a stand that had some samples out. My dad who took a sample and popped it into his mouth. He quickly spat it out and said, “This isn’t fudge.” The lady was selling soaps and the samples looked like pieces of fudge.
posted by Michelle on 9-3-2009 at 10:03 am
Is it just me, or are those “hand” soaps completely creepy?
posted by Wendy on 9-3-2009 at 10:35 am
Steven:
I too had my mouth washed out with soap for uttering “shit” within earshot of my father…who had the worst mouth in the state.
The soap was Fels Naptha, which is still sold around the country…everytime I see it, I yell “shit”…pretty funny, the reactions I get from confused shoppers.
posted by yorgi on 9-3-2009 at 10:39 am
Are these all soap…..or are some detergent?! Linked to an explanation of Soap vs Detergent in my name.
“Over the years I got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. Though my personal preference was for Lux, I found that Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor – heavy, but with a touch of mellow smoothness. Life Buoy, on the other hand… YECCHH!”
posted by nihil on 9-3-2009 at 10:49 am
I gotta say, in the store I smelled the Burt’s Bees Garden Tomato Soap out of curiosity because I hate tomatoes and expected to be grossed out. It smells lovely, and to me NOTHING like tomatoes. It’s now my soap of choice for my face.
posted by skyweaver on 9-3-2009 at 11:55 am
No, the hands are definitely creepy.
posted by Hyacinth on 9-3-2009 at 12:11 pm
The breast milk soap seems way more creepy than the hand soaps!
posted by tpal on 9-3-2009 at 1:14 pm
I agree with tpal.. breast milk soap?! EWWWWWW!
posted by anniepilar on 9-3-2009 at 2:12 pm
I don’t care what beneficial properties breast milk may possess to clean my body. That is repulsive. And AIDS is transmittable through breast milk. ‘Nuff said.
reCAPTCHA: politics Parkside
I dunno, I just like the alliteration
posted by Bubba on 9-3-2009 at 2:32 pm
Steve C – I remember Fuzzy Wuzzies too. Hairy soap: it seems like a pretty weird thing looking back on it now. However, this was also the time of the original Chia Pets. This was the 60′s when everyone grew out their hair.
posted by Phrank Loyed on 9-3-2009 at 4:11 pm
Another:
iPhone soap
http://mashable.com/2009/08/13/iphone-soap/
posted by ivan on 9-3-2009 at 4:55 pm
Um you can’t get AIDS from breast milk soap. Just like you can’t get pregnant from sleeping on splooged-on sheets. Viruses and sperm alike can’t live outside the body for very long.
Also, how is breast milk creepier than soap made to look like baby hands?? I think the FBI needs to take a look at their most frequent customers.
posted by Beth on 9-4-2009 at 4:14 pm
Hmm. Interesting list. I think the weirdest soap I have ever seen was some kind of black soap my dad used to use. It smelled very weird and I just couldn’t get over the fact that it was black. It startled me every time I saw it in the bathroom. Unlike the one in this list, it didn’t have glitter in it. ;)
At a hardware store here in town, they have some kind of Granny’s lye soap or something, and one variety of it smells SO GOOD. I need to go get some. Every time I go in there, I stand at the register and smell it.
My favorite soap ever is Vinolia, which is made in England and was on the Titanic. You can still buy it but it’s kind of expensive. If I ever become rich that will be my indulgence.
posted by Hannah on 9-12-2009 at 7:48 pm
Way cool work on the Soapsicles! Cut piggy and I would like to try the hand soap some day. :)
posted by Lisa on 9-23-2009 at 12:59 am
I like the pig soap.
posted by Sara in AL on 12-15-2009 at 2:34 pm
The HIV virus is transmittable through breastmilk, but like Beth said, the virus itself can only survive outside of the human body for a few minutes. Once it has been boiled into a soap, I’m sure, there’s no risk.
But… it still is creepy. Who wants to bathe with someone else’s breastmilk? I don’t even want to bathe in MINE.
posted by Heather on 3-19-2010 at 2:51 pm