A History Of Pears Soap

When I began my research into Pears Soap I had no idea of the fascinating story that lay beneath such a small transparent bar of soap. Pears Soap is one of these products that everyone knows is there and takes for granted that it will always be there : a bit like horlicks, there is something warm and comforting about it.

1789 Andrew Pears, the founder of Pears, was a barber who saw an opportunity and a gap in the market to make quality, luxury soap for the rich. Soap at the time was very harsh which even people who couldn’t care less about their skin today wouldn’t use. His clear soaps were very distinctive from any others and far gentler being made of glycerine. He was a man who was far more interested in quality than quantity. As others tried to copy his soap with cheap imitations, it became such a problem for him he would sign all his soap packages personally to ensure his customers would be able to recognise the real thing.

1862 Andrew Pears brought a wonderful gentle soap to us in the name of Pears. However, his grandson Francis Pears and Francis’s son in law, Barratt were the grandfathers of advertising. Barratt persuaded Sir John Everett Millais to lend the painting of “Bubbles” as an advertisement for Pears. The model was Sir Jon Everett Milais' grandson and was titled “A Child's World”. By using this painting (painting in a bar of Pears Soap) and subsequently others which followed, what Barratt did was to bring art into ordinary homes and ordinary people. People who had never set eyes on a painting before were now being educated on street corners and in their local shops, so much so that “A Child's World” or "Bubbles" as it was re-named, and other paintings which followed, would hang in terrace houses up and down the country. A very subtle way of advertising. This was a fantastic achievement even by today’s standards.

Pears had a rival in the form of Otto Vinolia Toilet Soap This soap is famous because it was the soap used on the Titanic. In the bathrooms on the Titanic there would be a choice of fresh water and salt water. Salt water was there for its bathing health-giving properties, and fresh water for washing as a soap such as Otto Vinolia would not lather in salt water. Otto Vinolia was priced at 1s 6d (35c). Converted to modern money, that's about £4.50. At that price, just like Pears, it was never a product for the masses.

The rivalry ended when both Vinolia and Pears were taken over by the Lever Brothers just two years after the sinking of the Titanic in 1914. Now of course Lever Brothers are Unilever and still sell both these soaps as luxury items.

SOAP BY SUSAN A small family business run by myself, Susan Arnott, specialising in handmade soaps. Our mild, creamy soaps, which come in a variety of shapes and fragrances, are lovingly created in small batches using a method known as "cold process" which takes at least six weeks from start to finish

Savon de Marseille I was truly drawn to the romantic description of this lovely soap but I totally fell in love when I used it. Maybe it doesn’t lather as much as a gentle glycerine soap would but its moisturising qualities far outweigh this.

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