Soap

I am allergic to a lot of stuff. Seriously. For instance, any time I see Nurse M and we decide to try a new product on My Stupid Leg (trademark pending), the first thing out of her mouth is “Are you allergic to this?” She quickly scans the ingredient list to see if there are any known Suzanne allergens in it. For this alone, Nurse M is worth her weight in gold.

We learned of my allergies at a very early age, thanks to the rashes I’d get from soaps. Ivory was the WORST offender. I’d get a chicken pox like rash on my body any time I used the stuff. In the late 60’s and early 70’s, ‘deodorant soaps’ were all the rage. All soaps de odor you, so why the special designation? People are suckers for advertising. Those deodorant caused me to scratch non stop. As I was one in a house of many, I had to suffer with what was offered.

Dad was a mailman. Back then, it was a fairly frequent to get free samples in the mail. Breakfast cereal, shampoo, candy bars (really), granola bars, feminine products, deodorants and SOAP. In those days, the companies were generous and there typically would be leftovers once all the carriers delivered to each of their customers. This meant my dad would come home with some of the extras.

One day, he brought home Tone soap. For the first time, there was a soap in the house that didn’t make me break out. Mom had sensitive skin, too, though not nearly as bad as mine-she also liked the Tone. From then on, we had it in the house, even though it was the most expensive bar soap on the market.

Once I moved out, I always had my Tone soap. I switched to liquid laundry detergent and found that my clothing could be comfortable. Nowadays, the Kirkland Signature is my preferred-that and the Amway brand have fragrance but don’t make me itchy. Well, not as itchy.

I started working for Bath and Body Works when Gameboy was a baby and I was the walking advertisement. Here I was, Allergy Central, and I could use all the products. (save for a couple of the floral scents, Plumeria and Happy Daisy were the worst). The shower gels, creams, lotions-I could use all of it. They had antibacterial hand soap and I started buying that. It sure makes life easy to change a diaper and get the hands washed quickly.

For years, that’s what we had at every sink in the house. I’d stock up when they had the bottles on sale 4 for 10 bucks. I went back to working for them for a while and my Shop Director would run down to the Disney store to let me know when we had the great sale so that I could get my 30% off, too. (My one big gripe is that they did away with their awesome deodorant soap with baking soda and tea tree oil-that stuff was heavenly)

Over the past couple of years, though, the scents became way to sweet smelling for even me. I decided to use some of the glycerin soaps I’d picked up from the Body Shop (who’s scents I prefer these days, anyway).

The kids where confused. “What are those?” they asked, as all they’ve ever used in their entire lives is shower gel, shower cream and liquid hand soap. They switched over to the bars, much as I’d switched to liquid from bar. I'll say this about the glycerin-it's not drying, even when you wash your hands as much as I do.

Ed commented yesterday when washing with one of the bars of soap. “I used to wonder why people would ever want to use those liquid soaps. It was stupid, the bars worked fine." He added, "Now, I realize why. It's so much easier to wash with the liquids.”

The liquid is much easier to use and those bottles last a long time. I just need to see what the supermarket has and hope I’m not allergic to the fragrance in them, because I’m not buying the sugar laden scents at Bath and Body Works anymore. Hmmm, wonder if they’ve got any liquid soaps at the Body Shop?