Bubbly Poetry – My Ode to Pure Soap
Do you ever get giddy about the products you love? Like soap, for instance? I am such a fan of Cal Ben’s Pure Soap that I even wrote a poem about it, my “Ode to Pure Soap.” I mean… this is a soap that doesn’t make me sneeze or itch.
I’m not a person who enjoys shopping. I don’t spend hours browsing the aisles, checking out the latest and best… of anything. So when I find a product that works for me, I tend to keep buying it.
That’s the case with the bath soap I’ve been using for the past 12 years or so.
I have allergies, so picking up a bar of soap in the supermarket is not something I can easily do – even if I’ve run out of soap for my shower. It’s tough for me to walk down that aisle, never mind stand there and choose the least-perfumed item on the shelf.
I like the Dr. Bronner Soaps that my health food stores have always carried – and which you can now buy at any grocery store or pharmacy… but, as a single parent, they’ve been a little out of my budget range.
When I started going to Sunshine Natural Foods store in Seminole, Florida (around twelve years ago), I was introduced to the nirvana of pure soaps and that’s what I’d like to tell you about today… Pure Soap from Cal Ben.
And, yes… I really did write a poem about it… you can see it below.
ODE TO SOAP – by Barbara Casey
Let me never run out of my favorite soap
I like it above all the others
It lathers and cleans at a price I can pay
A wonderful boon for us mothers.
I’ve loved you, dear soap, for a number of years
You’re the best that I’ve found on the market
And now that my health food store’s 10 miles away
I can’t even find you at Target.
With thinking cap on and budget in mind
I searched high and low for my bar
And found you online – at Amazon, too!
No need to climb into my car.
You can keep your old Doves and your Irish Springs, too
They’re handy, but make me start sneezing
Pure Soap’s what I want and I’ve got it now, too
In a 12-pack and that’s what’s so pleasing.
© 2013 Barbara Casey
Pure Soap
Finding a local resource for my bath soap was not easy
When I lived in Seminole, Florida, my closest health food store carried this brand of soap. In fact, they introduced me to Cal Ben’s Pure Soap many years ago. They still carry it.
But I’m clear across the county now and none of the local shops have it. So I went to the soap maker’s website and had them ship me a 12-pack, because I didn’t want to run out and my old health food store was a little far to go for one bar of soap. I paid $32.00, including shipping, for 12 bars of soap (in 2013), which arrived about a week after I ordered them online.
Silly me… what I should have done is looked on Amazon.com first. With my Amazon Prime account, I get free 2-day shipping on most items I order.
Here’s how Cal Ben makes their Pure Soap
Cal Ben’s literature describes their soap-making process as the “Cauldron Method.” I don’t know what image that conjures up for you… but it sounded pretty cool to me.
They actually do make the soap base in open cauldrons, using high grade white vegetable tallow, pure coconut oils and a few drops of almond oil, which are mixed for five hours before a salty solution is added to separate out the impurities. Then the soaps are refined with “washing” three times to remove even more impurities. Blending takes place next to give the soap its smooth texture and rich lather. Then the soaps are dried for 48 hours, after which they are triple-milled to create a longer-lasting bar.
Cal Ben Pure Soap doesn’t contain any artificial detergents, toxic antibacterial chemicals, coloring dyes, lanolins or harmful perfumes. It doesn’t make me sneeze, itch or break out. I have fairly dry skin and I find it’s gentle enough to use every day. It rinses off cleanly and is just… a really good soap at an affordable price.
About the almond essence they add to Pure Soap
My order of 12 soap bars arrived on a Friday sealed in a cellophane wrapper. That night, I opened one of the packages of soap and noticed that the almond scent was a little stronger than I was used to.
Saturday morning I called the health food store where I used to buy Pure Soap and asked if the almond essence was normal… because I had never noticed it when I bought the soap at the store.
Here’s what happened.
At the health food store, I either grabbed a bar off the shelf or from the basket they kept the bars in when they had lots on hand. The almond scent had “gassed off” between the time they unpacked the case of soap and the day I dropped by to purchase some.
So that’s what I’m doing at home – storing my 12 bars of soap (well, 11 now… one’s gone into the shower) in a basket to allow the scent of the almond oil to dissipate some before I use the soaps.
Learn more about Cal Ben and their soap products here
To learn more about the Cal Ben products firsthand, you might want to visit the Cal Ben website. They also make laundry soaps, dishwasher detergent, liquid hand soaps and more.
