For decades, Ivory soap has always advertised that it’s “99.44% pure.” But I just bought some, and for the first time it has “aloe scent,” yet it still claims to be “99.44% pure.” Now, I don’t know how they add the scent, but shouldn’t it affect the purity somehow? Unless the scent itself is “99.44% pure,” it should make some difference, right?
And by the way, what’s in that remaining 0.56%?
Cecil answered your second question twenty years ago.
Cecil answered the other question too, by mentioning the important issue is “pure what?”
If the scent is added on purpose, it’s not an impurity, by definition. Impurities are things we don’t want or didn’t intend to be in there.
nm
“You’re soaking in it.”
Unless they’ve updated the definition of “pure” soap, they still have to cram scents into that .56% …which is probably not that hard.
The human nose can easily detect scents in the parts per million (actually, that’s the “this reeks of …” level), and industrial scents are very highly concentrated.
According to this article (http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM1963C.pdf)
I heard a really interesting take on the concept of additives (the actual discussion was about base oils vs. additives in motor oil) when someone pointed out that the main differences between Coca-Cola, iced tea, orange juice and hot chocolate were a few percentage points of additives to water.
I’d wager that most soaps on the market are probably in the 95-99% pure soap range as well, and that 99 44/100 pure is probably a marketing tool more than anything else.
For the record, I should point out that Aloe-scented Ivory is an abomination. It still pretty much just smells like Ivory soap, only with a tiny hint of weird.
If you’re going to have exactly two varitions of your product on the market, would it kill you to make them more than just barely distinct?
Do they still use the “So pure it Floats!” line?
I suspect the reason it floats has nothing to do with the soap - it is just how much air is trapped in it during mixing/whipping.
Hell, if I form a really thin-walled ball of lead, it’s float - pure or not.
Air isn’t soap and has no cleansing capability, so I’d classify air as an impurity. Which means their motto is the opposite of true - the reason Ivory floats is because it’s so impure.
I actually like the aloe scent, even though I bought it accidentally. It masks the generic scent of Ivory.
Remind me to never bathe with you. Err. Something like that.