Well, that explains it then.
Washing-up liquid isn’t soap. It’s detergent. Detergents are not something you generally want in contact with your soft tissues and mucous membranes.
Detergent, bleach, quartz and limestone? Uhh… Never mind swallowing, that had to be hell on his lungs, mucous membranes, and even tooth enamel. That’s frigging insane.
I sometimes use sodium bicarbonate and hydrogen peroxide to get rid of coffee stains. Works like a charm. Household cleansers, though? What the hell?
No, it’s just one of those words that’s fallen out of fashion – almost totally replaced by “life preserver.” (Which is an Americanism.) The two terms coexisted for a long time before “life preserver” won out – much like “life preserver” coexists with “personal floatation device” today. It may seem inefficient that the number of syllables used to express the exact same concept has quadrupled over the years, but at least “personal floatation device” is more accurate. Unless you’re very close to shore when your ship goes down, all those things are going to do is make sure that your corpse floats. 
Here’s a distinctly American use.
As for the soap, it was originally marketed as a safeguard against disease, with the image a literal lifebuoy used metaphorically.
Later, they (mostly) dropped the nautical images. and elaborated on the disinfectant properties.
The stink isn’t a bug, it’s a feature: “You can tell Lifebuoy is a health soap by its wholesome, pungent odor.” The ad implies that stinky soap is the only thing that might prevent your family from being wiped out by typhoid.
As for the Lever Soap Company of Cambridge, Ma., all I buy is Lux, which is theirs too. I was programmed to by years of listening to the Lux Radio Theatre. Marketing that still works sixty years after you pay for it is good marketing. I swear, every time I use that stuff it makes me feel as glamourous as Claudette Colbert, Lillian Gish, or Bette Davis, because that’s what they used, dontcha know – and how they gushed about it! They would have been unremarkable drabs without it.
I like Cashmere Bouquet. It was the soap I was using when I found out washing me naughty bits was FUN!! :eek:
The Nursing Home attached to my hospital is having a yard sale to raise funds to buy a van, so I loaded those three bars into the box of stuff I am donating.
I don’t have much of a love life as it is, but I shudder to think how fast a date would last if I were to shower with that stuff?
This is one of those “what was I thinking???” episodes of my life! 
Q
From the Lifebuoy site:
So has anyone got a whiff of the “new” Lifebuoy?
I have never smelt the original, BTW. I’m curious as to what is smelled like and how strong it really was.
In most dialects of English, lifebuoy and lifeboy would be pronounced identically. There are only a couple of dialects (and a growing trend among people who do not live near water) to pronounce buoy as /BOO ee/ instead of /boy/.
(Or I’ve been whooshed, as the case may be.)
I don’t like the original much, but I have some other Lever 2000 that smells heavenly. It also seems to be stronger than other soaps. My mom can’t use anything but Safeguard. I like it–it’s such a, well, soapy soap. Reminds me of my parents. I recently bought some Pears soap and liked it a lot, except that it isn’t as foamy as I would like.
I love buying new soaps.
My Dad used Safeguard because wee me was allergic to Lifebuoy and Irish Spring. If I caught a whiff of either, hives! The rest of the family used Dial. Back then it only came in one one color, earwax yellow. Infact, that’s what my sis told me it was made of.
Remember LAVA soap and all the advertising hype. Forget regular soap, now you can scrub away the grime with chunks of gravel.
It’s like Froot Loops, where if they spelled it “fruit,” they’d have to put some fruit in it.
I ordered away via Amazon for some bars of Grandpa’s Coal Tar soap. As is that wans’t great enough, it also has pine tar in it.
I also ordered some Kirk’s Castile Coco hardwater soap. It smells like lye.
In the Phillipine section of an international market I found some carbolic (diabolic) soap.
I’ve also used Goop and Borax hand powder for more than my hands. I guess I just enjoy smelling like a machine.
So the bouy spelling prevents them from putting real boys in it?
Best laugh of the day so far!!!
I laughed when I read the referenced post by Ethilrist, then laughed twice as hard when I read this.
My friends had brought home some Axe shower gel for their son and I (in a fit of irrationality) decided to open the cap to see if it smelled as strong and obnoxious as the spray. Unfortunately I also got a microscopic amount on my hand and ended up smelling like horny teenage boy the rest of the day. 
I prefer Ivory if I have to use bar soap. Although I am suspicious about that .56%. It’s got to be pure dirt, right?
Have you never bought baby oil?