Listerine

 

Lifebuoy

 

Nourish

Propolis

Bioderm

My weapon against the COVID-19 virus:  Bioderm soap.  20 seconds each time you wash your hand!

Duru & ActiveX

Shield

Cliven

Cussons Imperial Leather

Pepsodent

Aquafresh

Dial

Aren't you glad you use Dial?

Armour and Company (now Armour-Star) used to be a big manufacturer of corned beef since the 19th century.  Since tallow was a by-product of meat packing, they also ran a soap making division.  But it was after the war that they added anti-bacterials into the soap, and thus Dial soap was born!  The product was so popular that the company renamed itself to Armour-Dial. Gwammy bought Dial on a regular basis when we were kids, but somehow, the product went off-market in the nineties.  Vicky took me to S&R recently, and I was lucky to find some.  I understand that Henkel is the current owner of the brand, but the bright yellow color of the soap and its distinct smell still remains the same to this day.  This brand was marketed by creative ad agencies and their famous tag line would have made people conscious if they were not using Dial.  I still remember the raffle promotion that Dial launched locally--you put your name and address on the Dial soap cartons, and drop them into the tambiolo, for the chance to win an Opel Manta (this 2 door was a beauty).   I must have sent in ten entries, but a poor boy from Mindanao sent in just one entry and won the car.  The ad agency published his photo receiving his prize and story about the one-in-a-million chance that won created even further publicity for Dial.  That was a classic case study for Marketing majors!

Heno de Pravia

Gwammy just gave me a pack of Heno de Pravia soap, something that I haven't seen in ages. Sold in Spain since 1905, the scent of this bath soap has been ingrained in my memory since childhood.  Gwammy used to purchase this from PX stores in Clark and Baguio, and sometimes she would find retailers carrying the soap at Cartimar, Cash & Carry and Greenhills.  I was a bit surprised to read from the box label that the soap is now locally made by Perfumeria Espanola Corporation, a joint venture company between Perfumeria Gal SA of Spain (I think Gal is a Puig subsidiary) and Chemphil.   Still the same scent, sweet and playful to the nose.

Irish Spring

Gwammy thinks of everything.  I was in the main house yesterday, and she greeted me with excitement.  "I have a surprise for you!" she said, simultaneously waving her hand in the air, as if magically summoning a mystery object, which turned out to be a couple of bars of Irish Spring.  This was one of our favorite soap bars when we were kids, I liked the scent then and I still do now.  "I know you missed this," she explained.   It's true I haven't seen this on the grocery shelves for sometime.  Made by Colgate Palmolive since the seventies, the soap isn't made by the local ColPal boys, but is imported in very limited quantities by some enterprising local distributor.  That explains why you only get to see the brand in one or two supermarkets in the Metro.  I'm glad Gwammy thinks about the little details... ;-) 

Vitalis

I got a Viber message from a good friend of mine; he was touring across the United States and he came across Vitalis hair tonic, something that we haven't seen in town for ages.  We used this product extensively in the seventies, to keep our hair firmly in place, even "when the wind blows."  I'd use it once in a while, but he was a firm believer in the product, and he wouldn't leave home without it! 

Aquafresh

I often make my "whatever happened to..." list, and for a time now, Aquafresh toothpaste was on that list.  I haven't seen it on the local shelves since the middle of the nineties.  A couple of weeks ago, I was quite surprised to find it on stock in Unimart! Originally introduced by Beecham, the toothpaste is now made by Glaxo Smith Kline.  I used to like it because it was one of the first to have multicolored toothpastes! Not too minty though, but quite bubbly.

Prell

Prell is one of the older shampoo brands, having been introduced to the American market by Procter and Gamble right after the Second World War.  Yes, it is that old, and nowadays, you cannot find a bottle in local shelves.  I understand that P&G sold the brand to Ultimark Products a few years back, and there are probably only a handful of distributors in the Philippines.  In order to make it on time for the early morning UPCAT round, Monique and I slept over at Gwammy's house, and to my complete surprise, she still uses Prell, the same brand which we used in the late sixties!  This shampoo has a very distinctive scent, one that I associate with bathroom chemicals in the late sixties and the early seventies--it's a cross between artificially enhanced bleaching agents and artificially generated colognes.  And to think I put it on my hair, just as I did many many years ago...now how's that for "old time's sake?"

* Before I get into trouble with the legions of the product's fans, note that I don't know, and haven't checked, if the product specs of today's incarnation has been improved... ;-)

Old Spice

Gwammy knows the things that I enjoy.  For my birthday, she got me several bars of Old Spice soap, the scent of which brings back so many memories.  Old Spice has been around for quite a long time now, and I remember that this was the brand of men's toiletries that got me started off growing into manhood.  I haven't seen the soap on the local grocery shelves for a long time now, and the birthday gift from my mother was a real treat.  Thanks Mom!