Irish Spring – Moisture Blast

“Too Deodorants”

I must have used Irish Spring soap at some point as a kid, but I always had the impression that it was going to make you smell like a car salesman, just due to the advertising campaign, which was pretty effective, I guess, if it's still working on my brain now. Maybe it was the part where a kind of intimidating, country-ish, Irish woman says, “Strong enough for a man, but I like it too.” And there was always this image of a guy cutting off a slice of the soap, like he's slicing off a piece of the world's rarest fruit for you to sample. And everyone in the commercials are either wearing what look like the coarsest, heaviest sweaters known to man, or else naked, taking showers outdoors.

Anyway, this particular Irish Spring—“Moisture Blast” (with HydroBeads)—maybe my expectations were too high, but if it did anything less than take my head off it was going feel wimpy. Now, full disclosure—this variety apparently has a moisturizer built in—so maybe that additional ingredient cut down on the manly scent a bit. But I bought the “Moisture Blast” in a moment of weakness, appreciating as I did that those two words should NEVER find themselves working together. Anyway, all in all, the soap was pleasant enough, with a fairly mild car salesman cologne scent, but I guess a little disappointing, because that scent wasn't strong or specific enough to transport me to the 1970s, held captive by drunken, door to door, Bible selling pirates.

Soap Review No. 15