Carlsbad Caverns – Hotel Bar Soap

“Inland Sea”

The blue wrapper of this old hotel bar soap says: “Pueblo Court, White’s City, New Mexico” and “At the Entrance to Carlsbad Caverns National Park.” There’s a little drawing of a road twisting through a mountain pass leading to an abstracted abyss. The wrapper would seem to be the most interesting thing about the soap, since you can find Whites City on the map—one of those desolate looking desert tourist towns. Not a lot there. Starbucks-free. Between Whites City Cavern Inn and the Cactus Café looks like what was once an old motor inn—could have been the Pueblo Court. Even more interesting to me, though, is the soap inside the wrapper. A surprisingly tiny (forgot how small hotel soap was) slightly-off-white bar—engraved on one side is: “Cashmere Bouquet” and the other: “Colgate-Palmolive-Co. Jersey City, N.J. Made in U.S.A.” I don’t exactly remember Cashmere Bouquet—long discontinued—from my childhood—but I definitely remember this fragrance. It takes me right back in time! Sure enough. One other weird note—that Indian soap, Nomarks, that I was so obsessed with because of the fragrance—this one is—not exactly—but the closest to that I’ve encountered. Could the Nomarks have been emulating the fragrance of classic Cashmere Bouquet? It’s likely. It’ll be interesting to see what else is in store with this lot of old hotel soaps I scored on the eBay.

Soap Review No. 186