La Corvette – Savon de Provence – Honeysuckle
/“Yo… Poop”
Once again, so many words on the package, it’s hard to know what to call it—especially because a lot is French—so I’ll just present it all. On white paper, with a black and white photo of a harbor (La Corvette apparently refers to a kind of ship) it also says: Savonnerie du Midi and Savon De Provence, Chèvrefeuille and Honeysuckle. Also, 98% D’Origine Naturelle. 98%? I guess that means 2% Silverfish Brone. (That’s a joke, an obscure reference that maybe one living person will get!) This company, based in Marseille, has been around since 1894—and they have a soap museum! Chèvrefeuille is Honeysuckle—I’m not going to look up the rest. It’s a smallish, dependable, white bar of soap, good for bath or beyond—but what I’d like to focus on is the intriguing fragrance. It smells a little bit like poop. I don’t mean that in a totally negative way—after all, all poop doesn’t smell like all other poop. And some flowers do smell like poop, after all. I’ve got no evidence for this, but I’m thinking that in the evolution of floral fragrances, some cultures have downplayed the poop side of some flowers when extracting the fragrances… or simulating them. Perhaps the French, however, fully embrace the poopiness. Or maybe this soap is a throwback to a time before things became unpoopy. Perhaps we are returning to a poopier time, however; every time I step out the door, I’m met with the heady fragrance of the poop-weed. Upside-down, poop is “dood” (alt. spelling of dude). But, enough of this poop-talk. Though, maybe there’s no escaping it. Poop spelled backward, after all, is poop.
Soap Review No. 218