LOOKING GOOD
The
Wars Bar soaps have been making a comeback By Adriana Ermter
SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2021
This year’s Friends reunion, “The One Where They Get Back Together,” commemorating the 1990s’ hit television sitcom’s 25th anniversary, brought back a lot of memories that, in unexpected ways, felt relevant right now. Particularly the episode “The One Where Joey Moves Out,” when Chandler confronts his roommate Joey about the bar soap they share in the shower. Chandler: (talking about Joey finishing his cereal, licking his spoon and putting it back in the silverware drawer) The spoon. You licked and, and you put. You licked and you put! Joey: Yeah, so? Chandler: Well, don’t you see how gross that is? I mean, that’s like you using my toothbrush. (Joey looks sheepish) You used my toothbrush? Joey: Well, that was only because I used the red one to unclog the drain. Chandler: Mine is the red one! Oh God. Can open, worms everywhere. Joey: Hey, why can’t we use the same toothbrush, but we can use the same soap? Chandler: Because soap is soap. It’s self-cleaning. Joey: All right, well, next time you take a shower, think about the last thing I wash and the first thing you wash. Yup, it was the ’90s and while most households were, like the fictional characters Chandler and Joey, still sharing the aforementioned bar, 6
IN MAGAZINE
shower gels were also beginning to pop up in stores everywhere. And they were gaining popularity over their solid counterparts. Big name brands such as The Body Shop, Crabtree & Evelyn and Bath & Body Works had a fun and fanciful plethora of fresh, citrus, floral and baked goods-smelling liquid options that were too good to ignore; they soon had consumers’ attention and buying loyalty. Whether the general public had viewed the Friends episode or not, people were starting to rethink the way they sudsed up in the shower. This mindset continued to expand over the next two decades and, according to a 2016 research report by US research group Mintel, was the cause for bar soap sales to fall, thanks to 60 per cent of consumers ages 18 to 24 and 31 per cent of consumers 65 years and older believing bar soaps were germ magnets. An additional 55 per cent of all consumers simply found liquid soaps to be more convenient. A cleansing trend quickly turned into the new norm and put foaming and gooey liquid pump-based options front and centre, forcing bar soaps into the background. Since 2020, however, bar soaps have been making a comeback. A big one, too, with the Kline Group’s Cosmetics & Toiletries USA reporting a resurgence in their popularity, with a record sales growth of 6.5 per cent in 2020. The report attributes this to the increased need for hand and body hygiene during the 2019-tocurrent COVID-19 global pandemic.
